The lost art of hair brushing

[IrishLass]

On the other hand, it's normal to lose 50 to 100 hairs a day. If you keep your hair braided or otherwise confined a lot of the time, then it's likely you'll see a lot of those hairs in your brush or comb, because your hair can't shed it as freely.

Whew, that's very reassuring! Lately, I've been wearing my hair in a French braid, sometimes going for as long as 2 or 3 days with it braided before combing it out with my wide-tooth comb and washing it (my braid surprisingly holds up quite nice for that long), and when I finally get around to combing it out, there's a lot more hair that ends up in my comb than when I wear my hair down.

I wash my hair about 2 to 3 times a week with Suave shampoo and conditioner, which my hair seems to like just fine. I would have to say that it's been about 30-something years that I last used a brush on my hair. I just use a large-tooth comb and I only comb it when I go style it. My hair is straight and reaches a few inches below my shoulders and is a natural mixture of light brown with white streaks right now. I used to color it about twice a year to cover the ever encroaching strands of white, but the past 2 years I've just let it go au natural. A few months ago a young 20-something gal complimented me on my hair color. She thought it looked really cool, as if I had purposely colored it to get it to look this way (like several young girls seem to be doing nowadays as a trend). That made me feel so hip! lol I didn't tell her that it's just my natural color.


IrishLass

 

[shunt2011]

Whew, that's very reassuring! Lately, I've been wearing my hair in a French braid, sometimes going for as long as 2 or 3 days with it braided before combing it out with my wide-tooth comb and washing it (my braid surprisingly holds up quite nice for that long), and when I finally get around to combing it out, there's a lot more hair that ends up in my comb than when I wear my hair down.

I wash my hair about 2 to 3 times a week with Suave shampoo and conditioner, which my hair seems to like just fine. I would have to say that it's been about 30-something years that I last used a brush on my hair. I just use a large-tooth comb and I only comb it when I go style it. My hair is straight and reaches a few inches below my shoulders and is a natural mixture of light brown with white streaks right now. I used to color it about twice a year to cover the ever encroaching strands of white, but the past 2 years I've just let it go au natural. A few months ago a young 20-something gal complimented me on my hair color. She thought it looked really cool, as if I had purposely colored it to get it to look this way (like several young girls seem to be doing nowadays as a trend). That made me feel so hip! lol I didn't tell her that it's just my natural color.


IrishLass

Your story is too funny. I actually have shoulder length hair. It's thick and natural curly so I use a comb to part my hair then just blow it around to dry it. I never brush my hair. Once in awhile I'll blow dry my bangs. I wash it 2-3 times a week. I too use Suave or sometimes Pantene. I've kept it heavily highlighted with blond for several years now. I'm tired of fighting the fact that I'm about 80% grey. Decided I'm going to have it highlighted with grey to match the heavy grey I have and to let the hair grow out. So, today is the day. Fingers crossed it looks good.

 

[Lye-h20-oil]

Your story is too funny. I actually have shoulder length hair. It's thick and natural curly so I use a comb to part my hair then just blow it around to dry it. I never brush my hair. Once in awhile I'll blow dry my bangs. I wash it 2-3 times a week. I too use Suave or sometimes Pantene. I've kept it heavily highlighted with blond for several years now. I'm tired of fighting the fact that I'm about 80% grey. Decided I'm going to have it highlighted with grey to match the heavy grey I have and to let the hair grow out. So, today is the day. Fingers crossed it looks good.

That's a great idea! Let us know how it turned out.

 

[karon L adams]

Breastfeeding also causes some more than normal hair fall.... Just sharing lol

It's not the breastfeeding that causes the hairfall, it is the "not being pregnant anymore". Pregnancy hormones cause you to stop losing as much hair while pregnant. it also alters the way your body takes up and uses proteins, which, in turn, leads to fuller, more lustrous hair and nails at the same time your bra size increases. After pregnancy, your bra size is still larger because of volum,e issues, your hair and nails are no longer being built as an aside to the other muscle and tissue changes. when you reach middle age, one of the first things you are recommended, if you want to improve your hair and mails as you approach "The Change" is to take pregnancy vitamins.

 

[shunt2011]

It's not the breastfeeding that causes the hairfall, it is the "not being pregnant anymore". Pregnancy hormones cause you to stop losing as much hair while pregnant. it also alters the way your body takes up and uses proteins, which, in turn, leads to fuller, more lustrous hair and nails at the same time your bra size increases. After pregnancy, your bra size is still larger because of volum,e issues, your hair and nails are no longer being built as an aside to the other muscle and tissue changes. when you reach middle age, one of the first things you are recommended, if you want to improve your hair and mails as you approach "The Change" is to take pregnancy vitamins.

