My long hair`s fallen out!

I am 16 years old. I have long hair and I think I`m doing something wrong because I seem to be losing a lot of it. When I brush it, I try to be gentle, but everytime I do I seem to have a huge gob of it in my brush. Sometimes I wonder how I even have hair left on my head, at the rate it`s going. I use conditioner a lot and my hair doesn`t seem brittle, but it just keeps pulling out or breaking. Please help! I don`t what I`m doing wrong and I don`t want it to get worse.
gravley conserned,
Goldeeloks

Lovely Goldeeloks,
I am a man who is married with two daughters and I know something about hair because I have been wearing my hair long, halfway down my back for twenty years and it is in very good shape.
I use natural hair shampoos and conditioners, like Avalon and Giovanni products, and I don`t overuse products, I shower and wash my hair everyday, but I don`t shampoo and condition everyday, occasionally give it a rest and let your natural hair oils work.
Also exercise and a healthy balanced diet, also vitamins, contribute to good overall health, which is also good for your skin and hair.
If you continue to lose hair go to a doctor, you may not be sick, but you may have alopecia, the condition where your hair falls out.
If you would like to read more of my writings and the writings of others check for my writings on general hair talk, and hair loss talk, as well as the long hair talk thread. Best of luck young lady!
Much love darling!
Johan

Johan, just a suggestion but um "natural hair oils" can make your hair have flakes or lead to a dry scalp or even worse, will make your hair fall out.

It`s happend to me.
At least that`s what I notice after I haven`t washed my hair after a day, more hair falls out.

Perhaps you just eat good things and get more vitamins,

Goldeelocks, how many vitamins do you take a day and what amount do you take of them? MSM is said to prevent hair from shedding by making the hair grow slower(allowing MORE nutrients to the hair making it less likely to break). You could try that along with other vitamins like a multi vitamin with lots of B vitamins, like a B complex. I am sure that would help you instead of just topical applications of natural shampoo. Also you don`t want to take tooo much iron, zinc or copper, or vitamin A. 10,000 IU a day is way too much. But you need some in your diet (just not THAT much!)

~Kitty Brite

well my hair falls out bunches after i haven`t washed it in a while.
But now I see that you meant you wash your hair but you don`t shampooo.. Now that is something totally different.

And Natural hair oils can be bad for your hair. Hundreds of years ago when people didn`t believe in washing their hair in europe (because they believed it would do you harm to wash your hair) they lost a lot of their hair because they hadn`t washed it, of course other creatures found their natural hair oils were supreme to nest in. Then they would wear wigs because their hair was so gross! Hence, wigs being in fashion in those times. Too much of anything can be a bad thing.

I totally understand what you are going through and have some solutions that my doctor gave me that did help.. and another one I discovered on my own. All are proven to work, but please see your doctor as well. i cannot stress this enough. Firstly, call your pharmacist and order Biotin Forte. It is a mega dose of Biotin which supports hair and nail growth. Normally they will only order the 3mg...but ask for the 5mg as it does make a difference. The Biotin Forte does have silica, but have found that by taking an additional Silica supplement, that the rate my hair grows is much faster then with taking the Biotin alone. I recommend NatureWorks... but do your own research and ask your doctor as well. Another bit of info Id like to pass on to you is the possible causes of your hair fallout. It is possible for hair to fall out if you stop taking the pill or if you have taken the pill in high doses when used as "the day after pill". Just like when women lose their hair after giving birth, the birth control pill has the same effect. Common sense really... but sadly that is how I lost my 4 feet of thick and lush hair! Anyway, another cause I was given was stress. After a traumatic event like the loss of a loved one, accident etc, your hair can fall out 5 months later...suddenly in clumps. Anyway, vitamins are the key. I just take my multi and my Biotin and Silica... plenty of veggies, fruit and soy... so you really do not need to spend an mint to keep your hair (and over all health) in tip top shape. SEE YOUR DOCTOR! :-)

i think its just at that age that u lose alot of hair coz when i was 16 i lost ALOT and i mean ALOT
and i thought at that time maybe somert wrong with my health or somert...but it wasnt...and my hair was in great condition

dont worry about it i say :)

Johan,
Thanks for the compliment. Im 32, but my boyfriend calls me GoodGirl, so that is where the name I use originated. No, I did not lose all of my hair, but about 50%+ fell out when I went off the pill. To make matters worse, I went to Australia and the harsh tap water and weather conditions mixed with dying my hair made what hair I had left into a dry brittle mess! It was very traumatic at the time, but just happy it grew back. I feel very fortunate. The best advice I can give others is to do what I did which is see a good doctor that specializes with hair loss issues. I had a whole range of tests done and the professional advice I received was golden! I also did some research on holistic solutions as well and found that rosemary oil is a wonderful tonic and wheat germ oil is fabulous when used as an over night hair treatment for dry ends. Oh.. and this stuff called brilcream which I picked up in the UK is awesome for hair. (And super cheap!) It leaves it super soft, touchable and with so much shine. I started a new thread in Long Hair Support, so maybe you can read it and give me your advice. I have been reading your postings and you seem to give great advice. Id love to hear your opinion. Take Care.

