Tag Archives: beauty-tips

When you’re looking in the mirror every day, you might not notice subtle changes to your hair, and your hairline. Sometimes, when you look at yourself in a photo, you might notice changes to your hairline.

Hair loss tends to start at the temples, or along your parting, and won’t be too obvious day to day. Hair loss is inevitable, but what does a receding hairline look for a woman?!

Why Do Hairlines Change Over Time For Women?

As a woman, your hairline shifts over time, due to hormones, genetics and lifestyle factors, which change how your follicles grow and shed hair.

Causes of hairline changes usually start from within your body, like hormonal changes during puberty, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, or menopause, all can shorten your hair growth cycles, and increase hair shedding along your hairline.

Aging plays a role too. As you get older, your individual hairs grow through finer, and the hair density around your temples gradually drop, even without obvious bald spots. Genetics also matter, if your close relatives experienced thinning near their hairline, you’re also more likely to see similar changes.

Daily habits have an effect on your hairline. Tight hairstyles (like tight ponytails or buns), heat styling (with hot irons or blow driers) and harsh chemicals will all weaken your hair’s fragile strands. The stress impact can push your hair follicles into a “resting” phase, so shedding spikes months later, and the hairline looks subtly less full.

Most Common Receding Hairline Patterns In Women

As your hair follicles thin or shed unevenly, your hairline doesn’t usually recede in a noticeable, straight line.

One common look is temple recession, where your corners lift into a softer “M” shape, often tied to your genetics’ influence.

Another look is “diffuse frontal edging”, when the very front band looks sparser, and you’ll notice more scalp between hairs, often tied to hormonal changes, or thyroid shifts.

You might notice a widening along your center parting, which creeps forwards, to make your midline hairline seem set back.

A rarer hair loss pattern you might experience, is patchy breakage along the edges of your hairline, and this is what I’m dealing with personally right now. The edges of my hair look frayed, rather than looking smooth, and it’s usually caused by styling choices, like tight ponytails, extensions, or repeated heat.

My personal hair loss issues are definitely down to my hairstyle choice. I like to wear my super long hair in a messy bun or tight ponytail, and it has given me traction alopecia issues.

All of these female hairline receding patterns often show up gradually, and are often spotted first, by looking at photographs of yourself.

How A Receding Hairline Differs From General Thinning

When your hair is beginning to recede, you might notice fewer short and wispy baby hairs, or slower hair growth along the perimeter of your hairline, while the rest of your hair can seem fairly normal.

With diffuse hair thinning, the hairline can remain unchanged, but each hair strand may “miniaturize”, change in texture, and make your scalp show through in bright lights.

Your hormonal changes often influence your hair patterns, but traction alopecia, from tight hair styles targets your hair’s edges first.

How To Check Your Hairline Without Obsessing Over It

Anxiety can make you overcheck your hair, and miss real patterns. Instead, focus on lifestyle factors you *can* control, like gentler styling, using less heat, balance protein and iron (in your diet), stress and sleep.

If you do have steady temple recession or widening over 3-6 months, you can always visit a dermatologist to discuss receding hair in women, and rule out traction, hormones or deficiencies issues.

There are many different oils you can use on your hair, from pure natural oils to blended oils from brands like MoroccanOil, which is my personal favorite hair oil.

If you’re looking to try a pure natural oil, coconut oil and jojoba oil are both super popular hair oils, but which oil is the best of the two? I’ll give you a comparison of the two oils, to help you decide which oil is best for your hair and scalp.

Why Should You Consider Pure Natural Oils For Your Hair?

Pure natural oils are a simple way to care for your hair, without having to worry about heavy and synthetic filler ingredients.

With regular use, natural oils gently condition your hair, to keep it soft, flexible and healthy-looking. Hair oils work by sealing in moisture into your hair, after washing, to give you extra hydration, as well as reducing dryness, frizz and the appearance of split ends.

You can also oils as a pre-shampoo treatment, to loosen any build-up within the hair, so your shampoo can deeply cleanse your hair of impurities.

When it comes to choosing which hair oil is best, it depends on your natural hair type, as you don’t want the oil to be too heavy or greasy for your hairstyle, whilst the oil can reduce dryness or flakiness.

Benefits Of Coconut Oil For Your Hair and Scalp

Coconut oil smells amazing as a start, and it works well for both your hair and scalp.

It coats each individual hair strand, slowing down moisture loss, and boosting your hair’s mositure retention between your hairwash days.

When you apply coconut oil, start with a small amount, and smooth a small amount over your damp mid-lengths to ends, for softer ends, and damage from daily heat styling. I like how coconut oil makes split ends look less noticeable, and works wonder on smoothing frizz.

Coconut oil gives extra “slip” to the hair, allowing you to detangle knots easily, with fewer snags and split ends. Plus, you can use it as a pre-wash treatment, for an extra shine boost. If you don’t have oily roots, you can also apply it to your scalp for reducing dryness, and helping to keep dry flakes from building up.

Benefits Of Jojoba Oil For Your Hair and Scalp

Jojoba oil closely mimics your scalp’s natural sebum, it absorbs quickly, so you can balance moisture without leaving your hair and roots looking and feeling greasy.

The faster oil absorption helps to soften dry lengths, while keeping your hair’s roots lightweight, allowing you to use in between wash days.

Jojoba oil offers better scalp hydration, as it seals in water, reducing the tight flaking feeling you can get from using harsh shampoos like deep cleansing shampoos, like the Bumble and Bumble Surf Shampoo.

It massages into the hair and scalp easily, and jojoba oil’s waxy esters can loose up product build-up, improving manageability and reducing itching.

