How These Bad Habits Could Be Ruining Your Hair

A big part of self-care for most people also involves hair care. No one wants their hair to look bad or be unhealthy, which is why most of us have the sacred haircare rituals that we stick to. However, what might be the best routine for some could be the absolute worst for somebody else. “Before choosing any hair care regimen, it is essential to analyze your hair type and identify the causes for hair issues,” dermatologist Dr. Harish Koutam reveals (via Skinkraft).

Celebs With Seriously Staggering Personal Hygiene Habits
While all of us know the importance of washing and conditioning our hair, there are plenty of habits that can damage your hair without you even being aware of them. Luckily, we researched the most common hair mistakes people make, and some of these are bound to surprise you. Of course, it’s impossible to always do everything right when it comes to keeping your hair healthy, but being aware of the things that can harm it is a step in the right direction!

You’re not cleaning your hairbrush regularly

We all know how important it is to clean our towels and makeup brushes, but many of us neglect cleaning out hair brushes regularly. In fact, when you’re picking the right hairbrush for yourself, make sure that it’s one you can clean easily. While we’ve all seen hairbrushes that get dirty from hair, product buildup, skin, and dust, “additional bacteria and fungus can grow on the material inside the brush,” trichologist William Gaunitz tells The New York Times. Using dirty tools on your hair will spread buildup and bacteria, and your scalp can get inflamed, resulting in hair fallout.

Now you’re probably wondering how often you should wash your hair brush. While there is no general number, if you don’t use too many hair products daily, you can get away with washing it every two to three weeks. However, ensure you regularly inspect your brush, and if you see buildup, give it a bath. The first thing you should do is remove any hair on it (something you should do daily), after which you soak your brush in water to which you have already added clarifying shampoo. A good tip is to use an old toothbrush to scrub between the brush bristles properly. Once you rinse it, let it dry and spritz it with a tiny bit of disinfectant.

You’re using dry shampoo too often

Using dry shampoo is an easy way to give your hair the appearance of freshness, but if you are using it regularly and not washing it out properly, it can lead to weaker hair. “Buildup of the dry shampoo can trap unwanted bacteria and create unhealthy yeast leading to developing abnormal scalp conditions, and the product buildup slows down cellular turn over, and distribution of nutrients which weaken the hair follicles,” trichologist and colorist Bridgette Hill tells Well + Good.

To prevent this, make sure you use a clarifying shampoo every time you have dry shampoo in your hair. Another great way to ensure you shampoo properly is to use a shampoo massager — trust us, it does a much better job removing buildup than our fingers ever could.

You wash your hair with hot water

For many people, nothing is as relaxing as a hot shower. However, when washing your hair, using extremely hot water is one of the worst things you can do. “When hot water is used to wash hair, your hair follicles are exposed to environmental and oxidative damage, which can lead to hair fall. Hair fall accelerates due to the loosened grip of the damaged hair roots. This can also result in premature greying,” award-winning dermatologist Hasan Benar tells Byrdie.

Health Shots reveals that if you use hot water on your hair regularly, your hair will end up drying out, you will notice increased hair loss, it might cause scalp inflammation, and you could get dandruff. Per Better Not Younger, the perfect water temperature for your hair is around 100 degrees Fahrenheit (around 37 degrees Celsius). If you want your hair to be even healthier, make sure you always do your final rinse with cold water to close your hair follicles and maintain scalp health.

You are wearing tight ponytails

Anyone with long hair knows how nice it is to get it out of your face if you’re at home, sleeping, or just running errands. We often opt for super tight ponytails and buns, which have also become ultra-trendy thanks to the rise of the “clean girl look” frequently seen on models like Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid. Unfortunately, wearing your hair in a tight style regularly is bad for it and can cause excessive hair loss.

“Any tightly pulled hairstyle can cause traction alopecia. So not just tight ponytails, but also buns, braids, and hair extensions,” regrowth expert Lars Skjoth tells Mane Addicts. “When the hair is pulled into a tight hairstyle, it creates tension between the hair and the follicle and can tear the follicle. Repeated tearing can create scars in the follicle, and this damage will impede hair from growing there.”

If you notice a lot of shorter hairs, you might think that you’re growing baby hairs, but in reality, you can also be experiencing hair breakage from a repeated tight hairstyle. Another sign of traction alopecia is losing hair around your hairline. “Some people also experience patchy hair loss in places around the hairline that have been pulled tight by ponytails, braids, or other hairstyles,” board-certified dermatologist Corey L. Hartman, M.D., tells Allure.

You’re brushing your hair while it’s wet

A lot of people tend to brush and untangle their hair in the shower before or after applying conditioner; however, hair experts recommend against that. “The number one thing to keep in mind when brushing your hair is that it is in the most vulnerable and sensitive state when it’s wet,” certified trichologist and hairstylist Shab Reslan tells Byrdie. “Brushing it in that condition can actually overstretch, overpull, and ultimately tear your hair. Hair is in its strongest state when it’s dry.”

Because of this, it is essential that you brush out your hair before you wash it — this way, you won’t encounter any unexpected tangled-up patches. Once you wash it, you should also wait until it dries before brushing it. “The best time to brush your hair is when it is almost or completely dry. But if you have tangles after washing it or after a swim, you can use a wide-tooth comb on your wet hair to restore order but make sure it has smooth tooth ends so you don’t irritate your scalp,” hairstylist Rob Reeves tells VS Sassoon.

You’re not using heat protection when using hot tools

If you use heat tools but not heat protectant, don’t be surprised that your hair gets damaged quickly and that you get split ends almost weekly. Per The List, heat protectants have silicones that coat the hair cuticle protecting it from the high temperature. “Heat protectants create a barrier between the hair and the hot tool,” celebrity hairstylist Justine Marjan tells HelloGiggles. Regardless of whether you use heat tools on a daily basis or once a month, adding that extra step of applying heat protectant is worth it.

However, even the best heat protectants can’t protect your hair forever. If you are using heat tools regularly, you will end up damaging your hair. “Ultimately, if you over-use heat, you’ll see damage. Most people will eventually see damage over time, though it’ll take much longer and be less likely with the right heat protectant.” Nikki Neubarth, chief operating officer and head of product development at UNITE Hair, tells Mane Addicts.

You’re not protecting your hair in the sun

Speaking of heat damage, many people completely forget to protect their hair from the sun. “If your hair undergoes prolonged exposure to the sun, the UVA and UVB rays can damage the outside cover of the hair strand, called the cuticle. It can damage the hair shaft and lead to discoloration, early greying, dry and brittle strands, broken or split ends, thinning and frizziness,” dermatologist Dr. Ameesha Mahajan tells Vogue.

While protecting your hair from the sun is beneficial year-round, the one season you should really focus on this is summertime. Like the rest of your skin, the top of your head can also get a sunburn, and besides being incredibly painful, that can also result in weaker hair. “The best way to protect your hair in the heat is to wear a hat,” celebrity hairstylist Adam Reed, who is also the founder of the haircare range Arkive, tells Get the Gloss. “If hats aren’t your thing, wrap your hair using headbands, turbans, and headscarves – super easy to do, and they look absolutely brilliant. That will protect your hair from direct sunlight, but you still need to apply heat protection onto the hair directly.”

