My Life Detour is about finding solutions to the cornucopia of challenges that midlife can present. Solutions bring happiness and we all need a bit of that! It’s also good to remind ourselves, every once in a while, that no matter the challenge, we are the lucky ones to be here musing about midlife concerns. And the great news is, solutions exist for most things, you just have to find them! In some situations, this can be easier said than done. And this has proven to be case here, but my goodness, this works. And it has had one of the greatest impacts on my midlife existence. I have STOPPED MY HAIR FALLING OUT! In fact, my hair is in the best condition it has been in the past five years. Since the birth of my youngest four years ago, my hair has been shedding, and shedding and shedding. No more though! And I can very easily credit this to two things. My Current Body LED hair helmet and NAD+ Supplementation, which you can read about here. I’ll focus on the magic of LED in this post.

Why, oh why, does hair thin in midlife? We all know this is common in men, but there’s definitely not the same awareness or discussion about hair loss in women. This is despite the fact it’s arguably more impactful on our self-esteem and confidence, and not in a good way. For some women, and I count myself amongst them, our hair is our crowning glory. It is linked to our femininity, identity and self-expression.  So, when it falls out, it can truly be life altering.

It’s actually considered normal to lose up to one hundred strands a day, but much more can result in noticeable hair loss which can be temporary or permanent. Possible explanations for this distressing side effect of growing older include stress, genetics, poor diet, perimenopause and menopause. For me, I can quite confidently say that prolonged periods of extreme stress, as well as the move into perimenopause, have been the root causes. A widening hair parting, thinning patches and a significantly smaller ponytail were clear signs that all was not well up top! But it oddly crept up on me despite the fact my hair brush consistently looked like it had been borrowed by an Afghan Hound, and the house was always littered with my cast-off strands. The wake-up call came when my scrunchie was too big for my hair. I no longer had enough to fill it. I’d been wearing my hair up for so long because it looked pitiful down, but now tying it back was a sorrowful sight too. This was a truly devastating realisation and was adding to my burgeoning stress levels. I dabbled for a couple of weeks with hair loss shampoos and serums but I needed to feel I was being more proactive. Also, the serums, despite what they say, do make your hair greasy, or mine at least! Some desperate research led me to one of my tried and tested favourite remedies for so many things; LED Light. Last summer I had visited the Light Salon in London and had an LED hair treatment. An incredible 30-minutes, I couldn’t recommend more highly. Intense LED and a head massage is heaven sent, if you ever get the chance to try it. Convinced of the benefits I took away a light patch, but I really didn’t get into the way of using for my hair as it was a bit of a faff to get it into place and I couldn’t move around freely while it worked. My son was using it more for growing pains than I was. But my frantic researching provided THE answer! It was Current Body’s LED Hair Helmet. A solution as glamorous as it sounds, but if it was going to improve my hair in any way, I was more than ready to give it a shot!

Low level LED light therapy is most commonly used for female pattern hair loss. It increases the number of actively growing follicles through the metabolic stimulation of cells. This isn’t sold as a super quick fix; it can take up to twelve weeks to see new baby hairs. But it’s effectiveness in improving hair density and thickness is supported by scientific studies  including those for the skin tech leader Current Body’s LED Hair Helmet.

The Current Body LED Hair Helmet is an investment, but this is unquestionably one of the best, if not the best, hair loss tools available to buy today. It utilises a clinically proven spectrum of red light, which energises hair follicles, reduces inflammation, lowers levels of the hormone dihydrotestosterone, which causes hair thinning, and also boosts scalp blood flow. It essentially ensures the hair follicles are kept in the growth phase by making certain your scalp has the nutrients and oxygen required to grow new, strong and healthy hair. Current Body’s research supports an increase in hair growth rate by 128% in twelve weeks, with an accompanying thickening in hair and increased density. Also, it doesn’t involve any medication or lotions or potions to achieve these results. It’s a clean and quick daily treatment.

The Current Body Hair Helmet, really couldn’t be easier to use and this, I think, is a key part in its effectiveness. It fits seamlessly into your life as it only requires 10 minutes of daily use and it’s entirely hands free. It’s not footery or at all restrictive. While it’s not a great look, it’s only for 10 minutes and it’s entirely painless and has no known side effects. Also, compared to other devices it provides full coverage of your scalp; you have to measure you head to order the correct size of helmet, which again adds to its effectiveness. Consistent daily use is a key requirement to see results within the recommended treatment plan of 16 weeks. This really isn’t a great commitment, especially once you start to see results. I’ve used the helmet everyday since I bought it in December.

Being slightly critical, there are only 2 minor tweaks I’d make to the design of the helmet. Firstly, it incorporates Bluetooth headphones, which seems like an overdesign as they are pretty redundant and don’t contribute to the treatment. Secondly, while the battery life is pretty good, around one week of consistent use per full charge, there is no warning when the battery is running low. However, it is apparently advantageous to the battery life to fully charge and to fully drain. These are very minor grumbles, given the incredible results consistent use of the helmet delivers.

From pretty early on after starting to use the helmet, I suspected it was boosting the growth of my hair due to the significant number of little baby hairs that were beginning to show. Also, the length of my root pre-highlighting appointments was definitely increasing. But these photos also clearly show a massive change in hair density around the areas that were very obviously thinning before.

It’s funny how quickly you can forget how bad a situation was, until you see photos like these! While I think it could take a full year of treatment for the new growth to filter down to the ends, which will really make a difference to my hair’s overall appearance, I honestly can’t overstate the difference the helmet has made to my hair, my self-esteem, my feeling of femininity and self-confidence. If you are experiencing hair loss similar to mine, the Current Body LED Hair Helmet is such a ridiculously easy, efficient and hassle-free solution to one of the potentially most devastating side effects of being a woman in midlife.

However, as I also mentioned previously, the turn-around in my hair’s fortune, can’t be contributed solely to LED. The monumentally positive effect NAD+ supplementation has had on my hair is also a significant factor in this. I’ve been taking NAD+ since November and from pretty much first use, the significant shedding of my hair stopped. That truly was a Hallelujah moment!

So, to recap, in my experience the LED helmet super boosts hair density and growth, while NAD+ halts hair loss. These two combined really are a hair Dream Team I wish I had discovered years ago. And while they are a financial investment, this isn’t just an investment in your physical appearance. It’s an investment in your wellbeing, your identity and your sense of self. Surely that is worth spending on? You should never underestimate the power of a good hair day!