No matter what medical condition or treatment is causing it (and it could be anything from anemia to radiation therapy), losing even a little bit of your hair can make you feel ugly or self-conscious about the way you look. So if you're looking for ways that you can hopefully stop your hair loss before it gets any worse, then here's a few tips to boost your hair's health and strength.
Boost Your Iron
If your hair loss is accompanied by lethargy, fainting, insomnia, and a feeling that your brain is a bit foggy, you may have iron-deficient anemia. Not having enough iron in your diet is especially common in women due to menstruation, but anyone of any gender, race, or age can get anemia. Boost your iron intake via over-the-counter iron supplements (though ensure you drink plenty of water with them, as they can cause constipation) or indulge a bit more in iron-rich foods such as red meat, beans, nuts, and many more to get your levels up.
Use a Cold Cap
If your hair loss is due to chemotherapy, using a cold cap might just save the rest of it. Cold caps are helmet-like devices you wear during chemo that use their cold temperature (supplied by keeping the caps in a cooler filled with dry ice) as a vasoconstrictor, shrinking down the blood vessels that would normally take the radiation and stream it straight to your hair follicles. While you still might lose some hair during your radiation treatments, the caps prevent the majority of hair loss you might have experienced otherwise, allowing you to keep your hair even during chemotherapy.
Increase Vitamin Intake
If you're not sure what exactly is causing your hair loss, the best thing you can do for it is to increase your vitamin intake. Vitamins such as pantothenic acid and inositol (both grouped with the B vitamins), Vitamin E (talk to your doctor about dosage), and Vitamin A (d) all help to strengthen your hair and prevent hair loss. You can increase your intake with OTC vitamin supplements, or increase foods like carrots, beans, nuts, peaches, and eggs in your diet in order to reach healthy amounts of these hair-loss-defying vitamins.
Remember
If you're worried about your hair loss, talk to your doctor about it; they'll be able to run tests to figure out what's causing it and be able to recommend the best course of action to stop your hair loss in its tracks.