You’re not getting regular hair trims

It’s safe to say that everyone has heard this before: in order to have long and healthy hair, you need to get regular trims. While this might seem counterintuitive (after all, you’re trying to grow your hair out), hair experts agree that it is true. Once split ends form, the hair will continue splitting into two strands towards the root. “The damage will just continue up the shaft, so by the time you [eventually] go for a cut, you’ll end up having to cut more than you would have if you’d just bitten the bullet with the trim,” Erika Wasser, founder and CEO of Glam & Go, tells Insider.

Per Healthline, if you’re trying to grow your hair, get it trimmed every 12 weeks. However, schedule an earlier appointment if you notice split ends before that. Your hair health depends on many factors, so it’s difficult to give a time frame for hair trimming that works for everyone.

You’re rubbing your wet hair with a towel

As previously mentioned, hair is at its most sensitive when it’s wet. Because of this, you need to treat it gently otherwise, you will cause breakage. Rubbing it vigorously with a towel is a habit you should really work on eliminating. “This can worsen split ends and cause small craters along the hair shaft, weakening the hair,” celebrity hairstylist and author Monae Everett tells HuffPost. “Noticeable signs of damage are dry hair and frizz. Frizz is a major indicator of damaged, dry hair in need of moisture.”

However, this doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to use a towel — you just need to be more gentle with it. “After a shower, rather than wringing or rubbing, gently squeeze water out with an absorbent hair towel,” the founder of microfiber towel brand Aquis, Britta Cox, tells Byrdie. “Then wrap the hair up and let the hair towel absorb additional water for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the type of hair — fine hair will require less time, while thick or curly hair will require more. This causes the least amount of friction and allows hair to dry quickly without damaging the cuticles.”

You’re overwashing your hair

How many times per week you wash your hair depends on your hair type, the products you use, as well as your needs. However, overwashing your hair leads to hair damage, so hair experts recommend that you don’t wash your hair unless you really have to. “If you seem to be getting more split ends than usual, this could also be a sign of over-washing. Wet hair is so extra susceptible to damage and breakage, so the more you wash it, the more opportunity it has to break,” celebrity stylist Tonya Le tells Insider.

While there is no uniform answer regarding how many times per week one should wash their hair, many experts recommend a maximum of three to four times. “Wash hair about three to four times a week with the correct shampoo and a conditioner/mask made for color-treated hair,” Le says. “And, in between washes, refresh your hair with a dry shampoo of your choice with caution”

You’re detangling your hair from the root down

A lot of hair breakage happens when brushing your hair, especially if you have tangled patches to tackle. While this might seem like a given, plenty of people don’t know that whenever you’re brushing your hair, you should start from the bottom. Hairstylist Kendall Dorsey tells Byrdie that “the biggest mistake many people make when detangling hair is starting from the root instead of ends. Instead, start at the bottom and work your way up. That way, when you reach the root, you’ll have a smooth foundation to glide down.”

Apart from the proper technique, using the right tool is also crucial. “Tail combs and other small-tooth combs can cause severe damage and breakage to your strands,” Dorsey recommends. “The best way to detangle hair is to use a paddle brush, wet brush or wide-tooth comb as they are much more gentle on the hair.”

You’re not sleeping on a silk/satin pillowcase

There are many benefits of sleeping on a silk or satin pillowcase, and we have already separately covered which of the two options is better for your hair. However, both will protect your hair during sleep much more efficiently than a cotton pillowcase which tends to cause more harm than good. “Friction from cotton can disrupt the cuticle layer, leading to frizz, breakage, sleep crease, and dry strands,” celebrity hairstylist Justine Marjan tells MarthaStewart.com. “Silk doesn’t absorb or pull moisture from your skin the way traditional cotton pillowcases do, leaving hair hydrated and frizz-free.”

Besides not damaging the hair, silk and satin pillowcases help better distribute your hair’s natural oils. “When you lie on a silk or satin pillowcase, the natural oils from your hair are maintained, rather than soaked up, leaving your hair nourished (instead of dry and without shine),” hair colorist and a member of R+Co Collective, Richy Kandasamy, tells MarthaStewart.com.

You constantly touch or twirl your hair

A hair habit most people don’t think much about is twirling or constantly touching your hair. Many of us do this, but it’s not our fault. It’s natural. You may find yourself doing this to ease anxiety in your life, or perhaps you do it while laying in bed at night before falling asleep. Either way, we may want to do something about it. While this habit might be a difficult one to break, your hair will thank you once you do.

“Constant mild pulling on the follicle will slowly traumatize the hair,” dermatologist Lindsey Bordone tells RealSimple. “Twisting and twirling the hair can damage the cuticle layer, leading to breakage and split ends. It can also lead to knots, tangles and matting.” trichologist Stephanie Sey tells Refinery29, adding that this can cause traction alopecia. You may not notice any bad consequences immediately, but in the long run, playing with your hair constantly affects it negatively. To work on getting rid of this habit, consider starting up a hobby like crocheting or using a fidget toy to keep your hands occupied at times when you would resort to twirling your hair.

You’re not eating enough healthy fats and protein

You can use the best hair products and minimize all the physical stress your hair might be experiencing, but if you’re not growing healthy hair to begin with, all of this might be in vain. A healthy diet is crucial for the growth of healthy hair, which means a regular protein and healthy fat intake. “A protein-rich diet is so important to help grow strong hair,” Lars Skjoth, founder and lead researcher at Harklinikken, tells AEDIT. “Your hair loves nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods, like healthy fats found in avocados, fatty fish, nuts, and yogurt.” Trichologist Stephen Pullan explains to RealSimple that “protein is the building block of hair because hair is keratinized protein.”

Nutritionist Sydney Greene tells AEDIT that those who avoid fats will notice that their hair is dry and damaged. “Gone are the days of fat-free living,” Greene says. “Women on intensive low-fat diets can see their hair become brittle and lifeless, so forget about all the low-fat foods and seek out full, healthy fats instead.”

You’re using too much conditioner (or not enough)

Those with oily hair tend to avoid conditioner, as it makes their hair too flat and shiny, while those with dry hair usually go overboard with it. Finding the right conditioner to use is crucial for your hair’s health, as everyone needs this step in their haircare routine. “Some people get conditioner phobic, but the catch-22 is that without conditioner, your hair will become brittle and eventually lifeless,” Fox & Jane founder and creative director Lorean Cairns tells Prevention.

Over-conditioning your hair can prevent other products from penetrating your hair cuticle, which is why you might find that oils or serums aren’t doing much for your hair. To avoid over-conditioning your hair, use a clarifying shampoo once a week, and when you wash your hair, always apply the conditioner from mid-length to the ends of your hair. Ultimately, you don’t want to stop using conditioner, but you can use it less or more based on your needs.

January 15, 2023 by wigallure Categories: hair, thinning hair, trichology, UncategorizedTags: #badhair, #protectyourhair Leave a comment

Losing Hair After Covid-19

Long-term side effects following COVID-19 infection have caused many devastating symptoms, from loss of taste and smell to brain fog and fatigue. Hair loss has also been reported as a common symptom. While this side effect could be one of the most alarming, it is short lived in most circumstances.

What causes hair loss?

Patients who experience hair loss from SARS-CoV-2 infection may notice clumps of hair falling out during their daily combings or while washing their hair in the shower. The phenomenon is known as telogen effluvium.

About 90 percent of hairs on our scalp are in a growth phase, called anagen, and about 10 percent of hairs are in a resting phase, called telogen. On our scalp, anagen lasts for about three years, and then hairs begin transitioning into telogen, which lasts between two to six months. At the end of telogen, our hairs are shed from their follicles and gradually replaced by new anagen hairs. Then, the growth cycle continues.

