“I’m a trichologist – here’s how to switch off hair loss in midlife”
If anyone knows how to get to the root of your hair problems, it’s trichologist Eva Proudman. With her 20-plus years of expertise, she knows exactly how to read hair and decode what it’s trying to tell you. Midlife is “when hair often misbehaves" but thankfully, there are ways to regain control.
“Hair is the window on your health,” she told us in a masterclass at Good Housekeeping Live, speaking in her role as Absolute Collagen’s hair expert. “Our hair is the second-fastest dividing cell in our body but it’s non-essential, so our body is super-clever. It takes a cell that should be at the top of the food chain and puts it at the bottom, which is why your hair is very reflective of what’s going on inside.”
“So if your diet changes, you’re ill, you’re stressed, it can affect your hair in different ways. You might see lots of hair coming out when you wash it, you might have a general thinning or patchy hair loss or an itchy scalp. They’re all caused by an imbalance and that imbalance generally starts in the gut and in the diet.”
On the flipside, this means hair is highly responsive to positive changes you put in place. Here are the top tips Eva shared for healthier hair growth.
Age is no barrier to great hair
“Don’t ever let anybody tell you that you have to put up with bad hair because of your age or the menopause,” Eva told us. “That just simply isn’t true.” Often, negative changes to hair can have a cause that’s easy to both understand and treat.
“What often happens as we reach perimenopause is that our stored iron depletes, which causes hair shedding,” she explained. “If you have a blood test and you’re in the very wide “normal” range, which starts as low as 20 mcg/dL, your GP will tick that box and say, ‘You’re normal, it’s not affecting your hair.’ But we need a minimum of 70-80 mcg/dL for our hair. When we supplement, or change our diet, or fix the gut (because, as we age, we don’t absorb nutrients so well), you can get hair shedding to normalise.” So, having the right knowledge plus expert guidance is very helpful, she emphasised.
Ignore Google, see a pro
And no, the cost needn’t be prohibitive. It’s the best way to get safe, tailored and effective advice and, as Eva told us: “The average hair loss treatment from a clinician like me is about £1 a day maximum – and it can give you back your hair.”
She added: “I see around 300 patients a month – and I see ladies who have spent thousands and are really defeated because nothing works. The reason it doesn’t work is because you need a diagnosis. When we know what’s wrong, we can tell you what we need to do. It could be as simple as changing your diet, or taking a supplement. The minute you Google ‘thin hair’ or ‘hair loss’, brands deluge you with promises of miracles, and most often don’t deliver. Don’t spend your money on that. See a professional.”
Protein can reboot your hair
Our bodies are made of protein and eating more of it can reboot your hair growth, says Eva. “As an adult female, you need about 50 to 55 grams a day – but if you add up what you actually consume, most people get about 30 grams.”
Protein quality is as important as quantity when it comes to hair health, Eva adds. “You need protein to give you all the essential amino acids. They’re the ones your body can’t synthesise on its own, so you have to get them through your diet.”
Your hair will thank you for it, she adds, saying that “Essential amino acids help the hair to stay in the growing phase for longer, so you keep more hair on your head for longer. They make the actual protein fibre thicker, too, and balance the scalp, which is crucial for optimal hair growth.”
While proteins such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, soya, milk and cheese contain all nine essential amino acids, most plant proteins don’t, so vegans need to combine different kinds to get the full range.
A daily supplement can have real effects
Eva recommends giving hair growth extra fuel with a daily sachet of Absolute Collagen. “It contains eight grams of protein, as much as an egg, and contains all the essential amino acids, as it’s a marine collagen,” she told us. But the benefits go far beyond just protein, she told us.
Marine Liquid Collagen Supplement Drink
£33.99 at absolutecollagen.com
Eva became a spokesperson for Absolute Collagen after seeing proof of its effects on her own clients. “I did a ‘perception survey’ on 12 clients, where I measured the hair and scalp and started them on the supplement,” Eva explained. “I found inflammation, flaking and shedding reduced and hair texture changed massively. One lady had really awful, coarse texture, no matter what she did, and within four weeks, her hair was shiny and smooth.”
She saw “the same results” in a placebo-controlled clinical trial on 120 women aged 40-60, which she helped to oversee. “It was a blind study, so I didn’t know who was taking the real supplement. But when I started analysing data, I was thinking, ‘They’ve taken collagen,’ and they had.”
The results showed a 32% reduction in hair damage and 27% increase in hair stand count. “There were more hairs on the head and when we measured the size of the individual hairs, they were thicker,” added Eva. “It wasn’t that we’d made new hairs grow. That isn’t scientifically possible. We’ve reduced the speed of the shedding, so you have more hair on the head, and it feels and looks thicker.”
“More importantly, we saw something like an 80% reduction in scalp inflammation and that is absolutely key. The scalp is the growing medium of hair and if that’s out of balance, your hair growth won’t be optimal.”
Change your hair-washing routine
To support that crucial scalp balance, Eva believes that “frequency of washing is important”. She told us: “Most people need to wash every day or every other day. If your hair is shedding or thinning, the oil it produces sits on the scalp rather than running along the hair shaft as a moisturiser. The scalp will begin to get inflamed and itchy. You need to take that build-up off. If you only wash once a week, some of it is still there. People wrongly think hair ‘self cleans’ and they don’t want to wash all the healthy oil out. But with a good shampoo, you won’t.”
Don’t be scared of sulphates
For scalp health, “you need sulphates to take the dirt and oil away,” Eva told us. “Sulphates are not all good, and they’re not all bad.” The one that gives sulphates a bad reputation is sodium laurel sulphate (SLS): “it’s very small, so it can penetrate the skin and hair, and it dehydrates.”
Eva recommends TEA-lauryl sulphate instead, which she used when formulating Absolute Collagen’s sister hair care range. “It doesn’t penetrate but it cleanses brilliantly, and that’s what we do need for optimal health of the scalp and, in turn, hair.”
Hair Thickening Shampoo & Conditioner Duo
£28.00 at absolutecollagen.com
Choose a hair-friendly lifestyle
Making smart lifestyle tweaks in midlife will reap visible rewards, Eva told us. “Feed the hair with a quality sleep, a good diet and managing stress. Sleep is so important, the hair repairs overnight. Eat a good diet with plenty of protein and don’t skip breakfast – your hair is starving.” Beware extreme diets to deal with midlife weight gain: “If you drop weight quickly, the follicle becomes lax and you’ll shed the hair,” she told us.
The same thing happens if you’re anxious. “Stress is a massive enemy of your hair: it hits that follicle really quickly and it disrupts the growing and shedding cycle.” While it’s hard to avoid stress, look for ways to manage it. “I don’t mean meditate, if that’s not your thing,” Eva told us. “Find the thing you enjoy that empties your head: gardening, reading, colouring, listening to music or dancing. Do the thing that stops you thinking and puts your shoulders down. That’s what reduces your stress.”
Just finding small ways to eat, sleep and relax better really make a difference to midlife hair loss, she emphasised. “My mission is to tell you that you can be menopausal – and still have great hair.”
Eva Proudman is a trichologist and the resident hair expert at Absolute Collagen
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