How Urban Living Is Affecting Your Hair?

Have you ever wondered why you were so excited about living in an urban city? Well, like everyone else, you saw the perks but there's always a dark side of the moon!

Let us explore some of the most daunting yet sad truths of "urban living".

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN URBAN RESIDENT

You set the alarm for 7 o’clock but as usual, you turn it down and doze off for another hour. Next thing you know, you are late for your office and you have got 6 missed calls from your boss!

You buckle up your shoes and leave for the office without having the most important meal of your day i.e. breakfast.

It's the peak hour of the day for workaholics and the traffic jam drives you crazy.

At lunchtime, you realized you forgot to bring food, and last thing you know, you ended up having some fast food from a nearby cafe.

Tired and exhausted you reach home and without taking a bath, you doze off again!

Daily, you go through air pollution and noise pollution. It is so obvious that people living a hectic and busy life are unable to take good care of themselves but our ultimate goal should be to live a life without any regrets and without compromising with the way we look and perceive ourselves.

HAIR LOSS DUE TO AIR AND WATER POLLUTION

Getting exposed to air pollutants (such as dust, smoke, lead, arsenic, and sulphur dioxide) decreases a specific protein in hair follicles, the protein that is responsible for hair growth. When our hair follicles are exposed to air pollutants, their capacity to produce new hair slows down.

The radical damage to the hair can cause a change in hair colour for greying of hair and as well as hair loss. The particles of air pollutants can sometimes build up on our scalp over time and if not treated with proper care, then this build-up can cause significant damage to the hair follicles leading to issues like dandruff, irritation, and hair loss.

The dust, fumes, dirt you encounter daily get settled on your hair and ultimately make it look dull and frizzy.

Sudden hair loss is imminent if the contaminants of air, including particulate matter, dust, smoke, nickel, lead and arsenic, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons settle on your scalp and hair.

Water in urban cities acts as a fuel to burn our hair care routine because hard water contains a build-up of minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. This produces a film on the hair, making it difficult for moisture to penetrate. This leads to breakage of the hair strand and it gets dry as well. If not treated with immediate care, this could even lead to severe hair loss.

You may also experience some other side effects of washing your hair in hard water:

Thinning
Tangles
Brassiness or green hue
Itching
Pain in the roots of the hair

HOW TO PREVENT HAIR LOSS

Hair loss can be prevented by taking a sufficient amount of food rich in vitamins as it helps to keep our body working efficiently and each nutrient is on a mission to deliver health benefits to us, which is the ultimate goal for a healthy body.

Vitamins also have some anti-aging properties which slow down the aging process. Antioxidants in vitamins act as a barrier between our bodies and environmental stressors.

Some multivitamins can also provide you with certain nutrients which are hard to get from food alone.

To know more about vitamins and their relation with hair, do check out our blog on Hair vitamins and their benefits

TRADITIONAL HAIR LOSS PREVENTION TECHNIQUES

Our traditional methods included head massage by oiling hair and using amla paste. Almond oil therapy, applying shikakai was also very popular during those days, and even now as well. But since the environment was so different at that time, all the home remedies were effective enough to treat or prevent hair loss. Now that we are so wrangled by pollution and stress, we cannot rely on traditional methods only.

Eat more protein to help your body grow new hair. Hair loss can sometimes arise due to protein deficiency in the body. Some food rich in proteins are beans, eggs, fish, nuts, seeds, etc

Iron is also a very essential nutrient that our body needs to grow healthy hair. Some foods rich in iron are clams, lentils, oysters, spinach, pumpkin seeds, white beans, etc.

Some natural home remedies have come to light for the past few years and we think they might be helpful for people dealing with hair loss.

HAIR LOSS DUE TO STRESS

You might find it typically hard to accept, but your hair loss could be a sign that you are taking a lot of stress and pressure. This is usually a cause that is related to our external environment but it can be easily controlled by following some stress management techniques.

Excessive physical or emotional stress—like that associated with injury, illness, or surgery—can cause one of two types of hair loss:

Telogen effluvium: In this case, hair stops growing and lies dormant which then falls out after 2-3 months. It might grow back after 6-9 months. Usually, hair starts to fall out after encountering a stressful experience. It pushes a large number of hair follicles into a dormant phase. Stress, in this case, can be because of surgery and serious illness.
Alopecia areata: This type of hair loss is also induced by stress wherein a white blood cell attacks the hair follicles and hair falls out within a few weeks (typically in patches) but it can be treated by taking proper medication. The symptoms include hair loss that starts with bald patches that might overlap with each other. This is caused due to severe stress wherein the immune system attacks the hair follicles.

HAIR LOSS DUE TO USE OF CHEMICALS (SHAMPOO)

Using sulfate can make your scalp dry as it washes off all the natural oils. This is then accompanied by itching and flaking in some people and sometimes it also makes the hair look lustreless.

These days, most shampoo, even from big brands, contains a significant sulfate amount (SLS - Sodium Lauryl Sulphate). It is a harmful chemical that rigorously damages the hair and gives it a brittle and frizzy look. Frizzy hair is more prone to breakage and hence when you comb, you shed a lot of hair. Redness and irritation on the scalp is also a common side effect of using shampoo containing SLS.

So it is always advisable to use organic and natural shampoos which are free from SLS. I would recommend you to check out our SLS free shampoo and then you can focus on your other needs without worrying about your hair.

HAIR LOSS DUE TO DIET IMBALANCE

Diet imbalance is so common for urban residents that it has been normalized now. However, don’t you think a proper diet plan should be followed without any compromises? You can work effortlessly and without any disturbance caused by your body when you get the proper vitamins and minerals that your body requires. Not just your body, but your hair as well.

Lack of nutrients leads to hair loss because it collides with your body’s ability to build new hair follicles. After 2-3 months of a nutrition-deficient diet, you can see visible hair loss on your scalp.

HAIR LOSS DUE TO COMBING WET HAIR

When urban residents do not get time to blow dry their hair, they tend to comb wet hair. Wet hair is fragile and leaving it wet for an extended period will put excessive pressure on the hair strands resulting in split ends.

It’s too late now to realize the cons of living in an urban city, you have to deal with continuous honking of vehicles, work pressure, air pollution and whatnot. However, you can check out our Hair Regrowth Serum which will be the best fit for your hair care regime.

It helps in quick hair regrowth treatment and is clinically proven to regrow up to 25% more hair in 10-12 weeks.
It also attempts to help hair follicle action and hair protein creation, for hair regrowth.
It is very easy to use and the solution is alcohol-free and trusted by dermatologists all across the world.