On average, people shed about 100 to 150 hairs a day. But when an individual experiences a stressful event, such as COVID-19 infection, our bodies can prematurely shift a greater than normal proportion of growing anagen hairs into a resting telogen state. “Instead of the usual 10 percent of hairs that are in the resting and shedding phase, up to 50 percent of hairs are resting and shedding, which is much more than normal,” says Powell Perng, MD, a dermatologist and specialist in hair loss (alopecia) at University of Utah Health.

What can trigger hair loss?

• Viral infections
• Hospitalization
• Surgery
• Childbirth
• Medications, especially hormonal medications
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Entering menopause
• Significant emotional stress

How long does hair shedding last?

The good news is the majority of telogen effluvium cases are over in about three to six months, when those additional hairs that were prematurely shifted into telogen have shed. According to Perng, this characteristic recovery happens after an inciting event, such as COVID-19 infection. When that period is over, those hairs will slowly shift back to normal. Telogen effluvium does not cause a person to lose their hair follicles. While hair may not temporarily grow, the hair follicles are still present, and hair will eventually regrow.

Even after the shedding has stopped, patients may notice their hair is not as thick as it once was. Perng says that’s because of how slowly the hair grows on average, which is about a centimeter a month. “If someone has shoulder length hair, it can take over two years for the new hairs to reach that length again and for a ponytail to feel full again,” he says.

In less than 10 percent of cases, patients may experience a condition called chronic telogen effluvium, where excessive hair shedding can persist beyond six months. “This can last for a couple months to a couple years, and usually no obvious cause can be found,” Perng says. “In this situation, we treat the symptoms the best we can with medical therapy.” 

Chronic telogen effluvium can be a symptom for long COVID patients. This is likely because their bodies are undergoing a significant amount of stress and are still not quite back to normal. Perng reassures patients who experience chronic telogen effluvium that they will not lose all of their hair, because the proportion of telogen hairs never exceeds 50 percent.

COVID-19 infection and hair shedding

According to published reports, hair shedding following COVID-19 infection can occur a little sooner than average. Instead of three months from an inciting event, it may be closer to two months. Other studies have also noticed faster recovery, around two to three months compared to six months on average.

Treatments

Treating a condition like hair shedding takes time and patience. “The best thing we can do as providers is provide reassurance that this is a self-limited condition and that hair will recover,” Perng says. Patients are provided the tools to evaluate their condition and monitor their progress at home. For example, a patient may be asked to do a 60-second hairbrush test and collect the hairs in a pile to see how much they are losing on a routine basis. Then, over time, the patient can get a sense of whether their condition is improving. 

Medications can be tricky, Perng explains, especially for patients with acute telogen effluvium. “A lot of times, we know these patients are going to recover spontaneously and on their own,” he says. “Once you start a medication for hair growth, it’s hard to know when to stop taking the medication.” As a dermatologist, Perng does not recommend medication during an acute phase. However, he says medication or other therapies make sense for patients who are still experiencing shedding four to six months after onset.

Perng points out that any kind of hair loss can be a significant emotional stressor, which in and of itself can contribute to hair shedding if it’s not managed. While it’s completely understandable to be distressed, Perng says that empowering patients to monitor their own progress at home and communicating the importance of stress management are invaluable to a successful recovery. We offer in house natural therapies to ensure that your follicles are in the best optimum condition when the new growth resumes. Call now for an indepth look at your scalp and follicles.

October 21, 2022 by wigallure Categories: alopecia, alternatives to wigs, androgenetic, androgenetic hair loss, bald, capillia products, children with hair loss, covid hair loss, hair loss, hair loss prevention, hair solution, head first, laser therapy, losing hair, medical, Men and women, scalp care, scalp therapy, seasonal shedding, telogen effluvium, thin hair, thinning hair, trichology Leave a comment

Scientists discover potential CURE for baldness – and it could be due to single chemical

Scientists say a single protein could cause hair loss and hair growth, which could lead toa cure for baldness and help heal wounds.

Scientists have found that a single chemical could be responsible for baldness.  Scientists have found a potential cure for baldness after identifying a single chemical which could be responsible for hair loss.

Protein TGF-beta controls which stem cells in hair follicles grow and which die, according to University of California researchers who published their findings in the Biophysical Journal.

But even when a hair follicle dies it does not kill its stem cell reservoir, which receives signals from TGF-beta to regenerate or divide, the Independent reports.

The study could not only lead to treatments for male pattern baldness, which impacts two in three men world wide, but also heal wounds.

Study co-author Qixuan Wang said: “In science fiction when characters heal quickly from injuries, the idea is that stem cells allowed it.”

She added: “In real life, our new research gets us closer to understanding stem cell behavior, so that we can control it and promote wound healing.”

Hair follicles are the only human organ that regenerate regularly and automatically.

The study authors said stimulating hair growth by activating follicle stem cells may be possible but more research is needed.

Earlier this month, Sam Cinkir, a hair and skin expert, said many men’s hair loss could be down to the types of cheap shampoo and products they are using rather than male pattern baldness.

The CEO of Este Medical Group said: “Styling products can contain between 15 and 25 chemicals and some of those ingredients can damage your scalp, promote dandruff and cause hair follicles to fall out.

“Damaging chemicals such as Isopropyl Alcohol and Propylene Glycol cause drying and breakages and do more damage than good.

“While another common mistake is using too much product and overexposing your hair to chemicals, or being too forceful with the application.”

Long Covid is now believed to be a cause of hair loss 

While Long Covid, which more than two million people are thought to be suffering from, can also cause hair loss as well as a range of symptoms.

It’s not the first time scientists have thought they were on the brink of a baldness breakthrough.

In 2017 they discovered a type of immune cell called T cells – or Tregs – have a direct link to hair growth.

When the cells were removed from mice hair did not grow back on shaved patches of skin.

Doctor Michael Rosenblum, an assistant professor of dermatology at University of California, San Francisco, said it was previously thought hair growth was entirely stem cell dependent but that their research showed without Tregs hair follicles stop working, raising the prospect that implanting the cells could regenerate lost hair. Reach out to your dermatologist and Wig Allure Hair Loss Center to find out what you can do now!

August 1, 2022 by wigallure Categories: alopecia, androgenetic, androgenetic hair loss, bald, hair loss, hair loss prevention, hair solution, laser therapy, Men and womenTags: #hair Loss, #hairsolutions, #healthyscalp, alopecia, bald, hair loss, hair quality, medical, thinning hair, wigs Leave a comment

THE YEAR AMERICA’S HAIR FELL OUT

The pandemic has been a near-perfect mass hair-loss event.

By 

Amanda Mull NOVEMBER 12, 2021 SHARE

When I first suspected that I was losing my hair, I felt like maybe I was also losing my grip on reality. This was the summer of 2020, and although the previous three months had been difficult for virtually everyone, I had managed to escape relatively unscathed. I hadn’t gotten sick in New York City’s terrifying first wave of the pandemic. My loved ones were safe. I still had a job. I wasn’t okay, necessarily, but I was fine. Now my hair was falling out for no appreciable reason. Or at least I thought it was—how much hair in the shower drain is enough to be sure that you’re not imagining things?