Taking pre-natal vitamins is not recommended during menopause. There are several studies that have proven they can be more harmful than helpful in many cases. There is no proof/studies that pre-natal vitamins do indeed improve with hair and nails or any other vitamins that claim to do so either for that matter. Too much folic acid can mask B-12 deficiency. There is also too much iron for those who are older and no longer having periods and the levels can build up and be toxic to the liver and other organs.

 

[Megan]

Breastfeeding also causes some more than normal hair fall.... Just sharing lol

I strangely never experienced this....I was waiting for it, but nothing. I also didn't notice more hair when I was pregnant though, just a normal amount.

 

[Dawni]

I strangely never experienced this....I was waiting for it, but nothing. I also didn't notice more hair when I was pregnant though, just a normal amount.

I did not experience it this much with my elder boy, who breastfed for only about 4 months coz I had to return to work.

Now I'm a full time mom, and it's gonna be a year and 4 months, and my hair fall is crazy..... I know it could be something else too, but I have several friends and family members who experienced the same thing.

 

[jcandleattic]

Hair growth is a funny thing. I've been grey (or at least got my first grey hair) when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was 24!! Now, if I didn't dye/highlight I would probably be full grey. When I retire I will let it go natural so it will be easier to dye in pastel colors, like pink, purple, blue, etc., I cannot wait for that! I used to do that all the time at my last job, but here it is a no-go...

I don't use a lot of product in my hair. Besides the dye job every 8-10 weeks, and shampoo/conditioner 3 times a week. I only use a handmade hair serum I make using mostly fractionated coconut oil once a week. I NEVER blowdry my hair and refuse to let the hair stylist use any heat or blow dryer on my hair either. I will do a quick curl on my very thin bangs with my flat iron once a day - that's all I do as far as products. I don't use hairspray, or other commercial products in my hair.

With all that being said, my hair is super smooth, and healthy. I don't know if I comb it 100 strokes a day, and certainly never at one time, but I brush my hair periodically throughout the entire day. I rarely get split ends, frizzies, (my hair is not 'straight' but it's not curly either, somewhere in between) or anything of that nature.

Again as I said body changes and chemicals will do funny things to hair growth. My brother had the most awesome head of auburn hair around. But it was very thick and course. When he went through chemo and lost it all, when it grew back he was completely white (red heads rarely turn grey/white naturally - my grandmother never dyed and had only a handful of greys when she passed at 72) and my brothers hair not only came back white, but felt like rabbits fur. I've never felt hair so soft. It was amazing.

 

[Dawni]

This is my mom at 64. She has this awesome ombre effect going on that people think came by salon but that's just her stopping coloring her hair lol

I can't remember when she started going grey but my younger sister has more than me, when you lift her hair from the temples. I have some there now at 34, and a couple here n there elsewhere.

Oh btw, when mom stopped coloring she claims she's had fewer headaches, and with less intensity ^^

But back to brushing..... This lady probably brushes more than 100 strokes each day, after shower. She doesn't blow dry either. She sits in front of the fan and starts brushing til forever lol

Edited to add the pic *smacks forehead*

 

[earlene]

Dawni, your mother is lovely, as is her hair. I expect her youthful beauty has as well carried over into your genes, which you have also passed on to your children.

 

[IrishLass]

Hair growth is a funny thing.

I concur! True story- one of my cousins (who had medium-thick, but straight hair) got into a bad car accident when she was about 16, landing her in the hospital for a few weeks. She broke many bones and had to get pins placed in them in a few places. Anyway, from that point on, her hair went from growing out straight as it normally did, to growing out super curly.....we're talking beautiful spiral curls.....the kind of curls I spent a fortune on trying to achieve at the salon with permanent waves. To this day (30 some odd years later), it's still spirally....and effortlessly gorgeous.


IrishLass

 

[Dawni]

Dawni, your mother is lovely, as is her hair. I expect her youthful beauty has as well carried over into your genes, which you have also passed on to your children.

Thank you @earlene, my mom is a beautiful person inside and out

Time will tell about me.. As I said I'm 34 (profile pic is from June) but people mistake me for younger because.... Not coz I look young.. Because I'm so short! Haha

@IrishLass, I concur too. I have a cousin who also had straight hair and one day decided to shave it all off just like that. When it grew back it started with waves, and now it's curly.

Another cousin went reverse. Had curly, tried a pixie cut and when her hair grew longer it just didn't curl like it used to.

It's like the hair got upset with them and didn't wanna be friends again lol

I'm half afraid to cut my lil ones hair coz I don't wanna lose his curls..

 

[DeeAnna]

When in high school, I fell in gym class while trying out the parallel bars (I'm soooo not an athlete!) and I hit my head pretty hard. I fell onto a padded mat, but it was still a hard enough impact to give me a concussion and split the skin at the top of my forehead just above the hairline. After the tear healed, the hair just below the scar grew in unusually coarse and curly. It was so wiry and bouncy it caused my bangs to do strange things and I had to keep that little line of hair trimmed short. This hair eventually developed a normal texture, but it took maybe 10 years to do that.

