Advice

Hair has a big part to play in how we communicate our personality, expressing attractiveness, sensuality and imagination. Many men believe a fine head of hair adds a seductive allure and regard it as a marker of their style – no wonder it’s so upsetting to see signs that you’re losing your hair. Let’s take a look at the process to understand how to successfully treat thinning hair.

The health of our hair depends on several complex processes. Just like all the cells in our bodies, a strand of hair is alive and has a natural life cycle. There are three stages in hair growth:
* The anagen phase is the period when the hair is growing. This is the longest phase in the growth cycle, lasting from two to six years, and the vast majority of the hairs on our heads are in the anagen phase.
* During the catagen phase, which lasts around three weeks, the hair shaft ‘rests’ and no more growth occurs.
* Lastly, the telogen phase ends after about three months when the hair dies, breaking free from its root to leave room for a new hair in its anagen phase.

So as part of your hair’s natural growth cycle, you’ll be permanently shedding a certain amount of hair throughout the seasons – this is nothing to worry about, as long as the number of hairs in the telogen phase remains relatively low (fifty to one hundred hairs per day). However, there’s a limit to how many growth cycles your hair will go through: about twenty-five to thirty cycles, each lasting between two and five years – theoretically, this should be enough to give you a good head of hair throughout your lifetime.

Unfortunately, a number of factors can considerably reduce the length of these growth cycles, in which case individual hairs become finer and finer before falling out altogether. There has been a dramatic increase in this type of diffuse hair loss in recent years and it now affects from 20 to 40% of women. Typically, hair will be fine and sparse across the entire scalp, often due to external factors such as stress, tiredness, nutritional deficiency or a hormonal imbalance.

After the cool browns and ashy blonds of winter, trendy tresses take on golden and dark blonde tones enhanced with a few light highlights for a pretty sun-kissed look. But once your color, bleaching or highlighting treatment is complete, your hair will require special care to make sure it continues to shine.
Stephan Monnerie, color technician at the Leonor Greyl Institute, explains: “Shiny hair is hair with a smooth cuticle whose scales are all lined up in the same direction so that they reflect light like a mirror. The healthier the hair – and the better moisturized and smooth – the more this mirror effect is increased, and the more the hair shows this attractive shine.”

Our recommendations to enhance your color:

* The pigments of your color will only be radiant if the hair cuticle is smooth and well-maintained. It is therefore essential to nourish, repair and smooth your hair with deep-acting treatments that can be applied to dry hair and left in for a long time before washing.
Recommended products: L’Huile de Leonor Greyl, to be left in for as long as you like while brushing to work it in and smooth the hair cuticle. Crème régénératrice or Masque Quintessence, to be left in for 20 minutes.

* Opt for a protective shampoo specially designed to care for colored hair and make its beauty last, with a mild formula that nourishes the cuticle and reduces color oxidation.
Recommended products: Crème aux Fleurs, a cleansing and moisturizing cream that sets the color pigments and desensitizes the hair: a must-have for dry, colored hair, to be used with L’Huile de Leonor Greyl. Shampooing Reviviscence, for all extremely damaged and sensitized hair. Shampooing Sublime Mèches, for highlighted or colored hair. Bain vitalisant B for fine, colored hair.