Keeping your hair young

Your hair is one area where you can soon feel the toll of the ageing process. That is why it is important to anti-age your hair to hold back the effect the years can bring if you are not careful, especially in your late forties and early fifties onwards.

From your 50s onwards it is important to take better care of your hair, using special anti-ageing products to give added lustre, moisture and colour.

The reason why hair goes grey as we age is that it produces less melanin, which is the pigment that gives hair its colour. Here the role of genetics is very significant. Caucasians go grey earlier than Asians and the colour of your grey does depend on the original colour you had in your youth. People who enjoyed very dark to black hair tend to go a bluey silvery grey, whereas previous mousy browns are stuck with a grey mix that may not be very flattering!

As we age hair often thins and there is a certain amount of hair loss. but thickness of hair is determined by genetics so it may not all be bad news. The most common problem is dryness as we tend to lose moisture in our hair as we age, which causes our hair to be less shiny.

Advice to combat dry hair due to the ageing process includes keeping to a minimum the use of hair straighteners and hair dryers. Hairdressers recommend using straighteners no more than once a week for example. It is also recommended to use special finishing products after drying your hair to replace some of the moisture that has been lost in the process.

It is important to pay special attention to your diet making sure it includes those essential fats vital for maintaining moisture in your hair. These are the Omega 3s which you will find in oily fish, seeds, nuts, seaweeds and the vitamins C and A found in green vegetable particularly such a broccoli and spinach.

Other advice is to keep your hair shorter as this combats dryness and split ends, and is easier to nourish and condition. It is so important as you reach your 50s and 60s to visit your hairdresser to get a great cut and a regular top up of hair colour on a regular basis as this makes your hair look glossier and shinier.

Keeping your hair in fine condition as you grow older will do wonders for your self esteem!

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