Snatched Edges Podcast - Episode 10 - Let's Talk about Hair Loss

On this episode I talk about some of the different ways our hair decides to part ways with us. Episode 10!!!! We made it baby!

Episode Overview

Full Transcript

Pewn, Pewn, Pew, Pewn. Yo yo yo, welcome back to the snatched edges podcast. I’m your host Ebuni and here we talk about Healthy Hair, Healthy Scalp, how to solve all our hair problems and generally just look like a boss with our hair. How are you guys doing? It’s episode 10, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pewn. I had to do an extra one because, 10 episodes, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe you guys are still rocking with me here while I talk s**t on the internet about here, but thank you thank you thank you. I really appreciate it. I’m sure all of your cards and your cakes are in the post. I expect the deliveries today. If you haven’t, there’s still time, you can go to my instagram and leave me a nice little comment to tell me how much you love hearing my voice every week.

Today I wanted to talk about Hair Loss because it is something that affects quite a majority of people and erm, when I do see clients, it’s something that you know, usually is the major concern, but, there’s so much myth and mystery surrounding it, and people kind of don’t really know what it is that they’re experiencing, so I thought I’d give you guys a little bit of a background about what you may be facing, and hopefully, you can try and identify it before or during or after you know I feel like you need to go and speak to either your hair stylist, your doctor a Trichologist. 

You know, find someone who you can talk to, who can see your hair as well and diagnose your problem for you. So this is just like a little bit of insight, a little bit of info, you know so, you’re aware of types, but it is no way a means for you to diagnose. It’s just to kind of help you out a little bit to know maybe think “oh you know, do you have any of these symptoms, are these something you have faced before, maybe give you a bit of an explanation behind some of the things that people will face when it comes to their hair

So Hair Loss. People don’t actually realise there’s a difference in the different types, or they may be experiencing something else but kinda lump it all in together with Hair Loss. I try to break it down into different sections to make it a bit clearer.

So we have Hair Loss, and we have Breakage. Now, you’re probably thinking, I have hair loss, I don’t really know what’s going on, I just need to know why it’s on the floor and not on my scalp. 

So, breakage is where parts of the hair will fall out. So it’s not the whole hair, you won’t see a root or anything. It won’t be quite long, it can just be from varying lengths, depending on how long your hair is, but it’s just part of your hair are breaking. Now this usually occurs through, erm, mechanical damage. So you’re doing something to your hair, and your hair is snapping off somewhere down the shaft, for some reason or the other, Now most people find that when they brush their hair, they can get a lot of breakage or shedding. Now, they’re two different things as well.

So shedding, every day, we are supposed to lose about 100 hairs. Now, I’ve talked about the hair cycle before, so hair goes through a growing phase and a resting phase. And after it’s rested, it will fall out. That’s just the natural way it goes. You should lose about a 100 hairs everyday give or take. Now if you’re brushing your hair every day, or your hair’s not styled, you might not see all those hairs. So, some people only see those shed hairs when they wash their hair. And they can be quite alarmed that oh my god, there’s so much hair on my brush, but if it’s a consistent amount, and you’re not noticing any thinning of your hair, I wouldn’t be too worried about it, but breakage that’s where the little hairs are falling off or snapping off. That can be due to erm excess brushing, so maybe you’re using too small a comb or a brush or brushing too vigorously. Or your hair tye’s causing damage. Is it the style that you’re wearing causing something to break on your hair. Maybe hats, scarves, coats, you know they can all be erm, quite detrimental to the hair if they’re rubbing against it all the time.

So kind of think, okay, if I’m seeing loads of little hairs, there’s something in my routine that I need to go back and change and figure out what it is that I’m doing to cause all this breakage. Or is it that your hair is weak as well. So maybe did you have a color service, or a chemical service, that wasn’t done correctly and your hair was kinda snapping at the weak points.

So now that we’ve got breakage and shedding out of the way, let’s get into hair loss; the main thing I wanted to talk about today.

If you are experiencing hair loss from all over your scalp, yerp, so there’s not one particular area that’s thinner than others. You seem to be losing hair from everywhere that is called Diffuse Hair Loss or Telegen Effluvium. And there are are two types okay.

So there's a self-correcting and there's a permanent until er, the cause is corrected. So with the self-correcting, that can happen, there's loads of triggers that our body is really really sensitive in. It likes to be, you know, in zen, having optimum balance and sometimes we can do things to kinda throw it out of wack.

So, if you're very stressed, if your diet changes, if you start a new medication, or erm, things like, you know having a baby. Those are things that can kind of make your body kind of, not really, but kind of go into shock a little bit, which is "okay cool, I just need to conserve my energy and your hair can wait. I'm gonna divert, you know all my extra resources to other parts of your body to kind of level out the other things that are going a bit erm, haywire.

