Are You Using a Natural Bristle Hair Brush?

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Using the right kind of hair brush and keeping it clean is necessary if you want to have strong hair, which will not fall out in the future.

A Natural Hair Brush

Using a natural bristle like boar's hair is a good decision. The boar bristle hair brush bristles are similar to the keratin of your hair and absorb the dirt and oil just like your hair. In addition the tips of the boar hair brush are rounded and gently massage your scalp and hair.

Kent hair brushes are available in boar hair. But avoid the Kent nylon hair brush if you want the best care for your hair.

The nylon hair brush is not recommended since it is rougher on your scalp and is no where as good as the boar bristle hair brush. The nylon bristles are usually sharp and inflamed your follicles and break your hair when you use it.

Brushing Your Hair

To maintain good hair growth you need good circulation to your scalp. You need also need a clean scalp with little oil and dirt accumulating in your hair follicles. The boar hair brush helps you achieve this when you regularly brush your hair.

Brush your hair when it is dry. This prevents breaking of your hair. When you brush, the gentle pulling of your hair stimulates your scalp bringing in more blood to feed your hair. Also the slight pulling stimulates the release of oil from your follicles which lubricates your hair.

Brush your hair with a boar bristle hair brush twice a day for the best hair care � morning and night. For short hair brush for three minutes and for long hair brush five minutes.

By bending your head to the floor, when brushing, you will increase the blood circulation to your scalp. Now, brush from your neck forward to the front of your scalp, then, from sides to your crown. Lastly, brush from the front of your scalp to the neck.

Cleaning Your Boar Hair Brush

If possible, you should clean your brush every day. If you have two or more hair brushes then it will be easier to do this. Your boar bristle hair brush accumulates dirt and oils from hair when you brush. Without regular cleaning of your hair brush, this dirt and oil will redeposit onto your hair. Over time this added dirt and oil will plug up your hair follicles and lead to hair thinning or permanent hair loss.

You can clean your brush every day when you shower. Clean it with shampoo and scrub the bristles with your hand back and forth. After cleaning, you can dry the brush with a towel and let it sit until the next day. By the next day, it is ready to use and your other brush is ready to be cleaned.

So, using a natural hair brush like the boar bristle hair brush is the best way to care for your hair. Gentle daily brushing stimulates your scalp and keeps you hair healthy. But don't forget to keep your hair brush clean, since your don't want to put the dirt and oil on your brush back onto your scalp.

10 Proven Hair Care Tips

1. Gently comb your hair. A vigorous combing can cause hair loss. Do not comb your hair in the opposite direction. This also can cause hair falling.

2. Do not comb wet hair. You should first dry your hair with a towel, put some oil and gently massage it.

3. To find the best hair comb, you must consider the nature of your hair, convenience and style.

4. Use coconut milk as an inexpensive alternative to salon hot oil treatments. Apply coconut milk onto scalp and hair with a cotton ball. Leave on overnight and shampoo in the morning.

5. If you have fine hair, use shampoos that include wheat proteins and polymers. These
ingredients make your hair look thicker by coating the hair shaft.

6. A well-balanced diet is essential for your hair. A diet rich in protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and iron is necessary for healthy, strong hair.

7. For a cheap and effective conditioner, mix one cup of olive oil with one egg and half a lemon to an even consistency. Apply to scalp and hair strands and rinse well with water.

8. If you your hair is short, have it trimmed every 3-4 weeks. If you hair is long, have it trimmed every 6-8 weeks. The purpose of trimming is to remove split ends.

9. Blow drying can damage your hair. Let your hair air-dry whenever possible.

10. You can treat dandruff with anti-dandruff shampoos. But you can use simple home remedies to treat dandruff. Use a mixture of vinegar and water on the scalp. Make a mixture of two teaspoons of vinegar and six teaspoons of water and apply it on the scalp before you go to bed. Keep it throughout the night with a towel around the head. Rinse in the morning.

Sudden Hair Loss � Is stress is the cause??

People often fail to realize how stress affects physical health as well as hair health. However, it affects the overall health of an individual. This does not mean stress is always bad. Sometimes, stress is good for making an individual focused towards an approach and deciding better. In fact, some people perform better under stress and do much better. Stress up to a certain level is good, although there are no fixed parameters to establish up to what level it is good but sever stress leads to disease like anxiety, sudden hair loss and other physical health problems. Many of the people associate stress directly with sudden hair loss.

