We love caring for our skin. But our hair, not so much. At least not in the same way that we research, watch reviews and find out everything humanly possible about what skincare line to invest in. It’s only natural, your skin looks noticeably different when you cleanse, moisturise and scrub it. But hair on the other hand is difficult to see any real changes until you have been on a hair care regime for a set amount of time.

Let’s change your perspective

Think of it like skincare for your scalp. Afterall, the top layers of your skin, nails and hair are all mainly made from the same protein (keratin), so extending skincare to your scalp ultimately makes sense. While we love to style and treat our strands, the actual hair shaft is dead. It’s the scalp and hair follicle that is alive and needs nourishment and hydration to ensure you grow beautiful, thick, healthy hair.

Your hair ages

Yes, that’s correct. Your hair ages just like your skin does and to understand why anti-ageing hair care products are important we need to understand the hair cycle. The life cycle of the hair can be defined by three phases:

1. Anagen Phase – This is the growth phase. It begins in the hair follicle where types of hair cells called keratinocytes divide and bind together to create the hair. The cells continue to divide and bind from the base pushing up the older cells which grow out of the scalp and we see as the hair shaft.
2. Catagen Phase – This is the transition phase. The transition phase is where the signalling protein FGF5 signals the hair follicle to stop growing and go into the resting phase.
3. Telogen Phase – This is a resting phase, where the hair is no longer growing and is simply sitting in your scalp. After about three months the hair is pushed out of the scalp by a new follicle regenerating below.

Each hair is in a different stage of the hair cycle with 80-90% of follicles actively growing at any one time. On a healthy head anagen phase or growth phase is 7 years, and you should be losing 50-100 hairs a day as new hairs grow in to replace resting hairs. As we age, this cycle starts to slow down, similar to how cell turnover in the skin slows down, and soon enough the follicles begin to produce frail, unpigmented strands, with shorter growth periods e.g. 2-3 years instead of 7. Shorter growth phase means shorter maximum hair length, and less substantial growth. This ageing process can also be sped up when external stressors come into play.

What are these external stressors? 

There are so many influences that can prematurely cause the hair to go into resting phase and fall out. Some include: stress, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause, genetics and even wearing tight hair styles over a long period of time (think braids, high ponytails).

While some forms of hair loss or hair shedding are reversible, others aren’t. Once your follicles and the stem cells that regenerate them get to a stage where they can no longer reproduce a hair, then there is no product that can help you to grow it back.

So, what can you do?

Well, that’s up to you. If you prefer to own the process of your hair ageing and balding, power to you! And if you want to implement preventative measures to ensure that no matter what life throws at you, your hair will stay in the growth phase, we can help!

We have a full range of products that can help you with maintaining the hair you currently have and promote growth by nourishing your scalp with plant actives and hydrating your strands, so they look and feel healthy.

Our products contain FGF5 inhibitors (the protein that signals your hair to fall out) so that once you apply our products, the growth phase of your hair is extended, making for longer, stronger and healthier looking lengths.

If you want to find the right collection for you, take our hair quiz here.

If you want to find out more about our ingredients, click here.

If you want to find out more about our science, click here.