thin and dry hair that greases fast.
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Wed Nov 27, 2013 7:26 am

hello fellow-hairnuts!

I do hope you can give me some advise so I could finally rest from this endless quest for normal-looking hair.

PS: you don't necessarily Have to read the introduction.

history: I have been having problems with my hair for as long as I can remember.
it has always been very fine and straight, thus when I became a teenager, I discovered that curls make them seem bigger so I started getting a perm regularly. Mis-take. by the 5th time or so the result was so straw-like that my hair just looked like a big pile of hay. to "fix" that I started using a curling iron and a bunch of hairspray daily. and to add to that of course dyeing hair with grocery store dyes, washing with SLS-packed shampoos and blowdrying... for years.

it got to a point where the top layer of my hair stopped growing completely (it was up to the middle of my ears) which gave me a "very cool" mullet and I actually developed somewhat of a bald spot on the top of my head - ok it wasn't actually bald but the hair was sooo thin there, that you could see the scalp clearly.

I decided to try an all-natural approach and I've been chemical free for about 1,5 years now.
the results are pretty good: although my hair is still in two layers, the top one has grown for about 6 cm-s and the bald spot is looking.. better. (I'm dyeing hair with henna now.)

problem: my hair is still super-strawy after washing it and the volume looks even kinda good after brushing (because then I detangle all the lumps that my hair gets into during a shower) but by the end of the day if I had a hot date, I would wash it again because it is very Very flat and oily.

right now I'm using Down Under Natural's NUDE shampoo and conditioner and I'm spraying towel-dry hair strategically with ACV-water mix to detangle it; I'm letting them dry naturally aand trying to do oil-mixture masks a few times a month.

Does anyone have the same problem/-s and maybe even solutions????

free skin care · Wed Nov 27, 2013 9:42 am

Honestly, it sounds hormonal and the problems you are experiencing now may or may not be directly related to the chemcial damage you caused in the past by perming your hair. Low estrogen (and/or high dht, a byproduct of testosterone) can cause the symptoms you describe. Dpnding on your age, a LOW progesterone birth control pill may help...but make sure it is a low progesterone pill as high progetserone pills will worsen the situation for you.

Wed Nov 27, 2013 10:45 am

I don't know about that... I just went on a high-estrogen birth control 3 months ago and in that time I haven't really noticed any change in my hair.

but thanks for replying!

free skin care · Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:36 pm

Maybe stop washing it so often and try dry shampoo instead in between washes. I use baby powder. Make sure your brush is clean when you brush it out, and you'll have some nice volume going.

free skin care · Wed Nov 27, 2013 3:36 pm

I feel like we have the same hair problem...I have low estrogen and hairs always been very dry, and then I've colored the crap out of it to where its very flat,dry and oily on the top and really fluffy frizzy on the bottom. So far, I haven't found anything that works.

I can only really recommend using protectants and really light leave in conditioners.

Damage travels up the hair shaft and I had a hair dresser tell me the best way to get rid of damaged hair is too cut it all off...because it generally wont grow.

After I bleached the living hell out of my hair I had to grow it,and then cut, grow and cut, grow and cut...until finally all the bleached hair had been cut off...and it took a long time.

So im interested in a solution as-well but I would consider asking a doctor about hormone therapy?

There are also liquid supplements and herbs that may help.

Rosemary and something else...there's some protein or amino acid in cereal grains that help promote cell growth, people take it for nails and hair...I'll have to get back to you on that when I remember.

Best of luck!

free skin care · Wed Nov 27, 2013 5:02 pm

Histidine...was the herb I was referring to.

Thu Nov 28, 2013 10:41 am

, I will try the dry shampoo thing this weekend. found DYI recipes for it. thanks for the idea!

poor heyheymonster if you do have the same hair problems. I really can't cut it ALL off beacuse I really need to be able to put my hair up in order to kinda make the structure look ok.

and today in a major traffic jam I decided I am going to get my thyroid tested more elaborately (had a standard test this summer, everything was "great") 'cause I've been reaaaallly nice to my hair for almost 2 years now and although it's improving, I still have abnormal issues with it for a 21-year-old.

but if they do discover there's something wrong with it what's the cure? hormonal drugs for years? that will fck everything else up, I'm afraid...

free skin care · Thu Nov 28, 2013 12:05 pm

m...it can be hard to say exactly, maybe you can only take drugs for a little while? you can also try/ here are a few idea to look into: Enzymatic Therapy or a therapy where you eat the raw glands of animals...sounds creepy but...its the most direct way to gain active hormones- though you have to see some sort of doctor and i forget also what this method is called...interesting stuff.

