Hair and Modern Life Style

Hair is your crowning glory. It is also your body’s barometer indicating good health or the lack of it. Hair’s primary function is protection but in today’s modern day world, we are living in an era of diminishing returns as far as hair is concerned.

Fashion and stress have become the modern day barometers. Modern lifestyle has its own unique consequences on hair.

Travel

World has become a very small place to live in. Since the airfares have reduced drastically people have started air travel very frequently.

This takes a toll on the hair due to increased humidity levels. While most of us commute to work or college everyday, our work often takes us far from home.

Our hair may be the first to react to climatic changes. Travelling in air-conditioned buses and trains and living in the comfort of A/C hotel rooms might add that extra luxury to your trip but it can take its toll on your hair due to the increased humidity levels.

If you find that your hair has suddenly become sticky and hard to dress, the problem could lie with the water you are washing it with. Hard water causes calcium and magnesium deposits to cling to the hair shaft. To remove hard water deposits, add a little lemon juice to the water while rinsing.

Smoking

According to recent studies, smoking can increase almost all the major androgenic hormones, which are closely linked to hair loss. If you are not predisposed to losing hair, you needn’t worry. But if you are, smoking will increase the rate at which your hair falls.

Diet

The current obsession with losing weight might wreak havoc on your hair. Our hair is often the first to be affected by a lack of some nutrient. It may be the only sign that something is wrong. So, we may feel quite healthy, but if we find our hair suddenly looking dull or falling excessively, we should not ignore it. It could simply be our body telling us to eat better. Since our hair is made up primarily of proteins, make sure you include enough proteins in your diet, whether in the form of fish, meat or pulses. Our hair also requires minerals like zinc, magnesium, iron etc in the right proportions. Of course, only a trichologist could tell you which minerals your hair is lacking in.

Fashion

Tough as it is, hair cannot cope with some of today’s beauty treatments and most of the commercial treatments can ruin you hair.

Hot rollers and dryers destroy the hair’s elasticity and strength. Metal combs and sharp bristled brushes displace the cuticle plates, making hair dull. Permanent chemical dyes damage hair by breaking through the cuticle to invade the cortex.

Petroleum-based jellies; sprays and permanent waves depend on distorting the hair’s keratin structure to succeed. Chemical processes such as perming, colouring, bleaching and straightening, remove all protein and moisture out of hair, leaving it fragile, porous, brittle; the scalp irritated and flaky.

Stress

Hair follicles are surrounded by and invaded by a network of nerve cells. Potentially, any adverse chemical activity in the nervous system might send adverse signals to the hair follicles. Hair loss may develop and become noticeable a few weeks to four months after the initial stress episode. Stress increases the cortico-steroids level in the body which leads to auto immune disorder ‘Alopecia’.

Heart Problems

The link that has been established between hair loss and heart disease is not new. The amount of hair loss seems to coincide with the likelihood of a heart disease victim.

But there are other causes of hair loss, so don’t panic - just because you may be suffering from male or female pattern hair loss does not mean that you will suffer a heart attack. As per a research, it has been found out that men who are balding from the vertex region are seventy times more susceptible to cardiac diseases.

One should learn to maintain a healthy lifestyle to have healthy hair which includes healthy hair food like Almonds, milk palak and paneer, one should have atleast 2 litres of water everyday, to maintain a healthy scalp one needs to oil the scalp regularly atleast 2-3 times a week and de-stressing activities like yoga, listening to music and meditation.

In this modern world, like one does a regular body check similarly one has to do a regular Hair check up. You never know what you will discover.