Posts Tagged ‘hair loss’

Hair loss prevention through Ayurveda December 10th, 2009

Author: Dr.Savitha Suribr
Source: articleage.combr
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Hair loss is experienced by all of us at one or the other time. To know the causes of hair fall, it is very essential to know the structure of hair and its normal growth cycle.

Structure of hair

The hair on our scalp can be divided into two parts, the root and shaft. The root part of hair is in the skin (epidermis) of scalp. The hair root is surrounded by a pouch like structure called follicle. The base of hair root is in the shape of a bulb. This bulb is indented by capillaries and nerve fibers. The cells in the center of bulb divide. The newly divided hair cells push the previous cells up. The cells which move upwards die slowly forming hard hair shaft.

The hair shaft has three layers the cuticle, medulla and cortex.

Cuticle is the outer layers and protects the inner layers. It is transparent. Healthy cuticle gives a shiny appearance for hair and unhealthy cuticle gives lifeless look

Medulla is the innermost layer composed of large cells.

Cortex is the layer between cuticle and medulla. This contains pigment and keratin. Cortex determines the bulk and strength of hair.

The hair follicle contains oil secreting glands which make the hair shiny .Stress and illness diminish secretion of oil and pigments causing graying of hair.

According to Ayurveda the hair is considered as a tissue which uses the same nutrients of bone and considered as a tissue which is formed as bi-product of bone tissue.

Normal cycle of hair growth.

About 10 % of the hair on the scalp is in a resting phase at any given time. The resting hair falls after 2 to 3 months and new hair starts growing in its place. The growing phase continues for 2.25 to 6 yrs. During this phase each hair grows approximately 1 cm per month. At any given time about 90% of the hair on scalp will be in growing phase.

Few strands of hair fall as the part of normal hair growth cycle. But some people may experience excessive hair fall which is more than normal cycle. Excessive hair loss can affect men, women and children.

Causes of hair loss

1. Hormonal imbalance in men and women: In men high concentration of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in hair follicles causes hair fall. In women hormonal imbalances during pregnancy and after delivery cause hair fall.

2. High amount of sebum in scalp clogs pores of scalp and prevent nutrition to hair follicle.

3. Inadequate nutrition causes hair fall.

4. Stress, worry, lack of sleep, worry and anxiety cause hair fall

5. Long standing diseases like typhoid, viral infections, anemia, surgery etc cause general debility which lead to hair fall

6. Some medicines used for gout, chemo therapy of cancer , birth control pills , antidepressants etc cause hair fall

7. Diseases like lupus, diabetes cause hair fall.

8. Tying hair tightly pulls the hair from follicles and cause traction alopecia.

9. Heredity also causes hair fall.

10. Dandruff or Fungal infection of scalp.

11. Accumulation of dirt on scalp causes blocking of pores and weakens hair roots. This leads to hair fall.

According to ayurveda the causes of hair loss are described as follows

1. Too much exposure to dust, sunlight, water and other pollutants.

2. Too much of sweating.

3. Irregular sleeping pattern.

4. Anxiety, depression, insomnia.

5. Unhygienic way of living

6. Diseases

7. Alcohol consumption.

Hair loss Remedies

1. Liberal intake of vitamins.

2. High protein and iron rich diet.

3. Consumption of raw vegetables, fresh fruits, salads, green leafy vegetables regularly.

4. Washing hair regularly ( twice weekly ) with suitable shampoo.

5. Using relaxing techniques to overcome stress, anxiety and sleeplessness.

6. Preventing fungal infections of scalp.

7. Preventing hairstyles which pull hair.

Due to these causes the tridoshas get vitiated and cause hair loss. The vitiated doshas affect the scalp skin and cause hair fall occurs. Medicated oil with the herbs Bhringaraja ( Eclipta Alba ), Amalaki ( Embelica officinalis ), Haritaki ( Terminalia chebula ) and Vibhitaki ( Terminalia bellirica ) is a best remedy for hair fall.

