I often hear from people with chronic or long-term telogen effluvium that they can’t help but notice a worrisome change in their hair texture. They often describe their hair as brittle, dry, or loose and want to know what they can do to make it look better. I heard someone say, “My hair has been falling out horribly for about seven months. I’m pretty sure I have chronic telogen effluvium because my hair started to fall out after losing a lot of weight. My hair has become very dry, brittle and fly. What is causing this texture? And what can I do about it? “I will try to address these questions in the next article.
Why hair loss can take on a new and undesirable texture: The most common reason that hair becomes strange, dry or loose texture when it falls out is because it is entering the “resting” or falling phase of its life cycle. You may already know that, but bear with me. Hair has different phases throughout its life cycle as follows: the anagen or growth phase; the catagen or transition phase (where it does not grow or shed) and the telogen or resting phase (where it definitely breaks off). This is the phase where the hair is shed to make room for new hair. Therefore, hair in the latter part of the telogen phase may become drier because it is not so deeply embedded in the scalp and is not actively nourished. (It doesn’t have to be this way, as it will fall off soon.)
However, when you have telogen effluvium (or the chronic variety) you have many more hairs than normal in that resting phase and this means that you will have many more hairs than normal that are not actively nourished. Therefore, the general appearance of your hair may be brittle or dry, even if not all the hairs on your head meet that description. There are other things that can also contribute to this. Some hair loss treatments will very aggressively dry out the scalp and hair. Some of these topicals have anti-androgen components that are intended to remove the scalp or excess oil and sebum. And while they can do a good job with this, the result can often be that the product is almost too dry on the scalp and hair.
What can be done about brittle or flying hair? There are a couple of tips I can offer you. If your hair is long, let it dry in a ponytail or rolled in a towel if the ponytail pulls too much hair. Allowing hair to blow dry often will help it perform much better when dry. Also, you can use gel to tame those flying locks or even spray in a conditioner that is very lightweight. Finally, if you can’t even stand the look of the hair, wear it up or back to keep it tame. Also, sometimes wearing it wavy or curly will help camouflage some of the rebelliousness or dryness. Finally, I discovered that putting a little coconut or emu oil on your hands and smoothing it over the flies can help a lot. You only need to be very careful to use a very small amount or your hair could look greasy. Also, try not to put too much oil on your scalp, as you don’t want to clog your follicles.