And about your test...I found a web page and ran across this section that I will copy and paste:

"HAIR MINERAL ANALYSIS FOR THYROID ASSESSMENT

Dr. Paul C. Eck found a way to assess the thyroid using a properly performed hair analysis in which the hair is not washed at the laboratory. Unfortunately, only two labs in America and none around the world that I know of do not wash the hair at the lab.

Hair analysis assessment very different than serum hormone testing. Hair mineral assessment of the thyroid by the method of Dr. Paul Eck is totally different from serum hormone testing, often causing confusion. The hair analysis measures a metabolic or cellular effect of the thyroid hormones upon the metabolic or oxidation rate. It can also measure the levels of certain trace minerals and toxic metals that affect the thyroid. It does not measure the levels of circulating serum hormones.
For this reason, hair and blood tests for thyroid activity often do not match. I find that that hair assessment is often far more accurate, though not always.
Here are some of the most important thyroid assessment indicators found on a hair mineral analysis:

1. Hair calcium. The higher the level of hair calcium, in general, the lower the effective activity of the thyroid gland. This occurs because one of the effects of T3 and T4 is to lower calcium levels in the tissues and at times, in the blood. For example, it is known that hyperthyroidism can cause tetany, or muscle contractions that are due to low serum calcium.
Lower calcium is also associated with increased cell permeability. This may allow more thyroid hormone to enter the cells, increasing the cellular effect of the same amount of circulating serum thyroid hormones.

2. Hair potassium. A lower hair potassium is associated with reduced cellular effects of thyroid hormones. Dr. Eck felt this occurs because it is known that low potassium is associated with reduced sensitivity of the mitochondrial receptors to thyroid hormone. Also, low potassium and sodium are associated with reduced cell permeability to thyroid hormones.
This means that even if the serum thyroid hormone levels are normal, when tissue potassium is low they may not be utilized, resulting in a low thyroid effect. This commonly contributes to thyroid problems in slow oxidizers.

3. The calcium/potassium ratio is called the thyroid ratio. Dr. Eck felt that ratios were often better ways to assess body functioning. For the reasons given in 1 and 2 above, Dr. Eck decided upon the calcium/potassium ratio as the thyroid ratio. It is the primary way he used to assess overall thyroid activity.
Dr. Eck may have taken this idea from the fascinating work of Dr. Louis Kervan. He, too, believed that the thyroid hormones regulate the ratio of calcium to potassium in the body.
Other possible hair indicators are:

1. Manganese deficiency or biounavailability. Manganese is required for energy production in the mitochondria of the cells. Manganese deficiency or biounavailability are very common today. This may be indicated on a properly performed hair analysis by a manganese level of less than about 0.016 mg% or more than about 0.04 mg%.
Dr. Eck felt that most people are manganese deficient today. Adrenal exhaustion may contribute to manganese deficiency if the binding protein, transmanganin, is not produced in sufficient quantity.

2. Copper toxicity. Copper imbalance can stimulate the thyroid in an unnatural way. It may play a role in hypothyroidism and in Grave’s disease or hyperthyroidism.
Copper assessment is tricky using hair mineral analysis. One must not use the copper level, as it is often unreliable. Instead, one must look for hidden copper indicators. For more on this, read Copper Toxicity Syndrome on this site. However, copper imbalance appears to be very important in some thyroid conditions.

3. Selenium. Selenium is required to produce thyroid hormone and to convert T4 to T3. It is also required to detoxify and remove most heavy metals and toxic chemicals from the body. Hair analysis can provide some information about selenium status. Most people, however, need more selenium today.

4. Mercury. Mercury can also accumulate in the thyroid gland, altering its functioning. Hair analysis is excellent to asses mercury, provided one realizes that mercury toxicity is epidemic and affects most people. A very low level is no guarantee that it is not present and simply not being eliminated at the time of the test. Hair mercury should be about 0.025 to 0.04 mg%. Anything higher or lower is usually indicative of toxicity. Lower levels indicate a Poor Eliminator tendency, explained in another article on this site.

5. Other. In a few cases, other indicators are important to assess the thyroid. These include the oxidation rate, the sodium/potassium ratio, sympathetic dominance pattern and others."

I thought the info may be handy...for more here's the link:

http://www.drlwilson.com/articles/thyroid.htm

So that's all...hope it helped a bit.

free skin care · Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:39 am

Lyssi, high estrogen won't cause a problem with your hair, but high progesterone will.

free skin care · Sat Nov 30, 2013 11:54 am

I had terrible sebarrheic dermatitis.
I cured it by myself and think it was a great thing to do.

Please dont conceive the following like just words but please experiment with them.

-I cut down every crap food there is out there including white bread.No processed food ,no sugars.
Instead i began to ate lots of natural sugars aka fruits.Fruits are one of the best ways to moisturise your hair.Remember most of the hair consists of moisture.
For the record, after i saw my sebbhoreic dermatitis being cured without meat,eggs and dairy i never came back to these foods.