This article is copy righted. The author Dr.SavithaSuri is an Ayurvedic Physician and web master of http://www.ayurhelp.com Read more about hair care at http://www.ayurhelp.com/hair/hair.htmbr
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PUTTING A STOP TO PREMATURE GREYING (GRAY) HAIR December 2nd, 2009

Author: rob marabybr
Source: articlesbase.combr
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Do you suffer from hair loss or thinning of hair and looking for ways to hair growth or hair loss remedy/treatment? Some hair loss remedies may promote hair growth/hair regrowth. Hair loss and baldness are problems. Thousands of people are looking for hair loss treatments and solutions. We give home remedy for hair loss and thinning of hair using natural ingredients. We lose 20 and 100 hair each day without noticing it. Proper hair care can give you fabulous, shining, thick, beautiful, gorgeous, and dandruff free hair. Home made beauty recipes like hair care, dandruff care and hair loss based on herbs and natural ingredients help improve the hair. Graying of hair is a natural process. Hair turns gradually grey (gray) due to a reduction in the production of melanin pigment in the hair bulb as the age increases. You will observe the first grey hairs usually near the temples, then to the crown and then at the back of your head. Premature greying is due to a rapid decline in melanin. The premature greying may be due to 1. Premature greying of the hair is basically hereditary. So if your fathers or grandfathers hair started early to turn grey there is a chance that your will also have premature greying of hair. 2. Excessive prolonged stress, anxiety and tension. 3. Sever illness like typhoid too can start greying of hair. 4. Excessive intake of tea, coffee and alcohol. 5. Excessive intake of fried and oily foods. 6. Excessive intake of spices. 7. Excessive intake of sour and acidic foods. 8. Deficiency of nutrients specially copper can reduce the production of melanin. Premature Greying (Gray) Hair Remedy 1. Eat protein rich foods. Proteins – Sources: sprouted whole grains, cereals, meat and soy in your diet. 2. Eat foods rich in iron, minerals and vitamin A and B. Vitamin A – Sources: dark green vegetables amp; yellow fruits. Vitamin B – Sources: fresh green leafy vegetables, bananas, tomatoes, cauliflower, cereals, liver kidney, yogurt, yeast and wheat germ.. Minerals like zinc, iron and copper – Sources: zinc – red meat, chicken amp; green vegetables iron – beef, dried apricots, red meat, parsley, eggs, wheat amp; sunflower seeds copper – sunflower seeds, cashews, almonds, crabs and oysters, egg yolk amp; whole grains. 3. Eat foods rich in iodine such as banana, carrots and fish. 4. Drink butter milk with a 2 teaspoons each of yeast and wheat germ will prevent and cure premature greying of hair. 5. Grate some fresh ginger. Mix with honey and place it in a jar. Eat 1 tea spoon everyday. 6. Rub Indian gooseberry (Amla) into the scalp regularly. It can show wonderful results, your gray hair will turn black. 7. Massage your hairs with coconut oil and lemon juice everyday. 8. Mix 1 tablespoon of table salt to a cup of strong black tea without milk. Massage this water on the scalp. Wash your hair after an hour. 9. Make a paste of 2 tsp henna powder, 1 tsp yogurt, 1 tsp fenugreek (methi seed powder, 3 tsp coffee, 2 tsp basil juice and 3 tsp mint juice and apply to the hair. Wash hair with shampoo after 3 hours. Shades Of Grey-how to hide grey hair naturally The hairs colour is determined by the proportion of two pigments—-one brown-black, the other red-yellow—which are deposited in the hair shafts. Greying hair is part of the natural ageing process, in which less and less pigment is laid down in the shafts. Grey hair usually first appear on the temples and then spread over the scalp. The age at which greyness begins and its extent depends upon heredity. Curing Grey Hair Naturally! Ailments that can affect your hair and Premature greying The hair can be affected by a number of ailments—-some of which may require professional treatment. While it is true that hair dyes contain chemicals that may damage your hair in the long run that does mean that there is no hope for people with gray hair. Our very own Mehendi is a very good alternative. Further if used properly, it will not give your hair the traditional red colour. Here are a few pointers to help you colour gray hair the right way and you might look at it as a Curing Grey Hair Naturally strategy! *br
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pRob Maraby is the author of over 25 self published books on health, beauty and marketing! Try Mira hair oil for Freea rel=nofollow,nofollow href=http://www.growfabuloushair.com/FreeTrial.html PUTTING A STOP TO PREMATURE GREYING (GRAY) HAIR /a-click here and you will not be disappointed/pbr
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Knowing all about Hair Growth November 19th, 2009

