What Your Hair Tells You About Your Health

A healthy head of hair is easy to spot. For a black person, it is blackish, full, shiny and lustrous with no flakes or other visible damage. However, changes in hair texture and colour could be indicative of many problems, including malnutrition and stress, reports Sade Oguntola.

The hair in Africa is synonymous with the beauty of a woman. From one end of the continent to the other, it is the norm to see women having their hair dressed in different forms.

A healthy head of hair is easy to spot. For a black person, it is blackish, full, shiny and lustrous with no flakes or other visible damage. Our hair, like other parts of the body, is constantly talking to us; yet, many people ignore its messages and suffer unnecessary illness as a result.

Small symptoms like bloodshot eyes, dry skin, thinning hair or even weak, brittle nails can be early warnings that our system is under stress or that we are experiencing a deficiency that could eventually damage our general health and well being.

However, many people are ignoring the early warning signs that their body, especially their hair sends out often because they do not understand what they mean.

These are subtle early signs that things are not quite right and if nothing is done, they increase to stronger signals and if you neglect those you may be hit by a big warning such as a major symptom or illness that literally cannot be ignored.

In some cases, it might be a harbinger of health problems—or it could simply mean adding too many chemical substances to the hair.

White hair is the glory of old age. However, when it is grown overnight, according to Dr. Lanre Falodun of the Department of Medicine, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, it could be a signal for one to seek medical attention. Though some people age early, so the hair becomes gray, it is of no health problem.

According to him, “The only way for hair to turn gray is a gradual decline in melanin production at the root. There is no biological event that can remove pigment directly from the hair shaft. However, a physical or emotional trauma or stress can cause a change in the hair. The illness or stress sends actively growing hair into a resting phase, and a couple of months later, all those strands in the resting phase may fall out. So, if the dark hair fall out and the already white ones remain, the result is hair that look suddenly grayer.

Some people start finding those wiry gray strands as early as their 20s, while others hold onto their natural colour well into their 40s. The cause is unrelated to how healthy—or unhealthy—you are. As with so many things, Dr. Falodun said, it is mostly genetic.”

“For individuals with parents that had gray hairs early, it is likely they also start to have gray hair too early. As they age, there will also be a decrease in melanin production in the hair bulb (or root).”

Many women are usually worried when they see their hairs falling off after combing. Dr. Falodun, however, declared that seeing a swarm of strands come off after combing is not necessarily a cause for alarm or a signal that anything is wrong.

He said, “It is totally normal to lose about 100 strands of hair everyday. And even if you think you are losing more than that, the head carries at least 100,000 hair follicles, so it is possible to collect a handful or two out of the hairbrush without it visibly changing the appearance of your mane. And since those 100,000 or so follicles have different growth phases, even as several strands fall out, dozens of new ones are just on their way to replace them.”

So, unless you are starting to notice visible thinning of your hair or bald spots on your scalp, chances are the loss is nothing more than the natural everyday shedding. However, hair loss at times may also be due to side effects of some medications, such as those for cancer.

A common feature of a baby suffering from malnutrition is the thinning of the hair. According to Dr. Falodun, such babies because of their poor diet have iron or protein deficiency - common with the caloric deprivation in anyone suffering from an eating disorder which forces the body to conserve protein (the building block of all the body’s cells, including the hair) by shutting down hair growth. And since more hair may also be shed—without being replaced—the result can be a noticeable thinning over several months.

Equally, he pointed out that though malnutrition is more of a problem in children, thinning of hair is also synonymous with thyroid disease (both an overactive thyroid and an under active one) in adults. The thyroid disease and kidney conditions also show up as increased hair loss. Once the disease is controlled, hair growth can usually be restored.

In some individuals with bald people in their family lineage, growing a bald head may not really be disturbing. Heredity baldness, medically known as androgenetic alopecia, affects up to one third of men. Dr. Falodun explained that this hair loss—which typically begins at the temples or crown—is permanent. But some cases of baldness arise because the body in a way seems to be fighting itself, a condition referred to as Alopecia areata. This is an autoimmune disease, which can cause anything from smooth bald patches to the loss of all hair on both the head and body. The cause of the disease is not known, although some doctors feel there is a genetic link. With this type of alopecia, hair normally grows back.

Dandruff is one of hair’s most misunderstood maladies. According to the expert, people often assume that those flakes must mean that the scalp is too dry and that like skin that is flaking, it must obviously need more moisture to make it look better. But while some people may indeed suffer from a dry scalp, true dandruff has nothing to do with dryness of the scalp, according to Dr. Falodun.

“Dandruff is the common name for seborrheic dermatitis, an inflammatory condition of the scalp that causes redness and flaking in the areas of the skin that are rich in oil glands. Though it may be a sign of a fungal infection, it could also be an indication of other skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. Both of these skin problems can also cause a similar condition in which the scalp gets red, itchy and produces flakes of dandruff.

Meanwhile, he said many women do a lot of things to their hair that ends up making it dull, dry, brittle, and breaking. “Some people do tremendous damage by using chemical dyes and hair relaxers as well as by simply aiming the blow dryer at our heads every morning. Like being in the sun, all of these self-inflicted abuses destroy the cuticle and leave hair wide open to damage,” he stated.

“Pulling hair into tight braids or ponytails can increase that stress and lead to breakage or even bald spots. Some people equally pull it off with their hands due to psychological illnesses such as Trichotillomania,” he said.

Given that unhealthy strands can also be an indicator of an unhealthy diet, he said people must eat balanced meals. “Without adequate protein, growing hair strands would not become as strong and resilient as they should be. And essential fatty acids (found in fish oil supplements, wild salmon, and flax seeds) may also play a role in keeping strands strong, shiny and healthy. Meanwhile, what you eat can only impact on hair that is just starting to grow, so it will be several months before any improvements are evident.