Telogen Effluvium is a kind of hair loss that occurs due to sever or sudden stress. Heavy stress in a person does the shedding of hair that pushes premature hair follicles into the resting phase. Sudden hair loss due to stress in a person appears within 2 to 3 months after facing of some stressful situations. Although, our hair falls daily and falling of about 100 hairs per day is considered very normal. In stressful circumstances a person losses almost 300 � 400 hair per day and almost 70% of the hair scalps. Sudden hair loss is temporary in most of the cases. However, in some of the cases the sudden hair loss problem undergoes continue till the problem of stress is solved.

There is a well said quote, �every problem has a solution', and so the problem of sudden hair loss too. Treating sudden hair loss naturally is one of the best way to solve the problem. Are you wandering, how?

Here are few tips to solve your hair loss problems and easing your level of stress:

Do physical exercises: Your body secrets out a hormone called adrenaline that is good for you but when body secrets this hormone in excess, this causes stress and sudden hair loss. Doing regular exercise and physical workout reduces the level of adrenaline hormone in your body. If you do physical workout on a regular basis, your body and mind will be relaxed and you will get much better sleep. Your health will also improve as a result of physical exercise.

Take enough sleep and relax: Take proper sleep and do some relaxation. You do not need special techniques to do relaxation. Only you need a peaceful place, which you have to create, be it your bedroom or office desk. Just sit in good posture, keep your body straighten, do some deep breathing and focus on good thoughts. You can use your office desk during a short tea break or lunch hour to do the same. Include relaxation in you daily routine for 20 minutes or so, daily. You will notice the significant change in your lifestyle once you start doing this stress busting exercise. Good sleep is very important in easing stress. Sleep enough and sleep properly to ease your symptom of stress. Once your level of stress or adrenaline in your body starts dipping, the hair loss will automatically decrease.

Have good diet: Eat good diet. Take diet rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals in sufficient amount. Eat whole grain breads, dairy products (milk, cheese, butter, etc) and poultry products like eggs and chickens. Also include in your diet fishes and meats. Avoid added sugars. Eat a lot of leafy green vegetables and whole fruits.

Doing all above will help you in staying in good shape and reliving your stress. This ultimately will solve your sudden hair loss problems.

Biotin and Hair Loss

Falling hair is normal, when you take bath roll in the bed, do combing and such other activities, you lost some of your hairs. It is very natural. But if your hair falls and that too in such a quantity that makes your head poor haired then it is a deficiency, which may ultimately lead to baldness. If this is the case, then you are suffering with hair problems. The causes may be many and you need to identify them, but ultimately your body is deficient of Biotin. Yes, Biotin, it is the vitamin, which makes your hair healthy, strong and good looking. It is clinically proven, so maintaining a good level of Biotin in your body system is as essential as maintaining other vitamins and minerals. Biotin is necessary for your hairs health and overall well being. Medical specialists advise that the persons suffering with Hair Problems must take Biotin in addition to other medications.

So if you are suffering with hair problems, must go for medications with Biotin substitutes. Foods like eggs. Yolk and liver contains a lot of Biotin, you need to consume these foods in rich quantity to maintain your health and prevent hair loss.
Using a Biotin enriched shampoo may also help in improving your hair health.

Some more foods rich in Biotin are; brewer's yeast, green peas, oats, soybeans, walnuts, sunflower seeds, green peas, bulgur and brown rice, etc. Eating these foods and food products will help your body in maintaining a good level of Biotin.

A person who is a patient of heartburn, acid reflux or GERD absorbs less amount of Biotin, and hence may trap into hair problems. This is because; a person suffering with above-mentioned disease takes a lot of antacids.
So now, you will definitely agree with the fact that Biotin is a hair food, and important for good hair health.

What Biotin else does for your body?

Biotin is a member of Vitamin B complex family also sometime known as Vitamin H or Vitamin B7. This is soluble in water, which means, if body has high level of Vitamin H at a certain day or time, it pass out through Urine. This vitamin is produced in the intestine with the help of bacteria in the intestine. Biotin helps in metabolism of carbohydrates, fats and proteins and helps in maintaining steady blood sugar. So, it is good for the persons suffering with Diabetes. Diabetes is a major disease across the globe and affects several men and women.

Biotin do processing of glucose and we know glucose is one of the source of energy of our body to perform work and maintaining wear and tear of the body. Biotin also helps in making of DNA, RNA and nucleic acids and production of fatty acids. Growth and replication of cells depends on Biotin.
Thus on one hand Biotin helps in maintaining good hair health and on the other hand it is important for several bodily functions.

Sources of Biotin

The main sources of Biotin are; liver, kidneys, milk, cheese, butter and other dairy products, egg yolks, oysters, lobsters, poultry, cauliflower, avocados, bananas, strawberries, watermelon, grapefruits, raisins, mushrooms, green peas, blackcurrants, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, nuts, beans, lentils, oat bran, whole grains, oatmeal, peanut butter, molasses, and foods like salmon, tuna, mackerel, and herrings (foods rich in Omega � 3 fatty acids).
A healthy person and pregnant woman must take 300 grams of Biotin in daily diet. Breastfeeding mothers need about 350 micrograms of Biotin.

