The Most Common Type of Hair Loss I See (And Most Women Don't Notice Until It's Almost Too Late)

There's a type of hair loss that doesn't show up overnight.

It creeps back from your hairline, a millimetre at a time, over years. It doesn't come out in handfuls. There's no morning where it all happens at once. It just quietly goes, and one day you look up and your hairline isn't where it used to be.

It's the most common hair loss I see, and the cruel part is this. Caught early, you can get it back. Left too long, you can't. Most women don't find out which side of that line they're on until it's too late to matter.

You can check tonight. Two minutes, a mirror, and good light.

What it is

It's called traction alopecia. Hair loss caused by pulling.

Tight ponytails. Tight braids. Weaves. Extensions. Buns pulled back so hard your eyebrows lift. Even the same headscarf, tied the same way, in the same place, every single day.

Pull on a hair root often enough and it gets inflamed. An inflamed root grows weaker, thinner hair. Keep pulling and eventually it gives up completely, scars over, and closes.

That's the bit I need to be straight with you about.

So the most important thing on this page isn't a product. It's working out which side of that line you're on.

The two minute check

Good light. Daylight if you can. Pull your hair gently away from your face and look at your hairline in the mirror.

You're looking for a thin line of fine, wispy baby hairs right at the very front edge, with a patch of bare or thinning scalp sitting just behind it.

That's called the fringe sign.

Left: fine hairs surviving at the very front edge, thinning behind them. That's the fringe sign. Right: no fine hairs, a smooth bare edge. That one needs a doctor.

Here's why it happens. When you pull your hair back, it's the thick, strong hairs that take the strain. The tiny wispy ones right on the edge aren't long enough to get caught in the ponytail, so nothing pulls on them. They survive. Everything behind them takes the damage.

A fringe of survivors, with thinning behind it.

Good light, hair moved aside, and a proper look at the scalp. That's the whole check.

If you see that, it points to traction. Which means it's mechanical. Which means it's caused by something you're doing, and you can stop doing it.

Three things to do

One. If it hurts, that hairstyle has to go.

Tight. Sore. Throbbing when you take it down. Little bumps at the hairline. A headache from your ponytail. That is not the price of a neat hairstyle, that's your scalp telling you the root is under strain.

Loosen it. Move the parting. Move where the ponytail sits so the pull isn't landing in the same place every day. Real breaks between braids or weaves. Never sleep in anything that's pulling.

Two. Look after the scalp itself.

Your scalp is skin. Same skin as your face. It gets dry, it gets inflamed, it ages. A tired scalp can't grow strong hair, no matter what you put on the lengths.

Think of it like soil. Most hair products are watering the leaves. Nobody's looking after the soil.

This is where Ayurveda got there first. Oiling the scalp and massaging while you do it isn't tradition for tradition's sake. Massage brings blood to the surface, and blood is how a root gets fed. The oil calms the skin so it isn't sitting in a state of constant irritation. That's what my father taught me, and his mother taught him. Nobody called it scalp health. They just did it every week.

What you use matters far less than the fact that you actually do it. Coconut, sesame, almond, whatever's in the kitchen cupboard will do a job. The one I make is Strong Roots Hair Oil, the blend my father and I worked out between us, and there's a lighter daily serum if you know you won't realistically oil once a week. But don't read this and think you need to buy something before you're allowed to start. You don't.

And to be clear about what it does: oiling and massage give a healthy root the right environment to do its job. It does not bring back a root that has scarred and closed. Nobody can do that, including me.

Three. Keep it clean.

Oiling without washing isn't a routine, it's a mess. Product, sweat and old oil build up and block things. You wouldn't leave a heavy cream sitting on your face for a fortnight.

Oil it. Massage it. Wash it out properly.

How long

Hair grows about half an inch a month. That's biology, and nothing speeds it up.

Take the strain off, look after the scalp, and you're looking at eight to twelve weeks before you start seeing new growth at the front. Short, fine little hairs at first. That's normal, and it's a good sign.

It's slow, and it's boring, and it works.

If you take one thing from this, take the mirror check. Two minutes tonight, good light, look at your hairline.

Knowing where you stand is the whole game.

Parul x

This is educational information, not medical advice. If you're worried about hair loss, please speak to your GP or a dermatologist.