Author: rob maraby
Source: articlesbase.com

It is an innate desire of human beings to look attractive regardless of the hair type they have. Each ethnic race has its own standards of beautiful hair. These days, people pay much attention to the state of their hair. This element of our bodies has pure aesthetic function. However, the latter should not be underestimated, for millions of men and women suffer from this lurking fear of going bald. Mere presence of some beautiful hair strands on the scalp is of not much significance if not with coupled with some healthy and voluminous hair to match. You can have both the beauty and quantity if you follow some faster hair growth tips. Logically, to be able to take good care and preserve hair beauty, we should know what hair growth actually is and how it grows. To start with, one should realize that hair is made of dead protein cells, called keratin. Protein, being digested in the body, forms different amino acids. The latter can be connected in the particular combinations, producing different forms of protein in our organisms: keratin, collagen, insulin, etc. The first one is the source of our hair. Lanugo is one of the very first hairs a human being acquires. It appears on the skin surface during the intrauterine development of a baby. Lanugo is silky, glossy, and almost invisible, since it has no pigment. Besides lanugo, there are three more types of the human hair: – vellus hair, which is soft, fine, short, and non-pigmented; – terminal hair is pigmented and quite long; male arms, chest, and legs hairs are terminal, as well as hairs on the scalp; – intermediate

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Hair Removal – Painless And Permanent Hair Removal November 18th, 2009

Author: Franchis
Source: articledashboard.com

Hair removal is a vague term that has only recently been accurately defined. Temporary hair reduction is defined as a delay in hair growth, which usually lasts 1-3 months, consistent with the induction of telogen. Permanent hair reduction refers to a significant reduction in the number of terminal hairs after a given treatment, which is stable for a period of time longer than the complete growth cycle of hair follicles at the given body site.

Demand for a rapid, noninvasive method for hair removal has resulted in the introduction of various light sources for hair removal. Light source of hair removal commonly focuses on ruby, alexandrite, diode, and Nd:YAG lasers and intense pulsed light sources. These devices are designed to target either an endogenous chromophore (melanin) or an exogenous chromophore (carbon suspension, photosensitizer, and exogenous dye). Laser hair removal is one of the most recent systems of hair removal that has been introduced. Today, a large number of specific laser systems are available in the market, which makes the customer a bit apprehensive about their attributes, selection, treatment protocols and effects. Laser hair removal is one of the light sources of hair removal. Hair follicles are destroyed by light in a number of ways such as thermal, photomechanical or photochemical mechanism with generation of toxic mediators like singlet oxygen or free radicals.

Thermal mechanism for hair removal has recently been introduced to induce selective damage to hair follicles. Based on the principles of selective photothermolysis, this principle predicts that selective thermal damage of a pigmented target structure will result when sufficient quantity of light at a given wavelength is absorbed by the target in a time equal to or less than the thermal relaxation time of the target.

Melanin is the natural chromophore for targeting hair follicles in the visible to near-infrared region, Lasers or light sources that operate in the red or near-infrared wavelength region lie in an optical window of the spectrum in which selective absorption by melanin is combined with deep penetration into the dermis. Therefore, deep and selective heating of the hair shaft, the hair follicle epithelium, and the heavily pigmented matrix is possible in the 600nm to 1100nm region. However, melanin in the epidermis presents a competing site for absorption. Selective cooling of the epidermis has been shown to minimize epidermal injury.

Photomechanical destruction of hair has been attempted with very short nanosecond pulses. It has been done by the help of Q-switched 1064-nm Nd:YAG lasers, with and without carbon suspension. Short pulses are used to target hair follicles resulting in rapid heating of the chromophore (melanin). It leads to photo acoustic shock waves that cause focal photomechanical disruption of the melanocytes but not complete follicular disruption. Therefore, the Q-switched Nd:YAG lasers are not likely to produce long-term hair removal.

A distinction needs to be made between permanent and complete hair loss. Immediately after laser treatment, the hair shaft shows fragmentation with focal rupture into the follicular epithelium and thermal damage to the surrounding follicular epithelium. The extent of thermal damage is dependent on the pulse width but retains confinement on the spatial scale of the follicle itself. Histological changes are almost guaranteed in the person undergoing laser hair removal. However, such form of hair removal should be carried out under the supervision of a qualified dermatologist as it involves considerable degree of expertise.

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Your Gray Hair – Where Did They Come From? November 6th, 2009

Author: sashi
Source: articledashboard.com

Sam has just noticed a strand of gray hair at his temple and is a bit worried. Is it the time to declare his innings or he still has the power and the will to go for more? Gray hair has been an interrogatory issue for quite long. These days’ people have their own choice when it comes to graying of hair. They can leave it as such and celebrate the natural look or dye them to conceal their graying and sport their ever young looks. To prevent gray hair is also one of the options which people are trying out but gray hair treatment is yet to deliver confirmed results.

