I first discovered my hair was thinning about 14 years ago. Looking in the mirror after my shower and wondering if it was just the harsh bathroom light or was the hair at the front of my scalp as thin as it looked?
It took me several similar moments over the following weeks to really confront my feelings and slowly start to believe that I had a problem.
Thinning hair for men is an accepted part of life but thinning hair for women is not and yet far, far more women suffer from it than you’d imagine - often in silence. So much value is attached to how we look as women and our hair is a large part of that. We have bad hair days, we spend our lifetime in pursuit of the right hair colour, the best hair dresser, a great shampoo. Bad haircuts can make or break your confidence, so imagine how you would feel if your hair was thinning and no hair cut could cover that?
After researching the subject and still not really knowing what the cause was, I booked to see the owner of my hair salon who just happened to be a trained trichologist. Ian who now runs clinics as the Hair Medic had a look and recommended a blood test to check a number of different factors, but he was fairly certain that I had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). He was right and this was the confirmed cause of my hair thinning.
It’s taken me a long time to accept my hair is the way it is and to find a hair style that I like which makes the most of my hair. But now my hair, certainly from the mid length to ends is thicker, fuller and stronger than ever before.
One of the most important things I did over the years to improve the situation, was to stop dying my hair and allow my natural salt and pepper colour to come through. Years of harsh processing, sometimes every 2 weeks left my hair dry, unmanageable and the thing I worried about constantly. It knocked my self confidence and I had to work hard to ensure that it didn’t become all consuming.
So now I have the colour and cut right, my quest continues for the right shampoo and conditioner to give the roots of my hair thickness and volume. After using one brand for almost 2 years, it stopped being effective and so I started to look at what other products / brands where available.
I’m slowly working my way through a list of recommended products and I promise to bring you along on my journey, the good, the bad and the down right ugly!
Please do get in touch if you have any questions and I hope by sharing my own difficulties it may help some of you too.