Why Does Your Hair Change As You Get Older….

Why Does Your Hair Change as You Get Older? And What Can You Actually Do About It?

Nobody warns you that your hair ages too.

One day you realize the hair you’ve had for most of your life has quietly changed the rules.

It might feel finer. Your ponytail might suddenly feel smaller. The texture may have changed completely. Hair that was once thick and cooperative becomes dry, fluffy, wiry or just generally determined to do its own thing.

It might not seem to grow as long as it used to.

And then there’s that moment — usually under particularly unforgiving bathroom lighting — when you think:

Hang on. Was that much scalp always visible?

Naturally, we blame age.

But “I’m getting older” isn’t really an explanation.

After more than 30 years of working with hair, I’ve watched these changes happen to thousands of women. And what we tend to call aging hair is rarely caused by one thing.

Hair is part of a living biological system. And as that system changes, our hair often changes with it.

Hormones shift. The scalp changes. Nutritional needs change. Stress accumulates. The growth cycle can alter. And the follicle itself may begin producing a finer hair than it did when we were younger.

So yes, hair changes with age.

But that doesn’t mean we simply have to surrender to it.

First, what actually happens to hair as we age?

Every hair on your head grows from a follicle.

And every follicle operates on a cycle.

There is a growing phase, a transitional phase, a resting phase and eventually a shedding phase. Then, under normal circumstances, the follicle begins the process again.

When we’re younger, more of our follicles tend to spend longer in the active growing phase. That’s one reason hair can feel thicker and seem to grow endlessly when we’re young.

As we get older, that cycle can change.

The growing phase can become shorter, and individual hairs may emerge finer than they once did. Some follicles can gradually miniaturize, meaning the diameter of the hair they produce becomes smaller.

You may still have hair growing from that follicle — it’s simply not the same substantial strand you had 20 years ago.

Multiply that across thousands of follicles and suddenly the overall density of your hair feels different.

This is why looking after aging hair isn’t only about stopping shedding.

We also need to think about the quality of the hair being produced.

And then the hormones arrive

Or perhaps more accurately, some of them start leaving.

For women, perimenopause and menopause can be particularly noticeable in the hair.

Estrogen has an influence on the hair-growth cycle, and as estrogen levels fluctuate and eventually decline, some women notice increased shedding, slower growth or a reduction in density.

At the same time, the relative influence of androgens can become more noticeable in women who are genetically susceptible to androgenetic hair loss.

And hormones don’t politely change one at a time.

They can affect sleep, stress, skin, body composition and how we feel generally — all of which can create another layer of complexity.

This is one of the reasons I dislike the idea that every woman experiencing thinner hair simply needs a stronger shampoo.

Your shampoo may be perfectly lovely.

Your hair follicle has considerably more going on.

Your scalp ages as well

We spend an enormous amount of time worrying about the skin on our faces.

Serums. Peptides. Exfoliation. Hydration. SPF. Retinoids. Masks.

Meanwhile, the skin underneath our hair gets approximately 30 seconds of shampoo and a vigorous towel dry.

Your scalp is skin.

And it is the environment in which every one of your hair follicles lives.

As we age, the scalp can become drier and the skin barrier can change. Product buildup, excess oil and irritation can also affect the scalp environment.

That doesn’t mean you need a complicated 14-step scalp routine.

But I do believe we’ve spent far too long treating the scalp as though it has absolutely nothing to do with beautiful hair.

It does.

A healthy-looking head of hair begins with the environment surrounding the follicle.

That’s one of the reasons peptides became so interesting to me when developing Burgeon. We use peptides in sophisticated facial skincare because we understand the value of supporting the skin.

Why would we completely ignore the skin on our heads?

What about nutrition?

Hair is not essential to survival.

It may be essential to our mood when we’re trying to get ready for dinner, but biologically speaking, your body has other priorities.

If resources are limited, the body is going to prioritize your heart, brain and other essential organs before worrying about whether your hair looks fabulous.

Hair is largely made of keratin, a protein, and producing hair requires adequate nutritional building blocks.

Protein matters. Iron matters. Zinc matters. Vitamin D, B vitamins and other nutrients can matter when levels are inadequate.

That doesn’t mean taking enormous doses of every vitamin in the cupboard will give you Rapunzel hair.

More is not automatically better.

But nutritional status absolutely deserves a place in the conversation about hair, particularly as we get older.

And yes, I’m going to mention the gut

I know.

If you’ve read Burgeon World before, you knew I wasn’t going to get through an entire article without bringing up the gut.

