By Joseph Hood
For those who have it, the hair on our heads can be a source of great confidence and a signifier of personal identity at the best of times. At the worst of times, when unhealthy, damaged, or thinning, it can be a source of increased anxiety and insecurity. As Phoebe Waller-Bridge puts it so eloquently in her hit comedy series Fleabag:
“Hair is everything. We wish it wasn’t so we could actually think about something else occasionally. But it is. It’s the difference between a good day and a bad day.”
While that sentiment leans towards the extreme of hair appreciation there is some truth in the idea that, for better or worse, when our hair looks good and feels good, we tend to be more comfortable in ourselves (that’s not to say you can’t exude charisma without hair, just ask Patrick Stewart or Sinead O’Connor).
Bad Hair Days:
Unfortunately, there are various factors of day-to-day life capable of dealing real damage to our hair and scalps, leaving them dry, flaky, dull, and unkempt. With ambient pollution and dust in our towns and cities, harsh chemicals in cheap hair products, poor diets, UV radiation from the sun, hormonal imbalance, and general stress and anxiety running rampant, it’s frankly a wonder that any of us have hair left to care for.
As a result of the many existing scourges to our prized locks, health and beauty communities have found themselves awash with a multitude of products promising to restore lost hair and redeem the integrity of hair that remains. With such a saturated market, bereft of consistent results, it can be difficult to weed out the pretenders from the genuine articles and find products that perform well and work for the individual needs of the consumer.
Green Hair, Don’t Care:
However, in recent years, CBD has returned to the scene as a natural alternative to hair care and restoration with the current research on the topic speaking for itself. The University of Central Florida published a study last year detailing a six-month trial in which participants (all of who had been diagnosed with androgenetic alopecia) applied a CBD oil to their scalps once a day. The result, based on active follicle counts of the most afflicted area of the head, saw a staggering increase in hair growth of 93.5 percent by the end of the trial.
So how exactly does our favourite supplement contribute to a healthy, happy hairline? Frequent visitors to this page and others like it will already know that CBD has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, and it’s this very function that sets about alleviating conditions like psoriasis and folliculitis. When left untreated, conditions such as these leave the skin under our hair dry and inflame our hair follicles leading to accelerated hair loss that our natural hair production simply can’t keep up with. CBD can also contribute to regulating sebum production which assists in hydrating chronically dry hair or inversely can get overly-oily hair under control. In addition to this, CBD’s antimicrobial properties may reduce the risk of infections on the scalp which is a sure source of that pesky dandruff you may keep spotting on the chest and shoulders of your favourite black t-shirts. Moreover, hair products infused with cannabidiol have the potential to strip build-ups of harsh chemicals at the hair roots which in turn can allow the follicles to be properly cared for and nourished making it a great prelude to any additional hair treatment.
Down the Hatch:
The potential positives of cannabidiol for your hair don’t stop at a topical application either. When ingested regularly, CBD oils and edibles can make significant improvements to our mental health and our ability to cope with stress. We all know the cliché of a person being so worked up that their hair starts coming out in clumps but that’s actually not far from the truth. Of the 100 or so documented causes of hair loss, at least three are stress factors, including Telogen effluvium, in which high levels of stress push our hair follicles into a resting state to later come out during washing or combing. In other words, it’s not inaccurate to say that the more stressed a person is the more likely they’re going to experience some hair loss. As such, it’s sensible to take dietary countermeasures to curb any woe-induced bare-headedness.
While CBD in your diet can go a long way to helping you maintain your mane, it’s always important to make sure that your diet is healthy to begin with. Foods rich in essential vitamins and nutrients such as zinc, iron, vitamin C, D, and B7 are one’s to give precedence. These are some of the building blocks of growing and keeping a healthy head of hair (among other bodily functions) and without their contribution, CBD will only be able to do so much for your health and general appearance.
Rinse and Repeat:
In our ongoing effort to give clients a natural and sustainable alternative to regular high street health and wellness, Voyager is launching CBD hair care refill stations at our stores in St. Andrews, Dundee, and Stockbridge. Instead of using materials on disposable packaging, the new Voyager Life line of products makes use of high-quality and reusable containers which can be filled in-store with any of our specially formulated CBD shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. Healthy hair is great, but a healthy environment bought by climate-positive actions? Even better. Now with the most premium hair salons getting invested in the possibilities of CBD hair treatments it’s safe to say it’s here to stay in the mainstream. For those who want to double up on natural goodness for their tresses, Voyager has also released a Hemp & Shea Hair Mask. While it doesn’t contain any CBD, the mask does contain a good concentration of hemp seed oil with essential Omega’s 3, 6, and 9 for its anti-inflammatory and moisturising properties, as well as phyto-keratin to deeply hydrate and nourish for good hair days to come.
To conclude, if you’re concerned about the health of your hair, experiencing dry scalp, irritation or would simply like to give those locks a leg up, stop by a Voyager store today and ask our staff about our new refillery range to try something truly head and shoulders above the rest.
