The pandemic and lockdown have made it difficult for many women to take proper care of, or even cut or dye, their hair. In addition, which has been proven, stress from the sense of uncertainty can have a significant adverse effect on the condition of the hair. “The hair has to be healthy inside to have the right look and feel,” says Dr. Barbara Parda-Głomska.
Can anything more be done for the condition of the hair apart from entrusting it to a professional stylist? Definitely! The taking care of the hair is typically associated with just dyeing, cutting and conditioning. However, these are quite superficial measures. In fact, the hair has to be healthy inside to have the right look and feel, as argued by Dr. Barbara Parda-Głomska, the owner of the renowned aesthetic medicine clinic located in Zalesie Górne near Warsaw (Poland). Also the dyeing is not inconsequential to the hair condition: it is known that most dyes weaken the hair shaft.

Stress will not help the hair
Can the pandemic and related lockdown have an adverse effect on the condition of hair? All in all, considering external factors such as environmental pollution or the aforementioned dyeing of the hair, it turns out that the staying away from airborne chemicals and the giving up of visits at hairstylists could be beneficial. However, the health of the hair and the skin underneath is not just a matter of external influences. It is already known that the psychical condition is very important to the health and look of both the skin and hair. This type of dependencies is dealt with by the branch of medicine known as psychodermatology. Indeed, stress can be very bad for the growth and color of the hair or can even lead to an increased graying or loss of hair. The realness of these processes has been scientifically proven. A chronic stress caused by the lockdown or by a prolonged state of uncertainty associated with the epidemic can harm the hair. In the long run, the body develops an inflammatory condition as a result of increased secretion of cortisol, the stress hormone. The hair becomes brittle, looses the color and, finally, falls out.

Diagnosing the hair loss
Dr. Barbara Parda-Głomska admits that she has a very large number of patients experiencing the hair loss. Those are both men and women, though the consequences can be much graver for the latter because of the cultural context. For a man, the hair loss can be a problem but not a disaster. Each patient visiting the clinic because of the hair loss needs to be accurately diagnosed. The first step to any further aesthetic treatment consists of exclusion of an illness, such as Hashimoto’s disease and other autoimmune ailments, as the cause. Next, the health of the hair depends strongly on levels of micronutrients and elements, such as iron, which should be checked. Only when the patient is physically healthy, he or she can be qualified for an aesthetic procedure.

What will do good to the hair?
According to Dr. Barbara Parda-Głomska, biomimetic peptide-based treatments prevail among the current hair and haired skin condition improvement methods because they stimulate production of the hair growth factors. In addition, based on her experience, there is a vascularization effect, which improves the odds for hair follicle regeneration. The doctor argues that one of the benefits of the peptide-based therapies is the fact that they can be both applied as standalone procedures and combined with various other treatments, such as the injection of platelet-rich plasma or fibrin, for an additional stimulation of desirable processes. The peptide-based therapies can be aided by the taking of certain dietary supplements. Further, biomimetic peptides applied by injection are very effective in improving the hair growth in patients with grafts. By the way, it is worth noting that procedures performed on the hairy skin of the head, far from the mouth, are relatively safe at the time of the pandemic, subject to the wearing of personal protection equipment, such as masks and disposable gloves.