The Top 5 Hair "Killer" Toxins Quietly Thinning Women's Hair After 60
PLUS: The hidden follicle "Clog" that keeps widening the part no matter what you do.AND: Why the #1 toxin, trusted since childhood, has to go TODAY for any chance of regrowth
As Seen On
My name is Brenda Collins. I'm 66 years old, and for five years I was going bald.
I had a pink scalp on my crown you could see from across a room. A part so wide I stopped parting my hair at all. Hair on my pillow every morning and clumps in the drain every single night.
I spent over $3,000 trying to stop it.
Then last winter I found out what all that money was really buying me.
Five everyday things in my house were actually making it fall out faster. Two I bought to “save” my hair. One I'd been doing for 20 years to look younger. One came right out of my faucet. And the fifth one (the worst one) had been in my bathroom since I was a little girl.
Nobody tells you how humiliating it is to have thinning hair.
My sister-in-law would literally pat the top of my head at Easter saying, "Oh, honey, you need to do something about this."
Feeling so embarrassed that I would stand in the back row of every family picture so the flash wouldn't bounce off my scalp.
And not to mention, the night my 7-year-old granddaughter climbed up on the couch behind me, looked down at my head, and asked, "Grandma, why can I see your skin?"
I laughed (of course). Then I went into the bathroom, turned the fan on so loud nobody would hear, and just cried.
My doctor said it was menopause. My hairdresser said it most likely ran in the family. The girl at the beauty counter said I needed a $89 serum.
And I believed every one of them. I thought they had my best interest in mind.
Yet, they were all wrong.
The truth is, my hair loss was caused by the five “hidden” toxins that almost every woman over 60 has in her home right now.
I found that out at 2 a.m. on a night I couldn't sleep, reading the research of Dr. Mark Stewart, a Harvard-trained doctor who has spent 40 years studying hair loss in women.
He explained that my hair wasn't dying.
It was clogged.
And the things I used every single day, even the ones I bought to fix it, were keeping it clogged.
Once I cleared all five, specifically #1, my hair started coming back. Here's what my life looks like now:
- Parting my hair down the middle again, like in my wedding pictures
- Standing in the front row of the family photos unapologetically
- Walking to the car on a windy day without my hand holding the top of my head
- Letting my granddaughter braid my hair, because now there's enough to braid
- Very few strands in the drain instead of clumps I had to fish out with my fingers
- Wearing my hair down to church with no hat, no scarf and no clips
If you want that too, start with the list below. And whatever you do, don't skip #1.
The Follicle “Clog” Doctors Keep Mistaking for Old Age
Some of you may already know this. Every hair on your head grows out of a tiny opening in your scalp called a follicle.
Yet Dr. Stewart found that in women, especially after menopause, those openings clog. (A lot like a bathroom drain.)
The clog builds in three layers:
1. Dead skin. Your scalp sheds skin every day. After 50 it sheds slower, so the old cells stay put and pack into the follicle like hair stuck in a sink drain.
2. Hardened oil. Your scalp's natural oil turns thick and waxy and glues that dead skin in place, like squeezing toothpaste into the same drain.
3. Irritation. An irritated scalp leaves debris behind that fills in the gaps and packs the plug even tighter.
Now here's why every doctor I saw never told me this.
A clogged follicle looks exactly like a “dead” one. No hair comes out of it. So they call it “age” and send you home.
But the root underneath is still alive.
Your hair isn't gone. It's trapped under the clog.
And it can happen on a scalp that looks perfectly clean. No flakes, no itching and nothing to warn you.
That's why the thinning seems to come out of nowhere. And it's why nothing you put on your hair ever seems to work.
The Hair Aisle's Dirty Secret
Look at what the drugstore sells women for thinning hair.
Sprays that cover it. Fibers that hide it. Pills, serums and foams that try to push new hair out of a follicle that's still plugged.
Not one of them clears the clogged follicle.
And there's a reason. A product that cleared the clog, you'd use until your hair came back. A product that hides it, you buy every month for the rest of your life.
It's all about profiting off of your hair loss and pain.
Two of those products are on the list below. The other three are things you'd never think to suspect.
The Top 5 “Hidden” Toxins Clogging Your Hair
You'll recognize every one of these. Some come out of your faucet. Some you bought to “save” your hair. The #1 is worse than all of them, because it's the one nobody suspects. Fix that one first.
#5. Your Tap Water
Found in: your shower, your bathroom sink, every time you've ever washed your hair
Go look at your showerhead. See that white, chalky crust around the little holes? That's minerals from your water, mostly calcium and magnesium. And it's the same water you pour over your scalp every time you wash your hair. Those minerals don't all rinse off. They settle into the oil on your scalp and harden there, just like they do on the showerhead, until the little openings start to clog. And most city water also carries chlorine, the same stuff they put in swimming pools.
The effects: hair that feels rough and dry no matter what you put on it, color that goes dull and brassy, and buildup at the roots that never quite rinses out
#4. Hair Color
Found in: box dye from the drugstore, root touch-up kits, and the salon color you get every 4 to 6 weeks to cover the gray
This is the one you do to look younger. Permanent color uses ammonia and peroxide to force each strand open, and many shades carry a chemical called PPD, one of the most common causes of allergic reactions to hair dye. And where does it go first? Right on your roots, brushed straight down your part, the exact spot you're losing hair. That burning and tingling you've learned to sit through is your scalp getting irritated. And irritation is the third layer of the clog.
The effects: a scalp that stings or itches every time, hair that snaps off near the part, and a gray stripe down the middle that makes your part look even wider
#3. Leave-In Hair “Growth” Serums
Found in: dropper bottles, scalp tonics, overnight scalp treatments, $100+ salon growth serums
A leave-in serum is made to sit on your scalp for hours and never get rinsed out. Night after night it dries into a sticky layer right where the clog is, trapping more oil and dead skin in a follicle that's already choking on both.
The effects: greasy roots by noon, flat hair you can't get any lift into, and a thicker clog every night you use it
#2. Minoxidil
Found in: the 2% and 5% regrowth foams and liquids at the drugstore, and the daily pill some doctors now prescribe
Minoxidil started out as a blood pressure pill. (The hair growth was a side effect.) The foam can leave your hair so stiff you can't style it, the label warns it can itch and irritate your scalp, and the pill has been linked to heart and blood pressure problems. It never clears the clog, and if you ever stop, the hair it grew falls back out.
The effects: hair like straw, an itchy scalp, and twice a day for the rest of your life
What Is the #1 Toxin?
The #1 toxin isn’t something you buy. That’s why nobody suspects it.
It’s already inside your body. It’s called DHT.
DHT is a hormone that slowly shrinks your hair roots. Each new hair grows back thinner and weaker. Over time, some roots stop growing hair at all.
When we’re younger, our hormones help hold DHT back. But after menopause, that protection fades. That’s why so many women see their part get wider after 50.
Dr. Stewart says this is the one most women never hear about. You can fix the other four toxins and still keep losing hair, because DHT is still at work.
You don’t need pills or harsh treatments. You just need something that fights DHT right at the roots.
I started this serum in January.
Three weeks later, there was less hair in the drain.
In March, my granddaughter was brushing my hair. She stopped and yelled, “Mommy! Grandma has baby hairs!”
Of everything I tried, this serum is the best DHT-fighting formula I’ve found.