But this is nothing to worry about because, usually, 2 or 3 months after the event, it will go back to normal. So, for example, a pregnant lady, erm, after she's given birth, she might experience something called post-partum shedding and then 2 or 3 months later, her hair will get back into the natural swing of things or if you started a new medication, you might notice a couple of months later that oh, you know, I'm getting a little bit of extra hair loss. Once your body has adjusted to the levels, it will kind of you know, reset itself and go back to normal, so it's nothing to worry about.

However sometimes, this type of hair loss can continue and some of the triggers are the same. But it means then that you have to do something to correct the problem that's going wrong.

So Vitamin deficiencies are like you know, one of the main ones. People are not getting enough nutrients in their diet, so things like, they might have iron deficiency, a zinc deficiency, there's so many vitamins and minerals that are crucial to good hair growth that many bodies are lacking.

So erm, this is the time to go and see your Doctor. Have a blood test done, and so, actually get the levels aswell, coz for some people, they might have a iron deficiency and not experience any hair loss but someone's levels might be you know, slightly low and their body's more sensitive to it and it does cause hair loss for them.

Erm, also some medications er, side-effects could be hair loss or even the condition that it's treating may trigger hair loss. So, it may be a cause where erm, if it's a really big deal, you may be able to speak to your Practitioner and get some medication that you know, don't cause as much hair loss or maybe are a little bit gentler to your body, it's about figuring out what works for you in those kind of situations, but, as I said, diffuse hair loss can be reversed in most cases, as long as you identify what the trigger is and usually within two to three months of you, you know, course-correcting, your hair loss should return to normal.

Sometimes, you know, in some cases, if you know you have to take maybe medications long-term, or you have a chronic condition, it can just be a fact where you have to manage it. But with diffuse hair loss, you will not go bald. Okay. Let me say that again. With Diffuse Hair Loss, so that's hair loss from all over the scalp, you will not go bald. The hair is continually replacing itself so you won't see any patches of baldness. You may have thinner hair, but there will not be any patches where you can see your scalp completely. There won't be any glossy areas where the follicles have been damaged completely. So there is always a chance for hair growth to continue as normal because the hair's still generating itself. It just isn't staying in the hair, in your scalp long enough basically.

Alright, so Diffuse Hair Loss. That is hair loss from all over the scalp that can occur two-three months after something that has happened. Alright. Cool. So let's move on to Alopecia. Now this is a word that gets thrown around a lot.

Alopecia is basically any type of hair loss that causes baldness. So it could be a really small patch, or it could be all over. And it doesn't just occur on the scalp, it can be anywhere on the body. But, I'm only going to focus on a few today.

So the main one that people experience is Alopecia Areata. Now these are small circular patches of hair loss. Now it could just be one small patch or it could be several scattered all over the scalp and body and the main cause of this is stress. With Alopecia Areata, you have erm, quite well-defined circular areas of hair loss and it's an auto-immune problem where erm, the white blood cells in your body have started to attack the hair follicles and sometimes the triggers are known, and sometimes they're not known. Usually stress is a really really big cause of this, so if you know, your life is quite a stressful, and you've noticed those patches, definitely go to your doctor to see what they can do to help you out, or a Trichologist. They'll be able to give you some therapies in terms of trying to erm, reverse it. But usually, kinda just leave your hair alone as well. Don't get, don't let the hair loss continue to cause you stress even though it can be quite, you know, can be quite worrying.

For most of these things, there are therapies that can manage it or help with the conditions.

Err, for the guys, Androgenic Alopecia which is Male Pattern Baldness. Now for 95% of men, this is the kind of hair loss that they will erm, they will experience at some point of their life and again, it's another genetic one. Now there's a, there's a myth going around that you can only get Androgenic Alopecia through your mother's line, now that's not true. It's a dominant trait so it comes from the mother or the father. So if your dad has, if you can see he's going bald in his old age, chances are you know, it might happen to you too. 

But, again, there are therapies for this. There are things you can do. All is not lost. But usually, around puberty, when the levels of Androgen change, which is the man's hormone, so you know like Testosterones, those are what affect the hair. And you'll start to see that recession point at your temples. It will start to pull back very very slowly.

So guys talk about the M hairline or like you know, the hairline's drawing back. That is what's happening with Androgenic Alopecia, which is male pattern baldness.

