Remember how I was wailing about my hair falling like mad each time I washed my hair?
Well, I told a friend, Then, who runs a hair salon and whom I go to each month for my henna hair colouring treatment (yes, these pesky white hairs keep popping up so when I get tired of plucking them by the roots, I go and henna them all).
She's Indian so she asked me if my diet changed. I was eating less rice at that time because I didn't want to get too flabby around my waist.
She told me that she personally experienced hair loss too when she reduced her rice intake. She advised me to get back to my normal rice intake and see if it helped. I decided to also get a bottle of hair loss shampoo from her. It was more to satisfy my own desire to do all I could to help my hair loss from getting worse.
The girl who worked for Then did tell me that her boss did eat a lot of fruits and yogurt. Yogurt is cooling for the body.
That was in January.
I started reading more online because I did see the logic of her statement. What we put into our bodies is more important than what we put on our bodies. I tried her shampoo for a while but I realised it didn't help much.
I decided it was all about my body because apparently, hair is related to Kidneys and Liver. TCM believes that hair is related to blood circulation.So if I wanted to make my hair stronger, I had to improve my blood. And blood, as we know, is stored in the Liver. The Kidneys play a role too in that if you wanted your hair to be shiny and thick, you had to have strong Kidney essence.
So the lack of sufficient blood flow and circulation is one of the causes of hair loss.
I wasn't sure if I was stressed and that caused hair loss. I was, however, keen to prevent more hair loss by eating right.
So I started eating one dong quai capsule a day.
I had bought these dong quai capsules from the Chinese herbalist in town for days when I was too lazy to boil dong quai soup after my menses.
The herbalist recommended that I eat a capsule at each meal meaning I had to eat 3 capsules a day.
I wasn't too sure if suddenly eating so much of dong quai was going to shock my body. So I went on for one a day. I would take one dong quai capsule a day in addition to my cod liver oil capsule.
I also started to eat more rice.
I also started eating black sesame seeds in powder form. I bought a packet of black sesame seed powder from the shop inside Than Hsiang temple. Black sesame seed, I knew, was recommended for hair darkening because sesame seeds (white and black) are good for tonifying the Kidneys. I basically mixed 2 tablespoons of black sesame seed powder into my cereal beverage and drank this 2 times a week.
According to this website: "Taking black sesame seeds can heal all the chronic illness after 100 days, improve skin tone on body and face after 1 year, reverse gray hair after 2 years, and regrow teeth after 3 years.” says the Compendium of Materia Medica, the largest and most comprehensive medical writings in the history of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)."
One more thing, I also believe that henna colouring helped cool my scalp too. If your scalp is too hot, it also makes hair drop too.
Well, I told a friend, Then, who runs a hair salon and whom I go to each month for my henna hair colouring treatment (yes, these pesky white hairs keep popping up so when I get tired of plucking them by the roots, I go and henna them all).
She's Indian so she asked me if my diet changed. I was eating less rice at that time because I didn't want to get too flabby around my waist.
She told me that she personally experienced hair loss too when she reduced her rice intake. She advised me to get back to my normal rice intake and see if it helped. I decided to also get a bottle of hair loss shampoo from her. It was more to satisfy my own desire to do all I could to help my hair loss from getting worse.
The girl who worked for Then did tell me that her boss did eat a lot of fruits and yogurt. Yogurt is cooling for the body.
That was in January.
I started reading more online because I did see the logic of her statement. What we put into our bodies is more important than what we put on our bodies. I tried her shampoo for a while but I realised it didn't help much.
I decided it was all about my body because apparently, hair is related to Kidneys and Liver. TCM believes that hair is related to blood circulation.So if I wanted to make my hair stronger, I had to improve my blood. And blood, as we know, is stored in the Liver. The Kidneys play a role too in that if you wanted your hair to be shiny and thick, you had to have strong Kidney essence.
So the lack of sufficient blood flow and circulation is one of the causes of hair loss.
I wasn't sure if I was stressed and that caused hair loss. I was, however, keen to prevent more hair loss by eating right.
So I started eating one dong quai capsule a day.
I had bought these dong quai capsules from the Chinese herbalist in town for days when I was too lazy to boil dong quai soup after my menses.
The herbalist recommended that I eat a capsule at each meal meaning I had to eat 3 capsules a day.
I wasn't too sure if suddenly eating so much of dong quai was going to shock my body. So I went on for one a day. I would take one dong quai capsule a day in addition to my cod liver oil capsule.
I also started to eat more rice.
I also started eating black sesame seeds in powder form. I bought a packet of black sesame seed powder from the shop inside Than Hsiang temple. Black sesame seed, I knew, was recommended for hair darkening because sesame seeds (white and black) are good for tonifying the Kidneys. I basically mixed 2 tablespoons of black sesame seed powder into my cereal beverage and drank this 2 times a week.
According to this website: "Taking black sesame seeds can heal all the chronic illness after 100 days, improve skin tone on body and face after 1 year, reverse gray hair after 2 years, and regrow teeth after 3 years.” says the Compendium of Materia Medica, the largest and most comprehensive medical writings in the history of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)."
I also realised that the hot weather didn't help. My scalp was sweating and itchy and it also contributed to hair loss. It's still humid and hot in Penang now but I have taken to washing my hair more often. I used to wash my hair every 2 days but now I wash my hair daily, if only to stop having a sweaty scalp.
So how did all those remedies go?
I could see that my hair loss has become less each time I shampoo. I didn't use much of the hair loss shampoo so it's not the shampoo that's helping, that's for sure.
I attribute it to the dong quai (for the blood-building) and black sesame seeds and rice. Perhaps all these were working in tandem. Again, I believe that improving blood and its circulation from within by eating the right foods and herbs did help.
I am still monitoring my hair and scalp but I feel that the combination of these foods (and perhaps resting more and walking more) have helped.
Have you come across any interesting remedies for hair loss? Have you experienced hair loss? What did you do? I'd love to hear your comments.
One more thing, I also believe that henna colouring helped cool my scalp too. If your scalp is too hot, it also makes hair drop too.
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