Hair, There and Everywhere!
"Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin!"
-one of the three pigs to the Big Bad Wolf.
“gray hair is gods graffiti”
― Bill Cosby
I personally do not know any woman who absolutely, hands down, loves her hair. I also personally do not know one single woman who doesn't do something to her hair, whether it's straighten curly hair, curl pin-straight hair, chemically treat it, dye it, frost it or chop it off. Every woman has a total love/hate relationship with her hair. Just like the hairstyle we had in high school is not the same hair style we have in our 50's - or I hope to God it isn't!- the actual hair we had when we were younger is very dissimilar to the hair we have as we age, and no where is that more evident than during the menopause years. So if you really hated your hair before, you're in for some not so pleasant moments ahead ( pun!). If you've come to a meeting of the minds with regards to your hair, know that there are some changes afoot for both of you.
During the menopause years, it's been theorized that up to half of the female population goes through some sort of hair loss or thinning out. Many also report having hair pop up in areas where it never was before, like the chin, or nipples. Egads! I don't know what's worse: rogue hairs growing in odd, noticeable places, or losing it where it counts, like the top of your head. There are a few medical terms to define these situations:
Androgenic alopecia: basically, this is hair loss or severe thinning due to hormone fluctuations and loss. It typically occurs on the head and in pubic hair. The first area I am concerned about. The second, who cares? Less to wax. Many women experience this thinning in the scalp first, leading them to think they are going bald. While men go through this too, the typical pattern of the thinning is drastically different. Mens' hairlines start to recede backwards from the farhead, loosing the hair completely over time. Women don't recede, they just thin. But that's bad enough! Thinning hair not only occurs from menopause and loss of hormones though. It could also indicate other diseases present like a thyroid condition or even diabetes, so consult your physician for further guidance regarding diagnosis and/or treatment.
Hirsutism: this is production of excess hair, usually in places you don't want it, like the face. But the hair on your legs and under your arms can also get darker, thicker and change in texture. You actually do have hair almost every place you look on your body, except your lips, the bottoms of your feet and the palms of your hands. Just because you can't see the hairs, it doesn't mean they aren't there. Think about the last time you got cold and experienced goose bumps. That was actually your hair follicles standing on end. Notice where you felt chilled and goose-bumpy. Guaranteed it was a place you don't typically associate with hair growth. Your hair follicles are super sensitive to hormones and an imbalance will usually lead to the changes you see in menopause: hair that used to be downy and fine is now thicker,more coarse and may be a different, darker shade than you usually have.
What to do? Well, there are a few ways to deal all this. First, you can drink, but that doesn't solve anything and when you're sober again, you'll still have hair issues. You can tweeze the hairs that are noticeable, like on your face and chin. Tweezing a few straggely hairs is okay, but if you've got a clump of them, or a lot of them over a well defined area, this is not such a great method of removal. I know we've always heard that if you tweeze a hair it will grow back darker and thicker, but that's generally untrue.Now tweezing is best done in a warm, moist environment, like when you first get out of the shower. Your pores are open when they are warm and moist, so that will make the hair easier to remove. A great magnifying mirror is a must as well.
Now if the hair growth is in an area where you can't or don't want to tweeze - don't shave it! I know we've always shaved our legs and underarms, but I don't recommend shaving a hair on your nipples or in your pubic zone! You can think of the ramifications of a problem here, you don't need me to spell them out. What do you think waxing was invented for??!! Yes, it can be slightly painful when you get it done, but the more often you do it the less pain involved. And the hair growth abates for about 4-6 weeks before you need to start it up again. Shaving lasts less than a day. Getting it done at a salon can be costly but I would rather have someone else inflict the pain then gear up on my own to do it to myself.
For thinning hair you have a few more choices. Getting a new hairstyle that covers or conceals the thinning layers is a great pick-me-up, not to mention a good way of disguising the problem. A softer color is a good idea as well. If you've been dying your hair coal black for thirty years, your scalp will start to show no matter how flattering the hairstyle. Opt for a more subtle tone. Speak to your hairstylist and or/colorist. That's what they are there for. They can also show you products that pump up the volume of the hair you do have to make it look thicker again. I'm not a big fan of these, but hair extensions, "falls" and even wigs were invented for a reason. I actually lost 90% of my hair several years ago due to a weird virus and had to wear a wig for 9 months until it grew back in. I was never so thankful for wigs as I was then! A word of caution about extensions, tho. They are sewn on or adhered to you own hair and they are not light in weight. They will pull on your natural hair. If your hair is already thinning, this excess pulling may prove problematic. Again, a really good and trusted stylist can help is a number of ways.
Some menopausal women start to have almost allergic responses to products they have been using for years, such as hair color brands, sprays, and even dipilatories. Rashes, blisters, and scales can occur a few hours after a hair color session. These are not life threatening but they are bothersome. Using less chemically dense products and products without paraphenylenediamine (PPD) will help. The darker your color shade the more PPD there is, so there is another argument for softening and lightening the color. You can also try the colors that are semi-permanent and /or wash out after several shampoos. And use shampoos and conditioners that aren't heavy and loaded down with chemicals. These can hurt the aging hair as well, contributing to thinning. If your shampoo has a hundred ingredients you can't pronounce, look for something more natural.
We all want hair, but not any hair will do! We want OUR hair until we die. Or is that DYE?
I want to leave you with some worthwhile quotes from three ubersuccessful postmenopausal women concerning their hair:
“There's a reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don't look the way they used to, and it's not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It's because of hair dye. In the 1950's only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and Los Angeles where there are no gray-haired women at all.”
― Nora Ephron
I think that the most important thing a woman can have- next to talent, of course- is her hairdresser.”
― Joan Crawford
“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”
― Coco Chanel
-one of the three pigs to the Big Bad Wolf.