The second time it happened, a little more than a year later, I was sure—not because of what was in the shower drain, but because of what was obviously no longer on my head. One day, after washing and drying my hair, I looked at my hairline in the mirror and it was thin enough that I could make out the curvature of my scalp beneath it. I still had enough hair, but notably less than I’d had before the pandemic. Feeling a sense of dull panic at the no-longer-refutable idea that something might be wrong, I tipped my head forward to take a picture of my scalp with my phone’s front-facing camera. When I looked at it, the panic became sharp.

I did what everyone does: I Googled my symptoms. At the very top of the search results, a colorful carousel of vitamins, serums, shampoos, and direct-to-consumer prescription services appeared; a so-small-you-could-miss-it disclosure in one corner signaled that these products weren’t real search results, but advertising. Well below them, the real results weren’t much better—WebMD, a bundle of Reddit threads, medical journals whose articles would cost me $50 a pop, factually thin blog posts, natural-health grifters touting hair-growth secrets that doctors didn’t want me to know, product reviews that weren’t labeled as ads but for which someone had almost certainly been paid. I pressed on to gather whatever reliable-looking information I could find, itself full of terms I didn’t fully understand—effluvium, minoxidil, androgenic.

What I didn’t know at the time was that I had just started a quest for answers that many, many others had also undertaken in the previous year. Only a few months into the pandemic, around the same time when I first thought I might be losing either my hair or my mind, people whose hair was indeed falling out by the handful started to come forward. They showed up in Facebook groups about hair loss, in subreddits dedicated to regrowth, and in the waiting rooms of dermatologists and hair-restoration clinics. First there were a few, but then there were thousands. Some of them had had COVID-19, but others, like me, had not.

At first, the fire hose of products I’d been sprayed with felt like a very American type of reassurance—not only was my problem apparently common, but it was also widespread enough to be profitable, and therefore maybe it had a solution. In hindsight, the products feel more like a warning.

This story isn’t about a medical mystery. The pandemic was a near-perfect mass hair-loss event, and anyone with the most basic understanding of why people lose their hair could have spotted it from a mile away. The actual mystery, instead, is why almost no one has that understanding in the first place.

Hair loss, I eventually learned from my diligent Googling, can be temporary or permanent, and it has many causes—heredity, chronic illness, nutritional deficiency, daily too-tight ponytails. But one type of loss is responsible for the pandemic hair-loss spike: telogen effluvium. TE, as it’s often called, is sudden and can be dramatic. It’s caused by the ordinary traumas of human existence in all of their hideous variety. Any kind of intense physical or emotional stress can push as much as 70 percent of your hair into the “telogen” phase of its growth cycle, which halts those strands’ growth and disconnects them from their blood supply in order to conserve resources for more essential bodily processes. That, in time, knocks them straight off your head.

The pandemic has manufactured trauma at an astonishing clip. Many cases of TE have been caused by COVID-19 infection itself, according to Esther Freeman, a dermatologist and an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and the principal investigator for the COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, which collects reports of COVID-19’s effects on skin, nails, and hair. That doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with something unique about the disease, she told me—any illness that comes with a high fever can cause a round of TE, including common illnesses such as the flu. Among the millions of Americans who have been infected by the coronavirus, hair loss has been a common consequence, she said, both for patients whose symptoms resolve in a couple of weeks and for those who develop long COVID. Researchers do not yet know exactly how prevalent hair loss is among COVID-19 patients, but one study found that among those hospitalized, 22 percent were still dealing with hair loss months later.

COVID-19 infections are only part of the picture. Throughout the pandemic, millions more Americans have suffered devastating emotional stress even if they’ve never gotten sick: watching a loved one die, losing a job, going to work in life-threatening conditions, bearing the brunt of violent political unrest. Feelings can have concrete, involuntary physical manifestations, and these traumas are exactly the kinds that leave people staring in horror at the handfuls of hair they gather while lathering up in the shower.

All of these factors have led to what Jeff Donovan, a hair-loss dermatologist in Whistler, British Columbia, described to me as a “mountain” of new hair-loss patients since the pandemic began. What exacerbates the difficulty of dealing with hair loss for many patients, he and the other doctors I spoke with told me, is just how little good, if any, information on the condition the people coming into their offices are able to assemble, even if they broached the issue with other kinds of doctors in the past. “They don’t know what’s going on, they don’t know why they’ve spent so much money, and they’re just so confused,” Maryanne Makredes Senna, a co-director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s hair-loss clinic, told me. “It’s like, ‘I don’t know what to believe, and I went to this doctor and they made me feel like I was crazy.’” The doctors I spoke with said that their patients typically come to them after having seen at least a handful of other practitioners, and sometimes as many as 15.

This level of confusion—including my own—is, frankly, infuriating. Eighty percent of men and about half of women experience some form of hair loss in the course of their life. TE was first described in the 1960s, and it has long been a predictable side effect of surgery, changing medications, crash dieting, childbirth, bankruptcy, and breakups. The way TE resolves for almost everyone who doesn’t already have chronic hair-loss issues is that the hair eventually grows back—plain and simple. You would think, at some point, that someone would tell you not to panic if you lose some hair after something intense happens—that even if you shed for months, it will grow back eventually, and there’s no need to do anything but wait.

(Enviromantic / Getty)

For several reasons, many people don’t get much straightforward information on any type of hair loss, TE and beyond. For one, hair loss doesn’t really lend itself to the format of the modern American doctor appointment. Finding the right diagnosis can be a detailed, time-intensive process. “You cannot do everything for a hair-loss patient in a 15-minute visit,” Senna said, and that’s all the time many doctors get to have with their patients. Seeing a dermatologist who specializes in hair loss, she said, is more likely to get patients a visit of at least 30 to 45 minutes and a more detailed, empathetic evaluation—if a patient can figure out to go to such a dermatologist in the first place.

Moreover, hair loss typically isn’t a particularly urgent problem for practitioners who may have many other types of health concerns coming into their office. Most hair loss that isn’t triggered by some kind of trauma is caused by androgenic alopecia, or AGA, often known as male or female pattern hair loss. It’s passed on genetically and has no cure, although some safe treatments are widely available. Doctors busy with other things may shrug their shoulders at patients who have incurable conditions that aren’t physically dangerous or painful. And for panicking patients who hear “Wait it out” or “Buy some Rogaine,” that recommendation may feel dismissive or inadequate, even if it is correct.

Some causes of hair loss vary along ethnic lines, so getting answers can be even harder for certain patients. Susan Taylor, a dermatologist at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of the Skin of Color Society, told me that Black patients usually land in her office with more advanced hair loss than their non-Black counterparts, which can make treatment less effective. Black patients are more likely to have a type of hair loss called central centrifugal cicatricial alopecia, or CCCA. According to Taylor, many practitioners know little about CCCA, and their advice to patients suffering from it can be especially dismissive. “For Black women in particular, they’re told, ‘Stop your relaxers; don’t straighten your hair,’” Taylor said. “And then they say to me, ‘But Dr. Taylor, I always wear my hair natural. I don’t relax my hair.’”

What makes all of this harder is that hair loss—TE in particular—is a long game played on a wonky, counterintuitive timeline. It’s a nightmare for people trying to distinguish correlation and causation on their own. TE is temporary for almost everyone, but because of the vagaries of hair’s growth cycle, the shedding generally doesn’t start until two to four months after the stressor that triggered it occurred. By then, people are no longer thinking about the flu they had months ago—a new shampoo or medication might get the blame instead. And many people who experience TE have no idea whether their hair will ever come back; the shedding can go on for months before slowing down, and regrowth can take several more months to become visible to the naked eye. By the time people notice their hair growing back, a year may have passed since the process was set into motion. Once it starts, the only effective treatment is patience.

