With beach season just a skip and a hop away, now is the best time to upgrade your hair game. But it’s hard to get excited about changing up your look when you constantly have to deal with a limp mane and even a little hair loss. After all, nothing quite sends our worry sensors into overdrive quite like running our hand through our tresses and ending up with a clump of loose strands.
What Causes Hair Loss
While it’s natural for everyone to shed about 100 strands of hair each day, Robyn Michel, hairstylist at Supercuts in Providence, says hair loss is also often triggered by stress. “Stress can have such a negative influence on our body, including our hair. Generally, you shouldn’t be concerned unless you are seeing bald spots on your head. If that’s the case, see a dermatologist. [They] can determine if the hair loss is because of a medical condition or even a side effect of medications you are already taking,” she explains.
Stephanie Johnson, licensed beauty professional at Fusion Specialty Salon Studio in Dallas, echoes this and adds chemotherapy, thyroid issues and even repeated use of clip-in extensions and tight hairstyles as common contributors to hair and scalp problems.
Hormones are also another major culprit for hair fall, says Patty Mocarski of Little Space Salon in New York. “Changing or going off of your birth control, menopause and pregnancy all wreak havoc in the hair loss department,” she says. This is particularly true for women dealing with rising levels of DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is thought to cause female pattern baldness, adds Johnson. “It can cause new hair to seem more fine and weaker, eventually leading to the follicle stopping the growth altogether,” she explains.
How to Get Thicker Hair at Home
As with most things, the first step in finding a solution to your hair and scalp problems is identifying the cause, says Michel. “If the hair loss is noticeable but not significant, it could be caused by a lack of nutrients in the body,” she explains. But aside from the state of your overall health, Johnson says that what you do and put on your scalp also plays a role in maintaining your mane’s volume and thickness. “Sulfate and salt-laden products are drying and dehydrating, making follicles shrink down and not work as well,” she adds.
To encourage growth and minimize hair fall, Mocarski suggests adding a volumizing shampoo to your shower routine and conditioning regularly to moisturize and pamper your scalp. Styling your hair with sprays, powders and texturizers will also add density and fullness to your locks, making those waves and curls fall and sway more dramatically. But—like always—when using several hair products, Michel says it’s important to use a clarifying shampoo to get rid of buildup that could clog the pores on your scalp and prevent new hair from growing.
Other Tips to Prevent Hair Loss
Circulation is key in hair growth, so Johnson says to give your scalp some love by massaging it with castor oil at night to boost moisture and blood flow. (You should also go easy on the tight buns, braids and ponytails, says Mocarski.) And while instincts may tell you to hoard all the volumizing shampoos and sprays you can find, Michel says less is actually better as “too many products will weigh the hair down.”
Best Shampoos for Fuller-Looking Hair
Ready to welcome summer with bouncy, fuller-looking hair? Below, we’ve rounded up the best volumizing and hair-thickening shampoos on Dermstore.
