Understanding Hair Loss: What You Need to Know
Discover practical solutions to combat hair loss and reduce the impact of thinning hair.
Here’s everything you need to know, with useful information and practical tips to address this common concern.
Hair loss has become a pressing issue for many, especially women, as brushes and shower drains seem to fill up with tangled strands of hair.
According to data science firm Spate, Google searches for hair loss have increased by 8% over the past 12 months, averaging over 829,000 monthly searches in the United States alone.
Experts confirm that this phenomenon is not just “in our heads.” It is often a frustrating consequence of immense stress or post-viral inflammation linked to the effects of c0vid-19.
In medical terms, this condition is known as telogen effluvium, a temporary hair loss caused by fever, illness, or severe stress. These factors push more hair than usual into the shedding phase of the hair growth cycle.
Although hair loss is often associated with men due to the prevalence of male pattern baldness, telogen effluvium is more common in women. Women frequently experience it postpartum, but any form of severe stress can trigger it—whether it’s physical stress from illness or emotional stress, such as the loss of a loved one.
Even for those who haven’t contracted c0vid-19, the collective stress of living through the pandemic has taken its toll.
What Can We Do to Combat Hair Loss?
With Proper Nutrition
The Paleo Diet: A Natural Solution to Combat Hair Loss
Inspired by the diet of our ancestors, the Paleo Diet focuses on natural, unprocessed foods such as lean meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. This dietary approach can positively impact hair health thanks to its combination of essential nutrients.
Benefits of the Paleo Diet Against Hair Loss:
- High-Quality Protein Intake:
Hair is primarily composed of keratin, a protein. The Paleo Diet, rich in meat and fish, provides the amino acids necessary to strengthen hair follicles. - Healthy Fats for Scalp Health:
Foods like avocado, nuts, and omega-3-rich fish enhance scalp circulation, promoting healthy hair growth. - Essential Minerals:
Leafy greens, nuts, and seeds supply iron, zinc, and magnesium, critical for preventing hair loss and stimulating regrowth. - Reduced Inflammation:
By eliminating processed and sugar-laden foods, the Paleo Diet helps reduce inflammation, often linked to hair loss. - Hormonal Support:
Avoiding foods that cause blood sugar spikes helps regulate hormones, a crucial factor for those experiencing hormonal or androgenetic hair loss.
Tips for Incorporating the Paleo Diet:
- Choose protein sources, including fatty cuts like beef, along with chicken, turkey, and fish.
- Incorporate colorful fruits and vegetables to maximize your intake of essential vitamins (especially A, C, and E).
Adopting the Paleo Diet: A Natural Strategy to Address and Prevent Hair Loss
Following the Paleo Diet is not just a general health choice; it could also be a natural strategy to tackle and prevent hair loss.
Supplements That Support Hair Health
Scientific evidence suggests that collagen can improve hair health. Collagen, the most abundant protein in your body, helps build tendons, ligaments, and skin. While your body produces collagen naturally, you can also obtain it through supplements and foods such as bone broth.
Collagen offers a range of health benefits, including promoting healthy, strong hair. Here are five evidence-based reasons why collagen can improve your hair health:
- Provides Amino Acids to Build Hair
Hair is primarily composed of keratin, a protein. Your body uses various amino acids to produce keratin, some of which are found in collagen.
When you consume collagen or other proteins, your body breaks them down into amino acids that are then used to create new proteins and compounds. There are 11 non-essential amino acids your body can produce and 9 essential ones that must be obtained through your diet.
Collagen is rich in three non-essential amino acids: proline, glycine, and hydroxyproline. Proline, in particular, is a major component of keratin. Consuming proline-rich collagen provides your body with the building blocks needed to create hair.
- Helps Combat Follicle Damage
Collagen acts as an antioxidant, fighting damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are compounds generated in the body due to stress, air pollution, smoking, poor dietary choices, alcohol consumption, and other environmental factors.
Excessive free radicals can harm your cells, proteins, and DNA. Research shows that free radicals can also damage hair follicles. Since the body’s defense against free radicals declines with age, older adults are particularly vulnerable to hair damage.
To counteract free radicals and support healthy hair, your body needs antioxidants. Collagen provides antioxidant properties, helping to protect hair follicles from oxidative stress and promoting overall hair health.
Evidence of Collagen’s Benefits for Hair Health
3. Collagen May Prevent Age-Related Hair Thinning
Several in-vitro studies have shown that collagen exhibits potent antioxidant activity. One study found that collagen could neutralize four different free radicals, while another observed that it may be a more effective antioxidant than a compound found in tea.
Collagen makes up 70% of the dermis, the middle layer of skin that houses the root of each hair follicle. It plays a crucial role in maintaining the elasticity and strength of the dermis.
