Almost everyone who writes to us opens the same way: “I am losing so much hair.” Before reaching for any remedy, it helps to know what you are actually looking at.
Normal shedding
A healthy scalp sheds between 50 and 100 hairs a day. They come out in the shower, on the pillow and in the brush. Because they arrive in visible clumps, it feels like far more than it is. Count what comes out on a wash day and you will usually find it is within range.
When it is worth acting on
- Your parting is visibly widening month to month.
- You can see scalp through the hair at the crown in normal light.
- Shedding started suddenly, two to three months after an illness, a fever, childbirth, or a period of real stress.
That last one has a name, telogen effluvium, and the delay is the giveaway. The trigger happened months before the hair fell.
What actually helps
Circulation at the scalp. This is the part most people skip. Five minutes of firm fingertip massage, twice a week, does more than the oil applied without it. The oil is the medium; the massage is the mechanism.
Protein and iron. Hair is made of keratin. Low ferritin is one of the most common and most missed causes of diffuse shedding, particularly in women. It is a simple blood test.
Less tension. Tight ponytails, buns and braids worn daily cause traction alopecia along the hairline. It is reversible early and permanent late.
Time. Hair grows roughly a centimetre a month. Any product needs four to six weeks to show a change in shedding, and three months to show new growth. Anything promising faster is selling you something.
Where oiling fits
Oiling will not fix a hormonal or nutritional cause on its own. What it does well is keep the scalp healthy enough for hair to grow properly: it relieves dryness, reduces breakage along the shaft, and gives you a reason to massage twice a week. That combination is why the practice has survived for centuries.