Vintage Jolie: Beauty Question: Thinning Hair
Wednesday, August 17th, 2005
I get tons of emails everyday asking for help with beauty dilemmas, so I’ve decided that I’m going to occasionally post them, in the event that anybody else has similar problems!S. writes me,
Beauty Question: Thinning Hair
I’m writing you to ask for some hair care advice. I’ve been dying my hair about six times a year since I was fourteen. I’m twenty eight now. Mathematically that spells disaster for my hair. It’s still long…unlike you I don’t have the brevity to cut it, though in honesty it really just needs to be chopped to my chin. The ends are fried, split and horribly thin. Worse and far more embarrassing is that it has begun falling out. A lot. Long platinum blond strands continue to fall out everywhere and my hairbrush looks worse than the one that girl holds out in the Garnier Fructis commercial. It’s sad. I need a product that will regrow hair. It used to be thick and lovely and now I find myself parting it certain ways to hide ultra-thin areas. I’m turning into The Donald and I’m not even thirty yet. Can you recommend something?Thanks. S
S,Honestly, the first step is to get a haircut to remove all of the dead ends. I had a similar dilemma last summer: my hair was several inches past my shoulders and I was obsessed with keeping it long. But after it got fried—thanks random hairstylist, wherever you are!—there wasn’t much I could do to salvage it and I was forced to chop it all off. If you are bound and determined to keep your long hair, however, there are definitely some products you could try: namely those by Nioxin and by JF Lazartigue, both of which have cult products designed to help with regrowth that many women swear by. (Try Stimulactine by Lazartigue or Bionutrient Actives Treatment by Nioxin). I also love Appearex vitamins, available at CVS.)Put hair color plans on hold until you’ve gotten rid of all the dead bits, and try not to curl it, blow-dry it, or straighten it—air-drying will be your hair’s new best friend! Go in for small trims regularly—about every six weeks—to get rid of the dead ends as frequently as you can. It will probably take the better part of a year, but eventually your hair will grow in and recover and the fried hair will be replaced by new, healthy hair. Good luck!
