From Rapunzel to G.I. Jane - living with thinning hair
For the first twelve years of my life I had beautiful, long hair. Strangers in the street often randomly
complimented me on my healthy-looking hair and I was told that I had 'the most beautiful hair in the school' by the mother of one of my classmates. But from the age of 13 everything changed. I went within a few months from Rapunzel to G.I. Jane. My hair was thinning quickly and alarmingly and strands of white hair appeared in my light chestnut hair. My eyebrows also grew thinner and thinner.
My hair sings the blues
I had to cut my hair short to try to disguise some of the loss, even though every trip to the hairdresser was traumatic as they invariably commented on my thinning locks. The family GP did not offer much help and simply suggested I look into using 'a good hair colour product'. A dermatologist had a look at my scalp but also seemed puzzled. Stress and genetics were mentioned as possible causes and I was dismissed with the general advice of getting on with my life.
Easy for them to say: as a teenager and then as a young woman I felt exposed, odd and ugly with my thinning, half-albino hair that I had to keep cutting into a drastic pixie.
At my request various GPs over the years did blood tests to check my iron levels, thyroid function and hormones, but they never found anything tangible physical issue that could be causing my hair loss. It seemed it was a combination of stress and anxiety affecting my body and of having drawn the short straw in the hair genetic lottery.
Coping with hair loss
I briefly tried to wear a wig but found it too hot and cumbersome to wear and I also gave extensions a try but again it did not feel right for me. I even considered eyebrow transplants (a procedure where hair follicles are transplanted to your eyebrows, but there was no guarantee that the new 'eyebrows' would not end up falling out as well.
Instead I learned to like the individuality of my short haircut. I used colour to give my hair a bit of additional thickness and I started regularly using Minoxidil and gentle shampoos and conditioners. I used eyebrow pencil and eyebrow tint to try to fill in my thinning brows.
But to this day my heart still sinks when I meet someone new and their gaze almost immediately drifts to my hairline...
So when I started my new, greener lifestyle one of the first things I really wanted to look into was what I could do to care for my thin hair as best as I could.
Below is my hair care routine and I have seen some improvement in term of the texture of my hair and calming my often itchy scalp.
But I am very realistic and I know that my hair will never return to its former glory. My goal with this routine is simply to preserve the hair that I have and improve its condition as much as possible. This is what I do:
Haircare routine
- Taking a daily vegan multivitamins and mineral supplement
- Taking a daily vegan biotin hair complex supplement
- Use Minoxidil/Rogaine foam for women every morning
- Weekly DIY hair masks: I mix a tbs of pure organic honey with a tbs of organic coconut oil and 10 drops of rosemary essential oil. I also sometimes add a tbs of olive oil to the mix. I leave the mask on for 20 minutes and rinse. Another favourite treatment of mine is to use castor oil for a scalp massage and hair mask. I also use castor oil on my eyebrows overnight
- Washing my hair with a vegan hair shampoo bar
- Using a mixture of apple vinegar and water as a conditioner: 1 tbs of apple vinegar in one cup of water. This also helps calm my itchy scalp
- Incorporating the following hair-boosting vegetarian food in my diet: leafy greens (such as kale and spinach), lentils, seeds (such as sunflower, flax and chia seeds, tofu, oats, almonds, avocados, beans, fortified breakfast cereals and eggs.
