Hair Loss...

[cantlogin]

You cant do anything, but it doesnt hurt talking to a doc anyways.

[Bhajneet]

First off, I'd like to agree with UntitledSingh, You dont have to freak out if you're losing hair. I highly doubt (though obviously a moorakh like me wouldn't know) that you can't be one with God, just because you dont have long hair.

Anyways, since y'all are lazy and can't google anything (it really shows how badly you care about losing hair.. :lol: ):

The right food is important for your hair.

Without Vitamin A your hair becomes brittle, and abnormal dandruff can develop.

Without Vitamin B1 or B6 you can start to lose your hair.

Vitamin C stimulates the hair growth and regulates the generation of pigments in the hair strand.

Vitamin B12 supports feeding the root.

Using combs with unpolished teeth may be a reason for such damaged scales, also sharp hair clamps. With such a damage, the strand will rip more easily, the opened scales do not allow other strands to glide over as smooth as before, which can result in tangles.

Split hairs are caused by hard combing or brushing, especially on wet hair. Furthermore hair can split after it dried out, because it lost its natural flexibility.

Bent hair Everything which is hard and sharp may harm your hair. If you use force against hair, it will be damaged.

Indeed is a good preparation required to get the best result out of your washing routine. Don't jump into the shower, pour the shampoo on and start rubbing.

"Oh, you have so silky soft hair!" - isn't this what you like to hear? Well, then you better start to believe that your hair is like silk. How do you wash your silk clothes? Do you throw them into the washing machine at high temperature, choose the cheapest washing powder, get a high rotation factor, and let it tumble dry afterwards?

Well, if you ever did this, you know the result.

Use water of room temperature for your hair. Usually you will use the lowest temperature you can bear. Hair is not sensitive, so bend over, and have a final rinse of the lower hair part with cold water. If the water does not touch the skin, who cares? And it is good for your hair.

Why is cold water good for hair? Warm water does more easily dissolve the natural scalp oil, which is distributed over your hair during brushing or combing. This oil gives protection and shine. Let's better keep it, add-on products as Jojoba oil are good, but never as good as the original.

Furthermore does warm water open the hair scales, making the hair shaft more vulnerable.

Please do not use hot water on your hair, and in fact you better don't use it on your skin either. Many skin irritations these days result from the every day washing, with water which is too warm.

I can testify to this, haha

Ready to enter the shower? Not yet! Take your comb or brush, and give your hair a few strokes. This aligns the strands, and prevents that you get out of the shower with a lot of tangles.

During the washing you shall try not to move your hair. This keeps the hair strands at the position they were before, they won't move upwards and wrap themselves around other strands, resulting in unbearable knots.

She rubs the hair on top of her head, and the hair strands have wonderful opportunities to knot - more work for her!

Half a bottle of shampoo each wash, right?

Wrong! Shampoo is used to clean the hair, and not to cover your head in white foam. It is easy to measure the right amount of shampoo, and to apply it correctly.

Take some shampoo into your palm. Rub both hands together. Then run the palms of your hands over your head (not yet down the string of hair). With the right amount of shampoo you will get a somewhat glibberish coverage, which shall not start to foam. If the shampoo starts to foam, you used too much.

If you have accidently used too much shampoo, you can distribute it down the string of hair by letting the string slide through your fist. It is helpful for detangling to run your fingers through the string of hair, from top to bottom.

The shampoo will take away the dirt, which lays on the top layers of your hair. You do not need to bend over and start washing your hair inside out - the shampoo suds will penetrate these layers briefly when you wash it out, and this is sufficient.

The shampoo shall flow over the lower part of your hair when you wash it out. Help a bit with your fingertips to release the soap from your head. Running your fingers through the string of hair helps detangling, and ensures a more thorough penetration of the hair by the suds.

Make sure that you wash out all of the shampoo. When you think all shampoo is gone, allow another half minute of constant water flow to ensure that residues are gone

Fundamentally, there are only 3 products, I believe, that anyone needs: shampoo, conditioner and oil. There are only a few basic tools needed: a wide toothed comb, a regular toothed comb and a boar bristle brush.

People's choices do vary as to what works for their hair, and only time and some experimentation will reveal exactly the right combination of products, tools will work for your hair type.

What matters most when requesting advise, for future reference, is type of hair (straight, curly, wavy, frizzy, and texture: thick, medium, fine extra fine) and hair care: products, how detangle, how wash, how one dries their hair.