-I dermarolled my scalp with 1.00mm to deeply clean the area and to cause sufficient microvascularization.

-Then you need to understand and remember to breathe deeply and consciously.When you breathe consciously you are conscious of life.If you can consciously breathe for 1 hour you are already enlightened.Buddha said.

Try to imagine the following:everytime your hair are dry and itch take a deep breathe and try to exhale this breathe through the pores of the scalp.Also imagine you breathe through the pores of the scalp .

-Rebounding is a perfect way to exercise lymphs.You can do bosu training at gym.
It wil help with the blood circulation.

-boar bristle brushing on scalp everyday will help you tremendously.

-Buy a natural base for shampoo and put drops of essential oils of oregano,apple,lavender and tea tree oil.Also you can put some coconut oil to help with foaming.

-I cant remember anything else that helped.
Confidence helps .When in doubt and in fear of yourself and other situation,i have noticed the scalp to get inflammed and itch immediatley.

-wash pillowcase often and change themevery 2nd or 3rd day.

-salt scrubs help with dryness.Salt topically rocks.Remember when on summer near the see tha dry hair rarely show up?

Peace and have fun

Sun Dec 01, 2013 9:53 am

Hormonal imbalances either way can cause issues with thinning hair. I'm too new to post a link, but if you google estrogen dominance and thinning hair there are a ton of sites confirming this.

Women with PCOS, which is linked to too much estrogen, often have thinning hair on the head, but extra hair in other places. That's an issue for you take up with your doctor, though. If you do think that you have an imbalance, it can really affect more than your hair, so it's worth asking the doctor to look into.

Anyway, I have fine, dry, easily damaged hair. I use matrix products, designed for fine hair and take multivitamins. Those things seem to help my hair a lot. I don't dye my hair at all and I avoid using heat to style as much as possible. A friend who's hair is thinning because of extra estrogen takes progesterone supplements (at doctors recommendation) and uses Mitchell thickening shampoo. She likes it, but she has extremely thin hair and I'm not sure what else she's tried.

One thing I did that I wish I hadn't is over used a clarifying shampoo. I used it once and it made my hair look so nice that I started using it once a week. It damaged my hair. Now I use it every couple of months and that's been much better.

free skin care · Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:00 am

Actually, PCOS is not "linked" to high estrogen...high estrogen, unopposed, is a symptom of PCOS...the masculine characteristics often seen in PCOS patients derive from excess dht, which is a testosterone derivative, and not due to high estrogen. Excess progesterone can act like testosterone and cause hair loss, similar to male pattern baldness, and acne, etc.
That said, yes, if you are diagnosed with PCOS, have an MD prescribe meds for you, not this forum. Often the first step will be a LOW progesterone birth control pill, as well as other meds.

But, if you are not a PCOS patient, perhaps check that your birth control pill is not high progesterone, and if it is, ask your doctor about changing to a low progesterone pill instead.

free skin care · Mon Dec 02, 2013 3:23 pm

P.S. I mention the hormonal issue because dry, thin AND greasy are the characterstics of hair thinning due to hormonal issues. However, I am referring to virgin (untreated) hair so if you are experiencing these issues only on the hair that was previously damaged, it is likely not hormonal. If hormonal, you'd be seeing these problems on the new growth at the scapl, i.e. the undamaged hair.

Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:30 am

EthelMI AM experiencing these problems on new grown hair! I have been chemical free for nearly two years thus haven't damaged it for that long either.

but as I said before, I have only been on the high progesterone Evra patch for 3 months and during that time I haven't noticed a change in my hair. this problem has been with me for about 7 years though.
I actually think that if it really is hormonal, it's something to do with my thyroid because it's common in my family for women to have a problem with it and I'm almost certain I suffer under some of the other symptoms too. but to get the real thorough tests you need a lot of money and patience. maybe I'll find a way to do it in the summer because right now I'm living abroad.

panoslydios, I don't have a dry and itchy scalp - only the hair is dry. but thank you for such a long and thorough reply. I believe going mainly raw probably helps your skin and hair a lottt but I'm just not there yet - living in a cold climate and I have been a vegetarian for 2 years but haven't been even able to kick the dairy yet... the lack of willpower is mostly because I don't have a real health problem, just a beauty problem.

right now I'm trying to wash my hair less and take some oil-supplements (starflower oil was suggested by a local nature-shop employee). I actually just put on a DYI dry shampoo consisting of corn starch and cocoa powder (the cocoa added only for the colour - I have dark hair). it actually works! pretty well! + I get to smell like chocolate every other day. Wink

also I'm trying to eat as healthy as possible. I am a pretty healthy eater anyway but now I'm trying to cut back on all white sugar and bread-products.

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