7 Natural Ways to Prevent Hair Loss

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We are as attached to our head’s hair as it (initially) is to us. When we start losing it, we really start, uh, losing it—and we want it back. Our hair, that is. As far back as Ancient Egypt, people have sought ways to stem hair loss and stimulate hair growth. While the Egyptians employed a cocktail of iron oxide, red lead, onions, alabaster, animal fats and honey, and today we still use some of those remedies, in one form or another. Men’s hair loss in particular has created a billion-dollar industry, with putative cures ranging from chemically laced topical treatments and drugs to transplants and—ugh—wigs. Yet hair-loss science is imperfect, uncertain and riddled with misinformation that allows companies to sell solutions that may or may not work.

Our heads have about 120,000–150,000 strands of hair, and it’s normal for both men and women to lose fifty to a hundred daily. Any more than that and eventually we start to feel the anxiety of impending baldness.

We lose hair for several reasons. Chiefly, aging weakens hair and makes it more brittle, and also decreases hormone production, thus slowing hair growth. Other reasons include nutritional deficiencies, genetics, pattern baldness, illness and autoimmune disorders, stress and trauma. Even air and water pollutants and sunlight’s phototoxic aging effects may facilitate alopecia.

While there’s no way to completely stop natural hair loss due to ageing and genetic factors, we can certainly control how fast we lose it, and possibly reverse abnormal loss and stimulate growth, by taking certain steps such as those below.

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