Health, heredity and environmental factors are considered to be the factors involved in contributing to the graying of your hair but the main cause is attributed to aging. It starts when our body stops producing melanin pigment which is responsible for giving color to the hair. Each strand of your hair grows out of a follicle that has cells filled with melanin, called melanocytes. Melanocytes pass melanin to adjoining cells called keratinocytes, which produce keratin – the chief component of hair. When keratinocytes undergo their scheduled death, they retain melanin. The pigment visible in hair and in the skin lies in these dead keratinocyte bodies. With loss of keratinocytes, the pigment of hair is gone. Also, with a period of time the amount of melanin in the keratinocytes decreases. Gray hair is simply hair without melanin.

The declining presence of melanin also supposed to be contributing to lack of moisture in gray or white hair. As a result, hair becomes lighter in color and its texture gets dryer and coarser. In actual, hair never turns gray. It is the pigment melanin which is absent in them which gives them the look. Every day, hairs fall out and are replaced by new ones. At any given time, about 85% to 90% of hairs are actively growing, while the rest are in a resting state. A strand grows for two to four years and then enters into a resting state for about two to four months. After the resting phase, it falls out and is replaced by a new hair. On an average, most people lose about 50 to 100 strands of head hair daily.

There is currently no scientific way to detect as to when a particular cell or group of cells will stop producing melanin. In the initiation stages of graying, the melanocytes are still present but inactive. Later on, they decrease in number. This natural process of graying can begin as early as our teens. In most people, however, graying first becomes noticeable in their late 30s. Some researchers have shown that gender plays a role in graying. The average male starts to gray around age 30, while women typically began to notice lighter strands around age 35. Genetics are also a contributing factor. In some families, many members develop white hair in their 20s. So is the way you live your life – you are likely to get a gray head much faster if you are prone to get tense. In fact, a tense lifestyle is known to cause hair loss and even baldness in extreme cases.

However, biological fact of life varies greatly from person to person, which lead dermatologists and geneticists to conclude that age is not the most accurate indicator of when gray hair will appear.

Today there are numerous products in the market which promise to prevent gray hair. If you are not comfortable with your shade of gray, opt for dying of hair or bear your natural look that defines your maturity and wisdom. However, try natural treatments before you turn to chemicals.

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Don't Blame It On Your Work. Get Rid Of Your Gray Hair October 20th, 2009

Author: sashi
Source: articledashboard.com

Gray hair comes with age and brings many worries and depressing moments. You start to blame your stress and workload associated with increasing cause of gray hair. Hair, including knowingly or unknowingly, other related problems such as hair loss, baldness etc. is known as the result of work pressure, while the story is completely different. Gray hair has a biological cause. The hair color is not as such. It is caused by cells in our hair follicles called melanocytes. Melanocytes generate various pigments of melanin, a boss to be. As we age, the pigment cells in hair follicles gradually die. When there are fewer pigment cells in a hair follicle, hair that no longer contain much melanin and will become a more transparent color – like the silver gray or white – as it grows. As people continue to age, fewer pigment cells will be around to produce melanin. Finally, the hair will look completely gray. The most common reason for the gray hair is heredity. We associate premature graying of hair also with our parents. Inheritance then other health reasons, there are many that can be the cause of gray hair, such as deficiency of vitamin B-12, a thyroid imbalance, viruses and even anemia can cause gray hair. If recent developments are believed, has confirmed that smokers are four times more likely to go gray at a younger age. This gives a reason to quit. As we seek the solution of hair loss gray hair is likely that we fall for resorting to temporary relief such as coloring gel or liquids to cover gray or premature white hair. Medical science has come a great distance to manufacture products that have the ability to visibly revive dormant hair follicles and to study problems such as discoloration of gray hair. Today, natural color of hair restoration vitamins are available as medicinal products in the market. The hair color restoration vitamins stimulate melancocytes to increase the body's ability to produce melanin, which overcomes the genetically based tendency to produce melanin, or nearly so. These vitamins works to reactivate dormant or near dead pigments throughout the body to help restore gray hair back to its original hair color. Results may vary since people start to have gray hair at different stages of their lives and hair while responding to or in the same way to treatment. Generally, you will notice a difference from 4 to 9 months. The consistent and regular use of vitamins provides essential nutrients to hair follicles with capsicum, amino acids and essential minerals to prevent NDF (Nutrient deficient follicles), the leading cause of poor hair quality and quantity. With proper nutrition and increased blood flow in the scalp, dormant follicles can begin producing healthy hair once again. It also helps to eliminate air bubbles in the hair shaft that is said to block the passage of melanin to ensure the proper flow of melanin within hair shaft. Why get depressed when there is no simple solution to the problem. Pay a visit to your dermatologist and seek advice before endorsing vitamins. Its prolonged and consistent use may give rich dividends in the form of that young look which has eluded you for so long.

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