Q: I’ve turned thirty and I’m starting to worry about losing my hair. It’s still all there but I think it’s thinning and looking a bit limp. There are also loads of hairs on the shower floor after I’ve shampooed. Is there anything I can do in the way of damage control? Should I avoid using styling products? Shampoo less?
Jim, Leeds
Our expert Ahmed Zambarakji answers your questions below:
A: You’re getting way ahead of yourself, mate. First of all, it’s perfectly normal to shed in the shower – the average guy loses a hundred hairs per day and most of them will be very visible on the whiter-than-white surface of your shower floor. Secondly, age doesn’t necessarily equate to hair loss - it has far more to do with your genetics and whether there’s a history of male pattern baldness in your family. Some guys start to lose their hair in the early twenties while others have a full and lustrous Fabio-like barnet well into the winter of their lives. It all depends on the hand you were dealt at birth.
The future of your follicles can usually be determined by the state of your dad’s hair (or lack thereof), a sight that has, understandably, got 70 per cent of blokes more concerned about losing their locks than ‘inevitabilities’ like weight gain or wrinkles. My dime store psychology leads me to believe that hair loss has absolutely nothing to do with hair. It’s about men losing their virility and power. And that, my friend, is a fear shared by every red-blooded male on the face of this planet. So take a chill pill.
Short of transplant surgery and some very hardcore drugs, which come with dodgy side-effects, I don't believe there's an absolute ‘cure’ for hair loss in full swing. On the other hand, there are a number of non-prescription solutions to help delay and correct conditions as complex as thinning or hair loss in its early stages (we’ll get to these in ‘Part Two’ of my answer). Remember, as with all things grooming-related, there is no quick fix. Repeated use of the following formulas is the key to dealing with a condition like hair loss or thinning....
Find Ahmed at theexfoliator.com
(Image: Rex Features)
