If you are suffering from hair loss, it can feel that there is a long list of things for you to keep track of. Are you trying to keep your hair loss in check? How many of these things that you’ve heard of are myths?

These are 10 common things that are commonly mentioned. Knowing what these are can help put your mind at ease. You’ll have fewer things to worry about. How these old wives’ tales came to be believed, no one really knows.

#1. You Can Grow Back Hair From Dead Follicles

There are any number of options to get hair to grow back. But, these only work if there’s life still in the hair follicles. Sometimes, people think their hair follicles are dead, especially if there’s no hair growing out of an area.

However, the absence of a hair doesn’t mean the follicle is truly dead. At least, not yet. This does mean, however, that the follicle is probably close to dying. If you catch this in time and keep it alive, taking treatment may help regrow hair from that area of your scalp.

This can give the impression that you’re re-growing hair from an area on your scalp that was dead. But, once something is dead there is no way for it to start growing again. The only option would be a hair transplant.

#2. Increasing Your Blood Flow To Your Scalp Will Prevent Hair Loss

While it’s true you need blood flow to your scalp in order to grow hair, there are other factors at play. In fact, inflammation is something that can increase the flow of blood to an area on your scalp.

This kind of circulation is obviously bad, however, and only damages your hair follicles. Increasing the flow of blood to your scalp won’t help in the case of nutritional deficiencies. Or in the case of hair loss due to DHT or other factors.

Keep in mind, it’s important to have blood flow to your scalp. Not having enough can lead to baldness. However, blood flow is rarely the reason behind hair loss until the main reason is dealt with.

#3. Most People Don’t Start Going Bald Until They Are Over 40

While it might seem like baldness is something that only affects old people, this is nowhere close to being true. The truth is that over half of the adult men that are 35 years old already have some degree of hair loss or thinning.

This number is closer to 3 out of every 4 men by the time the age of 50 has been reached. On the lower age range, close to 1 in every 5 or 6 men are already suffering from hair loss before they reach their mid-twenties.

#4. Only Men Suffer From Pattern Baldness

While it is true that men are more likely to suffer from pattern baldness than women are, women can be affected too. Also, pattern baldness in women does look a little different than it does in men.

Women’s baldness doesn’t tend to have the widow’s peak down the middle, among other little differences. Women can also suffer from baldness that looks similar to pattern baldness for other reasons besides genetics.

Some of these reasons are severe nutritional deficiencies, rapid weight loss, or a hormone imbalance. Keep in mind balding in women doesn’t mean that the woman in question has higher levels of testosterone.

Generally speaking, over 80% of men suffer from some form of hair loss during their lives. For women, then number is closer to 40%. This means that while this problem is more common with men, it is still a fairly common for women as well.

#5. The Genetics For Baldness Comes From Your Mother’s Side

This is one that is just plain silly if you think about it. While it is true that 50% of the genes you get come from your mother’s side of the family, the other 50% come from your father’s side.

There are around 200 different genes that go into your hair. These determine what color your hair will be. They also determine if it will be straight or curly, how thick it will be, and how likely you are to experience hair loss. There’s little you can do to fight against genetic baldness, but you can use a variety of things in order to slow it down.

#6. Too Much Styling Of Your Hair Can Lead To Baldness

This is one that is actually borderline. Different styles and products can make your hair become more brittle and cause breakage. Though, these things won’t make you bald. These may make your hair seem thinner, but thin hair is not the same as going bald.

Things that can do this are hot irons and curling irons. Another are hair products that have some form of alcohol in them. They dry out your hair. You should also be aware of the fact that wearing a hairstyle that keeps your hair pulled really tight can damage your hair as well.

This tension can easily pull out hairs. While your hair follicles will regrow any hairs that get pulled out, if this happens often enough then eventually you may not regrow hair there anymore. However, rarely is this enough to be noticeable and even if a follicle here and there does not regrow its hair this will not lead to baldness.

If you want to prevent your hair from thinning, then you may wish to let your hair down when you sleep so that it is not pulling on your follicles for all those hours. Remember that the things that make your hair seem thinner often do not make you bald.

#7. Too Much Sun Can Make You Go Bald

Being in the sun in and of itself is not going to affect your hair. However, you should know that there are limits to this. Staying out in the sun long enough to let your scalp get sunburned is something that is bad for your hair, but this will not lead to you going bald should you accidentally do this.

You should also keep in mind that a lot of UV rays from the sun can weaken the strands of your hair. This means that your hair will be more likely to break, in turn making your hair seem thinner. In this situation you are still not going bald, your hair is simply becoming too brittle.

#8. Too Much Shampoo Can Make You Lose Your Hair

When you wash your hair, it is normal to see that you have lost a bit of hair. This can make it seem like the more you shampoo your hair the more hair you end up losing. However, shampooing your hair has nothing to do with making you lose your hair.

This is because of the fact that washing your hair helps to loosen the hair that your scalp is already pushing out of the follicles. In fact, rubbing your scalp as you use the shampoo can help the circulation to your scalp.

Not only is this a good thing if you do it often enough to make a difference, but if your shampoo has something in it to help your hair then it is doubly good. This is not to say that large amounts of every shampoo are good for your hair though.

Many shampoos do tend to strip your hair, and these can make your hair grow thin and brake more easily. Again, however, this thinning does not mean that you are going bald, simply that your hair may need to use some other shampoo.

#9. More Testosterone Means More Hair Loss

Testosterone is a normal hormone that even women have in small amounts. This is a hormone that we all need, and it is not directly related to hair loss. Instead, testosterone is combined with another hormone into what is called DHT.

The DHT is what can cause hair loss, but even this is not always definite. This depends on the receptors that are in your scalp and how easily they attach to the DHT. Therefore, although you might think that more testosterone means more hair loss, there are a number of things in between that apply as well.

#10. Hats Can Cause Baldness

The thought behind this is that if a hat is tight it is thought to cut off some of the circulation to your head. In order to be tight enough on your head to actually do this, however, the hat that you are wearing would have to be exceptionally tight.

Not only would it have to be tight enough to leave an indent that stays for a while after you take your hat off, but it would have to be a little tighter than even that. By this point, your hat would be way too tight to be comfortable.

Since most people do not wear hats that are anywhere near that tight, wearing hats will not lead to hair loss. Even if you do wear hats that are that tight, if you do not do so often and you make sure that you do things to help your circulation when your hat is off then you are still unlikely to end up losing hair unless the hat is damaging the strands of your hair.

Conclusion

While these are no doubt some of the more common myths related to hair care, there are plenty of other ones. One of these is the myth that if you pluck one grey hair that two or three grey hairs will grow back in its place.

In reply to this one, keep in mind that each hair follicle is only going to grow one hair. While the hair that comes back will be grey still, it will not sprout multiple grey hairs. What this will do, however, is it will cause damage to the hair follicle.

This means that if you keep pulling out your grey hairs eventually the hair won’t come back at all and your hair will get thinner. Stress is also something that can cause your hair to thin, this time from the roots themselves, but this is temporary as it affects the cycles of your hair.

On that note, shaving or cutting your hair will not affect the cycles of your hair, nor will it affect your hair follicles. Hair may seem healthier when it first comes out, but that is only because it has not been damaged yet. You would have to pull out your growing hair in order to damage the follicles, so cutting it will not affect it one way or the other.

As you can see, there are a lot of things that might seem that they affect hair loss but actually don’t. To help you remember most of these, keep in mind that damaged hair breaks easier, leading to thinner hair, but this does not mean you are balding.

Not all hair growth solutions work well. Check out our list on the top 3 hair growth products and save yourself money, time, and best of all – hair!