Saturday, March 31, 2012

Do Boar Bristle Brushes Reverse Hair Loss?

Boar bristle brushes have been long touted as a tool to improve the hair of ones health. In recent times, many are suggesting that this tool is an effective means of treating baldness. One blog that is picking up steam around the web recounts the story of how a woman was able to completely reverse her hair loss with just a boar bristle brush and patience. Does this mean every sufferer of hair loss should start brushing?

Why Would Boar Bristle Brushes Work?

Pure boar bristle brushes are designed to safely brush dry hair. This works because boar bristle is capable of brushing though non-tangled hair with ease without causing damage to the hair or the scalp. The boar bristle itself has a stimulating affect on the hair, the scalp, and follicles. Like a massage, this technique draws blood to the scalp area.

Blood carries nutrients to the scalp that helps hair grow. The theory of boar bristle brushing makes sense. If one stimulates their scalp while drawing nutrients to their follicles, they could conceivable spur a new growth cycle to inactive follicles that have entered a dormant phase.

Boar bristle brushes also distribute the natural oil “sebum” evenly throughout your scalp and hair. While many hold sebum responsible for hair loss, I believe it is only the accumulation of sebum that plays any role. Sebum can be good for your hair when evenly distributed.

Removing sebum completely would only cause the sebaceous glands to produce more of this oil. Boar bristle brushing does a wonderful job at spreading this oil evenly across the hair shaft.

How Long Would It Take To See Regrowth?

The time it would take to see results would vary from person to person. The one aspect that seems clear is that you must be consistent with the technique to see results. I used this technique in combination with many other techniques and got about ninety percent of my hair in a six to eight month period. I can’t say for sure if boar bristle was a major factor in my results.

Should I Start Using Boar Bristle Brushes?

This is a decision ultimately up to you. I first learned the power of using boar bristle years ago from a hair stylist. I bought one and have never stopped using it in my personal hair care maintenance. In my opinion, it is a no-brainer to add a boar bristle brush to your current hair loss approach. The brush is designed to create a better environment for hair to prosper which makes it a valuable hair care tool.

What Type Of Boar Bristle Brush Should I Buy?

While there are many companies who have embraced this theory and are marketing expensive boar bristle brushes, one need not spend hundreds of dollars to add this tool to their hair care regimen.  Cost is not the determining factor; it is the purity of the bristle that matters. Many brushes combine boar bristle with nylon. Avoid these brushes.

What you are looking for is a one-hundred percent pure boar bristle brush. This brush can be had for ten to twenty dollars at any beauty supply store. If you buy a boar bristle brush, it is important to keep it clean so that it will work optimally. I simply fill a cup with hot water and a pump of shampoo.

I then swirl the brush for a minute and let it soak for ten more minutes. I then remove the brush and run my hand down the bristles to ring out excess water. From there, I let the brush dry out for the rest of the day and commence use the next day. I clean the brush once every one to two weeks.

How Often Should I Use A Boar Bristle Brush?

While in the aforementioned blog, a woman claims to have used this technique constantly, I have found that ten to fifteen minute of thorough brushing in the morning and at night will do a lot for your hair. Fortunately, boar bristle brushes were designed to be safe on your hair and scalp, which means you can get away with using this tool frequently without worrying about overdoing the routine,

I use the brush religiously, but it is only one part of the routine I use to keep the hair I have managed to regrown. Don’t underestimate the power of this simple and inexpensive tool. This beautiful instrument will help make your scalp an optimal place for hair regrowth. The brush also feels great on the scalp when in use. Don’t hesitate when thinking about this inexpensive investment in your hair care.





Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth available in print and digital formats on amazon.com. 


Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle  


Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website

Hair Loss: What Are My Options

When hair loss strikes, it is a devastating blow to one’s self-confidence and self-perception. Some will choose to be proactive and treat hair loss with prevention and preservation. Other hair loss sufferers may opt to accept or ignore the problem by wearing hats, combing over, and eventually shaving their head. Most hair loss sufferers want to resolve the issue but do not know where to begin.

An Ounce Of Prevention

The earlier you treat your hair loss, the best results you can expect to achieve. In the early stages of hair loss prevention you can do a lot to preserve the remaining hair left on your scalp. Even with the best preventative means, a hair loss sufferer may not be content with the results they achieve. Depending on the stage in which action was taken, a person with the thinning hair may need to take further action to restore their hair.