If you have dandruff or a flaky scalp, jojoba oil calms dryness-related flaking, supporting the scalp’s barrier.

Just like coconut oil, jojoba oil smooths rough hair cuticles, reduces frizz and can be used as a pre-shampoo treatment.

It’ll come down to personal choice, but it’s mostly down to your hair type and scalp issues.

If your hair is more coarse, thick or very dry, coconut oil can reduce protein loss, and give a heavier moisture seal.

Although, if your hair is fine, and easily weighed down, or prone to product build-up, jojoba oil is lighter, and mimics the scalp’s natural sebum.

For scalp health, jojoba oil is potentially the better choice, as it softens flakes without leaving a greasy residue. Coconut oil may be best if your scalp is super dry, but it can be too heavy and clogging for some hair types.

For product layering, use jojoba oil after watery leave-ins, like lamellar water treatments, to lock in moisture, without smothering the hair in product, and use coconut oil sparingly as a pre-shampoo treatment or on ends.

When you’ve spent the money to dye your hair, you don’t want the color to fade too fast. Regardless of whether you’ve chosen a box dye, or had your hair professionally dyed in a hair salon, all hair dye fades.

There are some things you can do, to try and reduce the speed of color fade, to make your hair color last longer.

Why Does Dyed Hair Color Fade?

Hair dye works by opening the outer layer of the hair shaft, so the hair dye can settle inside, but the dye isn’t permanently sealed in.

Every time your hair gets wet, the hair strands swell slightly, and some of the hair dye pigment slowly slips out – which is why we can see some hair color leave our hair, when washing.

If you wash your hair too often, use hot water, or frequently use hot hair tools, it speeds up the process of the hair color fading.

Plus, sun exposure and pollution can also weaken your hair color over time, leaving your hair color looking brassy or dull.

Hard water can cause a mineral buildup on the hair, which also affects how your hair dye looks, and how long it lasts.

If you hair is already dry or damaged, before applying hair color, the color tends to fade faster, as the hair cannot hold onto pigment as well.

What To Do In The First 48 Hours After Coloring

The first 48 hours, after coloring your hair, is the most important, and should be seen as a “set time” for the hair dye pigment.

Try and keep your hair strands dry, and touch it as little as possible, as water, sweat and friction can all disturb fresh hair dye.

Avoid wearing your hair in tight ponytails, wearing hats and rough towel rubbing when drying, and instead use a soft microfiber towel to blot the water. Plus, use a satin or silk pillowcase for sleeping, to reduce friction.

You should also avoid swimming pools, hot tubs and saltwater, and also protect your hair from the sun, by using a UV spray.

When brushing your hair, detangle gentle with a widetoohed comb, starting at the ends, an apply a lightweight leave-in conditioner to reduce tangling.

How Often Should You Wash Freshly Dyed Hair?

After the first 48 hours are up, aim to wash your hair 2-3 times a week, as shampoo lifts a little hair dye every time you wash your hair, and can end up dulling shine.

If you have oily hair, stretch the time between your hair washes with a rinse-only day, to refresh your scalp, and reduce the amount of fully hair washes you have.

When it comes to your ideal hair washing routine, it will depend on your hair’s natural texture and your hairstyle.

If you have fine, straight hair, you may need to wash your hair every other day.

Those with thick, curly or coily hair, can wash their hair once or twice a week.

Although, if you swim, work out daily, or live in a humid environment, you might need to wash your hair more often, but try and avoid daily shampooing.

Here are three ways you can make your hair dye last a little longer…

Deep Conditioning Treatments

Deep conditioning treatments can make a noticeable difference in how long your hair color lasts.

Color-treated hair loses water and “lipids” faster, so your hair can feel rough, and end up leaking hair dye.

If you use a weekly deep conditioning treatment, it’ll boost moisture retention, smooth the hair’s cuticle, and help keep pigments in place between salon visits.

Choose a conditioning treatment specifically for color-treated hair, as they tend to contain ceramides, fatty alcohols and plant oils, and apply the conditioner after shampooing, like you do with your usual conditioner of choice.

Comb the treatment through your hair (gently), and leave it to sit for at least 5-10 minutes.

Using Cold Water

Cold water can help to lock in your hair color, by keep the hair’s cuticle flatter, so less dye molecules can slip out, when your rinse your hair.

After shampooing and deep conditioning, use a cool hair rinse for 30-60 minutes, to seal your hair color.

If icy cold water feels too intense, you can start with lukewarm water, and end with cold. Focusing the coolest water on your mid-lengths and ends, where hair color tends to fade fasted, and keep the water pressue moderate, so you don’t roughen up the hair’s surface.

Avoid long, steamy showers, as that can swell the hair’s cuticle, and encourage more color bleeding.

Between hair washes, you can refresh your scalp with a quick cool rinse, and gently massage, instead of a full hair wash.

Sulfate Free Shampoos

Harsh shampoos strip away hair color pigment, every time you wash your hair. Switching to a sulfate-free shampoo will help to keep your hair dye richer, and longer lasting.

Sulfates create lots of foam, when washing your hair, and the sulfates roughen the hair’s cuticle, and pulls out hair dye, especially from freshly colored hair.

You will still thoroughly cleanse your scalp with sulfate-free shampoos, without over-stripping, so your hair color looks deeper, and highlights stay refined.

Look for formulas that are labeled as being “color safe” and pair them up with a matching conditioner, to seal in moisture.

Focus your shampoo on the scalp, and not the ends, and let the bubbles rinse through the lengths, or scrubbing