If you are experiencing hair loss it is more likely to be due to DHT, stress, diet or hormonal imbalance than due to hair gel use — and you’re actually just noticing the hair loss more when you use gel. I recommend reading more about how to stop hair loss by reading these articles:

• How to remove DHT from the scalp and block DHT production
• How to train the mind to end stress related hair loss
• How to clear the pores in the scalp
• How to naturally balance hormones

If you’re worried about the hair gel use, you could switch to a better quality hair gel. These organic hair gels and waxes are all good ones to try. The Green People gels, the Dr Bonners conditioning styling cream, the Intelligent Nutrients styling gel, the John Masters styling gel and the Jason Salon styling gel are the ones you can use for a wet look.

Make your own Natural Hair Styling Serum

The only alternatives to gel for achieving a wet look would be using a mixture of natural oils, such as almond, coconut and lavender. If you go down this root, pick some pure organic oils and create your own wet look styling serum. Coconut oil is the best for the hair but it doesn’t smell great (it smells quite fatty, rather than subtly coconutty).

If you want to create your own natural hair styling serum I would suggest using the following oils:

• Around 60% castor oil (this is your bulk and is almost scentless)
• Around 10% borage oil (this is really good for the hair)
• Around 20% lavender oil or almond oil (nice scent and good for the hair)
• Around 10% jojoba oil (great for the hair)

Coconut oil would be a good oil to use but it goes hard in colder temperatures so you might find it difficult to mix with the other oils.

You could also try using (instead of the lavender):

• Burdock oil
• Rosemary oil
• Camomile oil
• Peppermint oil

The above are also good for the hair — you could choose whichever you prefer the smell of.

Thanks for your question. Hair dye can damage your hair, but it will not cause hair loss. Dying your hair causes protein loss from the hair in tiny amounts, which can make the hair appear thinner, especially if you lighten your hair colour.

Hair dyes use chemicals to bond the colourants to the hair (both internally and externally) and this means the hair must be penetrated by the chemicals. Dying your hair darker is far less damaging than dying it lighter, but will most likely cause some very mild damage, unless you go to a really good hairdresser.

If you are dying your hair darker to cover grey you really don’t need to worry about this. The damage will not be noticeable. In fact the only damage that you would notice would be as a result of combing your hair while it has the dye in, as this might increase protein loss.

As far as hair loss is concerned, colouring your hair does not cause hair loss because the visible hair is already dead. Any hair that you can see (above the skins surface) is dead and is not growing. The only part of the hair that is alive and growing is beneath the skins surface. This is the most important part with regard to hair loss and hair growth.

If the hair bulb is affected by some chemical or hormone in the blood, hair loss can result. And if the hair bulb is not being adequately fed via the bloodstream, hair growth will stop. However dying your hair only affects the hair above the surface of the skin. If you want to increase your hair growth you need to influence the part of the hair that is beneath the skin — and that is how we stop hair loss and promote hair growth.

Yes, to some extent. First of all stop tying your hair up tightly right now and don’t braid your hair. Never wear your hair so tight that you can feel the hair being pulled away from the scalp. This ‘trains’ the hair bulb to grow closer and closer to the scalp surface, until eventually the bulb is no longer able to receive nutrient supply from the bloodstream and stops growing.

Follow my instructions carefully

Every day, once or twice a day, massage the area of your scalp that has been affected by the traction alopecia. Make sure your hands are clean – wash them well before beginning the massage. Massage for 15 minutes each time.

The aim of the massage is to increase the elasticity of the skin you are massaging. So you want to move the skin around with your fingers, encouraging it to warm up and become more elastic and flexible. Don’t slide your fingers over your scalp – just wobble your scalp around as much as possible, without pulling on the hair. If you can’t perform this massage without pulling on the hair, massage around the hair.

Doing this will help increase blood circulation in the scalp, which will help bring nutrients to the hair. Some of the effected hair will have started growing closer to the scalps surface. So we want to increase the skins elasticity, warm the skin and increase blood circulation in order to help the hair grow deeper again.

It’s possible that with time, if you stop pulling your hair tight and concentrate on improving the skins elasticity and promoting blood circulation, that the hair will start to regrow.