Let`s not overlook the simple fact that 20 strands of very long hair looks like a lot more than 20 strands of short hair. When I look at my drain at the end of a shower, I often wonder how it is that I still have any hair at all. But (anal retentive me) I recently separated each hair and found that only 28 hairs...not at all an abnormal amount of loss. For an example of this phenomenon, cut 20 strips of sewing thread 24 inches long (or the length of your hair) and coil it up, see how much it looks like it is... But compared to the number of hairs on the human head, 20 or so is NOTHING.

This could be all that is going on. (let`s hope)

A lot of times, hair loss can be contributed to Stress. When I was 18, I had lots of stress around my life, and I was losing hair by the handfuls *or so it seemed*

I noticed that after I adapted a less stressful lifestyle, the hair loss seemed to slow down a lot!

You can tell if your hair is falling out, shedding or breaking off. If the hair contains a bulb on the tip, your hair is shedding and that`s natural. NO need to worry. If it`s breaking very close to the scalp, there`s a chance you have a medical condition you need to check out. Now, if your hair is breaking off in tiny little pieces, your hair is damaged.

Once hair has been damaged, there`s no going back other than waiting for the new hair to grow in and cut off the damaged ends. However, you can help how to keep what`s on your head. First, you must identify your problem. If your hair is breaking it means that your hair lacks moisture. We as African-Americans have the driest hair of all races due to our curl pattern. We produce small amount of sebrum oils (natural oils from scalp). The best moisture for African-American hair is water. You should see increased hair growth with more moisture added to your hair and a clean scalp. It is recommend contrary to popular belief to wash your hair about every 3 days. Its a myth that washing hair more often than every two weeks will dry out our hair. Like I said, the best moisture is water. Its what we put onto our hair and how we care for it causes to become dry/damaged.

First you want to shampoo with a shampoo that contains no Sulfates. Sulfates are drying to our hair because they strip all the oils from our hair and scalp. If its stripping the oils, what makes you think it isn`t stripping the hair follicle isn`t? Lathering your hair 1x is sufficient, as you want to only wash away surface dirt and oil. After you shampoo, you want to follow with a protein conditioner. Now protein is the only element that will attach to the hair strand because hair is 90% protein. However, when applying a protein conditioner to your hair, you must follow with a moisturizing conditioner because protein will dry out your hair. when you put the protein conditioner on, you want to sit under a hood dryer for about 30 minutes then rinse then follow with the moisturizing conditioner and sit (no heat) for 5-15 minutes.

After you finish washing and conditioning your hair, you want to follow with a setting lotion or a leave in conditioner and apply an oil to your hair to seal in the moisture from the leave in treatment or setting lotion. Spray throughout your hair, wrap, roller set, or ponytail method your hair and sit under a hooddryer or air dry. This should be the only heat that you apply to your hair. As you should know, heat is very damaging to the hair.

Once your hair has dried, you want to put a little more moisture (if required) to your hair. Depending on how you like to style your hair, that could be in a spray water based form or lotion/crème hair dress form.

A protein conditioner isn`t meant to be performed each wash. If you use a liquid protein conditioner, you should use this about every 6 weeks. The other days you wash you want to use a moisturizing conditioner. If you use a creamy protein conditioner, you can use this every time you wash or every other time you wash.

When searching for shampoo they shouldn`t contain sulfates.
When searching for a protein conditioner, it should contain some form of protein, i.e.. Wheat germ protein, aloe vera, human keratin protein. I`m giving you general ideas, but the ingredients should list some type of protein.
When searching for a moisturizing conditioner, it would should first and foremost water, oils and NO protein.
When searching for a leave in treatment it should contain first and foremost water, it should have oil as well.
When searching for moisturizers for daily conditioning, it should contain water.

Ingredients you want to avoid like the plague in any product would be:
SDA-40 Alcohol
Isopropyl Alcohol
Petroleum
Mineral Oil
Sulfates
Lanolin

Hope this helps!!!!!!!! Happy growing