​When I wake up every day, I find many strands of hair on my pillow. I also have the habit of cleaning my house every other day since hair is responsible for half of the dirt and grime on floorboards. Just two years ago, I had never even thought that my lustrous hair would one day fall out or turn grey. Given the thick patches my parents had before they turned 50, the reason for my hair loss being genetic didn't seem very likely.

Many of my colleagues, some of whom are years younger than I am, have the same concern. The pressure from working in the news cycle may be a reason, but we are not alone. A recent survey by the China Association of Health Promotion and Education reveals that China's hair loss population stands at a whopping 250 million, most of them between 20 and 40 years old.

Among this population, men accounted for 160 million – that's some 23 percent of Chinese men. The majority of them are reportedly starting to deal with hair loss at 30, two decades earlier than the previous generation.

"When we make the clinical rounds, we can see more young patients with thinning hair, so it does exist," Yang Shuxia, a dermatologist at the Peking University First Hospital, told CGTN.

A white paper by Alibaba Health Information Technology Company last year showed that the post-1990s generation accounted for 36.1 percent while the post-1980s made up 38.5 percent of the hair-shedding population.

Baldness is becoming increasingly common among university students. According to a study at Tsinghua University in late 2017, 60 percent of students reported thinning hair and 40 percent claimed to notice receding hairlines. The survey, which polled 4,000 students, defined stress, insomnia and irregular living patterns as major causes for going bald.

Another survey, conducted in 2015, concluded that the bald patches on Chinese men added up to one quarter of Beijing's land area. This "bald wave" has spawned a new lucrative business – the hair loss treatment industry. Statistics from health departments show that consumption by China's urban residents on hair care is rising each year at a fast clip of 30 percent. In the next decade, the country is expected to see an annual growth rate of 260 percent in the business of hair nutrition, restoration and transplantation.
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Take a closer look at the consumer data: On JD.com, sales of hair-growing shampoos surged by 136 percent in the first quarter of 2018 year on year. Another e-commerce giant Taobao reported in 2017 that hair products, including vibrating hair brushes, herbal remedies, Minoxidil and adhesive hair pieces, were among its top 40 bestselling lines, over 40 percent of sales of which were made by consumers under 30 years old.

Actually, many millennials are aware of the reasons for hair loss. Many of them interviewed by CGTN attribute the condition to irregular daily routines, staying up late and stress amid hectic schedules at work and pressure from a high cost of living in a metropolis.

"Excessive anxiety can, in a way, interrupt the normal growth cycle of hair," said Yang Shuxia. However, she underlined that if you notice excessive hair loss, you don't have to panic. Instead, try to notice if you've undergone significant changes for the past few months such as experiencing constant anxiety, signs of fever, irregular daily routines or rapid weight loss, and then wait for three months to see if those symptoms go away. 

If so, then hair loss may be due to external factors – notably a scalp disorder called "telogen effluvium," which could be managed with changes to habit. If that's not the case, then you should consider seeing a doctor.

Reasons for hair loss can be many, from genetic to environmental. Pattern hair loss is inherited while alopecia is due to problems with your immune system, but loss as a result of stress or other habits are not permanent. For many in the fast-paced modern workplace, it's simply a part of growing up. Less anxiety may help bring your lush look back. 
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This article is from CGTN

Dyson wants to curl your hair... with air.

Not satisfied with disrupting hair dryers, Dyson is applying its air-blasting motor tech to breathe new life into another area of personal haircare: curlers and stylers. The Dyson Airwrap can curl hair, add volume, or get frizzy hair under control. And it does so without the extreme heat that can sometimes cause damage, instead using jets of air to grab and style the hair, one shock at a time.

The Airwrap is the second product Dyson has made for the personal-care market, the first being the Supersonic hair dryer. Like the Supersonic, the Airwrap uses a tiny version of the company's V9 motor that run at 110,000 rpm's to blast air at high speed.

Also like the Supersonic (and every Dyson product for that matter), the Airwrap commands a hefty premium above what most folks are used to paying for personal haircare products. Whereas a search on Amazon reveals most curling irons are priced below $50, the Dyson Airwrap starts at $499.99. Even comparing to just stylers that use hot air, like this one from Conair, that's stratospherically high.
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Still, this is Dyson, so the high price tag is expected. And from what Dyson showed me — I got a chance to check out the Airwrap in a demo session in advance of Tuesday's unveiling — the styler does its job extremely well.

The Airwrap itself looks just like a lightsaber handle: a glossy, dark gray tube with an air-intake filter on the bottom (the perforated filter pops on and off easily thanks to magnets) and a purple-colored rim on the top end, where the air comes out. There are three switches close to the top for controlling the air flow and temperature. It's also very lightweight — although keep in mind you need to plug it in to use it.

