A shrinking ponytail, excess hair collecting on the shower drain, and broken “baby hairs” around your hairline can be frustrating. Sadly, these can all be signs of thinning hair.
As frightening and discouraging as thinning hair can be, finding out why it’s happening and what to do about it can be just as stressful.
Hair loss affects more than 80 million people, many of them women, and the interest in offering solutions has led to a confusion and misinformation—at Revela, we’re here to set the record straight about thinning hair and change the way we care for ourselves and our hair loss issues.
Let’s normalize the conversation about thinning hair. We’ll talk about what makes hair thick in the first place, what causes hair loss, and what you can do to thicken your hair and improve your hair health naturally.
What Makes Hair Thick?
Hair thickness has two components: density and diameter. Of the two metrics, density is the most impactful measurement of how much natural hair you have.
Hair Density
Density refers to the number of strands of hair you have in a particular section of your scalp, often a one-by-one inch square. Because it’s virtually impossible to manually count all the hairs in a section of your scalp—seriously, don’t bother!—dermatologists and researchers perform a trichoscopy.
Trichoscopy involves utilizing a high-powered microscope called a dermoscope to look closely and clearly at areas of the scalp. The magnification is so significant that the number of hairs and the condition of the scalp are easy to determine. Trichoscopy is a non-invasive and accurate way of evaluating hair density.
Numerous factors influence hair density, including genetics, ethnicity, and even diet and lifestyle habits. Smoking, for instance, can lead to hair follicle damage and potential hair loss.
Hair Diameter
The diameter of your hair refers to the actual thickness of each individual strand. Hair diameter is generally measured in millionths of a meter, or micrometers (μm).
Most researchers believe the hair on our heads generally falls between 17-181 μm, making it hard to nail down a true norm for hair diameter. It does tend to vary by ethnicity, however.
Numerous factors affect the diameter of your strands, ranging from weather and genetics. Your age and the proximity of the hair to the root can also affect the diameter of your hair.
Together, both diameter and density contribute to how thick your hair looks and feels. However, it’s important to note that diameter isn’t quite as important. For instance, you can easily have thick strands of hair at a low density, meaning your scalp may look patchy, or have thin strands at a high density, meaning your scalp may look covered.
How Much Thinning Is Normal?
Most people have between 80k and 120k hairs on their heads. It’s considered entirely normal to lose between 50 and 100 hairs each day as part of the hair follicle’s natural life cycle.
Women may lose more hair than men due to hair styling techniques. Heat styling, certain hair products, and the pulling of hair strands into tight hairstyles can contribute to more hair loss. You may notice hair loss when you brush, wash, or style your hair.
Because our daily hair loss or hair thinning doesn’t happen all at once, it can be hard to quantify how much hair you’re actually losing and determine if it’s more or less than normal.
If you’ve begun to notice more loose hair than normal, you can look for signs that your hair may be thinning:
- For women, a wider part that reveals more of your scalp can indicate hair loss, similar to how men may begin to notice less hair around their hairline.
- Circular spots of missing hair on your head, or small patches of missing hair in your eyebrows or on parts of your body.
- Noticing handfuls or clumps of hair shedding at once, or noticing more hair shedding than you are used to.
- A less dense, thinner ponytail or smaller bun.
Thinning hair isn’t always easy to identify, but over time, you may notice some of these symptoms and wonder what’s causing your pattern of hair loss.
What Causes Thinning Hair?
There are numerous causes of hair loss, with baldness collectively known as alopecia. However, the most common forms of hair loss are androgenetic alopecia and telogen effluvium.
Androgenetic Alopecia
The same hormonal changes that cause male pattern baldness also affect women. A byproduct of testosterone called DHT mainly causes male pattern baldness when some of the naturally-produced testosterone in our bodies is converted to DHT via an enzymatic reaction.
DHT can bind to receptors in your hair follicles and damage them. This can lead to miniaturization, which causes the hair follicles to shrink, weaken, and eventually become dormant.
Telogen Effluvium
Your hair growth happens in three distinct phases:
- Anagen Phase. During the anagen phase, hair grows from the root. This phase can last as little as three years, or as many as ten, for a given follicle. The hair grows at a rate of millimeters per month during this phase.
- Catagen Phase. The catagen phase is a transitional phase that stops hair growth and pigmentation. This phase lasts only a few weeks as the cycle transitions to the final phase.