The Options Of Today

Rogaine and Propecia are the most commonly recommended products to treat and restore hair. These products are expensive but are among a select few hair loss remedies that are approved by the FDA. This by no means is an endorsement of either product, merely the facts of why both products have risen to prominence in the hair loss industry. Results vary with both products and progress will reverse if use is discontinued.

Nioxin and Nizoral are shampoo and conditioning products designed for those experiencing hair thinning. These products were not designed to regrow hair, but they act as a preservation agent by treating DHT in the scalp. A user of Nioxin for instance can expect to stop their hair loss, but should not expect to regrow hair they have lost in the past. This can be a good way to prevent further loss of hair.

A Hair Transplant is the most expensive option ranging between ten and twenty-thousand dollars. This option is a surgical procedure which grafts donor hair from the back of the scalp to areas of the scalp where hair has been completely lost. Success with hair transplants is fairly high, however the potential for follow up visits for corrective surgery can be an additional problematic factor to consider.

The laser comb is a newer development in the hair loss industry. This comb emits low-level lasers onto the scalp to stimulate hair growth. While one particular laser comb has been FDA approved, the results that lead to approval were based on moderate success that did not produce full regrowth. With combs costing between one and five-hundred dollars this option could prove to be a gamble.

The natural or holistic approach has been growing in popularity as an alternative to clinical solutions for hair loss. While the methods vary for every approach, most make use of herbs, supplements, and self-therapy. The results have spanned everything from full regrowth to minimal.

The pros of this approach are that it is inexpensive, free of side effects, and can be done in your home. The cons are a lack of FDA approval, less scientific evidence, and inconsistence results. Results variance is most likely caused by the many differing methods the fall under the banner of “holistic”.

Magic Pills And Miracle Tonics

While the above section represents the most common remedies and approaches for treating hair loss, there are many who are trying to make a place for themselves in the hair loss industries. An internet search will bring you hundreds or “cures” from all over the world professing to regrow hair. While their efficacy may or may not be proven, some hair loss sufferers may try anything and everything to resolve hair loss.

The Options Of Tomorrow

There is promise of a cure for hair loss within the next ten years. With today’s technology and the race for the patent, it is likely that the cure for hair loss will be on the market by the year 2020 (maybe sooner). The cure will likely be a clinical cure based on stem cell technology. Recent studies on mice suggest that hair can be regrown permanently on areas that have been bald for years.

RepliCel is one such company that is feverishly working at developing this technology for use on human subjects. There are other firms based in the U.S. and Europe that are developing their own cure for hair loss using a similar approach. This likely means that the permanent cure for hair loss is less than ten years away, assuming that this new technology is able to pass clinical trials and attain FDA status.

What Can You Do Today?

Every hair loss sufferer should be excited about what the future hold for baldness. In this day and age, discoveries are being made that just twenty years ago would have been deemed inconceivable. These discoveries may prove to put an end to this embarrassing condition and spare future generations from having to endure hair loss.

Since the future is something we all have to wait for, what can you do today in your situation with respect to hair loss? The best move in my humble opinion would be to research the options that are available that will at the very least press the pause button on your hair loss until these technologies become available. This will ensure you can keep what you have and prevent further hair loss.

When looking for the right treatment, consider cost and health risks, but also consider if you believe in the solution. Put your faith in a treatment you believe will work. For some the treatment may be clinical. For others the treatment may be natural. The important thing is that the treatment mirrors your beliefs about how your hair loss should be treated.

Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth available in print and digital formats on amazon.com. 


Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle  


Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Being Proactive About Hair Loss

In my previous two posts I discussed how to lower the influence of genetics on hair loss and dietary/lifestyle measures you can take to fend off baldness. In this post I will talk about how to be proactive in treating your hair loss and choosing the right course of action moving forward.

If you are losing your hair, you may be feeling the negative mental side effects of the stigma associated with baldness. Losing your hair makes you susceptible to feelings of loss, desperation, and fading youth. The good news is that while science has not quite reached the zenith of curing hair loss, you have far more options than hair loss sufferers did just twenty years ago. Before you grab the clippers and go for the Bruce Willis look, you should take a look at your options.

