My Hair Was Thinning At An Alarming Rate: Here's What I Did That Worked

As I sat in the chair of a family friend who'd been cutting my hair since I was eight, she ran her fingers along my scalp and dropped a sympathetic bomb: “Your hair does seem a lot thinner, sweetie.”

I held my breath. A flood of familiar emotions welled up in my stomach.

A few years ago, I was very sick for a number of reasons that mostly centered on the health of my blood. As a result—and much to my chagrin—I began to lose my hair. While a healthy person usually loses about 50 to 100 strands of hair per day according to the American Academy of Dermatology, I was losing hair by the clump, and the loss was becoming increasingly obvious.

It was also a time of major transition in my life, so I’m sure the constant stress didn’t help either. In fact, the link between stress and hair loss1 is well-documented—research has found that when your hormone regulators (the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal glands2) are out of balance due to high stress, it can exacerbate hair thinning and loss.

My hair has finally stopped falling out at the alarming rate it used to, even though I’m still working on the blood-health thing (that’s a lifelong process). My hair and I continue to have a weird relationship, though. To this day, almost four years later, I still have an inner millisecond meltdown when I go to tuck my hair behind my ears and a piece falls out.

I use a boar-bristle brush to help the good oils from my scalp travel down to the ends of my hair. (Pro tip: If you’re shopping for a brush, try to find one that doesn't use endangered wood and that shears the bristles humanely from farm-raised animals.)

Rosemary oil can help stimulate the hair follicles and increase circulation, which helped my thinning edges. In fact, a 2015 randomized comparative trial found that rosemary essential oil was just as effective5 as minoxidil for reversing hair loss, and another study found that the essential oil can help with hair growth6 if applied to the scalp daily. And it smells good, so that’s a plus. (Peppermint is another beloved essential oil for hair growth.)

I realize that my hair loss situation could have been much, much worse. In fact, it is a lot worse for some people. If I could do it all over, I'd hope I could have dealt with the situation more mindfully. Hell, maybe I should have even shaved my entire head in an effort to practice impermanence.

But hindsight is 20/20, no?

Oh, and one more thing: Last summer at a music festival, a complete stranger walked up to me and told me I have beautiful hair. The fact that my hair looked healthy enough for her to walk on over and say that made my confidence swell, not with vanity but gratitude.