Aging gracefully is no easy task. Between juggling work, family, and friends, there’s not a lot of time left in the day to take care of yourself and find a moment to breathe. By age 21, about one fourth of men have noticed thinner-looking hair. By age 30, approximately 60% of men will have experienced some degree of hair loss and thinning. That’s the majority, so it’s a wide-spread issue! A lot of men are dealing with this problem.
Maturing is a part of life, but hair loss is often a huge cause of insecurity. If you want to understand what’s causing your thinning head of hair and how to combat the situation, keep reading. We’ll talk about everything you should --and shouldn’t-- be doing to prevent additional loss of your precious locks.
What Characterizes Hair Loss?
Alopecia is the condition of losing hair, especially on the scalp. It’s completely normal and you are expected to lose a few strands of hair a day. In fact, most dermatologists agree that losing between 50-100 strands a day is totally ordinary.
When you start to lose more than 100 strands a day, you are experiencing hair loss.
Obviously, it’s not practical to count each individual hair that you’ve lost, but use this rule as a guide to estimating.
Causes of Male Hair Loss
Before we get into the ingredients that may help to reduce hair loss and regrow your hair, it’s important to cover the ‘why’ of your alopecia so you may tackle the problem at the root.
Stress
It’s unsurprising that so many of us suffer from increased levels of stress. Between the COVID-19 pandemic and every other world event simultaneously occurring, there’s a lot to be worried about.
However, this stress can be extremely harmful to your health. When we live in a constant state of fight or flight, our bodies maintain high levels of adrenaline. This decreases the function of every system in the body and leads to acne, insomnia, and hair loss.
Age
Age is potentially the greatest factor affecting hair loss in men. By the age of 50, 85% of men will have experienced a form of hair loss. Age-induced hair loss is known as androgenic alopecia or male-pattern baldness.
As you age, you produce less keratin, a naturally-occurring protein that is key to the health and structure of your hair. Collagen, the ‘building block’ of skin and hair follicles, also decreases.
This causes hair to become more brittle and grow more slowly. It eventually causes follicle death.
Genes
Ever wonder why some men lose their hair, and some don’t? The answer often lies in your genes. Gene-related hair loss goes hand-in-hand with excessive shedding caused by age.
If you’re losing your hair, think about your dad and his dad. Did they lose their hair as they got older? If the answer is yes, you likely inherited that trait.
Try not to be mad at dad, though! The fact is that the vast majority of men all over the world suffer from some degree of hair loss from genealogy.
Diet
Proper diet is key to health in every aspect. Without proper nutrients, your body sends whatever nutrition it gets to essential bodily function systems, like the heart and brain. This means that the nutrients that typically go to your hair follicles are diverted to other places that are more important for sustaining life. Potato chips and soda might taste pretty good, but they might be the reason you’re experiencing hair loss.
Improper Grooming
Hairstyling is often a second thought to men, which means that caring for your hair might rarely happen or might not happen at all.
Even if you have short hair, it’s crucial that you brush and comb your hair to remove dead skin cells and increase blood circulation to the scalp. However, ripping a brush through your hair and being too harsh will lead to breakage and hair loss.
A good rule is to comb your hair twice in 24 hours: Once in the morning after you wake up, and once at night before you go to bed. Try a relaxing scalp massage, too!
Sickness
Telogen effluvium is the temporary hair loss that is caused by an abrupt, stressful event, such as sickness. Many people who have had illnesses that resulted in a high-temperature fever reported this temporary shedding post-sickness. Fever causes bodily functions to speed up due to the heat and forces many hair follicles into the ‘shedding’ phase.
Luckily, this hair shedding is temporary, and you’ll notice your hair start to grow back within two or three months.
Hair Thinning Prevention
If you’re reading this article, you’ve likely already started experiencing some sort of hair loss. However, these preventative measures will help you to keep the hair that’s left, and maybe you’ll have some tips to share with friends and family.
Try a Protective Style at Night
Did you know that sleep is often a culprit when it comes to tension hair loss? Rolling around on your pillow tugs on your hair. It might seem pointless to try to protect your hair from friction if it's short, but the truth is that it definitely is possible! There are many brands out there that design and produce caps made for men with short hair to wear in bed, especially if you are an active sleeper.
If your hair is longer, it is best to sleep on your side to avoid tangles and breakage.
Use a Heat Protectant
If you’re a busy guy and don’t have time to wait for your hair to air-dry after you shower, using a heat protectant before going at it with the blow dryer makes all the difference. Additionally, if you like to experiment with styles created with a hair straightener or curler, it is even more important to protect your mane from high temperatures.
Try this Argan Oil Heat Shield spray; it’s inexpensive, easy to use, and only takes a second to spray on.
Bleach Blonde? No Thanks!
Hair color is fun to try, but it’s no secret that the harsh chemicals in hair dye strip the hair of essential moisture necessary for the health of the hair sheath and scalp. Hair bleach, in particular, is a major player in causing breakage and dryness.