If you’ve never gone from normal hair to bald spots in a matter of weeks, you might be tempted to dismiss this as vanity. But people value their hair because the society they live in tells them it’s important. Women in particular have been told for centuries that their hair is their glory, which paraphrases a biblical edict about long hair as a demonstration of righteousness before God. A full head of hair, Donovan, the Whistler dermatologist, pointed out, is still a crude, unscientific shorthand for youth, for healthy living, for vitality. Losing it can send people into a profound depression, or make them ashamed to leave the house.

So people do what I did. They turn to the internet. Waiting for them is a booming market for nonmedical health products, ranging from the dubiously effective to the obviously scammy. Never does a new product look more promising than when you’re trying to solve a problem you don’t understand. In America, where competent medical care can be hard to access even for simple problems, hair loss—extremely common, highly emotional, absolutely confounding—is a case study in how much money there is to be made in this mixture of desperation and hope.

When I first began my own search for answers, the avalanche of hair-loss products under which Google immediately buried me was disorienting and overwhelming. It wasn’t just the beautiful, full-color photos of luxuriously packaged pills and oils that Google threw at me up front, but how the internet kept the score, using the admission that I was losing my hair to stalk me across time and platforms in a way seemingly designed to wear down my defenses. For months on end, those products and many more followed me around the internet, interrupting my friends’ Instagram stories of their latest cooking projects and slipping between my extended family’s Facebook posts about their kids’ first day of school.

At first glance, many of these products seem promising. Vegamour, a start-up that describes its shampoos and scalp serums as a “holistic approach to hair wellness,” can become practically inescapable if you use the internet to look at mainstream fashion and beauty products. It has a website and social-media presence befitting any luxury cosmetic, complete with videos of models tossing around their impossibly thick hair and promises of clinical proof that its products will grow yours. This clinical proof is not included on the site for scrutiny. (A spokesperson for Vegamour did not respond to questions about its products and website.)

Similarly omnipresent are brands of slickly packaged hair-growth supplements, such as SugarBearHair, whose Tiffany-blue gummy-bear vitamins can be found between the lips of celebrities such as the Kardashian-Jenner sisters in sponsored Instagram posts. Social-media influencers are common in this game. Wellness products are a marketing sweet spot for a class of celebrities who are supposed to be more relatable than traditional stars, because they seem to offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to be beautiful, but without really revealing anything at all. They are a simple way to assure an audience that you got hot through clean living, good nutrition, and a little self-care—that your entire deal isn’t one big, carefully stage-directed feminine farce. The catch, of course, is that the professionally beautiful absolutely do not rely on these types of products to ensure that their hair looks thick and luxurious. Celebrities, as Senna told me, generally don’t have incredible hair. Instead, they have incredibly expensive hair extensions and lace-front wigs. (SugarBearHair did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

In the United States, cosmetics and dietary supplements occupy a separate legal category from drugs. Their efficacy claims are far less regulated, which allows the manufacturers of nonmedical hair-growth products to make enticingly vague promises that would be more heavily scrutinized and caveated when made by a pharmaceutical company. Paradoxically, this freedom from regulatory surveillance can lead potential customers to assume that these products must be superior overall. The difference can seem implicit in the distinction from pharmaceuticals—if this class of products weren’t safer, more natural, and just as effective, wouldn’t the same level of governmental caution be applied to them? Can’t we infer something from its absence?

These assumptions and their attendant fears are explicitly encouraged by many supplement and cosmetic companies as a way to more effectively market their own products. Vegamour’s website, for example, includes a list of medical-grade ingredients that its products do not include, alongside context-free lists of the most unpleasant side effects that have ever been attributed to those ingredients, even if those side effects are quite rare. The site does not mention any potential side effects of its own products. Drug manufacturers are legally required to track and disclose side effects, but cosmetic companies are not.

You can see the effect anywhere that health problems are being discussed online, especially in spaces dedicated to regrowing hair. In one Facebook group with nearly 30,000 members, the same discussion plays out again and again: A new member asks for help, alongside photos of her thinning hair. Well-meaning people post links to buy the vitamins or essential oils that they’re currently using. They suggest a megadose of biotin, which has never been linked to hair growth in those without a biotin deficiency. They recommend an iron-supplementation protocol with its own Facebook group, even though taking iron supplements can be dangerous if you’re not deficient. Suggesting minoxidil can be controversial, even though it’s one of the only effective treatments for hereditary hair loss, has been studied for decades, and is widely available over the counter in cheap generics. People express a fear of side effects without getting more specific about what scares them. The most common side effect of minoxidil is scalp

When wading through the sludge of the internet’s hair-loss advice, if you’re lucky, you come across someone like Tala, whose last name I’m not using in order to protect her privacy. She’s a 39-year-old moderator of the Reddit forum r/FemaleHairLoss, which has grown from about 3,000 subscribers to more than 14,000 during the pandemic. The subreddit is a relative rarity on the internet: a place to crowdsource information about a tricky health problem where discussions tend to stay based in reality. People post lots of pictures of their head, either to ask whether it looks like they’re losing more hair than they should be or to show before-and-after photos of treatment plans that really work. They talk about minoxidil and finasteride. They trade hair-war stories about scalp injections and laser helmets, and tell newbies how to find a specialist who can actually help them.

Tala has AGA, the hereditary kind of hair loss, and has been losing hair since she was 30, but she considers herself lucky—she lives in an area with lots of good doctors and she can afford to see them, which means she has access to quality information. Passing on as much of it as possible feels important to her and the subreddit’s other moderators because of how vulnerable many of the group’s new members are. “I can’t tell you how many suicidal people come to this group,” Tala told me. “To know that somebody is suffering that much because they lost their hair, it breaks my heart.

Maintaining a safe, truthful environment is an uphill battle. “To keep this group running and to keep it free from shills and people who are trying to take advantage of it and spammers, it’s a lot of work,” Tala said. She and the other mods walk a difficult line: For the group to be helpful to as many people as possible, it has to feel welcoming and nonjudgmental, and it has to be free of people who might be trying to sell something. For the group to actually help, the moderators and regular commenters have to find ways to tell people who have spent so much money on “natural” cures that they maybe have been duped, without making them feel stupid or defensive. They teach people the basics of hair’s growth cycle, what to look out for when evaluating a scientific study, and which treatments are known to be effective for the type of hair loss they suspect they have.

Several of the doctors I spoke with think that communities like r/FemaleHairLoss, which encourage rigor and evidence-based treatment options, provide a useful port in the storm of internet health marketing and misinformation. Nonmedical products, the doctors said, are basically all useless for expediting the growth of existing hair—which is not possible in already healthy individuals—or reviving dormant follicles. Dietary supplements themselves can be useful, Senna said, but only for patients whose hair loss is caused by a nutritional deficiency, which is rarely the case for people eating a standard American diet. If you’re not medically deficient, more isn’t better—and it can certainly be worse. Senna mentioned biotin, large doses of which are extremely common in hair-growth supplements. Too much biotin can lead to an incorrect thyroid-disease diagnosis, she said. Thyroid disease can also cause hair loss, so the misdiagnosis can send doctors on a wild-goose chase. The whole problem becomes bigger than if you never took the supplements in the first place.

