Why Does Hair Thin as We Age?
Hair thinning is a natural part of aging, but understanding why it happens helps us fight back. Here are the main common causes:
・Hormones (androgens): Men in particular are well aware of male pattern baldness (androgenic alopecia) and this is due to an androgen called dihydrotestosterone (DHT). DHT drives miniaturization of the hair follicle. More prevalent and severe in men, it is not rare in women where hair thinning follows less of a pattern. Across the lifetime, about 80% of men and 50% of women experience androgenic alopecia to some extent.
・Hormones (estrogens): Estrogens increase hair growth and their decline in perimenopause and menopause lead to reduced hair growth and thickness, while postpartum declines cause temporary shedding.
・Aging Hair Follicles: Aging leads to declines in growth factors and hair follicle activity such that the numbers and lengths of the growth phases decrease significantly.
・Chronic Inflammation and Oxidative Stress: Chronic inflammation and oxidative stress increase with aging and inhibits hair growth. It can also be worsened by stress, pollution, and scalp microbes from poor cleansing.
・Reduced Blood Flow: Aging reduces blood flow through the scalp skin to the hair follicles, starving them of nutrients needed for strong hair growth.
・Decreased collagen, elastin: Extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins like collagen and elastin are important for both the hair follicles and the skin. Reductions with aging lead to less anchoring of the hair in the follicle leading to premature shedding, as well as loss of overall integrity in hair and skin leading to reduced growth activity.
How Can We Reverse Thinning & Promote Growth?
Fortunately, there are proven ways to combat thinning hair and to encourage regrowth.
They can include drug treatments like Minoxidil (Rogaine) and Finasteride (Propecia), Red Light Therapy, Nutritional supplements or Topicals with actives such as peptides, growth factors, caffeine, vitamins and botanicals. Studies show that combining interventions will also lead to better results than using just one.
For topicals, we recommend our new Full Follicle Scalp Serum (learn more) which addresses the multiple common causes of hair thinning with 14 science-backed actives including:
・Peptide Acetyl tetrapeptide-3 - helps increase ECM components to anchor the hair in the follicle and reduce shedding as well as extend the hair growth cycle.
・Growth Factor complex (5 GFs) - derived from vegan, synthetic sources which compensate for natural declines to bring dormant hair follicles back into activity.
・Caffeine - can counteract the effects of DHT hormonal hair thinning.
・Swiss Apple Stem Cells - contains phyto-compounds with strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory action that improve hair follicle activity and hair growth.
・Red clover (Trifolium pratense) - contains biochanin A, a phytoestrogen, which improves hair growth and inhibits DHT hormonal hair thinning.
・Rosemary - improves blood circulation and vascularity with effects similar to minoxidil.
・Ginseng (Panax Ginseng) - improves blood circulation and has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compounds.
・Eucalyptus - long used in scalp treatments for thinning hair and believed to act via increased blood circulation.
・Vitamins Biotin (B7) and Panthenol (B5) - can compensate for deficits and have been shown to increase hair follicle and scalp skin health for increased hair growth.
How Do I Find the Right Shampoo & Conditioner?
Shampoos and conditioners are highly subject to customer preferences and everyone will have a different opinion. However, those with thinning, damaged or color-treated hair should look for the following:
🚫 Avoid:
・Sulfates (SLS/SLES) – these harsh cleansers can strip and damage hair
・Silicones – Silicones can require harsher cleansers to remove them or build-up and weigh thin hair down making it appear thin and lifeless. They can also interfere with the penetration of actives/nourishing ingredients into hair follicles and strands.
✅ Look For:
・Mild sulfate-free shampoos
・Scalp-stimulating or nourishing ingredients that improve hair growth
・Hair nourishing ingredients like plant butters and panthenol
This is how we designed our Full Follicle system with a sulfate-free, silicone-free Scalp Stimulating Shampoo and an Advanced Treatment Conditioner that uses murumuru and ucuuba butters along with panthenol and the same 14 actives found in our scalp serum.
This system is designed to allow maximal penetration of actives, while nourishing thin, damaged, and color-treated hair and cleansing and conditioning these fine hairs without damage or build-up (learn more).
Keep in mind that everyone has different levels of oils produced by their scalp. The more oils your scalp produces, the more microbes you will have living in your scalp that lead to dandruff, seborrheic dermatitis and folliculitis which will harm hair growth.
That is why it is important to make sure to cleanse often enough to keep away dandruff and oily hair. That being said, if you have less oily hair, it is recommended to cleanse less often.
Why Our Full Follicle System Works Where Others Failed
As we saw at the beginning of this article, thinning hair isn’t usually caused by one thing, but by a multitude of causes like aging follicles, hormonal changes, poor blood flow, and inflammation. Other products only target one or two causes, and that's not good enough.
Our Full Follicle™ hair care system attacks the multiple common causes at its roots while nourishing and strengthening fine, thin, damaged hairs.
You can try out Full Follicle HERE (link to collection)
