Should I regularly change my shampoo and conditioner?

There’s a common belief that you should frequently change your shampoo and conditioner to feel the benefits to your hair. But is this really the case?
 
There’s no proof to the myth that your hair builds up ‘resistance’ to certain products over time. However, if you were to use one shampoo and conditioner over the space of a year, there would be months when your hair would feel nourished and healthy, interchanged with times when it may feel dry and dull. So if it’s not the shampoo and conditioner themselves causing a change in your hair, what is the culprit?  
 
What is true is that like any other beauty regimen, your hair products should change based on several factors.  There are absolutely loads of factors that can affect your hair and its condition.  I’ve gathered together some of the most common ones:
 
Environmental
It’s easy to blame the seasons for the change in your hair, but it’s actually a lot more complicated.  Weather can play a huge part in determining how your hair reacts to products. For instance, in the summer you may find hair becomes dry and brittle from exposure to the sun.   Summer heat can also leave scalps oilier than normal, so you may need to reach for a less-hydrating option with a volumizing formula to help.  But equally your hair can suffer the same dryness from central heating in the winter so opt for products with super moisturizing ingredients to rehydrate strands that have been scorched by over-heated, under-humidified indoor environments.  Environmental factors also include things like pollution, sand and chlorine.  If you swim regularly, regardless of the time of year, you may find your color is prone to fading, and hair can be dry and hard to detangle.  Pollution can cause hair to become lank and greasy quicker.  By pin-pointing the specific environmental factors that affect your hair, and how these change throughout the year, you can then start to build a product regime to keep your hair in its best condition.
 
Chemical
This covers any coloring or texturizing service you may use on your hair. Hair color, especially bleach, can completely change the feel and condition of your hair. Whereas some colors can nourish hair leaving it soft and silky, other colors can cause the hair shaft to swell, leaving hair feeling thicker but drier than before. Ask your hairdresser what effect the color being used will have on your hair, then choose products accordingly that can target this.
 
Dietary Changes
Eating fat (good or bad!) can give your hair that much-desired shine and gloss. “If you’re getting essential fatty acids from red meat or an avocado, you may feel like you need less moisturizing products,” Doug Bielanski, the national director of education at Frederic Fekkai says. But for those lean-eaters who forego fat, know that locks can end up looking dry or parched. “You need a hair mask for five minutes, once or twice a week, to push humectants back in the hair.”
 
Age
“Hair naturally changes with age”
As you grow older it isn’t just your hair color that can change, but also your hair texture. Some people may find their hair becomes coarse, dull and unmanageable, whereas others may suffer from hair thinning and softening. Look for age specific products that contain ingredients designed to target these problems and help restore its intrinsic strength.
 
The key to a successful haircare regime is to always stay attuned to your hair’s condition, and be prepared to mix up your products depending on your it’s current needs. For example if your hair is colored and dry but limp, there is nothing wrong with using a color-protect shampoo followed by a nourishing shampoo and a thickening spray to build more volume at the roots. Once hair is back in better condition you could then look to start using more volume products – let your hair tell you what it needs!
 
So in answer to the question ‘should I regularly change my shampoo and conditioner?’ the answer is:
 
Change your shampoo and conditioner when your hair tells you to. Don’t just reassess the products you’re using at the end of each bottle. Consider investing in maybe 2 or 3 different shampoos and conditioners, then pick and choose which one you use based on how your hair feels.

How Stress Affects Your Hair & Skin
​by Kerri Lee-Young
 
In our latest article, How Stress Affects Your Body, we took you on a head-to-toe journey and shared with you just how damaging stress can be on your overall health. We also shared what the three different types of stress are and how to overcome them in your life. To show you how stress affects you on the outside, we’re going to breakdown what it can do to your skin and hair if you don’t address and resolve what’s stressing you out.
 
How Stress Affects Your Skin
When you become stressed, there’s this hormone that gets released into your body called cortisol. This is an adrenal hormone that (along with epinephrine) primarily aids in “fight or flight” situations. When you become stressed, and when stress goes from acute to chronic, cortisol levels rise and go from being helpful to dangerous.
 
When you’re under an insurmountable level of stress, your skin becomes more sensitive and vulnerable. It also has a harder time healing. When the body signals the adrenal glands to produce cortisol, it causes your sebaceous glands to produce more oil. If you already have oily skin, then you experience an increase in acne and breakouts. And to make matters worse, it can also trigger a breakout in hives, rashes and fever blisters no matter what your skin type is. If you are already suffering from Psoriasis, Rosacea or Eczema, then your already severe condition is going to worsen. Having a skin condition is a stressful situation, and as your skin worsens, it can lead to feelings of embarrassment and isolation.
 
To reduce the effects of stress on your skin, we recommend the following:

• Meditate & Relax: You don’t need to don a pair of yoga pants (unless you’re always living in your activewear) and be sitting in a Zen temple to meditate. You just need a quiet space and a place to relax.
• Stretch: Stress takes a toll on your body, and one of the reactions to stress is your muscles get tight and tense. By engaging in some quick stretching exercises, you can loosen up the tension and get the blood circulating. This will help lower the cortisol levels.
• Skin Care: Don’t neglect your already established routine, especially if your stress has anything to do with time management (or lack of).
• Eat Right: Make sure you’re eating healthy and not ingesting foods that are high in trans fat. Better yet, get into the habit of eating healthy snacks. We don’t mean go eat your feelings or binge on a bowl of ice cream. We mean go make a healthy snack or take five minutes to eat one that you may have packed and taken with you before you left the house. When your blood sugar drops and hunger sets in, you become cranky, and when you get cranky you get stressed.

