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Hair Care Tips for Seniors

It may sound vain, but being confident about how you look can make serious contributions to a person’s health and happiness. Your hair is a large part of how you present yourself to the world, and good grooming means you’re better equipped with the confidence necessary to engage with others. With age comes many changes that affect the appearance of our hair, but luckily there are many simple things you can do to help take care of aging hair.

Use the Right Shampoo

As you age and your hair loses pigment, the gray and white in your hair can tint itself with a dingy yellow tone. This happens because your hair lacks pigment, turning it into a canvas that clearly shows all the foreign material it manages to collect. Pollutants in the water and air are major contributors to this yellowing, especially for smokers. But removing this type of stains from older hair is usually as simple as using a deep-cleaning shampoo, ideally made with a blue or violet color that can minimize yellowness on silver or grey strands. .

Senior Hair Strategies for Looking Good

For people with thinning hair, the primary objective is to avoid drawing attention to that fact. One of the easiest ways to do this is with hair product. Volumizing products, like thickening shampoo, are a great choice. It’s also a good idea to avoid heavier products like gels and mousse, because they can expose the scalp.

If you can see scalp on top of a man’s head, his hair should be cut to the back and sides to show and equal amount of scalp. This symmetry minimizes the appearance of the thinning on top.  For men who have extremely thin hair, shaving it all off can be a masculine-move that helps head-off a bad hairstyle before it happens. For both men and women with thinning hair, keeping a longer hairstyle is typically inadvisable. Longer hair accentuates hair thinness, and is far more difficult to manage.

A Hair-Healthy Diet for Seniors

There are many things you can’t control about your hair, like your genetics, age, and hormones. But you can change your diet.  Almond butter, tangerines, spinach, salmon, eggs, and oatmeal are all excellent for healthy hair. Vitamin E, C, Iron, B12, and ometa-3 fatty acids are particularly important for hair health. Together, they promote hair growth and reduce hair loss.

Caregiver Tips for Styling Senior Hair

Most good hygiene is done daily, but skipping a day or two between washing your hair is actually healthy. It allows for the buildup of oils that make your hair appear thicker, and that moisturize the scalp. When caring for someone with dementia, keep in mind that an extra skip day isn’t a bad thing if the person you’re caring for is having a hard time that day.

Because seniors can be more sensitive to temperature, consider testing how warm or cold the washing water is on a part of your body besides your hands. This is because your hands are more acclimated and resilient to temperatures than say, between your elbows. Testing water temperatures at these unusual locations can give you a better sense of how the water might feel to a senior.

When you’re shampooing someone else’s hair, baby shampoo is your safest bet because it doesn’t irritate eyes. For those who have issues with water, dry shampoo is a type of powder that absorbs oils without the need to involve wetness at all. Alternatively, many people have had success with baby powder or baking soda.

At the end of the day, we’re talking about making decisions that affect your confidence and happiness. That means you can wear your hair any way you like, from trying a toupee to letting it grow free. For those who aren’t able to groom themselves, home caregivers can help. Everyone deserves the confidence of feeling they look good, and most will find that all it takes is a little effort to prevent age from standing between you and a hairstyle you’re fond of.

Do you have any tips for hairstyles for seniors? What are your thoughts on keeping hair healthy as you age? What’s your hair care regimen? Let us know in the comments below.

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