Falling Hair

Does your hair fall out, especially after you shampoo and condition it?

Do you find it all over your pillow in the morning?

I will try to answer the second question first: are your pillow covers mostly polyester? If so, this could be one reason for your hair to shed onto your pillow cover. My experience is that cotton pillow covers are best – for numerous reasons, and for babies and children especially. Once I exchanged my partly synthetic pillow covers for all cotton ones, I found much less shed hair. Worth a try? It’s healthier if it is organic cotton, because if not, the pesticides in Monsanto etc. cotton products, for instance, are just as bad as polyester and won’t just “wash out.”

Shampoos and Conditioners contain Sulfates (which are essentially sulfur dioxide), as do tons of other products (some have sulfates, others sulfites, basically the same, some are naturally occurring, most are artificial chemicals) that we use on a daily basis, such as coffee, shrimp and most seafood, most (if not all) drugs and medications, wine, frozen and preserved foods, dried fruits, chocolates (note to chocolate lovers: organic chocolate is very expensive!) and so on. Industries use them because they contain anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial agents. They also maintain freshness. Nevertheless, they are generally, and cumulatively, bad for our body. And, I have heard all the arguments from some that they are doing just fine, thank you, despite all the garbage in our products; that it has always been “survival of the fittest.” Sorry, but this is a very lame and short-sighted argument!

Anyway, sulfates help to loosen grease and sebum (a natural oily excretion that keeps hair and skin moisturized) from hair and scalp. They also create a sudsier lather, and help to let the dye (if you use coloring agents) remain in your hair longer. This is because they are almost like plastic and, therefore, coat your hair allowing for that shinier look. This, however, is not an organic shine. It really is plastic and fake – a trompe l’oeil, if you wish; great for advertising gimmicks! It is also the main reason why hair sheds. And, therefore, your choice is . . .?

I stumbled on this fact after personal experience when I noticed that after every hair shampoo and conditioning my shower drain would be covered with hair. While being low on Vitamin D contributes greatly to hair loss (as well as bone loss and many other issues), sulfate infused shampoos and conditioners are the biggest reason. So, one day, I decided to try an organic and natural shampoo and conditioner. These products are double, if not triple, the price! I shampoo my hair twice a week. I did not notice any difference the first week after using the natural sulfate-free products. It didn’t happen the second week either. By the third week, I began to notice much less hair falling off, and by the fourth week – much to my surprise – hardly any hair fell off! It took about six or eight shampoos to wash away all those plastic sulfates out of my hair and my brush. How did I not realize that earlier?!!!

Regarding wine, it was very revealing for me to learn that, due to the anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial etc. attributes, aged wines contain much more sulfites than, for instance, wine from the current harvest that is drunk immediately. Moreover, some people are allergic to sulfites. This is why drinking wine could, sometimes, give you a headache, a slight cough, or an asthmatic reaction (there are also other natural ingredients in wine that can do this). I found that organic wines, which I drink at home, leave me with no headaches, or any other side-effects. I do not know exactly what is the scientific explanation, however, they do contain less sulfites. Note on the periphery: when I go to a restaurant and the waiter brings the bottle of wine and pours just a wee bit for me to taste, I say: Just go ahead and pour it in. I am neither a connoisseur, nor do I enjoy putting on false airs to impress you! What for? Call me mundane, but my only measure of a good wine when I am at a restaurant, or visiting friends, is one whose taste I like. No airs! No pretense! No snobbishness! Full stop. End of story!

Organic food, organic beauty products, organic feminine products, organic Everything would be my very strong recommendation. Remember that before the world went full-speed ahead with industrialization – before the forties, or fifties – almost everything was still natural and organic. AND, there was much less disease, asthma and adverse conditions. We must go back to that. Industrial food and merchandise producers can, and should, find alternative and natural ways for preserving products. It can be done! By buying natural and organic products we would be encouraging that. And, yes, while it is a more expensive endeavor, it is so much more beneficial health-wise, as well as for the environment!

As I write this, I feel a drowning sensation of guilt overtaking me! After all, only about ten or fifteen percent of us humans in the industrialized world can afford – and barely so for most! – the sometimes steep difference between organic and preservative/antibiotic/additive/hormone-infused corporate products that are sucking the very blood and life out of most populations. It does seem awfully unfair! However, Capitalism/Consumerism, as it is practiced in our US these days especially, is a zealous religion that has gone amok and one that has no heart, no scruples, no ethics, no integrity. It has only one objective: personal and corporate enrichment at the expense of anything and everyone else. It is driving humanity and humanity’s habitats into the abyss without even a pause to possibly rethink that doctrine!

I am a Consumer who believes that people and companies have to work, earn their income and make their profits. I certainly do not want to have everyone dressed the same, use the only one shampoo (for instance) on the market, live in the same type of abode, drive the same car and eat only from the meager products available. Not at all! I want to have choices and options! I enjoy going to the store and looking around, buying and enjoying products. However, the unfettered greed with which corporations of all kinds and sorts are driving our consumerism and economy has gone to the dangerous extreme. This ideology is leaving too many people behind, too many people ill, too many people angry. This is only a recipe for an explosion at some point! It does not have to be this way! There are other options for making a profit while having a heart! There are enough innovators and forward-thinkers who can provide alternative paths, however, entrenched and corrupt elements are barricading the doors that they are capable of opening so that we may survive in a more just, equitable, healthy and caring world.

Until that happens, and unless we blow up ourselves in the meantime, I will continue to shampoo my hair guiltily and organically and hope that the better angels amongst us humans will win the battle for our survival!