As we age, the body’s ability to produce collagen and replenish dermal cells decreases. This reduction may contribute to hair thinning over time. Providing your body with additional collagen can help maintain a healthy dermis and prevent hair thinning.
An eight-week study involving 69 women aged 35 to 55 found that daily collagen supplementation significantly improved skin elasticity compared to a placebo. Similarly, a 12-week study with over 1,000 participants showed that a daily collagen supplement increased skin protein levels and reduced signs of skin aging.
Since hair grows from the skin, collagen’s potential to counteract skin aging effects can support better hair growth and reduce thinning.
4. Collagen May Slow Down Graying
Collagen’s antioxidant properties may also help combat cellular damage and slow the graying process.
While age-related graying is largely influenced by genetics, free radical damage to the cells responsible for hair color can also play a role. Over time, the melanocyte cells that produce melanin, the pigment responsible for hair color, naturally begin to die.
By protecting these cells from free radical damage, collagen could potentially delay the onset of gray hair.
However, free radicals caused by poor diet, stress, and environmental pollutants can also damage the cells that produce melanin.
Without enough antioxidants to combat free radical damage, your hair may turn gray.
In fact, a test-tube study found that the antioxidant activity of gray hair follicles was much lower than that of follicles that still contained pigments.
Since collagen has been shown to fight free radicals in test tubes, it may, in theory, help prevent damage to the cells that produce hair color.
As a result, it can prevent premature graying or slow down age-related graying.
5. Easy to Incorporate Into Your Day
You can add collagen to your diet through foods or supplements.
Because it makes up the connective tissue of mammals, it’s found in the skin, bones, and muscles of chicken, beef, pork, and fish.
Bone broth made from animal bones contains both collagen and gelatin, a cooked form of collagen.
This bone broth can be sipped as a beverage or used as a base for soups. Additionally, eating foods rich in vitamin C can boost your body’s natural collagen production.
Oranges, bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, and strawberries are excellent sources of this vitamin.
Finally, collagen can also be taken in powder form.
The Second Weapon: Evening Primrose Oil
Although more research is needed, evening primrose oil might be another excellent tool as part of a comprehensive hair regrowth strategy.
Evening primrose oil is distilled from the seeds of the evening primrose, a flowering plant native to Europe and North America.
Evening primrose has healing properties and has traditionally been used to treat bruises, wounds, skin issues, and digestive problems.
Primrose oil is rich in omega-6 fatty acids like gamma-linolenic acid (GLA).
According to researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center, GLA may reduce inflammation, stimulate healthy hair and nail growth, and rejuvenate the skin.
Evening primrose oil may promote hair growth by creating an optimal scalp environment for hair follicles and addressing underlying causes of some types of hair loss.
To understand how evening primrose oil can help with thinning hair, we first need to look at how it affects the phases of the hair growth cycle.
Hair goes through four distinct phases: the anagen phase (growth), the catagen phase (regression), the telogen phase (resting), and the exogen phase (shedding).
Normally, hair remains in the anagen phase for two to seven years before briefly transitioning through the catagen phase (usually 10 days) and then entering the telogen phase (about three months) before falling out.
Shedding is a completely normal part of the hair growth cycle.
During periods of physical or emotional stress, the body may disrupt the hair growth cycle and halt hair production to redirect resources to more vital parts of the body. Physical stressors that can affect hair growth include nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, and physical trauma such as childbirth or surgery.
While evening primrose oil cannot help with hair loss caused by physical trauma, it may aid in regrowing hair lost due to nutritional deficiencies and hormonal problems by addressing the root of the issue.
Evening primrose oil can be effective in treating several types of hair loss.
A diet lacking in essential fatty acids can lead to hair thinning and loss.
A supplement containing these essential fatty acids, such as Evening Primrose Oil, can prevent hair loss caused by nutritional deficiencies.
Hair regrowth typically occurs within approximately three months.
If your diet lacks essential nutrients in addition to fatty acids, it is unlikely that evening primrose oil alone will provide all the nourishment you need.
In this case, consider taking a complete hair vitamin supplement, such as Estetic Formula.
Whether it’s dandruff, eczema, or another cause, scalp inflammation can lead to hair thinning and hair loss.
The anti-inflammatory properties of evening primrose oil can soothe scalp inflammation, creating a healthy environment for hair growth.
Thyroid disease is a common cause of hair thinning and loss.
If you suspect you have a thyroid condition, seek an effective treatment plan (for example, the one described in the following video, which can help regrow hair in most cases).
However, many holistic practitioners also recommend adding an evening primrose oil supplement to your diet.
Evening primrose oil may help balance hormones naturally, but it’s best to consult your doctor before using this supplement to treat thyroid disorders.