Symptoms of Biotin Deficiency

People affecting with Biotin deficiency may show dry or scaly scalp, a loss of appetite, hair problems; closely associated with Biotin deficiency, nausea, depression, dermatitis, anorexia, and anemia.

Daily Hair Care

Your hair makes you look gorgeous, bold and beautiful. It is your hair because of which you attract attention of other people. So it is natural that you will always expect that your hair will look good and as that as people like them. But certainly your hair didn't fulfill your expectations on every other day. Even though some time you feel disappointed because of your hair. The reason is simple; you are unable to keep them as you want and as others like them. In such a situation definitely, you would like to spend some time for your hair and then it is obvious to know about Hair Care.

But before jumping into those hair care tips it is equally important to know that what are the factors, which affects your hair and hairstyle?

The biologists argue that the characteristics of hair of a person depend on several factors some of which are inherited. Some factors are genetic means that DNA programming is responsible for your hairs the way they look. The secretion level of hormones also contributes to hair looks. And after all, the entire environment especially the air and water greatly affects your hairstyle. That's why, every person some time experience the bad hair day. But if you are willing to take a little care, you can say good-bye to bad hair day, which might not be permanent and need your attention time to time.

Tips On Hair Care:
Here are few tips that will help you to either not seeing a bad hair day or to come out if you are experiencing at present.

* Stick to a healthy life style. Give up your smoking habits, do exercise regularly, eat balanced diet and use relaxation techniques when stressed.
* Get a deep sleep in night, do not sleep with burdens otherwise you will have a disturbed sleep enough to trap into a bad hair day.
* If you are using hair styling products and cosmetics, try to avoid using products containing alcohol particularly in high concentration.
* Do not put hair styling products on your scalps, this will block the pores on your head and may harm your head and hair both.
* Swimming is a good exercise, do it. But before jumping into a swimming pool wet your hair enough with plain water. Pool water contains chlorine, which is not good to your hair.
* Set your hair dryer on cool settings, hot is not for your hair.
* Keep hair dryer moving, do not stick it to one place for long.
* Before using hair dryer, use a good quality towel to dry hair and then use hair dryer to get the rid of wetness.
* Use a comb that bristles are made of animal hairs, it would be soft on your hairs.
* Always use clean comb / brushes. Clean your comb / brushes with soap or shampoo on a regular basis.
* Always comb / brush your hair downwards.
* Shampooing your hair is important. Always use good quality products.
* Use trial and error method to select a shampoo for you and choose the one that is best suitable.

Natural Hair Loss Prevention and Treatment

In recent times, hair loss has become a common condition, especially among men although, the exact cause of hair loss is still a mystery. Some research studies have linked hair loss with the lack of iron, the condition of the skin on the scalp, an excess of the hormone DHT and probably an under active thyroid gland.

The hair, although it is thought of as dead, is a good indicator of general health and it is the first indicator that shows signs of ill health or lack of essential vitamins and minerals within the body. Oily hair can be a sign of vitamin B deficiency, brittle or dry hair can be an indicator of essential fats deficiency, dull hair color and poor growth can be signs of zinc deficiency and hair loss can be an indicator of lack of vitamin C, vitamin B1, iron and lysine. Grey hair comes with age and has no link to body health or nutrition and in most cases nutrition cannot be used to reverse it.

Although certain types of medicine are known to slow down the process of hair loss and even help with some form of hair re-growth, experts say that natural hair loss treatment can yield some of the best benefits for anyone concerned about the health of their hair.

Most people choose to treat their hair loss with medications or surgery, such as Minoxidil, Rogaine or a hair transplant. What these people fail to realize is that medication and surgery are costly and may carry some harmful side effects and risks. The safest and most cost effective form of hair loss therapy is natural hair loss treatment, which includes healthy dieting, herbal remedies, exercise and proper hair care techniques.

A fundamental principal in natural hair loss treatment is that the same foods that are good for your health are good for your hair. Hair loss can be caused by several factors, but lack of proper nutrition plays a vital role for most people. Foods that are high in protein, low in carbohydrates, and have reduced fat content can help in maintaining healthier hair and preventing hair loss. For example, essential fatty acids, found in spinach, walnuts, soy, tuna, sardines, sunflower seeds and canola oil, are important dietary essentials useful in keeping hair healthy. The omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids contain anti-inflammatory properties that are useful in maintaining healthy hair. Insufficient levels of these essential fatty acids could lead to quicker hair loss.

