HI THERE, CONCERNED ABOUT THOSE STRANDS OF HAIR YOU'RE LOSING? (In Your Brush, Whatever) I WAS. THERE ARE SOMETIMES REASONS FOR THAT BUT MOST TIMES IT'S PERECTLY NORMAL. I WAS IGNORANT ABOUT HOW MANY WE ARE ALL EXPECTED TO LOSE EACH DAY. I'VE FOUND SOME EXCELLENT INFO I WILL SHARE WITH YOU. ALSO, I THINK I SHOULD LET YOU KNOW ABOUT DRASTIC SIDE AFFECTS MANY WOMEN HAVE BEEN GETTING WITH THE USE OF HAIR DYES (Especially Home Dye Kits) AND SOME HELPFUL INFO ABOUT RETAINING YOUR NATURAL HAIR COLOUR. PLUS SOME TIPS ON HAIR NUTRITION. I WILL INCLUDE THE GEISURE GIRLS SECRET IN JAPAN. HOW'S THAT?
Is It Normal to Shed This Much?
By Caitlin Covington
Hair shedding is a natural process, but losing hair can be quite scary. And let’s be honest, not everyone who loses hair will end up looking like a movie star (take Vin Diesel — have you seen the man’s muscles?).
So how much shedding is considered typical, and when should we start worrying?
How many hairs are on a human head?
Most people have about 100,000 hair follicles on their head. Hair grows in cycles. There’s a growth stage that lasts 2 to 8years, followed by a resting stage where nothing happens for up to 5 months.
Then, the hair strand falls out and a new one begins to grow in its place as soon as the growth cycle restarts.
How much hair do you lose each day?
We normally lose around 50 to 100 hairs per day (imagine trying to count each one) from hair follicles at the end of the resting stage. Trusted Source Sometimes hair stops growing where it used to. Alopecia is the generic, medical term for hair loss of any kind.
How can you tell if something is wrong?
Between 80 and 90 percent of your hair follicles are growing hair at one time, while the rest are resting or shedding. Losing more than that? Something could be wrong. When the loss exceeds 125 hairs per day, it’s no longer just considered “shedding.”
It could be a condition called telogen effluvium, which is the blanket term for when some factor pushes more hairs into the resting phase, says Adriana Schmidt, M.D., a dermatologist at Santa Monica Dermatology Medical Group.
There are plenty of reasons for it though, and the good news is they’re usually reversible (hooray!).
Ever been stressed enough to “pull your hair out”? Well, there may be some truth to that — physical and emotional stress can contribute to excessive hair loss. Other reasons include lifestyle upsets and changes in diet.Trusted Source
Many prescription drugs like antidepressants, anti-acne prescriptions, and some forms of birth control can also temporarily disrupt hair’s growth cycle.
Frustrating but true: Stressing over hair loss can lead to more of it! Schmidt recommends taking “the hair-pull test” to figure out if it’s worth heading in to see your dermatologist: Grab about 40 hairs, an inch away from your scalp, with your thumb and forefinger, and tug the hair hard enough to pull up your scalp and slide your fingers along the shaft to the end.
Count the number of hairs that fall out. If there are more than six in your hand, something could be amiss. You could also try collecting the hairs you lose in a day, Schmidt says, but that might feel significantly more tedious.
Otherwise, try these DIY tricks to nix the hair fall. Since stress is a major cause of hair loss, it’s important to find time to relax and take a deep breath.
To help manage it, try getting a massage (fine, alright, twist my arm), taking a nap, or getting some good ole exercise — never underestimate the power of endorphins.
Some studies show a deficiency in iron may lead to excessive hair loss, particularly in women, so eating a balanced diet and boosting iron intake can also help ensure healthy hair. Trusted Source
Basically, be good to your hair, and it will be good back. Too much shampooing, heat styling, and chemical products can weaken hair and cause it to break off. And beware of the hairbrush too — excessive use can also result in increased shedding.
But shampooing hair less frequently can make shedding seem worse because it allows loose hair to build up and then all come out in the shower. (So that’s why!)
Unfortunately, human hairs naturally thin with age (referred to as pattern baldness), and this loss is permanent (womp, womp).
According to the American Hair Loss Association, two-thirds of American men will begin to bald by the time they’re 35, and for females, pattern baldness can begin or increase after menopause.
Environmental factors like stress, surgery, medicine, and illnesses, can make it seem like your hair is departing en masse, but usually things will right themselves with time.
If you’re convinced something is terribly wrong, take the hair-pull test and maybe visit your dermatologist: It’s better than living with anxiety that could keep the shedding at full throttle.
Source HERE
Dying To Be Beautiful - The Hair Dye Health Hazard
Dec 8th 2011 by Mirror.Co.UK
Last month, Julie McCabe, 38, coloured her hair with a best-selling home dye kit, just like she’d done many times in the past. But unlike before, this time she was left fighting for survival on life support.
Julie’s family believe the mum-of-two may have had a severe allergic reaction to the chemical p-Phenylenediamine (PPD) in the product.
Her devastated father, Keith Miller, said: “I promise, for the sake of my daughter and other women, to get this chemical outlawed in Britain.
“I don’t want this happening to anybody else.”
