Have you looked in your sink or your bath tub lately and the amount of hair you saw worried you? Or maybe you looked at your comb and examined all the hairs, even tried to count them? Many women are concerned about the amount of hairs that they see. But it’s hard to tell what is normal

and what is excessive. The thing about it is, no matter who you are, you will experience shedding.The first thing to look at is why your hair sheds. Hair strands have a life cycle that entails three different phases. There is the Anagen Phase, which is when the hair strand is actively growing. This last about two to six years depending on the person. The Length of your hair corresponds to the amount of time each follicle is in the anagen phase. The Catagen Phase is the transitional phase between the growing and resting phase. This last about one to two weeks. Changes take place in the structure of the hair follicle and at the end of the catagen, the telogen phase is beginning. Then there is the telogen phase where the hair follicle separates and sheds. This phase usually last between five to six weeks. At the end of the telogen phase, the hair follicles will reenter the anagen growing phase and start growing again. Approximately 5-10% of scalp hair is in the telogen phase at the same time. It is during the telogen phase that hairs normally shed. This would work out to approximately 25-125 hairs are shed each day. So when normal shedding does occur, it is not enough to notice a difference in your hair’s thickness.

So the way to know if you have excessive shedding is to determine the thickness of your hair. Have you noticed any bad spots in on your scalp? Or have you noticed your hair isn’t as thick as it used to be? You can run your fingers through your hair to see if you have more than 3 strands of hair that comes out. When you detangle your hair, and it has been put away all week or for over a week, you can expect to see a little more hair than usual. You want to remember as we stated earlier that your hair sheds 25 to 125 hair stands a day. If your hair is put away in a protective style for a week or so,  that would equal out to 175 to 875 hairs that may come out during the take down of your hair and as well as washing your hair and detangling.
If with all the information we have reviewed earlier, you still sense that you may be experiencing excessive shedding; here are some things that may help you.

Nutrition
How you eat effects your hair. Eating foods high in protein, Omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 promote a healthy scalp. Protein aids in hair growth and strength. Also by taking a multi-vitamin, that contains MSM, and biotin are good vitamins to help with hair growth and growing strong hair strands.

Tea rinses
The caffeine in tea blocks the DHT hormone that causes shedding. Doing regular tea rinses will help reduce as well as prevent excessive shedding. Black tea rinses are commonly used but if your hair color is naturally light colored you can use green tea.

Garlic
Garlic also helps to block the DHT hormone. This can be done with a whole garlic clove added with other hair products to cut the smell. You can take it in pill form as well. There are many products out in the hair market that contain garlic and are specifically for shedding.

To keep shedding to a minimum the Going Natural Hair Shop offers the Scalp Conditioning Spray  and the No More Knots Detangler 

 

Going Natural Hair Care for Black Women, African American Men and Children