How Stress Affects Your Hair
We’ve all endured a level of stress that has made us scream, “This is making me pull my hair out!” But the sad reality of it all is that you don’t really need to pull any of your hair out when you’re stressed since it’s going to fall out anyways. That’s one of the main marks stress makes on your hair—hair loss. There’s actually three different types of hair loss:

• Telogen Effluvium: This is when hair follicles go “to sleep” or go into a resting phase and actually stop hair from growing. Over the course of time, the hair attached to those napping follicles actually falls out in larger than normal volume. It’s the most common of stress-related hair loss that we all experience or have experienced at one time in our lives.
• Alopecia Areata: This is a bit more serious of a condition due to the fact that the immune system goes into panic mode and causes hair to fall out in large chunks. Now, we do need to point out that there are other factors involved with this type of hair loss and it is not just isolated to stress. But, it is important to point out that stress does play a serious role.
• Trichotillomania: This is on a very serious level, because it is an actual behavior and not a mere reaction to hormones spiking or follicles resting. Trichotillomania is when a person compulsively pulls out their own hair, and this condition often develops as a coping method when someone is under severe duress, stress, anxiety, boredom or depression.

We also must point out that experiencing hair loss is not only stress-related and can sometimes be attributed to other medical conditions like Hypothyroidism and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). If you are experiencing hair loss, we do recommend you see a medical expert first and foremost.
 
Many people say that stress causes gray hair, but there’s some myth (and actually a little truth) surrounding that statement. Gray hair is genetic, not stress-induced, BUT…if you are predisposed to getting gray hair, then stress will speed up this process and make these white strands appear sooner.
 
As far as ways to combat stress and to prevent experiencing hair loss, thinning and premature graying, we recommend you follow some of the strategies we’ve already mentioned above and recommend you practice a few more like these. Sometimes, all it takes is five minutes to help feel less stressed. Surely you can find five minutes in your day to protect your health for a lifetime.
 
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There’s help for those who are experiencing hair loss. … You no doubt have heard of the two FDA-approved medications — Propecia and Rogaine — that are designed to help combat hereditary hair loss, but you don’t know which one is the most effective or best suited for you.

Propeciavs. Rogaine: Which Works Better?

Minoxidil is a medication that's commonly marketed under the name Rogaine, and finasteride is marketed under the label Propecia. You might use either Rogaine or Propecia to help treat hair loss. Talk with your physician before you use these medications for hair loss, because they both pose certain health risks, drug interactions and side effects.

Function
Rogaine and Propecia both inhibit hair loss while promoting hair growth, explains the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Rogaine is an over-the-counter treatment used primarily for treating androgenetic alopecia, also called male- and female-pattern baldness, and alopecia areata, an autoimmune disease. Rogaine appears to make hair shafts thicker and increase the number of hair follicles, notes the University of Michigan Health System.

Propecia requires a prescription. It is used to treat androgenetic alopecia specifically in men. It affects male hormones that cause hair loss by blocking testosterone's conversion into dihydrotestosterone, or DHT.

Applications
Rogaine is a topical treatment that comes in the form of a foam, lotion or liquid spray. It is available in a 2 or 5 percent concentration solution that you apply to your scalp twice each day.

Propecia is a pill taken by mouth once daily or as directed by your doctor.

Timeframe
Rogaine topical solutions can take up to four months of daily use to show maximum effect, notes the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. If you don't see a significant change in hair loss or growth after six months of use, you might want to try a different remedy. Unlike Propecia, Rogaine might generate new hair growth that's much thinner and shorter than your regular hair.

Noticeable results from taking Propecia can occur in as little as three months or up to one year. If you stop using Rogaine or taking Propecia, your hair loss will likely resume, and new hair growth will stop, because these treatments don't usually have any effects beyond active use, the Mayo Clinic points out.
 
Side Effects
Both Propecia and Rogaine can cause some side effects. Rogaine can cause itching, dandruff and skin irritation, cautions the University of Michigan Health System. Also, women who use Rogaine could grow unwanted facial hair. Propecia can cause erectile dysfunction, low sex drive and other sexual-function problems in men. Propecia might also cause drug interactions, so talk with your doctor about any other medications that you're taking.

Warnings
Propecia poses serious health risks to women and children. Pregnant or breastfeeding women shouldn't take or even handle Propecia pills, and men taking Propecia should use birth control with their partners to prevent pregnancy while on the medication, warns the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Propecia could cause serious birth defects. Women using Rogaine who also take estrogen-containing medications like oral contraceptives or hormone replacement therapy could experience enhanced hair growth, notes the University of Michigan Health System. If you're pregnant or breastfeeding, you should ask your doctor before using Rogaine.

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Here are some other links I found very informative.

Propecia vs. Rogaine: Which Works Better?

Male Pattern Baldness Treatments

Propecia Side Effects

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