Often we talk about skin health and scalp or hair health as two separate topics. Really, they are the same thing. The hair quality, shininess, strength and ability to grow comes from the health of the follicle, which is in the dermis, the second layer of skin. The follicle gets the blood supply, signals to grow and nutrition from the skin around it. So, if your skin is healthy, so is your scalp and hair.
Does that mean you need a night cream for your scalp? No, not really, it just means that you need to pay attention to your scalp. If you have a dry, flaky scalp, you will need moisturizing products and may consider treatments with argon oil or other soothing moisturizers. If you have an oily scalp, consider not shampooing every day. Either way there are new, exciting treatments that are being used for hair that are successful and are very similar to those that are used on the face, neck and chest. Microneedling uses tiny needles to stimulate collagen and make a way to get serums and other products into the deeper skin more effectively. This works on the face, neck and chest with the “vampire facial” and with microneedling combined with growth factor, hyaluronic acid or other serums, particularly made with large molecules. Microneedling also stimulates cells to release growth factors and cytokines (signals to the cells) that tell the cells in the follicles to proliferate and grow. There are specific serums to be used after the microneedling that helps promote follicle health (kind of like a night cream ☺).
Light treatments work in a very similar way to stimulate cells in the skin and around follicles to release signals for the cells to grow and turn over. These can be in office, in spa or at home treatments. The different combinations of red, blue or infrared lights stimulate different cells.
Injections of platelet rich plasma, which is your own platelets and growth factors taken from your blood, can help rejuvenate your skin on your face and promote hair growth. The follicles that are in the resting phase are nudged to go into the growth phase making thicker hairs, more hairs that are growing and visible and hairs that grow longer.
So, it’s the same theory of stimulating new growth and of the cells, keeping them from drying out and promoting their health that will make your skin glowing and your hair healthy and strong!
Feature image courtesy of #hairmodel on Instagram and Bumble and bumble.