The myths commonly passed on as facts in some online hair-loss groups are a constant impediment to getting patients on treatment regimens that actually have some chance of helping their hair. “It can be very, very challenging to convince the patient that the diagnosis that she came up with from the internet is not the correct one,” Taylor, the University of Pennsylvania dermatologist, told me. With some types of chronic hair loss, the time that people spend trying things that don’t work is precious—the longer someone goes without effective treatment, the less effective they can expect that treatment to ultimately be.

In the case of TE, hair loss’s timeline is on the side of the wellness industry. Think about how all of this feels to the average person, who has no idea what’s happening to them or why, and who may not even realize that dermatologists treat hair loss—I didn’t. After a couple of months of shedding, they may get worried enough to start looking for remedies as their scalp becomes more visible. They pick up a bottle of hair vitamins and a vial of scalp oil, with the understanding that results will take a few months to see. Down the line, when they spot short little hairs filling back in around their hairline, they’ll attribute that regrowth to the things they bought, not their natural hair-growth cycle. Suddenly, they’re evangelists for their vitamins and oils, which seem like a miracle cure but did nothing at all.

The pandemic likely put this process into motion thousands—if not millions—of times. It’s a challenge that the supplement and cosmetic industries were well positioned to meet; beauty supplements and topical cosmetics are now often sold alongside each other, not just in luxury department stores and beauty emporiums such as Sephora and Ulta, but at Target or via Amazon’s recommendation algorithm. That these products don’t work matters very little to their profitability. In that way, this is a story that predates the pandemic by at least a century. When real, reliable information is hard to come by—in this case, when it is cut off from the general public by the structural limitations of the American health-care system—there will always be a market for new products with hollow promises.

December 14, 2021 by wigallure Categories: UncategorizedTags: alopecia, bald, covid, covid-19, hair loss, hair quality, medical, thinning hair, wigs Leave a comment

5 REASONS TO LOVE WEARING A WIG EVERY DAY

Women wear wigs for many reasons—more than you might think. Choosing a wig for the first time can feel discouraging, but it’s easier than it seems. Whether you’re experiencing hair loss or want to try a wig for fun, it’s worth it.

Whatever your reason for wearing a wig, whether it’s necessity or choice, check out these five reasons to love wearing a wig every day and embrace your style!

CONVENIENCE

Styling and caring for natural hair is time-consuming: deep conditioning, braiding, coloring, and curling take time and money to accomplish—not to mention patience. Wigs require some maintenance, but it’s minimal compared to natural hair. And for some wigs, like synthetic ones, the style is always set.

STYLES

Use a wig if you want to try a new style, especially something utterly different from your everyday look. Experimenting with wigs eliminates the commitment factor of a trip to your stylist. Whether you want a new cut, color, or style, a wig is a great way to try something new.

HAIR LOSS

Unfortunately, women lose their hair for many reasons. However, thinning or losing your hair isn’t always devastating. Finding the perfect wig involves only a little bit of planning; in a short time, you can look the way you once did—or as a new you. Regaining your confidence is essential, and wigs can help.

CONFIDENCE

Wearing a wig will give anyone confidence, whether you’re experiencing hair loss, a bad hair day, or you want to give your natural hair a break. Having a great hair day can make you feel more confident, giving you the self-esteem to face any challenges or enjoy a night out.

FUN

One of the most important reasons to love wearing a wig every day is simple—it is fun! For women going chemotherapy or other treatment, it is a small silver lining to an otherwise challenging time.

Wearing a wig can give you confidence and save time when you’re preparing for an important day. It can give your natural hair a break from constant exposure to styling products and tools. And a wig can help you discover a hairstyle that you love.

Ask us your professional stylist for help in finding your first wig. And whatever your reasons for wearing a wig, have fun with it! You deserve it!

August 30, 2021August 21, 2021 by wigallure Categories: UncategorizedTags: alopecia, hair loss, wigs Leave a comment

Buying a High Quality Human Hair Wig can Give Realistic and More Natural Experience than a Synthetic Wig

Hair are an important part of human personality, due to which people love to style their hair as per the latest fashion sense. However, it becomes quite difficult for women to style their hair desirably due to the hair loss problem. The answer to this issue is using a high-quality human hair wig.

Compared to a synthetic wig, it becomes possible for a woman to get a realistic and natural experience using a human hair wig in protective hairstyling. A human hair wig is a great investment as it improves the overall look for women. Moreover, it is a great addition to the fashionable wardrobe for women.

Trying a high-quality balayage wig has become a popular thing among women as it allows them to get a natural & realistic hair look. It is quite easy for women to buy a quality balayage color wig to ensure a protective hairstyle.

A human hair wig lasts for at least one year and it is a worthy investment for women. Besides, it is easy to wash a human hair wig, just like natural hair. There are limitless options available to choose a suitable human hair wig by considering types or colors.

Human hair wigs give a realistic and natural look than synthetic wigs to give an improved appearance for users. In addition, they don’t get burned on exposure to heat, but it is not the case with synthetic wigs. Many online stores sell different types of human hair wigs that are easy to install without any glue. As your specialist to explain the differences between the different fiber available for both wigs and toppers.

July 25, 2021 by wigallure Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Style

Hair Clone Follicle Preservation Freezes Follicles for the Future

Dr. Sara Wasserbauer

Hair today doesn’t have to be gone tomorrow, if the positive results of a new procedure continue to hold steady. 

Dr. Sara Wasserbauer, a hair restoration surgeon in Northern California, is performing HairClone Follicle Preservation, a procedure that allows patients who anticipate they might lose their hair in the future to bank hair cells so they can be used for treatments down the road.

“Discoveries in hair biology and preservation have slowly been progressing in the background in our field for years,” says Dr. Wasserbauer, former president of the American Board of Hair Restoration Surgery. “But now it is all coming together and essentially a whole third branch of hair medicine is opening up before our eyes.”

The first step is called hair banking, a method to preserve hair follicles when cells are the most active and vibrant. 

The Process

• Dr. Wasserbauer consults with a patient to qualify them. The best suited candidate is at least 18 years old and has a family history of serious hair loss.
• A date is scheduled for the procedure which will last less than two hours.
• For the procedure, Dr. Wasserbauer numbs an area on the patient’s scalp that is the length of a finger, then she removes up to 50 grafts for the sample.
• Dr. Wasserbauer examines the sample and documents the exact number of hairs, what they look like, and stores them in a refrigerated box that ships to the United Kingdom where the sample is cryopreserved and banked until needed.

Cryopreservation methods reach very low temperatures so any chemical activity in cells is stopped. If thawed correctly, the cells are then able to function normally.

The hair follicles are essentially frozen in time; the tissue stays viable for at least 20 to 30 years.

“We performed HairClone Follicle Preservation on patients in Northern California for the first time in 2020,” says Dr. Wasserbauer. “The hair follicles we removed are then cryogenically frozen which stops the aging process of the hair. The follicles are stored in the United Kingdom where tissue banking has been approved by the government. We are hoping the FDA will grant approval to store tissue at United States storage facilities sometime this year.”   

It looks like someday we will be able to transplant your own hair back on your head?

April 20, 2021April 19, 2021 by wigallure Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Does Medicare Cover Wigs for Cancer Treatment Hair Loss?

