Hair Loss or Breakage?

How do we tell the difference? There's a few ways to tell the difference between hair loss and breakage- and a lot of it goes back to thinking of the source.

Your body needs to have a happy healthy biome to create luscious hair, even if you have great genes! This means you'll need to have a few key things in check to begin with: Vitamin D, ferritin, and a balanced diet to start.

Once you can reliably tell that those key factors are in good standing, you can start to gauge how much hair you are losing on a daily basis and whether it is "normal" or not. With daily brushing, you can begin by checking how much hair ends up within the bristles. Daily brushing is not only important to be able to keep an eye on shedding, but it also helps to stimulate your scalp (increased blood flow to the scalp helps with healthy hair growth!).

It can be useful to show your regular hairstylist how much hair you're losing on a daily basis and have them check your shedding at the shampoo bowl. It is normal for most individuals to lose 100-200 hairs on a daily basis, and more can be a sign of something internal being askew.

When it comes to breakage, it can come in many forms. Whether you're a serial scarf-wearer, a backpack and purse connosieur, or addicted to a straightener perhaps, it is easy to mess it up! Additionally, breakage can come from forceful brushing, hair ties, and sleeping on wet hair, too. While this isn't an all-inclusive list, if any of those are a normal occurence for you, you can begin to see where the source of your hair "loss" may be.

While you can sometimes pinpoint a lot of hair loss to illness, having children, or something like chemotherapy, if those things aren't the case,... it can be a combination of any of the previously listed causes!

If you're experiencing hair loss and breakage, your first step is to see a doctor and make sure all of your labs are normal! Secondly, make sure you are avoiding any of the obvious causes of breakage. It is always a good to make sure to keep a relationship with a hairdresser to be able to keep an eye on your hair and scalp health.