First Things First

Discovering hair loss can seem like a sudden shock to your system. When you confirm you are experiencing baldness you may feel a calm but hopeless feeling. This happens because we have seen this scenario unfold many times with out friends and relatives so we assume their destiny is ours. The truth is once you get past the “why me?” phase, you can begin dealing with the issue proactively. Once you have accepted that your hair loss is not going away, you become much more empowered to take on the issue. Relax and remember that you have options your father and his father never had.

Where To Start

Before getting into options lets dispel the myths so that you can know what to worry about and what not to worry about. If you are experiencing Male Pattern Baldness, your hair is thinning due to a genetic predisposition that causes your scalp to stop producing hair. In other words, your hair loss is only a symptom of a different problem. This means that your hair loss should be looked at critically rather than superficially.

The Myths

There is a lot of information out there that point hair loss sufferers in the wrong direction. Getting these myths out of the way will likely change how you feel about your hair loss. First of all, wearing a ball cap does not cause or exacerbate hair loss. This myth has been dispelled repeatedly but I thought it would be worth mentioning. 

The worst action a hair loss sufferer can take is to not touch their hair in fear of losing more. If you stop touching or brushing your hair, you reduce stimulation to the scalp in turn causing faster hair loss. This may save a few hairs in the short run, but when those hairs fall out eventually, they will not be replaced because the follicle will have entered a dormant phase. While dormant follicles can be revived over time, it is much easier to prevent them from entering a dormant phase in the first place.

Which Hair Loss Solution?

The solution you choose to treat your hair loss should be based on at least a few factors. There are many things to consider such as cost, safety, and effectiveness just to name a few. Not all hair loss solutions are created equal. I opted for a natural hair loss solution to avoid developing new health risks and to curb financial cost. Other hair loss sufferers may choose a more clinical option like hair transplant surgery.

My advice would be to research all of your options weighing out the pros and cons carefully before making your decision. When you’ve found a solution you believe in, you should give it a chance to work. Many hair loss sufferers jump from solution to solution spending lots of money and achieving little in the way of results. There is nothing wrong with switching your course of treatment based on new information but remember any hair loss solution is going to require time to take effect.

Taking Care Of Your Hair

Examine how you take care of your hair. Doing so will help you remove any harmful habits that could be speeding up your hair loss. Do you use a cheap shampoo that is loaded with chemicals? Is your shampoo even designed for your type of hair? Are you using shampoo too frequently? Since hair loss is only a symptom of a deeper problem within your scalp, you should examine what you’re putting on your scalp every day.

The scalp is a complex area with subsets of organs, which produce hair. There is a balance of oils (notably sebum) that naturallly coats your hair. Too much, too little, or unevenly distributed sebum can cause more problems. Many who know about sebum’s role in hair loss feel that too much sebum or hardened sebum causes and/or exacerbates hair loss. In reality, if you try to shampoo away sebum your scalp will respond by producing more sebum.

This just one example of hair care gone awry. In order to take the best care of your hair, you should use a shampoo designed to meet the needs of your scalp. I use a shampoo called Nioxin, which cleans the scalp without upsetting the balance of essential oils. This is not an expensive shampoo but it is designed to be used by those suffering from thinning hair. Many shampoos are designed for hair loss sufferers and add another weapon in the battle against hair loss.

Develop A Proactive Attitude

Being proactive with hair loss is the best way to keep you hair and recover hair that you have already lost. There are a number of measures you can take to address hair loss. Don’t be afraid to handle your hair. Begin at home, looking at what you’ve been doing to maintain your hair. Look for a course of treatment that is right for you. You have an opportunity to treat your hair loss, so if you really want your hair back put down the clippers and take action. With good research, consistency, and a positive attitude, hair loss can be a thing of the past. 

Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth available in print and digital formats on amazon.com. 


Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle  


Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website


Saturday, February 18, 2012

How Your General Health Affects Hair Loss

In my last post Hair Loss: Beating The Genetic Code, I discussed steps that can be taken to diagnose hair loss before it gets serious and steps one can take to fend off baldness before it begins. In this post, I will address the affect your overall health can have on your hair.

Common Hair Loss or Male Pattern Baldness is generally thought of as a genetic condition with which there is little or no recourse to treat or prevent. There may be more to the mystery of hair loss than just bad cards in the game of genetic poker.

