As a Certified Trichologist, one question I ask all of my clients who are experiencing hair loss is, “Have you experienced a high level of stress recently?” I’m starting to think I don’t need to ask that question anymore because the answer is almost always yes. Life is stressful! I don’t like it when people blame everything on stress. Weight gain. Poor sleep. Headaches. Hair loss. You name it. Whatever you have, people always blame it on stress. It seems lame to blame stress for everything. But the truth is, emotional stress and anxiety are contributing factors to many conditions including hair loss.

For many women one of the greatest joys in life is having a baby. Prior to birth is a very special time when women take better care of their health. They often eat better, quit drinking alcohol, reduce their caffeine intake and take pre-natal vitamins. Their fingernails grow more quickly and their hair grows stronger and thicker. Rather than losing the normal 50 to 100 hairs a day, they may only lose 15 or 20 hairs. Then the baby comes, and three to five months later so does the shedding. Lots of shedding! A new mother may see upwards of 300 hairs a day in her brush. Suddenly joy turns to panic.

It’s that time of year when we start thinking about ways to improve our health. January 1st ushers in a new year and a clean slate. With hope and excitement we begin new programs and revisit old ones. It’s time for a fresh start with a clear conscience. If you’ve been experiencing thinning hair, read my Top 5 Tips for Healthy Hair!

Now is the perfect time to take inventory of our lifestyle and change a habits that promote healthy hair growth.

The items on my Top 5 Tips for Healthy Hair list for are simple to do and can be easily integrated into your daily routine. So, let’s get started!

The number one issue I treat is hair loss, more than any other condition of the hair or scalp. Hair loss affects more than 80 million Americans and the numbers are growing. It can be devastating, robbing people of their self-confidence and sometimes of a full life. Hair loss is often accompanied by fear; fear of losing more hair or all of your hair. Consequently, people to turn to the internet for answers of how to hang on to the hair they still have. There’s a lot of good information on the internet, but there is also a lot of misinformation. Out of desperation, people often come up with their own ideas of what to do with no scientific basis behind them. Sometimes this can do more harm than good and make the problem worse. So, let’s talk about two of the most common things I hear from clients who are experiencing hair loss and clear up what is true and false. First, I hear you shouldn’t brush your hair because it will pull out more hair. Second, you shouldn’t shampoo too often because it will make more hair fall out.

Remember the good old days when there were inflight magazines in the seat pockets of every plane? Inevitably, while thumbing through one, you’d come across an advertisement for a laser cap or laser band. The ads always showed people with a device on their heads, smiling as they stimulated their follicles! You may have wondered, what are these devices all about and do they really work?

By the time someone comes to me for help with thinning hair, they’ve usually consulted online with Dr. Google, read an article in a magazine, or talked with a friend about their hair loss problem. Unfortunately, not all of the information they see or hear is true. And, some of the advice they get can lead to even greater hair loss. I want to separate fact from fiction and put to rest some myths so everyone can enjoy a thicker, healthier head of hair!

My best friend in high school had a mother with a hairline that started about a third of the way back from where most hairlines begin. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, her hair was also very fine. She tried everything to disguise it, from wearing different hairstyles to wearing wigs for special occasions. In all the years I knew her, I just thought she had an unusually high forehead! Little did I know she had something called Frontal Fibrosing Alopecia, or FFA. I wish I knew then what I know now. Perhaps I could have helped her.

I’ve received numerous calls from women complaining that their hairlines are moving backward. I’m not talking about those pesky little “baby hairs” in the front that never grow long or a slight receding hairline. And, I’m not taking about hair that might have fallen out from braids that were too tight or years of chemical abuse. That’s a topic for another time. We’re talking about areas of hair, sometimes a band of hair, that’s no longer there, or an area that has just a few lone hairs remaining. We’re talking about FFA.

You might be asking yourself, do people really pull their hair out? The answer is YES, more than you’d think. The next question you might have is, why don’t they just stop? Or, you might be reading this thinking, WOW! I thought I was the only person who pulls my hair out. How can I stop? Let me explain. First of all, there’s a name for repetitive hair pulling and it’s a tongue twister; Trichotillomania or TTM. It’s pronounced trick-o-till-o-MAY-nee-uh, but many people call it trich (pronounced like “trick”) for short. Surprisingly, one to two people in 50 experience this disorder in their lifetime. Hair pulling typically begins in late childhood or early puberty and it occurs equally in boys and girls. By adulthood, 80 to 90 percent of cases are women. For some people, what part of the body they pull from and how much they pull is manageable. For others it’s not. I’m often asked if hair loss from pulling is permanent. If stopped early, typically no. But, repeated pulling over time can damage hair follicles resulting in weakened hair and yes, permanent hair loss.

“It’s coming out by the handful,” is something I’m hearing over and over in the past few months as more and more of my clients are complaining (and rightfully so) about hair loss. What’s going on here? Is COVID causing hair loss? As a Certified Trichologist, a specialist in diseases of hair and scalp, I can say that COVID could be causing some hair loss. Many things can contribute to hair loss, and COVID may be a contributing factor. But, if you were experiencing hair loss prior to COVID or if something in your life has recently changed, such as diet, surgery, pregnancy, medications (just to name a few), there very well may be other factors at play here.