Understanding Hair Loss: Shedding Vs. Breakage

Shedding Vs Breakage, what's the difference??

Okay so I know neither of these terms are good to hair or to hear, especially for those on a growth journey or those who just want to have a healthy head of hair. But in some cases one of these occurrences is actually a lot better than the other. How so? Just walk with me for a moment...

Often times hair shedding is perfectly normal! On average, we shed between 50 and 100 hairs a day. When the body sheds significantly more hairs every day, a person has excessive hair shedding, but more on that later. So imagine if you're not combing or detangling your hair everyday, say you only do this once a week. This is a common practice among many naturalistas with highly textured hair, and can look like a massive loss on wash day. But if you think about the possible hundreds of strands sitting and waiting in your hair all week, what you are seeing is more than likely very normal.

So what does shedding look like? It can very from person to person but a typical shed hair comes out from the root as an entire strand. You may also notice a small white bulb at one end. This indicates that it has fallen from the follicle which is typical of daily shed hairs.

Now that you can take a breath of relief, slightly, let's find out how this differs from hair breakage, and how this should be a bit scarier. 

What is hair breakage? When the hair shaft is damaged and is weakened the hair shaft breaks. It results in split ends and the hair strands become shorter. Hair Breakage is the result of hair damage from a variety of causes. Namely over styling, heat or chemical damage, or a lack of moisture. There can be internal causes also, such as a poor diet.

As bad as hair loss can be, there are things you can do to prevent it, halt it and get back on the right track! Stay tuned for next weeks blog post where I go over preventive methods and treatments for damaged hair and excessive shedding.

HINT: A common question I frequently receive regarding hair care is product selection. The best products for particularly dry hair. Well, healthy moisturized hair starts on wash day with a great deep conditioning routine, and here I tell you about my current favorite deep conditioning treatments. So step one? DEEP Condition!