Oiling is a fabulous way to keep the moisture content high all the way to the tips, and works best in combination with other details. It is the combination of the details that creates beautiful hair: excellent detangling, proper washing, good quality products in shampoo and conditioner choices, high quality detangling tools (no burrs, no seams on those combs), oiling and dusting, and wearing hair contained for the most part (updos, braids), and even at night sleeping on a smooth surface pillowcase such as a satin pillowcase---even braiding or bunning hair at night.

There are a variety of oil choices...the two main ones tend to be Jojoba Oil, and Coconut Oil. Most here do use Jojoba Oil, but I prefer Coconut Oil for my knee length, straight and quite fine hair. I like a heavier oil to provide a protective coating to my very fine hair (indeed, hold one single strand up and it's nearly invisible in the light). HobaCare is a very high quality oil that is cold expeller pressed exactly once. When shopping for Jojoba Oil, look for an oil that is golden in color yet quite clear and rather see-through. There's many that are muddier in their color and a tad murky looking to appear through with a duller golden hue. The Coconut Oil I choose is by Spectrum Naturals, pressed specifically for hair and skin use. It comes as a solid in a 5 oz. jar, and because it's solid, is easy to figure out the right amount for your hair type and length. You can choose other oils such as Sweet Almond Oil. I know of one person who uses vegetable oil (she didn't say which brand) achieving beautiful results; however, I have been advised that many such oils are pressed differently (two or more times) to withstand high heat (for frying and such) and thus, the acid content is higher. In days of yore (and likely still) other cultures have used olive oil; however, it tends to be rather heavy and is pressed differently for sustaining high temperatures (and not breaking down). Oils such as flax seed oil are not intended for hair use although they are not pressed to sustain high heat.

OilingTo oil the hair is quite easy. Take a small amount of oil, perhaps 2 drops, or if scraping a solid such as coconut oil, barely a fingernail full....and rub between the palms to warm and melt a bit. There should be a very sheer layer of oil on the palms as a result--barely discernable except for the shine or reflection in the light. Then apply the oil to pre-washed, already fully dry and detangled hair. Apply only from the earlobes on down. Do not apply to scalp hair to leave on for days as this will upset your pH balance of the acid mantle (the scalp skin). Set the palms on either side of the hair length on one side and simply downstroke through the hair. Then repeat on the other side. Those with thick hair or wavy/curly hair need to separate the hair more to get more at the deeper inward layers to get some oil there.

This oil is then left in as the leave-in conditioner and not removed until the next hair washing (which we recommend to attempt to do around twice a week at best). Remember, scalp hair needs to be washed; typically the length does not. The idea is to allow oils to build up that is produced naturally from the sebacious glands (on the scalp) and then distribute these oils, and probably applying some more oil to the length, to more evenly distribute the oil. To distribute the oil, this is where a Boar Bristle Brush (BBB) enters the picture.

A BBB is not intended as a detangling tool and it should not be used on wet hair. A BBB can cause damage if there's a tangle or wet hair...and it also shouldn't be used if the hair is not in overall good health, such as suffering from excess frizz, excess flyaway, a fair amount of damage still, damage from perm/coloring... However, a BBB can be used once the hair is stabilized in its basic strength and integrity to move the oils around. Unlike a detangling tool which is used bottom to top, the BBB is used, generally, top to bottom. If one encounters a tangle, switch back to a comb to work it out. I switch back and forth frequently. A BBB does not penetrate the thickness of one's hair so it must be used topside and underside, separately, and this is where the 100 strokes likely derives from. A lot of strokes to work in that oil. A BBB does cause fullness of the hair but this is easily calmed by following with a downstroke of the palm.

If you're preparing for a hair wash, it is then OK to put some oil on the scalp hair (although you probably won't need it b/c the reason to wash the hair is there's an excess of buildup of oil on the scalp). You can also oil length heavily on purpose prior to a hair wash.

When oiling to leave in, a small amount goes a long way! So be conservative. You can always add more, even a day or so later, you can add more as needed. But it's easy to do too much: if the hair sections a bit or looks a tad greasy-ish, then you put in too much. Hair readily absorbs the oil. It does not rub off on clothing or linens. However, you may find you need to change your pillowcase a little more often nevertheless because of some very fine acne along the hairline (typical for some of us who go an extra day without a hair wash). With a little experimentation, you will find the right number of days to skip to build up oil and create a beautiful healthy shine and increase elasticity of the hair in due time.

In my opinion, there are no down sides to oiling: only benefits. Curly hair people will like it for the weight it imparts showing off the pattern of the curls; increases moisture content; provides a protective layer against damage such as splits and so forth; the weight helps the hair to move as one body (very appealing to the eye); frizz concerns are reduced; brittleness & dryness cease; and the hues of one hair color come forward resulting in a beautiful sheen that catches the light in interesting ways; and finally, the hair becomes supremely soft.