While those of us with a predisposition towards baldness are likely to develop hair fall to some degree, there are secondary factors that may accelerate the rate of loss. These factors fall into three categories; Diet, Lifestyle, and Exercise. Here in the United States, we generally flunk at all three categories. Many Americans don’t eat right, smoke and drink, and don’t exercise enough.

Looking At Our Global Neighbors (From An American Perspective)

If you are an American hair loss sufferer, you may have noticed the condition of baldness affects many of our fellow citizens. If you look to other parts of the world, particularly Asia, you may notice hair loss is a problem which is far less prevalent in this region. Many men in China even enjoy non-graying hair into their sixties. Why is there such a difference in the frequency of hair loss between Eastern and Western civilization? Genetics may play some role but the biggest difference between Americans and their Asian counterparts are found within their dietary choices.

Do men prematurely lose their hair in Asia? Yes ,it can happen, but this issue is far less in frequency when compared to hair loss in the U.S. (I suspect the small amount of hair fall developing in this region could be relative to the increasing amount of American influence, particularly in Japan).

In the United States, we generally eat processed foods loaded with saturated fat and with little or no nutritional value. It can actually be quite challenging to avoid these foods in America, but a deep introspective look will help you assess where you stand in your diet.

 Before you grab the phone and order up some Chinese food, be warned that Chinese food in the U.S. is different than native Chinese food. Chinese cuisine here in the States is cooked in heavy amounts of grease and with the food additive MSG. Instead, read on to find practical advice about how to examine your diet and lifestyle to help curtail your hair loss.

Slow and Fast Hair Loss

Hair fall can occur at many different speeds and ages depending on the person. This is likely due to the overall health, lifestyle, and nutrition of any given person.  The obvious argument against this theory is that seemingly healthy people still experience baldness and many unhealthy people keep their hair. One has to look beyond the argument. If you don’t have the genetic predisposition to experience hair loss, your lifestyle will have a negligible affect on your hair, where as a person with the genetics to experience baldness will likely lose their hair at certain rate. Health, Lifestyle, and Nutrition become variables in this equation.

Contributing Factors

If one engages in a diet that lacks nutrition, one can expect to exacerbate their hair loss ultimately increasing the speed of the condition. Moderate exercise tends to increase blood flow and carry nutrients, vitamins, and minerals all around the circulatory system. A lack thereof can cause blood to distribute slowly which can cause serious health problems like heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. If you smoke, cigarettes may be contributing to pollution of your blood by adding thousands of toxins to your blood stream. These secondary factors all play a role in the acceleration of male pattern baldness.

The Composition Of Hair

Hair contains three primary elements you have probably heard of before; Zinc, Copper, and Sulfur. If your dietary choices are poor, you may be not be getting the necessary amounts of these minerals. Hair’s strength and elasticity is built by nutrients, minerals. and vitamins and when there are deficits, hair can suffer even more.

Biotin is a vitamin which is responsible for the strength of hair, skin, and fingernails. While most healthy people can easily get the required dose of biotin though foods like eggs and bananas, a fast food aficionado may not be getting enough. Vitamins, nutrients, and minerals are the building blocks of health and the health of your hair. Some changes in your diet can help your hair quite a bit.

The Equation Of Health And Hair Loss

While genetics generally control who will lose their hair, your life style and health can have a huge effect on the degree and rate of hair fall one experiences. Maybe you have noticed some people lose most of their hair in a few short years while others go bald over an extremely prolonged period of time. The difference is usually attributed to the overall health of the hair loss sufferer. 

In other words, those who begin losing their hair and live an unhealthy lifestyle have put themselves on the express lane to baldness. One who examines their lifestyle and diet and makes the necessary changes has a good chance at prolonging their hair loss for many years. The biggest problem is consistency; many people cannot be consistent with healthy choices for long periods of time.

What You Can Do

If you want to do the most for your hair on a health level, the best way to start is too examine your diet, lifestyle, and exercise routine. Changing your diet to include foods that add vitamins, nutrients, and minerals will strengthen your hair. Dropping bad habits like smoking, alcohol, or drug use will strengthen your immune system.  Developing a moderate exercise routine (i.e. walking) will greatly increase blood flow distributing vitamins, nutrients, and minerals throughout your blood stream.