Blondes do not necessarily have more fun, and embracing your natural hair color will help you become more confident in your own skin.
Be Gentle
This goes without saying, but if you’re rough on your scalp and hair, you will be significantly more prone to hair loss. Gently untangling knotted strands instead of forcing a comb through your hair might take longer, but you won’t give yourself tension alopecia.
If you play contact sports or do an activity that causes excessive tugging on your scalp, always wear a helmet or other protective gear that reduces trauma to the hair, and tell your older brother to stop with the head noogies!
Use the Right Products
That 5-in-1 bottle in your shower is not doing you any favors. It might be convenient to wash your hair (and your dog’s), your car, and your dishes with the same product, but it certainly is not good for your hair.
Most men’s shampoos contain an awfully large amount of sulfates, which are detergents used to wash dishes and laundry. Sulfates are excellent at removing excess oil and sweat but they lead to uncharacteristically dry hair and an oilier scalp in the long run.
Sulfates cause the sebaceous glands (the glands on your body that produce natural oil) to work overtime, making your hair oilier in a shorter amount of time.
Great Ingredients to Combat Hair Loss
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for. In this section, we’ll cover the top three ingredients that may help reduce and reverse male hair loss. There are no guarantees, but the following ingredients may help grow your hair back or thicken what’s left for a fuller, healthier look.
Biotin
Biotin is a water-soluble B Vitamin (Vitamin B7, to be exact) that increases the amino acid production required to necessitate the stimulation of keratin production.
Because your hair is made of keratin, it is crucial to anybody looking to boost hair health that they have enough biotin both in their diets and in their hair care products. When used on the scalp, the biotin is absorbed into the hair follicle, where it is used by the body to boost follicle growth.
Biotin not only makes your hair grow faster but also encourages the production of new hair follicles for a thicker head of hair.
Nettle Extract
Stinging nettle isn’t fun to run into on a hike in the woods, but when properly harvested and prepared, its extract contains a multitude of benefits for the health of the hair.
Nettle extract is rich in a variety of essential nutrients, antioxidants, and minerals necessary to boost hair growth and reduce hair loss. One study showed that stinging nettle extract increased dermal papilla cell growth, which is a cell found in the hair follicle that is in charge of regulating hair growth.
In fact, nettle extract is a natural DHT blocker. DHT is a male hormone that becomes more prevalent as a man ages and is thought to be responsible for age-related hair loss. By blocking the absorption of this hormone, the extract reduces hair loss.
Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree is often found in skincare products designed for people with acne-prone skin as it is a strong antibacterial and antimicrobial agent that decreases
inflammation and kills acne-causing germs. However, it has benefits for the hair, too.
Tea tree oil increases blood circulation in the scalp and calms dandruff, eczema, and psoriasis. This helps reduce picking and scratching of the scalp, which is damaging to the hair follicle. The increased blood flow boosts the oxygen and nutrient circulation within the hair follicles, which leads to hair thickening and growth.
It also is great for the hair shaft as it helps to remove product build-up and seal in moisture.
Aloe Vera
Aloe vera is a super ingredient that is good for every part of the body. From reducing sunburn pain to reducing fungal acne, one of aloe’s lesser known benefits is its ability to regrow hair. Aloe vera is rich in Vitamin B12 and folic acid, which are both components that prevent hair from immaturely falling out.
Additionally, aloe contains proteolytic enzymes that regenerate damaged scalp cells, boosting hair growth and scalp health.
The scalp contains thousands of hair follicles that are ‘dormant,’ which is basically the equivalent of sleeping. These specialized enzymes help to stimulate and wake up these sleepy follicles and encourage them to begin the production of new hair.
PURA D’OR Gold Label Shampoo
What if we told you that our PURA D’OR Gold Label Shampoo contained all four of these ingredients, plus 13 more key actives? We believe that now is the Golden
Age for you to take control of your hair loss, and our shampoo is the perfect tool to help you do it.
With almost 15,000 fantastic reviews on Amazon, our product is ethically sourced and produced. Protecting and nurturing the environment is one of our biggest priorities: the other is our customers!
This effective shampoo contains 17 various active ingredients that have been sourced from every corner of the world. It’s free from harsh chemicals, environmentally responsible, hypoallergenic, vegan, and cruelty-free.
You can also purchase it as a set with our Gold Label Conditioner, which has been specially formulated to reduce hair shedding and breakage and increase beautiful shine and body.
Finishing Up
If you’re experiencing hair loss, we sympathize with you. Losing your hair can feel like the end of the world, but PURA D’OR has your back with our organic, potent products that truly work.
We’re committed to creating top-notch products with the highest quality ingredients found on Planet Earth. For more of us, visit our homepage or check out our full hair care catalog to find a wonderful wash set for your particular type of hair.