With their new-fangled “anti-aging” hair care products, marketers are aiming to meet the needs of an increasingly older population. But can we really believe brands’ promises that their products will make our hair “younger”, or at least look younger? Well there’s certainly no denying that our hair changes as we age (see our post on hair and aging), and giving its more loving care can only be a good thing, right?
So-called anti-aging hair care products boast higher doses of vitamins, silicone and most importantly, protein. As hair ages the strands becomes weaker, and therefore more lacking in protein. The addition of protein to the hair shaft, either through styling aids or shampoos and conditioners, means it is being strengthened. (more...)

When most of us think of our hair getting older, we think of going gray. But color aside, there are other more subtle ways in which our hair changes as we age.
Most of these changes are due to the inevitable hormonal shifts that happen as we get older. Many women begin to see their hair change around the onset of menopause, or roughly when they reach their late forties, early fifties. Menopause brings a new balance of hormones to the body, and more specifically, male hormones now take the precedence over female hormones. (This is why you may see grandma sprouting more than a few hairs on her chin!)
As we get older most of us will also experience thinning hair (again, thank you hormones!) as the hair shaft’s diameter shrinks with age.
Our hair will also get drier as sebum production slows down. (more...)

I’m sorry to say that no matter how technologically advanced our hair care products are today, our hair still ages, which means it thins, goes gray and sometimes falls out.
But what exactly happens to our hair as we age? Like our bones and organs, including our skin, there are just fewer cells reproducing as we get older, and our hair in no exception, and a lack of protein within the hair shaft means thinner and oftentimes coarser strands.
When it comes to gray hair, for years it’s been common knowledge that the melanin inside the hair naturally slows down production as we age. But a recent discovery by Germany and UK-based scientific teams has called into question the traditional thinking on why we go gray. Their recent studies have shown that the appearance of gray hair is actually caused by a build-up of hydrogen peroxide within the roots of our hair.
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