“gray hair is gods graffiti”
― Bill Cosby
I personally do not know any woman who absolutely, hands down, loves her hair. I also personally do not know one single woman who doesn't do something to her hair, whether it's straighten curly hair, curl pin-straight hair, chemically treat it, dye it, frost it or chop it off. Every woman has a total love/hate relationship with her hair. Just like the hairstyle we had in high school is not the same hair style we have in our 50's - or I hope to God it isn't!- the actual hair we had when we were younger is very dissimilar to the hair we have as we age, and no where is that more evident than during the menopause years. So if you really hated your hair before, you're in for some not so pleasant moments ahead ( pun!). If you've come to a meeting of the minds with regards to your hair, know that there are some changes afoot for both of you.
During the menopause years, it's been theorized that up to half of the female population goes through some sort of hair loss or thinning out. Many also report having hair pop up in areas where it never was before, like the chin, or nipples. Egads! I don't know what's worse: rogue hairs growing in odd, noticeable places, or losing it where it counts, like the top of your head. There are a few medical terms to define these situations:
Androgenic alopecia: basically, this is hair loss or severe thinning due to hormone fluctuations and loss. It typically occurs on the head and in pubic hair. The first area I am concerned about. The second, who cares? Less to wax. Many women experience this thinning in the scalp first, leading them to think they are going bald. While men go through this too, the typical pattern of the thinning is drastically different. Mens' hairlines start to recede backwards from the farhead, loosing the hair completely over time. Women don't recede, they just thin. But that's bad enough! Thinning hair not only occurs from menopause and loss of hormones though. It could also indicate other diseases present like a thyroid condition or even diabetes, so consult your physician for further guidance regarding diagnosis and/or treatment.
Hirsutism: this is production of excess hair, usually in places you don't want it, like the face. But the hair on your legs and under your arms can also get darker, thicker and change in texture. You actually do have hair almost every place you look on your body, except your lips, the bottoms of your feet and the palms of your hands. Just because you can't see the hairs, it doesn't mean they aren't there. Think about the last time you got cold and experienced goose bumps. That was actually your hair follicles standing on end. Notice where you felt chilled and goose-bumpy. Guaranteed it was a place you don't typically associate with hair growth. Your hair follicles are super sensitive to hormones and an imbalance will usually lead to the changes you see in menopause: hair that used to be downy and fine is now thicker,more coarse and may be a different, darker shade than you usually have.
What to do? Well, there are a few ways to deal all this. First, you can drink, but that doesn't solve anything and when you're sober again, you'll still have hair issues. You can tweeze the hairs that are noticeable, like on your face and chin. Tweezing a few straggely hairs is okay, but if you've got a clump of them, or a lot of them over a well defined area, this is not such a great method of removal. I know we've always heard that if you tweeze a hair it will grow back darker and thicker, but that's generally untrue.Now tweezing is best done in a warm, moist environment, like when you first get out of the shower. Your pores are open when they are warm and moist, so that will make the hair easier to remove. A great magnifying mirror is a must as well.
Now if the hair growth is in an area where you can't or don't want to tweeze - don't shave it! I know we've always shaved our legs and underarms, but I don't recommend shaving a hair on your nipples or in your pubic zone! You can think of the ramifications of a problem here, you don't need me to spell them out. What do you think waxing was invented for??!! Yes, it can be slightly painful when you get it done, but the more often you do it the less pain involved. And the hair growth abates for about 4-6 weeks before you need to start it up again. Shaving lasts less than a day. Getting it done at a salon can be costly but I would rather have someone else inflict the pain then gear up on my own to do it to myself.
For thinning hair you have a few more choices. Getting a new hairstyle that covers or conceals the thinning layers is a great pick-me-up, not to mention a good way of disguising the problem. A softer color is a good idea as well. If you've been dying your hair coal black for thirty years, your scalp will start to show no matter how flattering the hairstyle. Opt for a more subtle tone. Speak to your hairstylist and or/colorist. That's what they are there for. They can also show you products that pump up the volume of the hair you do have to make it look thicker again. I'm not a big fan of these, but hair extensions, "falls" and even wigs were invented for a reason. I actually lost 90% of my hair several years ago due to a weird virus and had to wear a wig for 9 months until it grew back in. I was never so thankful for wigs as I was then! A word of caution about extensions, tho. They are sewn on or adhered to you own hair and they are not light in weight. They will pull on your natural hair. If your hair is already thinning, this excess pulling may prove problematic. Again, a really good and trusted stylist can help is a number of ways.
Some menopausal women start to have almost allergic responses to products they have been using for years, such as hair color brands, sprays, and even dipilatories. Rashes, blisters, and scales can occur a few hours after a hair color session. These are not life threatening but they are bothersome. Using less chemically dense products and products without paraphenylenediamine (PPD) will help. The darker your color shade the more PPD there is, so there is another argument for softening and lightening the color. You can also try the colors that are semi-permanent and /or wash out after several shampoos. And use shampoos and conditioners that aren't heavy and loaded down with chemicals. These can hurt the aging hair as well, contributing to thinning. If your shampoo has a hundred ingredients you can't pronounce, look for something more natural.
We all want hair, but not any hair will do! We want OUR hair until we die. Or is that DYE?
I want to leave you with some worthwhile quotes from three ubersuccessful postmenopausal women concerning their hair:
“There's a reason why forty, fifty, and sixty don't look the way they used to, and it's not because of feminism, or better living through exercise. It's because of hair dye. In the 1950's only 7 percent of American women dyed their hair; today there are parts of Manhattan and Los Angeles where there are no gray-haired women at all.”
― Nora Ephron
I think that the most important thing a woman can have- next to talent, of course- is her hairdresser.”
― Joan Crawford
“A woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life.”
― Coco Chanel
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