Working behind the chair, over the past few years we’ve seen a significant increase in hair loss, hair thinning and generally poorer hair health. Now we also run a trichology clinic, and these are the conversations we have most often, because this is what women just don’t get told. So, this is what we recommend to educate clients when they’re in your hands.
Your hair is working on a three-month delay
Every hair on your head is in one of three phases: growing, resting, or letting go. At any moment most of yours are growing, and that growth happens in cycles of roughly three months. This is the most useful thing for a client to understand, because it explains why nothing they try ever seems to work. A fortnight of anything can’t show a result. Your hair physically cannot grow that fast! The hair you can see today began developing weeks ago. What you feed your follicles this month shows up in the mirror around three months from now.
Shedding usually starts months before you notice
When the body senses a threat, it prioritises survival. Resources go to healing, repair and keeping you safe, and hair growth is not considered essential. More hairs get pushed out of the growing phase and into resting, and the shedding turns up weeks or months later. This is called Telogen Effluvium.
For most women it becomes noticeable around two to four months after the trigger, which is exactly why it is so confusing. You look at what you are doing now, and nothing explains it.
Stress, in this sense, is anything that forces the body to adapt:
• Bereavement, trauma, anxiety or depression
• Illness or infection, including flu and Covid
• Surgery or injury, when healing takes priority
• Rapid weight loss, intentional or medication assisted
• Nutritional gaps and hormonal change
• Months of poor sleep
Reassure your client that in many cases it’s temporary. Shedding may continue for several weeks to a few months before settling, and visible regrowth often takes a further three to six months as the cycle normalises.
Menopause changes the rules, not the outcome.
As oestrogen falls, its protective effect on the hair follicle falls with it. The growing phase can shorten, individual hairs come through finer, and the parting gradually widens. It tends to be slow, which is why so many women only notice when they’re looking at older photographs. It’s not vanity to mind about this, and it’s not inevitable that nothing can be done. What the follicle needs during this window is a steady, generous nutrient supply, precisely when most women are also running low on iron and eating less protein than they think.
It’s not what you eat, it’s what you absorb.
Iron supports normal oxygen transport around the body, including to rapidly dividing cells such as those in the hair follicle. Copper works alongside it, involved in normal connective tissue, pigmentation and iron transport. They work as a pair, so by combining plant based iron with vitamin C, your body absorbs the iron far more effectively. Example combinations include:
Spinach + peppers
Fortified oats + berries
Seeds + kiwi
Greens + a squeeze of lemon
Healthy hair is rarely just about hair.
Your follicles depend on nutrients, hormones and immune signals that originate much deeper in the body. A thriving gut microbiome helps you absorb iron, zinc and B vitamins, supports immune balance and influences hormone metabolism. When it’s struggling, the knock on effects can reach your hair.
It doesn’t mean every hair problem starts in the gut, but in the clinic we always look at the bigger picture: Hair, Scalp, Nutrition, Hormones, Stress, Gut health.
Healthy hair is the result of many systems working well together, not one product working miracles, especially if that product is a topical shampoo for example.
We hope these topics prove to be a valuable conversation starter, and we’re always happy to chat about all things hair health – find us on Instagram at seedandsoul.co_
