Did you know that your hair can and will change? Yes, many things will bring different hair changes. Some are out of your control, while others can be under your control.
What can make your hair change?
I will be elaborating more on why these things can bring changes to our hair, but if you want to quickly have a glance, here you have.
| – Genetics – Hormones – Environment – Protein/Moisture Balance – Bleaching & Chemical Treatments – Heat | – Humidity – Medications (Drugs) – Age – Health – Diet – Mental health |
| * Words mentioned in this article * |
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| – Texture: Coarse, medium, or fine hair. – Thickness: Low, medium, or high density. How many hairs there are in your head. Can you see your scalp, can’t you? – Pattern: Refers to hair pattern chart (1 to 4c). Straight, wavy, curly, coily, or kinky? – Porosity: Refers to how porous your hair is. Low, normal, high porosity. It evaluates the ability your hair has to absorb water and how healthy it is. |
Genetics
When it comes to genetics, everyone knows of Hereditary-Patterned Baldness. Although hormone levels and aging have a huge impact on this, the fact that we inherit this from our parents through our genes is irrefutable.
Another aspect that can be affected by genetics is our porosity. Porosity might be dictated by our genes, and there is nothing we can do about it. However, this is not the only thing that can affect our porosity.
Hormones & Age
When our hormones are affected, our hair can suffer in different ways. Hair loss, hair thinning, and premature graying are a few of the things that could occur.
Although there is no way we can predict the exact time our hormones will change, I’m listing some of the things that can affect them.
| – Pregnancy and Childbirth – Stopping birth control pills – Menopause – Age | – Drugs – Genes – Environment – Lifestyle (Mental and Physical Health) |
Physical Health
Did you know that some health conditions can also affect our hair? Yes!
Amongst the many health conditions, there are, Alopecia Areata and Thyroid Disorders which have a direct negative effect on the hair. With these diseases, you might experience brittle, thining, and drying hair. And the biggest one is hair loss.
On the other hand, because of some health conditions, people have to take some medications that can damage their hair. These are some of the conditions that have medications that could harm our hair.
| – Cancer – High blood pressure – Arthritis | – Depression – Heart problems |
*Make sure to always verify the side effects of your specific medication!
Mental Health
Stress, anxiety, shock, and depression are among the things that could also cause hair loss. The problem with this is that since the cause is psychological, having hair loss can provoke even more stress, anxiety, etc. So dealing with this is essential to stop it.
Diet
Besides the usual alcohol intake, nutrient deficiencies could also lead to hair thinning and hair loss.
| – Protein – Iron – Others |
Because junk food usually doesn’t have all the nutrients humans need to be healthy, having a diet that consists of just junk food, will eventually harm our hair.
Environment & Humidity
Changes in the environment will have a tremendous impact on our hair. That’s why we textured hair girls usually have one routine for the summer and another for winter.
Now, let’s say you go for a vacation to a humid place, and you live in a very dry place. I will assure you that you will hate how much humidity (dew points) will affect your hair.
The way care for our hair
When we don’t treat our hair right, we can also affect the porosity, thickness, and pattern. Excess in anything is bad for our hair. Among these things, you can find harshly combing, brushing, towel drying, too much washing, and many more things.
Protein/Moisture Balance
By not having a proper balance between moisture and proteins, our hair will experience changes. If it has too much moisture, you might see that the pattern becomes looser. If you have too much protein or no moisture at all, you will see your pattern will be tighter than normal.
Btw, I’m not mentioning here the amount of frizz, and dryness that you will experience because of not having proper balance.
Chemical treatments
It’s been proven that when our hair goes through chemical treatments, such as bleaching, relaxing, and others, our hair becomes weakened and our porosity increases as the hair become more damaged.
Along with porosity, our hair pattern and texture will be affected. So knowing how to prepare our hair before and after going through a chemical process, is essential to substantially reduce the negative impact these have.
Heat
Flat ironing, blow dryers, and the Sun, they all can affect our hair. Depending on how long our hair was exposed and how resistant our hair is to heat, our pattern, thickness, and porosity might be changed.
Take away
Yes, I know it is nearly impossible to avoid change when it comes to many things in our lives, and hair is not an exception. However, you can try to make the best out of it by doing the best you can.
Live as healthy as you can! Drink enough water, eat the healthies you can, exercise, take care of your mental health, and learn about what your hair likes and what it doesn’t.
You can’t have control over everything, but there are things you can surely control or help to reduce the impact.
Do what you can with what you have, and embrace the change!
I hope you enjoy the rest of your day! Also, if you want to keep in touch with me, and see more great content like this, make sure to subscribe to my Email List and follow me on Instagram.
xoxo,
Resources:
- MedlinePlus.gov: Is hair texture determined by genetics? (https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/traits/hairtexture/#:~:text=Genetic%20factors%20appear%20to%20play,people%20of%20different%20ethnic%20backgrounds.)
- Harvard Health Publishing: Hereditary-Patterned Baldness (https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/hereditary-patterned-baldness-a-to-z)
- Insider: A bald head is not all your mom’s fault… (https://www.businessinsider.com/baldness-genes-going-bald-isnt-all-your-mothers-fault-2018-3)
- Healthline: Everything You Need to Know About Hair Loss (https://www.healthline.com/health/hair-loss#causes)
- Harley Street Hair Clinic: Mental Health and Hair Loss (https://www.hshairclinic.co.uk/news/mental-health-and-hair-loss)