- Telogen Phase. The telogen phase is the final phase of the hair life cycle. This is the resting phase of the hair follicle and lasts between three to four months. The hair is naturally shed from the scalp at the end of this phase.
When you develop telogen effluvium, too many hair strands are suddenly thrust into the telogen phase of hair growth, leaving them all to fall out around the same time. A good example of this type of hair loss occurs as postpartum hair loss. Telogen effluvium can also be the result of sudden physical or emotional stress.
Other factors like chemotherapy medications, autoimmune alopecia, and hair-pulling (trichotillomania) can also cause you to notice thinning hair.
What Can I Do About Thinning Hair?
Don’t panic, but do be proactive.
The sooner you take action to help support your hair and scalp, the easier it is to arrest hair loss and help encourage healthy hair growth. Early treatment can slow the rate of hair loss and encourage new hair growth.
It’s also important to remember you aren’t alone. Hair loss can feel isolating, but the team at Revela is here to help you cope and give you science-backed tips to help you thicken your hair naturally.
Take Care of Your Scalp
Your scalp is home to a healthy microbiome of bacteria that keep the skin on your head (and your hair and hair follicles) functioning correctly. Changes in your scalp’s microbiome can lead to conditions like dandruff or fungal infections. Specific changes can also lead to hair loss, breakage, split ends, or dry hair.
Using a natural shampoo free from harsh ingredients like sulfates can help keep your scalp clean and prevent the overgrowth of bacteria. If you suffer from dandruff, talk to your dermatologist about your options for natural scalp care. Home remedies and hair treatments may also help moisturize your scalp for fuller-looking hair.
Besides feeling fantastic and relaxing, using a scalp massager is also beneficial to help encourage blood flow to your roots and stimulate the scalp to promote health and restoration deep in the hair follicles where hair growth begins.
2. Level Up Your Nutrition
Nutritional deficiencies can be a cause of hair loss, so ensuring you eat a balanced diet is important. Iron is the most common nutritional deficiency worldwide and is a well-known cause of hair loss.
Other deficiencies that can result in hair loss include:
- Zinc
- Niacin
- Fatty acids
- Selenium
- Vitamin D
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin E
- Folic acid
- Biotin
- Amino acids and proteins
- Antioxidants
A simple blood test can determine whether or not you have a deficiency. If you do, your doctor can talk to you about whether or not taking a supplement is a good option for addressing any dietary gaps.
Take Care of Your Hair Follicles
Your hair follicles support the healthy and continued growth of your hair. Near the bottom of each hair follicle is the dermal papilla structure. This structure is vital to keeping the life cycle of your hair on track. By communicating with hair matrix cells, the dermal papillae help ensures each strand cycles through the anagen, catagen, and telogen phases appropriately.
Changes in the dermal papillae can cause the number of hair matrix cells to decline and can lead to hair loss. The solution is to support your hair follicles by targeting the dermal papillae.
Awaken Your Hair Follicles for Fuller-Looking Hair
Damaged follicles can’t support healthy hair, and hair follicles that are dormant aren’t contributing to thicker hair, either. Unfortunately, the solutions for supporting thinning hair have been minimal and less than innovative.
Hair Revival Serum works in two ways:
- Stimulating the follicle. Our proprietary ingredient, ProCelinyl™, takes an innovative approach to hair loss. By specifically targeting dormant hair follicles, it awakens and revives the hair.
- Fortifying the hair follicle. Our Hair Revival Serum contains natural, researched ingredients that have been proven to nourish, fortify, and protect the hair follicle, making it the perfect home for happy, healthy hair.
In addition to ProCelinyl, we include ingredients that help block and inhibit DHT production, like caffeine and saw palmetto. We also use soothing scalp and root nourishing ingredients like aloe and glycerin to ensure your scalp stays hydrated.
The best part is that you’ll see results sooner than you expect. In our studies, results are noticeable in as little as six weeks.
Say Hello to Revela and Goodbye to Thinning Hair
Noticing your hair is thinning can leave you feeling stressed and hopeless. We understand how overwhelming hair loss can be, but at Revela, we’re changing how people think about hair loss and giving them options to fight back naturally.
Hair thinning? Take a deep breath—Revela’s Hair Revival Serum gives your hair follicles the support they need.