My friend Claudia lost her hair during chemotherapy and it grew back really curly. Again, the curls gradually relaxed as the years went by.

Viral diseases can permanently change hair color. My grandmother was silver at age 28, and I had a 20something co-worker whose hair was also white from a bad bout of some virus. He was handsome even with normal colored hair, but he was really striking with a head of silver-white hair and dark brown eyes. What's odd is both my grandmother and this guy had normal-colored eyebrows; it was just their scalp hair that was white.

 

[Dennis]

Getting older is like having a second puberty again. All these changes that we go through. I'm glad that the problem was only temporary for you.
Now I am off to the dishsoap thread to ask a question about lard

It's not near the fun of the first time.

 

[artemis]

It's not near the fun of the first time.

I don't remember it being fun the first time...

 

[Susie]

I remember when I was a child hearing about how people would brush their hair 100 strokes every night. I'm sure I tried it, but definitely didn't stick to it. My normal routine on brushing would be, brush from the ends to get the tangles out, then brush the rest until it has no tangles. I would estimate this being about 25 wet strokes and I usually would never brush my hair when it was dry because of frizz. I would wash and condition my hair every shower, up until about 4 years ago I started washing 2x a week but would condition almost every shower. Now that I have this strange liquid soap preservative allergy I have been struggling with my hair routine. Long story short, I watched a video on how Indian and middle eastern women put oil in their hair and brush, brush, brush before washing. Then I found a video on how before bathing was in style people would not wash hair frequently but they would brush the natural oils through the hair from scalp to ends. Now the 100 strokes seems like a good idea! For the past week I have been brushing my dry hair every night for what seems to be close to 100 strokes then combing it from scalp to ends for a few more strokes. No washing hair this week because the vinegar rinse is not going so well but I do get it wet and condition the ends with coconut oil. The first 5 days I had a frizzy mess but now it seems to be softer. Anyone who has a hair brushing technique or story please share! Btw, I have below shoulder wavy thick hair, not oily and slightly dry.

Not everyone can use hand made soap on their hair. I had to have 16 inches cut off due to damage caused by hand made soap. Just to warn you that it might not be the preservative or vinegar causing the issue. It may just be the soap. Some people's hair flourishes with the liquid soap/vinegar routine. YMMV.

 

[Lye-h20-oil]

Not everyone can use hand made soap on their hair. I had to have 16 inches cut off due to damage caused by hand made soap. Just to warn you that it might not be the preservative or vinegar causing the issue. It may just be the soap. Some people's hair flourishes with the liquid soap/vinegar routine. YMMV.

It's definitely the the preservatives, I had the allergy patch test done and it came back possitive for both preservatives used in most liquid soaps. Yup so far my hair is very unhappy with this conclusion, my hands hate the preservatives and my hair loves them.

 

[DeeAnna]

I'm puzzled -- why would your hair "love" preservatives? I'm not arguing that you're allergic to them, just wondering why you're suggesting a preservative can benefit hair.

 

[Lye-h20-oil]

I'm puzzled -- why would your hair "love" preservatives? I'm not arguing that you're allergic to them, just wondering why you're suggesting a preservative can benefit hair.

It's the shampoo my hair loves not specifically the preservatives. The shampoos that I have used in the past have preservatives.

 

[karon L adams]

I'm puzzled -- why would your hair "love" preservatives? I'm not arguing that you're allergic to them, just wondering why you're suggesting a preservative can benefit hair.

"Preservatives" are neither good nor bad in and of themselves. smoke is a preservative, so is vinegar and sugar. the most important thing for your hair health (and skin, FTM) is the proper pH and protection. after making handcrafted, cold processed soap for 25 years, I donj't use soap at all, anymore. oil baths are better for you skin, especially as you get older. oil masques on the hair is extremely nourishing. any kind of soap will strip the natural oils from your hair along with the dirt, while an oil mask will nourish it and a good, deep warm water rinse will carry away both the excess oil (that your hair does not absorb) and the dirt and all) with it.

I'll use coconut oil, sometimes, or avacado (often whole avacado cause the micronutrients are also good), then a nice warm rinse. rinse after with vinegar. if you still feel the hair is a bit oily, wrap it with plain woven cotton for a while. that will also absorb and oil the hair doesn't want.

then a good, deep brushing with natural bristles, wood for curls, boar for straight and only a comb when wet. I put essential oil onto my brush for hair close to the root, then Argan oil for the brush at the ends. (yes, I brush them separately)

maintaining color and health is about pH and blood circulation. I had some health issues that damaged my hair and so I have done a great deal of research since. China has a great wealth of information about heir and hair health. there were several herbs taken internally and used externally that helped several Empresses of China keep black hair well into age.