Here’s a tricky situation: you have a head of hair, so you’re not balding, but you’re also noticing that, little by little, your hair is getting thinner.
It’s a pre-balding state, a fragile one that you don’t want to make worse with the wrong treatment.
So, what do you do?
There are a couple habits you can adopt to make sure you slow the rate of thinning, and at the same time make it appear more thick.
Be Gentle
Rule number 1 with thinning hair? Be gentle. If it’s thinning, that means it is susceptible to falling out. The rougher you are, the more you accelerate your hair falling out, and the more it thins.
Avoid anything that pulls unnecessarily on your hair.
Comb your hair rather than using a thick brush. A comb’s teeth are a lot more gentle on your hair than a dense bristle brush.
Let your hair air dry rather than going to town on it with a towel.
This goes for more aggressive styling techniques, too. Don’t hit it with a blow dryer--the heat might make it dry faster, but it’s also making it fall out faster.
If you wear a lot of hats, give your head a break every now and then. It’s easy to hear this piece of advice and think you’ll do it, but hat wearers put on their lids so religiously that you’ll probably forget. If that sounds like you, take drastic measures: put it on your calendar, put a sticky note on your hat brim, do whatever it’s going to take to get you to actually change your habits.
Stop Scratching Your Hair
Have an itchy scalp? Stop scratching. While it may temporarily relieve your itch, scratching is hard on your hair and may contribute to further thinning
Style in Thickness
Just because your hair is thinning doesn’t mean you have to look like your hair is thinning. There are a couple things you can do to make sure it has a richer, fuller look.
First of all, treat it well. Condition your hair, be good to your scalp, and consider a product that will add volume to your hair.
At the same time, reconsider your hair style. If you currently have a hairstyle that requires aggressively pulling on your hair, stop. Or at least try out something different. Maybe you could adopt a classic combed look, or a simple mussed look.
The key to this process is finding a routine that you’re both comfortable with, and that helps rather than hurts the situation. Your two golden rules? Gentleness, and styling. Godspeed.