Oiling should be done consistently after each hair wash as a leave in conditioner. It is the consistency that matters most--not doing it once every so often.

OilingThere are those who like to put it in a spritzer bottle diluting it in water & applying after a fresh wash yet while the hair is still wet. This is fine if that works for you; however, do know, that the oil does not "capture" water to stay on the hair. Oil, especially Jojoba, is meant to mimic the natural oils produced by the sebacious glands. This oil is called "sebum" and has a waxy texture (you may note that when your hair oil builds up on the scalp that you can then remove what feels like a soft rolled bead...that is sebum.) This waxy medium is the protection for hair and the reason hair shines. Frequent washing removes this and also causes excess build up in a day or so. You can train yourself and your scalp to change its rate of production over the course of a month or so.

So, give it a whirl. Remember that you will have to do it around 2 times before you get the hang of it and find the right amount for you. A little really does go a long way. You can fan your hair out on a soft cotton sheet and oil that way if you like - I find this method gets to more of the individual strands then.

Applied oil is easily washed out in your next hair wash.

Oils can be found in aromatherapy stores, organic or whole food stores (beauty section), sometimes vitamin stores carry it, even high end grocery stores now have it. The oils we're speaking of are not salad dressing or cooking oils: they are "carrier" oils--the kind that "essential" oils are diluted in. (Essential oils are scented oils such as rosemary, grapefruit, geranium rose and rose and these scented oils must be diluted in jojoba (or some other similar carrier oil) because if applied to the skin in full strength, a reaction can occur...including a blood stream issue for those who are more sensitive. Also those who are pregnant or sun sensitive should really read up on essential oil use to be able to protect themselves properly. Not all oils are hair friendly, either. But the ones I named above are OK for hair. Simplers offers a booklet/pamphlet if you purchase one of their oils to get a quick overview of the whole scoop with essential oils. You can also type into a search engine, "essential oils" online and find a plethora of information on the internet.)

You can mix one or two drops with your jojoba or coconut oil to scent your hair with. Do change the amount of jojoba (or whatever your choice) to accommodate this addition so as not to over-oil your hair in one sitting. (In a way, there's no such thing as too much oil over the course of, say, a week, but in one sitting it can be too much.) Also, I notice that when I apply more to my palms for the next application (I do about 6 applications to get all of my hair length, 3 each side) that there's a bit of buildup on my palms, so sometimes I have to pat my palms on a paper towel to remove excess so as not to apply too much oil to that section of hair.

Well, hope this helps you out, and Happy Oiling! And again, we hope to see more of you. Do let us know how your oiling goes!

Umm... Wow, i got half way through and couldn't go on. Anyways, i got the gist of it and its basically true. Indians use TOO much oil, way too much. And worse still they apply the oil on the scalp (big no no, unless its 6 hours before a head wash). Thats what my doctor said anyways (due to my acne? or something like that)

It is a never ending problem of how to keep your hair from getting damaged by saltwater or chlorine from the pool.

These advices are given in order of effectiveness.

The most efficient way to protect your hair is to soak it in oil. Oil is hydrophobic (waterhating) and will therefore keep the water, and thereby chlorine and salt, away from your hair. It also has the additional benefit that you get a deep conditioning treatment while having fun.

Another is to put lots of conditioner in your hair before going into the pool, that is for short stays, as the water will take the conditioner out of your hair. This also has the benefit of a deepconditioning treatment.

If you have forgotten either of these remedies, then make sure to soak your hair in fresh water, so it is saturated, which will hinder too much contact between chemicals and your sensitive hair. And make sure to pour fresh water over it again when you are done swimming.

All these remedies will be rendered even more effective if you purcase a competition swimmers swimcap, as the cap will keep the water away.

If your hair has turned green from chlorine, then dissolve two aspirins in lukewarm water and pour through your hair, keeping an extra bowl underneath, so it can be poured through a couple of times.

Swimming often means staying out in the sun, protect your hair from the sun by wearing a hat or use a hairproduct which contains a sunscreen.

I found that very helpful, since I'm a swimming fanatic

Well thats basically it

[Paneet]

Hey, my hair falls out alot too.... and the sad thing is that I'm a girl!

[disguised]

what about the old indian remedy of putting 'daee' in ur hair?... i heard it works.. but ur hair stinks after... ...

131318[/snapback]

yeah.... it does stink very bad..... and desi kaoe. is even worse.... eww... :lol:

who would want to put tht kind of stuff in ur hair anywayz...