CAN WE PREVENT HAIR LOSS?

Hello Healthy Hair Tribe!

Can we prevent hair loss? Everyone wants to know!

In my last blog, 3 Letters That Make Our Hair Fall Out, I mentioned DHT is a contributor to hair thinning and I believe that using DHT blockers can prevent hair loss, but there is another culprit to our shrinking strands!

The second main cause of hair thinning and hair loss is inflammation. Inflammation affects our hair because it blocks the follicle from getting the nutrition it needs to thrive.

Inflammation is the body’s attempt to protect itself. It is a biological response to remove harmful stimuli including damaged cells, pathogens, bacteria, etc. It is part of the healing process and without inflammation, wounds would never heal. Inflammation becomes problematic when it becomes self-perpetuating and does not heal the problem area and go away but rather triggers more inflammation.

There are two types of inflammation – acute and chronic.

Acute inflammation comes on suddenly and progresses quickly. Some examples which can result in acute inflammation are:

• Sore throat from a cold or the ‘flu
• Sinusitis
• Appendicitis
• A blow to the body

Chronic inflammation is long-term and can be the result of the body’s failure to eliminate the perceived threat, an autoimmune response to a self-antigen (where the body attacks healthy tissue mistaking it for harmful pathogens), or a chronic and persistent irritant. Examples of chronic inflammation are:

• Asthma
• Chronic Sinusitis
• Hashimotos (Thyroid Disorders)
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Chronic Periodontal Disease
• Lifestyle Factors

Lifestyle factors like poor diet choices, lack of exercise, stress and smoking can contribute to the overall inflammatory load on the body. Eating a diet high in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish, and healthy oils can help you fight inflammation. Conversely, there are a few “healthy” foods that can lead to increased inflammation: wheat bread, non-fat yogurt, soy, and artificial sweeteners. You can directly impact your lifestyle factors by doing a bit of at-home research and making small changes to your diet, exercise and lifestyle that will play a big role in reducing chronic inflammation.

Check out my prior blog post on hair energizing smoothies, HERE.   

To summarize, inflammation is your body’s natural protection response. Chronic inflammation is where we tend to have issues that impact our hair health and specifically any inflammation to the scalp can exacerbate our hair loss. To reduce inflammation to the scalp, you can make lifestyle factor changes, take supplements and use products that help fight inflammation to the scalp. Here is a list of Hébé approved products that help fight inflammation:

Supplements Take a multivitamin/multimineral supplement, fish oil, and vitamin D, all of which help reduce inflammation. I love Premiere Labs!

Shampoo Tea Tree Oil, Biotin, Vitamins B & E encourage a healthy scalp. I recommend Pura D'or Scalp Therapy Shampoo.

Topical Natural & Organic ingredients known to target inflammation include Borage Seed Oil, Alpha & Gamma Linolenic Acid, Beta Sitosterol, MSM, Rosemary, Green Tea, Evening Primrose & Linseed.

• HHN Black Label Grow Fine Hair for Maximum Results
• HHN Black Label Grow Coarse Hair for Maximum Results
• HHN Youth Nectar Grow

Wishing You Lots of Healthy Hair Love!