To avoid hair loss and have good healthy hair, a good nutritional diet is needed. This diet needs to be rich in organic whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, whole grains, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts and seeds which are a rich source of vital nutrients needed for healthy hair roots and the protein keratin. Try not to skip meals, reduce salt, sugar, tea, coffee and chocolate intake, avoid stress, comb your hair gently and avoid using strong chemicals on your hair such as perms and color treatments. Vegetarians are prone to hair loss because their diet generally lacks the important nutrients, vitamin B12, iron and lysine. Vegetarians need to be aware of this and supplement their diet.

Besides taking the right diet pattern, several natural herbs are known to be very good in the prevention and treatment of hair loss. These herbs in most cases are safe; without harmful side effects and also cost effective. Among such herbs include nettles, usually taken in the form of Nettle Root Extract, which has been shown to be effective in preventing and treating hair loss. Nettles are rich in vitamins A and C that are beneficial in inhibiting DHT production and promoting hair growth as a natural hair loss treatment. Other traditional herbs that are useful as natural hair loss treatments are green tea, liquorice extract, horsetail, ginger, psoralea seeds, apple cider vinegar, rosemary and sage tea.

One important herb making the rounds in medical cycles is Saw Palmetto. Although most studies of Saw Palmetto have been for the treatment of prostatic disease, more recent studies have been conducted on its effectiveness in treating hair loss. The herb has been found to work in fighting benign prostatic disease by lowering levels of DHT, which is a known cause of androgenic alopecia, the medical term for male or female pattern hair loss. While there are no clinical trials supporting this herb's usefulness as a natural hair loss treatment, there is some reliable research proving that it can slow down androgen activity within the hair follicle.

The following supplements may help if you are suffering from hair loss.

B complex
Evening primrose oil
Fish oil
Kelp
Lysine
Multivitamins and multiminerals
Vitamin C


Hair loss is a common occurrence in almost everyone, though more pronounced in some people. If you are battling with this condition it would be wise to find treatment in your day to day items instead of spending a fortune on medical remedies that come with tons of side effects. Natural remedies are always safe, reliable and very cost effective, all you need is the right knowledge.

Shampoo Killed My Beautiful Hair

Hair is everybody's crowning glory.

The previous paragraph is the sole reason as to why beauty salons and shampoo companies have become the "in thing" in the business world. They earn money by caressing vanity, the very grain that is inherent in human nature. They awe us by parading beautiful girls with long, shiny hair. They instill in us the drama, the magic, the beautiful-girl-stories of finding fame and romance by sporting soft and shiny locks.

We buy these hair products. We try these salon treatments. But of course, none that is similar to those shampoo commercials ever happens to us. None ever will. But then we keep buying these products. We keep trying more salon treatments. Until we fail again.

It is sad that we end up forever victims of what we believe as the "great solution." We don't know that what we religiously follow at the back of shampoo bottles is not really a beauty secret, but actually a deceitful commercial script to bring more business for shampoo companies. In reality, constant usage of shampoo actually diminishes the strength and the shine of
the hair. But because we have so much faith, we never put the blame on these products. Instead, we use more, buy more, hope even firmer that in the long run, we still will achieve the shampoo-model-type-hair.

The rationale for this is simple. Overwashing the hair rids the natural oil from the scalp, therapy prodding the latter to produce more oil to compensate. This results dandruff and grease. Also there are residues from hair creams and shampoos that accumulate in the hair, making it more difficult to wash.

In an article by Natalie in stretcher.com, she gave tips on how to maintain a less-costly but healthy hair:

1. When you wash your hair, lather once, not twice (like all shampoo instructions suggest!). Wash your hair and scalp thoroughly, and then rinse� Your hair might not feel "squeaky clean," but it will be as clean as with two lathers.

2. When possible, leave your hair without washing an extra day. Try not to wash your hair every day. Your hair will become less oily over time.

3. Brush your hair and scalp every day (your grandmother was right). This will stimulate your scalp, distribute protective oils throughout your hair, and combat dandruff.

4. Unless you've had your hair colored or permed in the last month, do not condition the hair at your scalp. This will discourage greasiness, and it will also save you money!

5. If you want a fresh feeling but don't want to shampoo, just run hot water over your hair in the shower. This will rinse away some of the dirt and even out your hair, so that it will look clean without having to shampoo.

There we go. There are actually more less-costly but more effective fixes that we can think of than depending on instant treatments. It is never wrong to look for easier alternatives, but hey, a beautiful mane is a treasure unworthy of being gambled. Let's play it slow and sure. Beauty, after all, is not an overnight thing.


Other articles from the same author:
A-Z Guide for a Healthy Beauty