The ninth of the ten health standards listed by the World Health Organization is about the health of hair: shiny hair and no dandruff. As the saying goes, "strong long hair, weak long nails", hair health is a major matter related to the body, and now many adults have scalp health problems, including oiliness, dandruff, inflammation, dryness, etc.
Everyone wants to have thick, healthy hair, so let's talk about it: how can you take care of it? What are the correct maintenance methods?
The key to healthy hair:
If you want to take care of your hair, you need to understand the key to healthy hair: hair follicles. Because hair grows from hair follicles, the quality of hair is very closely related to whether the scalp environment is normal and whether the hair follicles are healthy.
Hair follicles are hidden deep under the scalp and cannot be seen by the naked eye, and only professional hair follicle testing can see the condition of the hair follicle opening and judge the status of the hair follicle. Healthy hair follicles have a swirl-shaped orifice with no oil or dandruff build-up.
A healthy hair follicle can generally grow 2-4 hairs and the thickness is relatively uniform. If the hair follicles are unhealthy, such as clogged with oil, sebum, dust, etc., then after a long period of accumulation, the hair follicles will gradually shrink, and the hair will become thin and soft, and lose its luster. Over time, the hair follicles stop growing after they are closed.
Therefore, whether the hair follicles are healthy or not determines the health of the hair to a certain extent.
What are the effects of damaged hair follicles?
Although hair follicles are hidden under the scalp and are generally not directly harmed, they can still be damaged by chemical injuries and physical irritants over time.
Once the hair follicle is diseased, it will lead to hair loss, and there are two types of common hair loss, one is physiological alopecia and the other is non-physiological alopecia.
Physiological alopecia.
It is the hair follicle that goes through the life cycle – anagen, degenital, telogen – after which it sheds normally. Wait for the growth phase to re-enter the growth phase and grow new hair again. A normal person loses about 50-100 hairs every day.
Non-physiological hair loss.
The more common ones are hereditary alopecia and psychogenic alopecia.
Hereditary alopecia is related to androgens, which is often referred to as "androgenetic alopecia"; Mental alopecia, on the other hand, is caused by excessive stress, which leads to insufficient blood supply to the blood vessels, which eventually leads to hair loss.
How to protect hair follicles?
The number of hair follicles is fixed and determined from birth, and as we age, they only decrease due to damage, but do not increase again, so they are very precious.
However, hair follicles have their own growth cycle.
Although hair can break, split ends, and fall out, as long as the hair follicles are healthy, they can still grow healthy new hair again. However, if the hair follicles are unhealthy or even shrunk, then even if the hair looks normal, it will not be healthy hair that will grow back after it falls out.
In addition to going to professional institutions for scientific scalp care and physiotherapy, you can also start with daily maintenance to avoid hair follicle damage as much as possible. For example:
01.Avoid external damage.
Bad habits such as long-term pulling, scratching the scalp, wearing a hat that is too tight for a long time, exposing the scalp for a long time, and using too hot water when washing your hair can cause physical damage to the hair follicles.
02.Change your habits.
Staying up late, excessive mental stress, obesity, etc. will lead to endocrine disorders, which will indirectly affect the health of hair follicles.
03.Adjust your diet.
It is recommended not to eat too much heavy food, such as heavy oil, heavy salt, spicy and stimulating food, and pay attention to balanced nutrition, supplement sufficient vitamins and proteins, in order to maintain normal hair growth.
In general, as long as you do a good job of daily washing, you can keep your hair healthy, but once you start to lose your hair, you should do a hair follicle test as soon as possible, and do a scientific ** according to the condition of the hair follicles**.