It’s unfortunate that a lot of us have grown up with bad hair habits which we carry into our middle age. But our hair after the age of 35 is less tolerant of bad hair practices.
The reality is that hair changes, so you ought to be mindful about how you treat your hair, and equally important, what you eat.
More of us would have stronger hair by being intentional with our diets. Your body really needs it now, so get in your vitamins A, C, and E all of which help promote cell and tissue growth. Add to that a healthy diet of foods rich in calcium, antioxidants, and Omega-3 fatty acids and you have a recipe for success.
Age does alter our hair. Genetics plays a role too, but you can counteract or slow changes with improvement in hair practices, diet, and knowledge!
So here are the changes happening;
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Research suggests that density is affected by aging. Hair density is the number of individual strands per square inch on your scalp. Sadly, hair density reduces, it'll happen, to some degree, after 40. Don’t exacerbate it by over-styling your hair.
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Research shows you will lose natural fatty acids and keratin protein which can make your hair look fuller and be a little weaker - it is, therefore, important to be mindful about things Like heat, color, and chemicals that can further degrade protein. Introduce simpler and gentler products too. Try Metaclay as an alternative to shampoo on occasions and use Khalila oil for high definition shine to counteract dullness. And please introduce a protein treatment or a protein conditioner to temporarily strengthen.
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The diameter of your hair may change too. By this I mean the thickness of individual pigmented strands decreases, so your hair appears finer overall. I have noticed this change in my hair and it is one of the reasons I wouldn’t be braiding my hair for the foreseeable future. You don’t need added stress on strands that are thinning already.
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Gray hair!!! As you age, your melanin production slows down, and eventually, as your hair grows and finally sheds, the new hair grows in gray. However, aside from mother nature, there are other culprits for graying eg a lack of Vitamin B12, B7 and Vitamin D. Low levels of B12 affect the production of melanin, and as we age our body has a harder time absorbing B12. In more serious cases, low levels of B12 are attributed to pernicious anemia and one of the symptoms of that includes gray hair. You can fix this with supplementation and diet! Increasing your vitamin D intake can actually help restore the growth of your pigmented hair and seemingly ‘reverse’ gray hair.
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The growth rate slows. So you’ve heard that the average person grows 1/2 an inch a month, this typically slows as we age. Therefore if long hair is a goal you need to pay particular attention to styling and mechanical damage eg combing and rough handling.
Change is inevitable, but you can still enjoy great hair into your next chapter and beyond!