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Hair loss can be caused by a number of sources, from stress and anxiety to genetics. However, the frightening reality is that some of your favorite hair products could actually be making fallout worse, drying out your strands and causing breakage from the root. If you find yourself suffering with thinning locks and are searching for the culprit, it may be time to evaluate your styling product lineup for the ingredients that could be behind it all.
While you undoubtedly purchased your styling products with the intention of making your hair better, there are actually certain ingredients to be on the lookout for in certain mousses, pomades, and styling gels that can make it worse. Yanet Vargas, Head Stylist at Blos Roses explains, “[Avoid] any harsh styling products (pomades, mousse, hair spray, leave-in conditioner and even dry shampoo) that contain high-levels of alcohol, sulfates, salts, and parabens as this can clog the hair cuticle, causing more stress on the scalp and accelerate the aging process, also known as hair thinning.”
These ingredients, while seemingly harmless, could be the root (pun intended) cause of your hair loss troubles. Responsible for drying out and building up your scalp, using hair styling products that contain alcohol and parabens without using a clarifying shampoo can build up over time and invoke thinning. “Reading the labels is important, these ingredients are easily found in most hair-care products and they can add stress on the scalp, causing even more fall out.” says Vargas. Instead, she suggests considering a clean, vegan formula for your styling products, with strengthening properties like biotin to minimize hair loss and improve the strands you have.
If your hair is prone to dryness, using alcohol based styling products will only further aggravate the problem, causing the strands to become brittle and weak. Once you’ve finally tossed the offending products, you’ll need to invest in a formula that restores the strength that was lost. Hair loss expert and board-certified surgeon Dr. William Yates suggests, “Using products with humectants and natural oils can make hair more supple and able to withstand heated styling methods.”
At the end of the day you want your styling products to help you achieve your best hair day possible, not cause it to fall out. Suffering from thinning hair can be incredibly frustrating, but tossing alcohol, paraben, and sulfate based formulas should make a dramatic difference in the texture of your strands and allow for better hair without worrying about breakage and weak locks.