• Wigs and other hair prosthetics can help people feel more like themselves during and after cancer treatment.
• Although wigs may be beneficial for your mental health, they aren’t covered under original Medicare because they aren’t considered medically necessary.
• Some Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) plans may include coverage for wigs during cancer care.

Hair can be a powerful expression of individual and cultural identity. However, for many people with cancer, radiation and chemotherapy treatments come with hair loss as a side effect.

Treatment may last for several weeks or months. During that time, hair may fall out and regrow more than once.

Although every person’s experience with hair loss is unique, for some people these changes can be distressing — even traumatic. In one older Danish study Trusted Source from 2007, for example, women said their hair loss felt like a loss of individuality and attractiveness.

Hair prosthetics, including wigs, can help you feel more comfortable and confident during treatment and recovery.

Although Medicare will cover much of your cancer treatment, you may have to pay for wigs out of pocket because most Medicare plans don’t cover them.

Oliver Rossi/Getty Images

Will Medicare help pay for a wig as part of cancer care? 

Original Medicare (Medicare Part A and Part B) doesn’t cover products or services that are used for aesthetic purposes.

So, as important as wigs and other hair prosthetics may be for maintaining good mental health during cancer care, original Medicare doesn’t pay for the cost of wigs because they aren’t considered medically necessary.

Some private Medicare Advantage (Part C) plans do cover wigs, but guidelines vary from plan to plan.

Whether you’re new to Medicare or hoping to maximize savings on your plan, our Medicare guide can help.

What are Medicare’s coverage rules for wigs?

Medicare Part B covers some prosthetic devices known as durable medical equipment.

Certain prosthetics are considered medically necessary because they replace a body part or contribute to the healthy functioning of your body. These include:

• ostomy bags
• breast implants following breast cancer surgery
• surgical bras
• cochlear implants

However, Medicare doesn’t classify wigs as medically necessary prosthetics, even when they’re prescribed by your doctor and described as “cranial prosthetics.”

Coverage with Medicare Advantage

Medicare Advantage plans are private insurance plans, and some of these plans may cover wigs prescribed by your doctor.

To find out whether your Medicare Advantage plan covers the cost of one or more wigs, you can check your plan documents or talk with your plan administrator or benefits coordinator.

If you’re thinking about signing up for a Medicare Advantage plan, you may want to confirm that your new plan provides coverage for wigs if this benefit is important to you.

It’s a good idea to request any statements about coverage in writing before you make any final decisions about which plan to choose.

What about Medigap?

Medicare supplement (Medigap) policies are private insurance plans that help you pay your portion of the costs for Medicare-approved items and services.

Because wigs are not approved by Medicare, a Medigap plan can’t help you pay for them.ADVERTISING

Other cost saving options for wigs

Cancer treatment can be costly, even when you have Medicare. The good news is that a number of national charitable organizations can help you find free or low cost wigs.

Here are a few resources you can contact:

• local partners and affiliates of The American Cancer Society
• Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• The Verma Foundation
• The Sierra Vista Butterfly Club
• Wigs and Wishes (formerly Friends Are by Your Side)

To keep your costs down, consider these additional tips:

• Choose a synthetic wig, which is usually more affordable than human hair options, then have it trimmed by a stylist.
• Look for a synthetic wig that can be heat-styled so you can make the look your own.
• Talk with your employee benefits coordinator, local cancer support groups, and faith-based organizations to find out what resources are available to help in your area.

What else do I need to know about hair loss?

• Hair will usually regrow. For most people, hair will grow back in 2 to 6 months.
• Be gentle with yourself. Post-treatment hair may be finer than it once was. Soft-bristled brushes, less frequent washing, and careful styling may be a good idea for a while.
• Enjoy variety. Scarves, hats, turbans, and other head coverings may give your scalp a break from wearing wigs all the time and provide another option for self-expression.
• Talk about it. If hair loss is adding to the stress of cancer care, it may help to vent, fume, cry — and even make jokes — with people you trust. A journal may also be a great place to process your feelings.

The takeaway

For many people who’ve had cancer treatment, wearing wigs is one part of their overall self-care strategy. Look Good Feel Good!

Even though wigs may benefit your mental health if you have hair loss, Medicare doesn’t consider them medically necessary. That’s why original Medicare doesn’t cover the cost of wigs.

Some Medicare Advantage plans may help pay for wigs during cancer treatment, so it’s a good idea to check your plan’s benefits to see if they’re covered before you purchase a wig.

To find free or affordable wigs, reach out to one of the national charitable organizations that help people access wigs and head coverings during cancer treatment. You may find that local organizations and retailers have options for you as well.

February 15, 2021 by wigallure Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

Hair Loss and Its Causes…again

Hair Loss and Its Causes (another article)

Alopecia, the name given to hair loss, is more likely to be caused by a dominant gene passed down from the mother or father. It is normally sex-influenced and is inherited from the parent carrying the dominant gene although not all children of balding men and women will suffer hair loss or balding themselves.

Where women are suffering from female pattern baldness, the cause is due to the excess amounts of the male hormone (testosterone) in their bodies, usually inherited. Men producing too much testosterone will suffer from male pattern baldness, which occurs when testosterone reacts with other chemicals in the body and produces ‘dihydrotestosterone’ which again is hereditary.

Other causes of balding or hair loss can include stress, pregnancy, ageing, chemotherapy (radiation), hormone imbalance, psoriasis and other forms of illness and disease. It is wise to know why you are suffering from certain illnesses before seeking treatment for symptoms.

Hair loss can be treated using one of the many readily available medications, scalp rejuvenation and hair loss prevention programs ( headfirstpro.com), low light laser therapies and herbal and organic hair loss remedies as a drug free option, and diet plays and important part in curing or treating hair loss in both men and women.

To Use or Not To Use

These options are straight forward, although when selecting prescription medications, your Doctor will do his research into whether the hair loss medication is suitable for a man or a woman. Propecia, for instance, is only indicated for use as a male pattern hair loss treatment because it contains an ingredient known as Finasteride which can be harmful to women and their unborn children, or women who are breastfeeding.

One website I visited to find more out about Propecia had correct precautionary information, although one site I visited did not. There are many hair loss solutions that contain Finasteride, but whose suppliers do not spell out any precautions on their website, so in this case my advice is to ensure you visit a good number of websites supplying the same treatment in order to get a good overview of what it claims to do, and whether or not you should be taking the medication or not. Check with your dermatologist or trichology professional.

Another good point to mention is that if you are taking medication already and some can cause hair loss then certain hair loss treatments may be ruled out if they are known to interfere with your existing medication. Even herbal remedies need to be avoided so seek help from the most appropriate source. Always check with a professional to make sure your hair loss is not an indicator for something else.

January 27, 2021January 26, 2021 by wigallure Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

How a Wig and Hair Loss Solutions Store is Surviving the Pandemic

Surviving the pandemic has required this wig and hair-loss solution provider to jump through a lot of hoops. Read what they’ve done to change their business operations and safeguard their customers.

Image source: iStock.com

Nancy Kurfurst is the owner of Wig Allure Hair Loss Center in Lake Grove, New York, a store that has sold wigs, extensions, other types of “alternative hair” and related products and services for over 50 years. A beautician for 30+ years, Kurfurst says she found her calling in helping cancer patients and others who suffer from hair loss problems look good and feel good about themselves again.

