What Happens to Our Hair as We Get Older?
The Aging Process: How Does Our Hair Change as We Get Older?
We may not be able to stop the aging process, but we can slow it down and understand how getting older affects our hair growth.
Keyword(s): the aging process
There are tons of reasons that your hair may start to change. It could be due to your stress levels, the amount of heat you use when styling, or a change in your physical health.
One thing that will affect every woman’s hair, regardless of her health and daily hair regimen, is the aging process.
As we age, our body chemistry changes, which in turn changes the way our hair looks and feels.
Read on to find out more about how the aging process changes our hair and what we can do to slow down or even reverse those changes.
The Aging Process and Color
We all know that our hair will go gray or even white at some point in our lives. The pigmentation of our hair has to do with the melanin produced by our hair follicles.
As we age, the cells responsible for producing melanin begin to die off. The less melanin your hair follicles produce, the less pigmentation those strands of hair will have, leaving the hair looking colorless or even translucent. (In other words, white or gray.)
When and where your loss of hair pigmentation begins will be largely determined by your genes. It is noteworthy that both stress and unhealthy habits like a nutrient-deficient diet or smoking will damage healthy cells, which may lead to premature graying.
The Aging Process and Hair Health
The aging process can also alter the health of hair, making it more brittle and prone to breakage. It can also develop a dry appearance and feel over time.
We produce less keratin protein in later years. This protein is what gives our hair strength and elasticity. Without normal levels of keratin protein, your hair is more prone to breaking at the ends or falling out at the roots if you tug or brush it too hard.
The protective cuticle that grows on the outer part of the hair shaft becomes more fragile. This also contributes to easier breakage.
The dryness of your hair tends to have more to do with the way you take care of it than anything else. With the loss of elasticity and the protective cuticle, your hair has less natural protection from heat, chemical treatments, and over-washing.
The Aging Process and Thinning
Perhaps the biggest surprise many women get as they age is the thinning of their hair. Even women who once had thick, lush locks find that their hair has not only become more brittle but also much thinner.
There are two reasons that your hair will look and feel thinner with age. The first is that your individual hairs are simply coming in more fine. Hair is composed of tons of different proteins, and as you start to produce less of those, your hair follicles can’t produce thick hairs.
The second is that you are losing individual hairs at a faster rate and not producing new hairs as quickly as you did before. This has less to do with the health of your hair and more to do with the health of your scalp, which has decided to go dormant more often than it is working to grow new hair.
As your hair thins, it may appear to have less volume. If you have less hair or even thinner hair at the crown of your head and along your hairline, it is naturally going to appear less voluminous.
What to Do About it
All is not lost! There are preventative methods as well as treatments you can use to get your hair looking and feeling the way it used to.
Preventative Methods
Be gentle with your hair. When you are combing out the tangles, start with small segments near the bottom and work your way up. The less you pull at the follicle, itself, the fewer hairs you will lose in the process.
Stop pulling your hair tight-tight-tight with ponytail holders or bath towels. Use a looser hair accessory like a butterfly clip or scrunchy and allow the hair near your scalp to relax a bit. If you hate leaving your soaking wet hair hang around your face, use an old, 100% cotton t-shirt to loosely wrap it up.
Be smart with your drying and dying. If you have to blowdry, do so on the cold setting. If you love a good dye job, skip the chemical-ridden boxed dye and splurge for professional treatment.
Treatments
If your hair is thinning due to stress, medical issues, or a nutrient-deficient diet, try a supplement that will replenish all of those good nutrients you need to grow strong and healthy hair.
Bring your treatment straight to the scalp with a topical serum. Serums will penetrate the hair follicle to ensure that every new hair comes in looking sleek and smooth while also giving an extra boost to the hair that’s already there.
If you’re not big on adding new steps to your daily regimen, why not incorporate your new hair treatment into the regimen you already have? Swap out your regular shampoo for fortifying shampoo that will protect your hair from all that drying and dying damage.
Love Your Hair
The aging process is inevitable, but changes in your hair’s texture and health don’t have to be. No matter our age, we all deserve to have hair that we love!
Our hair-enriching Trivocel products can be found at stores around the globe. Check out our product finder and enter your location to find a store near you that carries our products.
If you have questions about our products, how to use them, or how to interpret the changes in your hair, contact us today!