Julie’s case came just weeks after Tabatha McCourt, 17, died following what is also suspected to be an extreme allergy to home hair dye.
While the exact cause in both cases is still being investigated, similar reactions have happened to a number of other women in recent years and some experts fear they are on the rise.
One such case was Zoe Vernon, 24, a shop assistant whose home hair dye session two years ago left her with such dreadful injuries that she ended up on a drip for three days in a special care unit.
Covered in horrific burns and weeping blisters, Zoe, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was rushed to hospital by ambulance.
“I was in agony and my eyes were so swollen I couldn’t see,” she says.
“When, after four days in hospital, I could finally look in the mirror I’ll never forget what I saw. I felt like a monster – it was horrendous. I was certain I’d be scarred for life.”
Thankfully, the special burns unit at Manchester’s Wythenshawe Hospital was prepared for cases as extreme as Zoe’s – even if hair dye isn’t the usual cause.
“I was given a cocktail of drugs including really strong painkillers and anti-inflammatories,” she says. “They basically treated me as if I’d been in a fire.”
Miraculously, Zoe went on to make a full recovery and was left with no scarring, but she’ll never forget her experience. “I feel so lucky after hearing about the poor girl who died recently and the mum in a coma – I’ll never touch hair dye again.”
Paula Pratt, 40, who lives in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, suffered a similar ordeal to Zoe’s.
She used home hair dye to cover a few grey hairs in 2009, but ended up in hospital with her head so swollen it resembled a rugby ball.
“My husband Neil was horrified – my head was three times its normal size and my scalp was oozing clear fluid everywhere,” she says. “The swelling started travelling down my throat as well and it was hard to breathe normally. It was terrifying.”
Doctors had to use the strongest possible dose of steroids and antihistamines to finally control the reaction. She says: “I’ve been told I can never dye my hair again – but that’s OK, I’d rather go grey than risk my life.”
While such extreme reactions remain rare, there’s growing concern that the rise in home dyeing and allergies in general could result in more cases in the future.
Chemists and supermarkets sell around 50 million boxes of dye a year, while figures from Allergy UK show the number of allergy sufferers has tripled in the past 20 years.
“We don’t know why these allergies are increasing,” admits hair and scalp expert, trichologist Sara Allison. “However, it’s possible that the introduction of chemicals the body isn’t used to make it react in such a way.”
For hair dyes, that chemical is PPD. Present in almost all hair colour, it causes 80% of allergic reactions, according to the European Scientific Committee on Consumer Products.
PPD is used to fix dye permanently so it doesn’t wash out – and the darker the hair colour, the more it contains.
EU law permits PPD in hair dyes at specific levels with the necessary warning labels, but some countries, including Germany, have already banned the ingredient.
In 2007, an article in the British Medical Journal called for more research into the safety of hair dyes.
Although life-threatening allergic reactions to PPD only affect around one in 250,000 people, what makes the condition so frightening is that anybody can develop an extreme reaction.
This was certainly the case for Zoe, who had been dyeing her hair for six years without any problems, so saw no need to do a patch test, as suggested on the packet.
“The next morning I woke up with an itchy, swollen face, which gradually got worse until it was agonisingly painful,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it – I had used dye so many times before.”
So why did Zoe react in this way? The answer lies in how allergies develop.
If a person is introduced to a potential allergen, such as PPD, often no noticeable reaction will take place at first, but the body has still produced antibodies.
The next time they’re exposed to the substance, the antibodies are activated, triggering an allergic reaction.
“The problem is there’s no way of knowing when you could become sensitised,” explains Lindsey McManus of Allergy UK. “It could be the second or 50th time you dye your hair.”
And while most reactions aren’t serious, having a mild allergic reaction puts you at higher risk of developing a more severe one next time, so experts advise avoiding hair dye if you experience any symptoms.
The most severe cases lead to anaphylactic shock, which involves the whole body. While this is rare, it can cause swelling, breathing difficulties and can even prove fatal.
Samantha Devlin, 33, from Luton, Bedfordshire, was one of the lucky ones to be warned about her PPD allergy before a reaction developed.
“I’d gone to A&E with my hands swollen like a bunch of bananas,” she says. “They told me I’d become so sensitised that I had to quit hairdressing or I could be dead by 21.”
Samantha had trained as a hairdresser in her teens, handling dye on a daily basis, but after moving to a busier salon, she found her hands became sore.
“My knuckles split and my fingers were covered in angry red patches that started to spread up my arms, then on to my neck and face,” she says.
“When I tried to put dye on my own hair it was worse – my scalp ended up covered in burns and oozing blisters.”
Doctors first diagnosed Samantha with eczema, but eventually identified a severe PPD allergy.
She was forced to give up hairdressing and 15 years later has been left with a multitude of other allergies.
She’s even allergic to the dye in clothing and has ended up back in hospital after her shoes made her feet blister.
“I’d tell all women to do a patch test beforehand,” she warns. “And if they have the slightest tingle – get allergy tested. You can’t mess around with it.”
FOR ADVICE, VISIT WWW.ALLERGYUK.ORG
Anyone For Hair Dye? Not Me!
I Did Find This Promising Webpage - Get Away Grey HERE
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