But there is a reason I keep returning to it.

Our digestive system is responsible for breaking down food and helping us absorb the nutrients our bodies use. The gut microbiome also interacts with immune and metabolic processes throughout the body.

That doesn’t mean every case of thinning hair is caused by the microbiome. It isn’t.

Hair loss is complicated, and anyone who tells you there is one single cause for every person is making biology far too simple.

But I became fascinated by the idea that if we want to support healthy hair, perhaps we shouldn’t only look at the last few inches of it.

Perhaps we should look at the person growing it.

That became a huge part of the philosophy behind Burgeon.

Stress counts too

Unfortunately, your hair does keep receipts.

A significant physical or emotional stressor can sometimes trigger a type of increased shedding called telogen effluvium.

And the particularly annoying thing is that the shedding doesn’t necessarily happen the day you’re stressed.

It can appear weeks or months later.

So when somebody tells me, “My hair has suddenly started falling out and absolutely nothing has changed,” I often ask what was happening a few months ago.

Illness?

Surgery?

Major weight loss?

A period of extreme stress?

A major hormonal change?

A dramatic change in diet?

Sometimes the timing provides an important clue.

Why does the texture change?

This is another one I hear constantly.

“My hair has gone weird.”

A highly technical description, obviously, but I know exactly what they mean.

Hair that used to be straight can develop a wave. Curly hair can behave differently. Gray hair can feel coarser. Hair can become drier, finer or more fragile.

Part of this can be due to changes in the follicle and oil production, while chemical processing, heat styling, UV exposure and decades of general wear and tear also play their part.

Which brings me to something important:

Aging hair often needs to be treated more gently, not more aggressively.

If the individual strand has become finer, attacking it with excessive heat, bleach and constant tension isn’t going to improve matters.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your hair is stop fighting with it.

So what can you actually do?

Start by separating two things that are often lumped together:

Hair health and hair loss are not exactly the same thing.

If you’re experiencing sudden, severe or unexplained hair loss, bald patches, scalp pain or significant changes, speak to a doctor or dermatologist. There are medical causes of hair loss that deserve proper investigation.

But if you’re noticing the gradual changes that often accompany getting older, I would start thinking about hair much more holistically.

Look at whether you’re eating enough protein and getting adequate nutrition.

Pay attention to your scalp rather than just the ends of your hair.

Be sensible with heat and chemical processing.

Take stress seriously.

If you’re experiencing hormonal changes, have that conversation with an appropriate healthcare professional rather than simply assuming there is nothing you can do.

And most importantly, give hair time.

Hair doesn’t work on Instagram time

This is probably one of the hardest things to explain in the beauty industry.

We have become accustomed to instant gratification.

Put on a lipstick: instant.

Apply foundation: instant.

Use a conditioning mask: your hair feels different 20 minutes later.

Hair growth doesn’t behave like that.

You’re working with a biological cycle.

Anything genuinely intended to support the growth of healthier hair needs consistency and time.

That’s why when we conducted Burgeon’s 90-day third-party study, we looked at changes over months rather than days. We saw an approximately 11% increase in hair density over 90 days among participants in that study.

To me, that’s much more interesting than promising somebody miraculous hair by next Tuesday.

Biology takes time.

I don’t want my 25-year-old hair back

Actually, that’s a lie.

If someone would like to return my 25-year-old hair along with my 25-year-old metabolism, I’ll happily provide a forwarding address.

But that’s not really the point.

The goal isn’t to pretend we’re not getting older.

The goal is to understand what’s changing and support the hair we have now.

I’ve spent my career around some of the most beautiful hair in the world, and one thing I know for certain is that great hair isn’t exclusively young hair.

Healthy, glossy, strong, beautifully cut hair at 50, 60, 70 and beyond can look extraordinary.

But perhaps our approach to it needs to evolve.

For decades, the hair industry concentrated almost entirely on the hair we could see.

Shampoo it.

Condition it.

Color it.

Style it.

Coat it in something shiny.

And all of those things still have their place.

But I’m much more interested now in what happens before the hair appears from the scalp.

What’s happening around the follicle?

What’s happening with the scalp?

Is the body getting what it needs?

What else is changing?

That shift in thinking is ultimately why I created Burgeon.

Not because I believe aging needs fixing.

It doesn’t.

But because I don’t believe we should write off changes in our hair with two words:

“It’s age.”

There is usually a much more interesting story happening underneath.

And that’s where I think the future of hair care begins.