Is Managing Your Hair Style Making Your Gray Hair Unhealthy, or Worse, Falling Out!?

Hi Silver Sisters, it's Lauren from September 2018!  I have the most amazing update for you - my husband Jon and I have launched our very own hair care line!  I have learned so much on my gray journey, and our new products incorporate all of my "tips and tricks" for making silver hair look terrific.  I am leaving all prior recommendations in place because I hope that they will continue to be helpful to people, and I will continue to use and enjoy many of the products that I have written about in the past. My opinions still stand on them. 

I hope that you will take a look at our new line By The Way, Your Hair Looks Fabulous!™  - it is a complete line of hair-care and styling products made especially for Silver Sisters AND for anyone who wants their hair care to be more natural and more affordable! 

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Helloooooooooooo my sweet, wonderful gray- haired readers! Each and every one of you, with your beautiful comments and your words of support and cheer, means SOOOOOOOOO much to me! :)

It's been a while since I've posted. Oh, how I wish I had more blogging time on my hands. None-the-less, it's great to be plucking away at the keyboard when I can.

Today I come to you with a gray hair question..... Is managing your hair style making your gray hair unhealthy, or worse, falling out!?

In the picture above, you may or may not notice that my hair is not in its usual straight style, and I'll tell you why. This is kind of embarrassing, but a few weeks ago, my husband noticed that my hair part (I've parted it in the same place for a couple of years now), might have looked more.....well, obvious than before? It wasn't wide or looking sparse, it was just something subtle and we really didn't know if we were imagining it or not. Maybe it was the fact that I was wearing my hear pulled back in a tight ponytail, who knows, but at any rate, I was a little worried.   I quickly parted my hair in a new place, and it looked just fine, normal as ever. 

This got me thinking though, that I do have a lot of hair breakage where I part my hair, from my daily attempts to wrestle my grays into a sleek and hopefully shiny do. Was I causing the hair around my part to REALLY break or come out more than I realized!? I think the answer is "Yes."  :(

While thinning hair in women can be caused by a host of problems, such as stress, hormones, illness, etc.... the area in question with me (that I MIGHT just be imagining) is only at the section where I part my hair, so I think this is truly from my daily hair torture I mean hair styling. Don't get me wrong though, my hypochondria COMPLETELY came out on this one, and I was quick to run through the list of scary causes, and panic about each one accordingly.

I came to the whole "Gray Hair Game" with the preconceived idea that: In order for MY gray hair to look nice, it had to be worn straight as possible.

Do you hold a silly belief like this too? I know that this can't be right, but for whatever reason, when I see myself as straight-haired and gray, I feel much younger and prettier, than curly or wavy haired and gray. This is my own issue to get over, but I feel like it has cost me a lot of time, money and  healthy hair!

I've been spending the past two years doing a bunch of daily,  big hair "No- No's" in the quest for silky, straight hair.  First there is combing the tangles out when my hair is wet, and even worse, draaaaaaaaging and pulling a big round brush through, while wet, using the dryer on HOT! That was usually followed by hot rollers, and then THAT was even followed by a flat iron or a large barrel curling iron! Oh my gosh, my poor hair! What have I done!?  :(  

And you know what? Can you guess where I always focused? The frizzy area around my part, the top of my head, the place with all the broken hair! UGH! Then I would smooth product onto my hair and pullllllll, or put everything into a tight ponytail and smooooooth. No wonder my usual part might be looking different.

I regretfully say, I think it might be time to give my hair a rest. I'm so sorry hair, I really am. :(

While I've been using gentle, sulfate-free products most of the time, and also a cream that protects from heat, I know that I've really been over-doing it. EVERY DAY.

How about you?

Now that you've gone gray, do you feel more pressure to wear a clean-looking, "tailored" style?  If so, is it effecting the health of your hair?

We girls, (and guys!) have enough pressure these days to look the way the media says that we should. I suppose having the right hair style, let alone color, is just another item on the list. I've gotten over the hair dye, maybe now I can finally learn to accept my sometimes curly, sometimes wavy, alway messy, big old head of hair. 

I'd love to hear your experience or thoughts on what makes for a nice gray hair style. Until next time!!!!

Love,

Lauren

xoxoxoxoxoxox