At the beginning of 2020, Wig Allure employed six people in addition to Kurfurst and was flourishing. “There are 40 million women suffering from some type hair loss along with 50 million men,” says Kurfurst. “So that’s a huge clientele.” 

Although about 85% of the store’s patrons were cancer patients and others with hair-loss issues related to medical conditions, “we took care of anybody who wanted hair,” Kurfurst recalls. “If you wanted, needed, or had to have more hair, you came in. Whether it was extensions, ponytails, fun hair, vacation hair, it didn’t matter. Medical patients who wanted hair-loss solutions would bring friends and family in with them. We’d have up to 45 people in my store on a good Saturday.”

Nancy Kurfurst, Owner, Wig Allure Hair Loss Center

But then COVID hit and like so many other businesses, Wig Allure was hit hard. At first, Kurfurst thought her shop would have to shut down completely like hairdressers and other personal care providers in NY were required to do for several months. But as she read carefully through the guidelines she realized that as a medical provider of cranial prosthetics (eg, wigs for cancer patients and others with medical needs), she could keep the business partially open by making some drastic changes in the company’s operations. 

For starters, Kurfurst says, “We cleaned and sanitized the entire store and our workroom from top to bottom. After being in the same location for 40 years, it took us about six days just to get through every bin of hair. We are hair hoarders. We had so much hair for parts because we customize so many things for our clients. Sometimes we add hair, sometimes we have to make the wig bigger, sometimes we have to make it smaller. We have to fix the straps… So, you need parts. We had lots and lots of parts.”

The store was already set up with several private and semi-private rooms, so they did not have to alter the interior of the facility in any way.  Because of the medical patients they served, they already had hand sanitizing stations in place, too. 

Kurfurst put additional stringent safety procedures in place. “We got certifications both individually and the shop as a whole from Barbicide, which is the leader in sanitizing and disinfecting salons,” she says. In addition, the store provides the staff with masks and face shields, and employees are tested every three weeks for COVID-19. They have their temperatures taken every day when they come into the store, too. All clients have to fill COVID-19 forms about travel and contacts. “So, if somebody should come down with the disease, I have no problem reaching out to everybody that was in our shop at the same time,” says Kurfurst. 

Because many of Wig Allure’s clientele have compromised immune systems, Kurfurst and her employees went one step further. “We made a pact amongst ourselves not to go to any place that may be compromising, like eating inside a restaurant or going to a large gathering. We all know what we’re doing. And we all would never be able to sleep if we did something foolish that would endanger our customers.”

To make the store “incredibly safe” for medical patients with compromised immune systems, Kurfurst limits the people who can enter the shop and started a curbside pickup and drop off for some products and services. People who needed to come into the shop can do so on an appointment-only basis. To further limit exposure for people with compromised immune systems, she instituted virtual consultations and has customers to send in photos in advance of their appointments. As a result, some clients only have to physically enter the store once now instead of multiple times. Family and friends who once accompanied customers into the store now have to wait in the parking lot. The client can get their feedback by doing a “fashion show” of wig styles from a deck overlooking the parking lot that’s at the back of the store. 

Yet another change Kurfurst made was to increase the time between appointments to a half hour to allow enough time to completely sanitize each room when a customer leaves. “Once somebody leaves one of our chairs, we wipe the entire room down… floor, walls, you know, like anything that they possibly could have reached or touched, she explains.” The extra time between appointments further limits the total number of people the business can serve. 

Negative Impacts from the Pandemic

The pandemic caused Kurfurst to lose staff and income. Two of the original employees decided not to return to work for personal reasons. A third, an IT person, was furloughed. 

Sales plummeted due to limiting the number of people allowed in the store. Because Wig Allure derived significant income in the past from casual shoppers and customers’ support entourages, cutting back on who can come into the store has had a big, negative impact on the business. 

At first, the store was only open 2 days a week, and in July 2020, sales were down 55% to 65%. Now, the business is open 5 days a week. Things are a little better, but sales are still off by about 40% from normal, Kurfurst says.

Besides the loss of staff and income, Kurfurst, like many other businesses who are trying to stay open, has had to deal with extra costs, shortages, and price increases for supplies such as thermometers, face shields, masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing sprays and wipes. “Our industry as a whole has seen shortages of wigs, extensions, and hairpieces. They are much harder to come by as the lead time from factories has tripled,” Kurfurst notes. Then, too, she had to spend a lot of extra time dealing with insurance companies who covered wigs for cancer patients, but who were dragging their feet on paying medical providers.

Keeping the Business Afloat

How can you keep a store open when sales are impacted so severely? Kurfurst says that what has allowed her to keep going is “Living beneath my means” and maintaining a solid, “rainy day” cash reserve. “My mom always taught us to live below our means. You know, save for that day…you don’t need to spend every dollar you make.

“We drive a 10-year-old car. I’m not flashy; I don’t care what the Joneses and the Smiths are doing. I have a responsibility to the people that work for me. And I take that very seriously. That because if I’m frivolous, I can’t keep the doors open for them to be employed.“

By following that principle, Wigs Allure had a cash cushion to lean on and no business debt when the pandemic started. “But obviously that cushion got a lot smaller,” she says. After consulting with her accountant, she decided to apply for and had an SBA loan approved under the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program (EIDL). The loan provides peace of mind, stress relief, and more of a financial cushion as the pandemic continues. The low-interest rate and the long repayment term mean she won’t have to worry about being able to keep the store open if there’s another downturn or it takes longer than expected for business to return to normal.

In addition to money, every business needs customers to stay afloat. Wig Allure had always gotten most of its clientele from word of mouth and from referrals from medical professionals who worked with cancer patients. With so many other businesses closed, Kurfurst took pains to contact all her regular sources of referrals to let them know the store was still open and to tell them about the safety precautions the store had put in place.  Kurfurst has also put more time into social media outreach.  

Beneficial Changes

Although sales losses are difficult for a business, Kurfurst says that one of the pandemic-related changes she made has proven beneficial and will remain in place, even after the pandemic is over. That’s the virtual consultations she has with customers before they come into the store.  

“Prior to COVID people would come in with a group of people to choose the right kind of hairpiece or solution to their hair loss problem,” says Kurfurst. ”Each client in each room would have four or five or six people with them. And it would be chaotic.” 

While the members of the various groups could lead to sales of other products in the store, educating the patient or the client and helping them make the right choice was challenging. “Trying to give them the right hair sometimes got difficult because a client’s granddaughter would grab one wig and say ‘this would look good, on you, Grandma,’ and the client’s daughter would grab another, and so on. And sometimes the client/patient got lost.”

The virtual consultations before the in-store visit solve the problem, Kurfurst says. Her staff can discuss options, show styles, and send out pamphlets and other material in advance so the client can assimilate all the information and decide on options in a more orderly and thoughtful way.

Looking Ahead

What does Kurfurst predict will help her store and other small businesses in the future?  

“Well, I would think a vaccine would definitely help us,” she says. “And I just wish everybody would just be smart and be kind and wear a mask. The attitude that ‘it’s my right not to wear a mask’ doesn’t work for me. Just be kind; you protect me, I protect you.”

© 2020 Attard Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced, reprinted or redistributed without written permission from Attard Communications, Inc.

About the author:
Janet Attard is the founder of the award-winning  Business Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is also the author of The Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with Limited Budgets.  Follow Janet on Twitter and on LinkedIn

October 21, 2020October 20, 2020 by wigallure Categories: UncategorizedTags: hair loss, pandemic Leave a comment