Don't ignore these predictive signs of excessive hair fall in the future

Hair is rightfully known as the 'crowning glory.' Women wish for a head full of hair, but hair fall is a common woe that is caused by a variety of circumstances. It is associated with low self-esteem and distorted self-image. With severe loss of hair, people begin to shun social situations or adapt to concealing techniques to hide hair loss.

All of these demonstrate how deeply hair fall impacts their mental and emotional well-being. In most cases, it is only when people start experiencing hair fall is when they look for remedies to stop it. But hair fall always comes with tell-tale signs which become crucial to recognise, in order to prevent it from occurring in the first place.

There are 7 early signs of hair fall which largely go unnoticed because people don't associate them with greater harm as they are perceived to be common hair problems that most women face. So, it becomes extremely important to see these problems as warning signs and act on them now rather than wait till they lead to hair fall in the future.

The early signs of hair fall:

• Hair roughness and dullness are factors that come into play thanks to extremely humid conditions and nutritional deficiencies in the diet causing your hair to become rough and dull and ultimately break.

• Thinning of hair is triggered by using hair products loaded with chemicals, over-treating your hair, wearing tight hairstyles, not getting enough iron, folic acid, and other minerals in your diet on a regular basis. Stress, especially on a chronic level over a longer period of time can also contribute to shedding hair loss. . All these factors contribute to the thinning of hair, which ultimately leads to hair fall.

• Dandruff may cause a person to scratch their scalp so often and so vigorously that they will either harm the scalp or cause it to inflame. Inflammation of the hair follicles on a regular basis can cause scarring and further damage, leading to hair fall.

• Split ends happen when the ends of your hair become dry, brittle, and frayed due to damage to the oldest part of the hair shaft. You may notice the ends of your hair splitting into multiple pieces (like an unravelled rope or a tree) or hair strands that thin at the ends as the cuticle disappears but the cortex remains intact. You may even notice hair strands have split all the way up the shaft. Once a hair strand splits at the end, the damage will only progress. Left untouched, a split end will continue to split all the way up the hair shaft, damaging the entire strand beyond repair, leading to hair fall.

• Tangling promotes hair loss due to breaking because it becomes exceedingly brittle when knotted and combing these weak and brittle hair strands further leading to hair fall in the future

• Breakage is the most important early sign of hair fall. Mishandling your hair by excessively using heat styling products, treating hair with many chemicals, and simply using the wrong hairbrush are all causes of hair breakage. If not addressed right away, it can lead to hair fall in the future.

So now that you know of the 7 signs to watch out for, here is a one-stop solution that can help tackle all these signs.

It is an age-old fact that when it comes to hair fall, nothing beats coconut based hair oil. It penetrates upto 10x deeper into your scalp than any other hair oil, nourishing your hair from deep within. To enhance the long-term nourishment for your hair by reducing the early signs, choose a coconut based hair oil that is infused with rich Ayurvedic ingredients such as amla, heena, methi, kadi patta, kalonji, tulsi, etc. All these potent Ayurvedic ingredients when infused into good old coconut based hair oil will not only help strengthen your hair from its roots, but also provide you with a long-lasting hair fall solution.

Article by Dr Aparna Santhanam (MD, DNB) - Consultant Dermatologist