If you are gonna experience that, usually by like your late twenties, most guys are kind seeing the signs of it already and there are as I said, for most of these there are things you can do, so, go and speak to a Trichologist. They will be able to give you different treatments to help with it. There's lots of natural remedies. There are a lot of chemical ones aswell. Like there's drugs you can take, creams you can use. and if you are just not here for hair loss whatsoever, there's even erm, Hair Replacements

So there's surgeries you can have to erm, replace the hair follicles. You can use erm donor sites. There's micropigmentation, where you can like tattoo hair unto your scalp, or even Tupee’s. I'm seeing like you know guys lacefronts, is like not just for ladies anymore. There are things that you can do. I'm seeing lots of guys on the internet who are going to barbers who are absolutely changing their lives and their destinies with these you know, new replacement hairlines. But I will just say, be careful, you don't want to end up like a Safari, where you can have a really obvious hairline, but yeah, do it, I think it's great. Don't let anyone tell you that. If you're not comfortable with your hair loss, there's so many things you can do about it. Don't let other people dictate, you know, what you should and shouldn't be comfortable with.

Now ladies, I'm coming back to you again. Traction Alopecia is the bigger killer of hair lines in the African community. We do it to ourselves. This is literally the self-inflicted one. When we braid our hair, when we tie it back in tight buns, when we do our relaxers, all the abuse that we give to our hair. We are literally eating away at our hairlines and it's, it gets to the point where it's like, your hairline will have enough one day so, if you start to see signs of like you know your hairline's getting weak, give your braids a break. Give your brushes a break. And it's not just erm, tight braids or extensions. It could just literally be wearing your hair in the same style over and over again.

So I always say, if you are wearing protective styles, 4 to 6 weeks, leave your hair out for 2 weeks, then you can go back to it. If you're feeling pain, take it out. I know you would have spent money on it, but, it's not worth you going, you know losing your hair over it. Traction Alopecia's the one where, it really is in your hands. Literally, you have to be careful here because, you’re hairline hair is very very delicate and so it responds to er, damage a lot more, than you know, the rest of your does. It's a lot more sensitive to, to stress and to strain. 

If you're wearing like, you know,  6 or 7 packs of X-Pression hair, or you've always got a weave-in, you're putting extra tension on your hair, and it literally is traction. So that's a movement. You're literally pulling the hairs out. So, you know, go to someone with soft hands. I know that we want our styles to look excellent, we want them to last very long, but is it worth you know, losing your hairline in 5 to 10years.

Okay, and then we have the Scarring Alopecia. Now these are the ones where the damage has been done and the follicles are lost, so they are the more permanent types because, the follicles are destroyed. So that means, no more hair can be created in the future. So if you have a patch of hair loss and the scalp looks glossy, or you can't see any of the little like you know, pin pricks where the hair would be coming out, any short hairs, it may mean that you have permanent damage. But, as I said, this is just information for you. If I can't see your hair, I can't diagnose you. I can't tell you. This is just information to kind of make you aware of the different types of hair loss that are out there and what people could be experiencing. 

You should always speak to your hair dresser. Find a trichologist in your area, erm, even your Doctor's will be able to help you. The most important things is catching things early. A lot of things can be remedied and solved if they are seen early but some people kind of be like, "oh my hair is thinning, oh I'm experiencing hair loss" and be really shy about it and not wanna talk to anyone and then the problem kinda like proceeds, or they keep on doing the same damaging routines, that can erm, exarcebate the problem and then it gets to a point where it's just like well, there's not really much we can do apart from offering kinda like Hair replacement solutions or wigs or weaves to kind of cover the problem, where we could have maybe solved it if we would have seen it earlier

But yeah, that was just a quick one. I wanted to keep this nice and light. I will go into depth on each type as we continue, you know, more episodes more episodes and that. But if you reached to here, I wanted to do something nice for you guys.

So, if you, erm, are a client of mine, or you want to become a client of mine, I, in honor of me reaching 10 episodes, will give you a 10% discount. All you have to do is literally go to my instagram and say "Ebuni I want to book".

So any of my comm- If you go to any of my pictures, just type me a comment or send me, no don't send me a DM, type me, coz I don't see my DMs very often, type me a comment saying "Ebuni I want to book" and I'll give you 10% off.

And if you don't have Instagram, can you make an instagram because, that just makes it easier for me and I will send you a link to get 10% off your next service. This is for new clients . For old clients, you have to be in London coz I'm not travelling out at the moment, unless you wanna fly me out. If you wanna fly me out , aww mate we could talk about more than 10%. So yeah..

That is it for this episode of snatched edges. I hope you have enjoyed it so far. Thank you again for everybody who's been listening. Erm, you can find out more about me on my website: That’s Ebuniajiduah.com. I'm on Instagram at EbuniAjiduahhair. I, I'm on youtube aswell with the same name. I don't have a twitter, so, you know, you can't tweet me, but yeah. I will be back soon with more info for you guys.

Alright then everybody. Take Care. Bye bye