There are two uses for evening primrose oil in promoting hair growth: taking it as a supplement or applying it directly to the scalp.
For hair loss caused by hormonal imbalances or nutritional deficiencies, take an oral supplement of evening primrose oil.
The suggested dosage of evening primrose oil for hair loss is between 2 to 4 grams per day for adults.
To maximize the benefits of evening primrose oil supplements, ensure you are also consuming enough vitamin C, either through your diet or supplementation.
According to researchers at the Rienstra Clinic in Port Townsend, Washington (USA), vitamin C aids in the absorption of evening primrose oil.
Topical Application of Evening Primrose Oil
For hair loss caused by scalp inflammation, apply evening primrose oil topically. Massage the oil into the scalp by squeezing 2-3 soft gels of evening primrose oil directly onto the roots of the hair.
Massaging the scalp improves blood circulation, which can further support hair growth by delivering more nutrients to hair follicles through the bloodstream.
With both methods of application, it will take six to eight weeks to see results from evening primrose oil.
Mental Stress and Acidity
One of the greatest burdens of modern civilization is the high level of stress it imposes.
Cars, motorcycles, television, radio, smartphones, computers, and email have improved our quality of life but also significantly increased the amount of information our brains must process. Added to this are the responsibilities of work and family.
When we are under constant stress, we either burn through nutrients too quickly or fail to utilize food efficiently.
In either case, more acids are produced than the body can eliminate. Prolonged stress can accelerate aging significantly.
Chronic mental stress is far worse than physical stress because it doesn’t allow for recovery periods, leading to increased acidity and a higher likelihood of depression.
History is full of examples of powerful individuals who, when embroiled in legal troubles and imprisoned, aged rapidly, fell ill, and passed away within a few years. The stress—and the resulting high acidity—of such a drastic life change consumed them physically and emotionally.
Men, Women, Hair, and Acidity
At the time, I didn’t realize that gray hair and even baldness could be linked to acidity. However, brace yourself—this phenomenon may be connected to the different ways men and women metabolize.
Think about it: it’s rare to find women with baldness, alopecia (patchy hair loss), or gray hair, while these are very common problems for men. Why?
The explanation might lie in a unique mechanism women have to eliminate excess acid: the menstrual cycle.
This natural process helps the female body avoid depleting its mineral reserves to neutralize acids. Men, on the other hand, must rely on their body’s mineral stores—calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and zinc—which are also found in the scalp.
It seems that hair is one of the first resources the body draws upon in such situations.
We men, after decades of consuming excessive acidic foods and perhaps leading lives under constant pressure, deplete the rich reservoir of anti-acid minerals stored in our hair. Combined with genetic factors, this can lead to progressive hair loss and/or graying.
For women, this process doesn’t occur in the same way. Acid buildup is expelled monthly through menstrual blood, which might explain why women are often… irritable before their period.
They have every reason to be, as the days leading up to menstruation see a month’s worth of accumulated acidity, making them particularly tense—quite literally “acidic”!
To avoid misunderstandings, when women are “in those days,” I generally prefer to keep my distance.
All the popular jokes about menstruating women seem to have a scientific basis when viewed through the lens of acid-base balance.
In fact, women only begin to lose hair at around 65-70 years of age, approximately 15-25 years after menopause (the cessation of menstruation). This event makes women, in terms of tissue acidity management, metabolically similar to men.
The male body, however, has spent a lifetime managing acidity, while women rely on their cycle. Once this ends, women suddenly become much more susceptible to issues like osteoporosis—unsurprisingly, they are eight times more likely to develop it than men.
Another clue supporting this theory is the occurrence of menopausal hot flashes. These are thought to be an extraordinary evolutionary mechanism, as the rise in body temperature helps to dissolve the acids accumulated in the body.
Evidence for this includes the timing of hot flashes, which often peak around 6:30 PM—just 30 minutes before one of the body’s maximum acidic flux peaks at 7:00 PM.
The Male “Cycle”
For men, of course, this doesn’t happen. However, in cases of hyperacidity, the male body may establish a substitute for the female cycle: hemorrhoids. From an acid-base perspective, the bleeding of vessels in the anal canal serves as an emergency outlet for toxins when the body can’t expel them through normal methods.
Unsurprisingly, hemorrhoids predominantly affect the male population, particularly after the age of 40—just when alkaline bicarbonate levels in the blood begin to decline.
Thus, surgically removing hemorrhoids is a grave mistake, as it dangerously blocks an emergency channel for eliminating toxic acids. Instead, dietary changes are essential: reduce acidic foods and drink plenty of water.
The PaleoDiet, by excluding acidic foods like grains, dairy, and legumes, also benefits hair health.
“If you want to keep getting what you’ve always gotten, just keep doing what you’ve always done.”