The curler and brush heads attach to the top, each with similar purple-and-gray colors. The curling heads are roughly cylindrical, with arrows on them to tell you the direction of air flow. The rush of air over the surface of the head creates what's called the Coanda effect, which naturally pulls things closer — in this case, hair.

I had never used a curling iron before, so a stylist, Jon Reyman of Spoke & Weal in New York, walked me through my first experience with the Airwrap. Holding a shock of hair (not mine — one of the PR reps was kind enough to lend her hair for the exercise) in one hand, I put the Airwrap underneath and turned it on. Instantly the hair curled itself around the styler, and the closer I moved it toward the person's head, the more hair became wrapped in the Airwrap's effect.
 
While the Airwrap does use heated air, it never heats it beyond 300 degrees Fahrenheit, the company says. Reyman told me that many curling and straightening products on the market today take temperatures up past 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which can cause "catastrophic" damage to hair.

After curling the hair for a few seconds (no more than five), I gave it a "cold shot" of cool air for a second and then turned it off. Pulling the Airwrap away, the blonde shock fell away easily, and instead of straight hair, there was a gentle curl.
 
"Dyson has created what I think is a better mousetrap," Reyman said after we were done. "This [kind of curl] isn't possible without using extreme heat."

Of course, one shock of curl on a head full of straight hair wasn't going to fly for our model, so we broke out a different head to reverse the process. While the Airwrap isn't a hair straightener per se, there are two brush heads that are meant to smooth out frizzy hair and get voluminous curls under control. A few strokes with the Airwrap using a brush head with soft bristles and her hair was passably straight again.

The Airwrap also includes a "pre-styling dryer" head that looks just like the Supersonic. So you could theoretically get the Airwrap to not just be your styler, but your hair dryer as well, although the Supersonic has its own heads and features to give you more flexibility in that regard.
 
Whether you use a separate hair dryer or not, the Airwrap does have a drying effect, and it's intended to be used on damp hair.

"[Normally,] I'll have to blow dry hair and then, if I wanted a curl, I'd have to use a curler, so I'm doing a two-step process," said Reyman. "Here, I can take the hair while it's still damp and work it. So it's a shorter process."

Beauty disruption

Dyson is very clear that the Airwrap is aimed at consumers looking for an easy and effective do-everything styling solution, not stylists who already favor professional equipment.

Since everyone has different hair with different needs, it's offering three different packages, with different sets of heads. All three packages some with the pre-styling dryer and two 1.2-inch curlers.

• The Volume+Shape set comes with a soft brush for adding body and volume and a round brush for shaping fine, straight hair ($499.99).
• The Smooth+Control set comes with a firm brush for straightening and calming down frizzy hair and two 1.6-inch curlers for larger curls ($499.99)
• Then there's the "Complete" package: two of each curler, all three brushes, and the pre-styling dryer ($549.99).

Yes, $500-$550 is a pretty big chunk of change, no matter what package you go for. But from my brief time with the Airwrap, I came away quite impressed. As a curling novice, I felt confident using it after learning the basics, and since it never gets too hot, I wasn't dissuaded by any potential damage I might do.
 
Plus there's something to be said about never having to worry you might burn the house down.

This article appeared on Mashable.   
Cosmo also had a write-up as well as The New York Times

It’s a tale as old as time: Once fall rolls around, your showers may end with what looks like a small, furry animal hanging around the drain. But this doesn’t mean you’re going bald (but keep your stress in check to help maintain healthy follicles)—there’s actually a scientific reason why you shed more in the colder months.

“There is evidence that people can note increased shedding in the late fall and winter months,” dermatologist Emily Wise, MD, told Allure. “In the summer months, we hang on to more hair to provide increased protection from the sun.”

“In the summer months, we hang on to more hair to provide increased protection from the sun.”

Then, as summer ends, it’s not uncommon for women to start losing some of the hair they held onto during the summer for a late-onset “shed” phase. But the increase in shedding is likely just temporary, Dr. Wise continued.

Aside from keeping your scalp hydrated and moisturized, as well as taking your vitamins (biotin and iron, in particular!), there’s not much you can do about seasonal shedding. And, according to dermatologist Jeremy Fenton, MD, docs aren’t in total agreement about why the scheduled shedding happens in the first place: Some think it’s based on evolution, and others believe it’s the body’s way of lessening shedding come wintertime.

“These hairs are not necessarily lost forever, as a healthy hair follicle will then eventually cycle back into its growth phase,” Dr. Fenton told Allure.
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So don’t let extra shedding get you down—or send you into a panic. Instead, invest in a pretty hair catcher for your drain and daydream about the first day of spring.

 
This article first appeared on Well Good