These changes will improve your overall health and the health of your hair. Genetics play a role in hair loss but it is the road we choose that determines how big of a role genetics play.  If you give your hair what it needs to grow and keep your health in check, you can defend your hair from further loss and in time recover some of what you’ve lost.

Remember diet and exercise are just one weapon in the fight against hair loss. There are other methods that can naturally stop hair loss and regrow hair especially when used in combination. Remember, as with most things in life, moderation is key.

Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth, a book with a detailed plan for naturally stopping hair loss and regrowing hair.

The book is available in print and digital formats on amazon.com

Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle  

Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website

Friday, February 17, 2012

Hair Loss: Beating The Genetic Code

By Samuel Reed

Hair loss affects roughly 35 million men and 21 million women in the Unites States alone.  This affliction while not life threatening has a deep impact on one’s self esteem, self-confidence, and self-perception. Hair loss can often invite cruel remarks even from family and friends. Hair loss also makes people feel a sense of identity loss and often forces them into a state of concealing their hair loss anyway they can.

Hair loss seems to be happening at an earlier age than ever before. Even high school students are starting to develop problems with hair loss. While genetics are considered to be the overriding factor in common forms of baldness, there are preventative steps one can take to fend off hair loss before it begins.

Taking these steps before or in the early stages of hair loss can help you avoid more difficult steps down the road. While reversing hair loss is possible throughout a variety of methods, the earlier you deal with the issue the faster it is resolved.

Know Your Family History


A long running misconception is that the trait for hair loss is inherited from the mother’s side. We now know that it is possible to inherit this trait from either or both sides. Take a look at your parents, grandparents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Your family member’s hair holds the clues for where your hair may be going.

If there is a steady pattern of hair loss in your family, there may be hair loss in your future. Occasionally, hair loss skips a family member within a generation. This phenomenon could explain why you are losing your hair and your brother isn’t.

Look For The Signs


If you think you’re beginning to lose your hair look for the tell tale signs and confirm this is the case. Often hair will fall out for other reasons like stress and/or poor health. It’s important to remember that non-balding people lose 50-100 hairs everyday. When you see extra hair accumulating in the shower drain, on your pillow, or in your hairbrush, this could indicate the early stages of hair loss.

The best way to tell if your experiencing serious hair loss is to self examine your hair with one or two mirrors. Look for uneven patterns of hair and/or a few hairs missing in obvious spots.  Use a brush or comb to move hair aside for a closer inspection. If there is a serious problem, you’ll know.

Relax

If you are beginning to lose your hair, you have found out at the most optimum time. At this point, you have identified the problem and are able to begin dealing with it. The sooner you identify hair loss the easier it is to reverse it. Even those with more serious hair loss have the opportunity to do something about it. If you are the former and are at the early stage, you have greatly shortened your hair loss ordeal.

Take Action

Many people, particularly men just accept hair loss. If your hair is important to you, you should not subscribe to this attitude. There are a variety of ways to reverse hair loss at many stages. Taking action is vital for those who want their hair back. A hair loss sufferer must be proactive about their dilemma and begin researching treatment options.

There are many methods whether they are clinical, surgical, or natural to treat hair loss. If you are an early stage sufferer, a shampoo formulated to remove DHT will definitely help you keep most of your hair.  For someone who is not losing their hair, but genetically disposed to baldness, using a special shampoo could prevent baldness altogether.

Beating The Genetics Of Hair Loss

While many believe that if you’re going to be bald, there is nothing that can be done about it, this simply is incorrect. Hair loss can be treated at any stage. If you think hair loss is in your future based on your family history, begin looking into options before the process begins. If the process has already begun, become proactive and take the steps to stop your hair loss and regrow the hair you have lost.

When you feel nothing can be done to resolve your hair loss, remember that many times doctors have told patients that they will never walk again only to be proven wrong by strong willed patients. People with a predisposition to weight problems have often been able to remain healthy and fit. While genetics are a factor in hair loss, being proactive can substantially lower the influence of these genetics.

Samuel Reed is a hair loss survivor and the author of Hair Reborn: The Holistic Approach For Natural Hair Regrowth, a book with a detailed plan for naturally stopping hair loss and regrowing hair.

The book is available in print and digital formats on amazon.com

Hair Reborn in Digital From Amazon Kindle

Hair Reborn In Print From Amazon

To learn more about reversing hair loss naturally visit:

Hair Reborn Book Official Website