I have a section of my brain devoted solely to obsessing over beauty thoughts, and currently, it’s occupied by hair texture and how it changes as you get older.
In theory, I knew that as one ages and hair color changes that hair texture changes too, but I didn’t understand just how much I’d have to adapt to that particular element.
OK, let me go back a bit. Within this last year, my hair has gotten considerably more gray, and a lot of those grays have this funky, wiry texture with a tight, uneven wave pattern. They look like ramen noodles and stick out at weird angles.
These “ramen noodle hairs” used to be buried way in the back of my head, but now they’re starting to show up more and more around the visible areas closer to my face.
Before I could wear my hair down and not really have to do anything, but the presence of the wiry grays makes it difficult because they don’t flow with the rest of my hair. Unless I smooth everything down with a curling iron or a flat iron, my hair just looks messy, and not in a cute, casual and purposeful way.
And while having a unified and smooth texture looks nice to me, I then have to deal with the damage created from relying on heat tools. Sometimes it feels like a no win situation.
Anyway, I was chatting with a hairstylist a couple weeks ago, and she said from this point on there’s just going to be more and more of those wayward hairs! Oh, and apparently, the texture change also makes it harder for dye to stick, so if I decided to cover my grays again, they’d be that much more resistant to holding onto color.
In heavy rotation
- Pureology Strength Cure Superfood Deep Treatment Mask
- Pureology Color Fanatic Multi-Tasking Leave-In Spray
- Bumble and Bumble Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Ultra Rich Hyaluronic Treatment Lotion
- Kristin Ess Ultra Hydrating Curl Co-Wash
- Kristin Ess Fragrance Free Texturizing Paste
Wiry hair texture’s been my main beauty issue as of late, so I’ve been buying a lot of hair products for hydration, smoothness and building up strength. I’ve been having some luck with leave-ins and masks made for damaged or colored hair, especially. Even though I don’t have any dye in my hair at the moment, these types of products seem to help.
OH! Yet another issue I’m dealing with is that I have less hair than I used to compared to my 20s and 30s. Blame it on hormonal changes. SIGH. I can especially tell when I put my hair up or when I’m washing it in the shower. So now, I’m deeply obsessed with volume — especially at the roots. Don’t get me started on root lift. LOL!
Even though I knew that my hair was going to change, I didn’t understand the degree of how much it would, and what I’d have to do to adapt to those changes. It’s so crazy!
How has your hair texture evolved as you’ve gotten older? Have you changed your routine much?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
P.S. TGIF! We made it. 🙂
I’ve been noticing a lot more greys since my girls were born! And yes, they have that same crazy texture as yours. I go in for a color and cut next Friday, not sure what I want to do yet. Right now my brown hair is a little past my shoulders and I have highlights growing out that are about a year old. Thinking I want a long bob with balayage highlights, but I’m wondering if they’ll have to do an all over color to cover the greys. At any rate I’m excited and it will be a vast improvement from what I have going on right now!
Wait until the girls get older, LOL! I swear mine exponentially exploded between the time Connor was 4 and 6.
Have so much fun at your hair appointment. Can’t wait to hear about what you end up going with.
P.S. How was Halloween?
Oh gosh! I don’t want anymore greys but that doesn’t matter I suppose!
Halloween was great! It was super nice weather which is rare for this late in the year, so the girls got to sit outside and watch all the trick-or-treaters. I had 540 pieces of candy (one per kid) and it was all gone by 6:45! My street has really turned into a Halloween Hub! I love it though! Did Connor Claire have a fun night?
My two main hair problems the past couple of years have been 1) extreme hair loss (as in, so extreme that I had to go to the doctor to get something to take for it).
And 2) you can see when my hair grows out between colorings that my natural color is leeching out. It isn’t turning gray, although I do have some individual white hairs. My natural hair color is just bleeding out and is now kind of greige? I don’t even know what to call it. But now *not* coloring it is absolutely *not* an option. I would look like a Shakespearean witch. 😄
I’m glad you found a hair mask you liked! I remember that you were looking for one a while back.
Hi Suzanne,
I hope that you were able to find something to help with the hair loss. That happened to a friend of mine after an extremely stressful time in her life. I feel for you!
And thanks for remembering about the hair mask… This one by Pureology is a keeper! Super rich but not heavy. 🙂
Happy Friday to you!
Hi Suzanne!
Would you be willing to share the name of the product you have used to help with your hair loss? Inquiring post-menopausal minds want to know!
Of course! I’m using the Viviscal supplements. My doctor is trying to avoid adding more meds if we can help it, so she wanted me to try the supplements first. It’s taken about 2 1/2 months, but they’re really starting to help. My mom was actually commenting earlier this evening that she saw several little baby hairs growing in.
I tried the Viviscal shampoo and conditioner, but wasn’t impressed. They didn’t seem to add anything special. But the supplements are a winner for me!
Thanks so much for this!
I’ve been using Nature’s Bounty Hair, Skin & Nails (Biotin) supplements for the past several years. They seem to help a bit with nail growth and the menopause beard (!), but not so much on the parts of my head where I actually wish hair to grow. I will have to get my paws on the Viviscal supplements.
At 70, I have definitely experienced the thinning hair, especially in the temple area…my hair stylist says it happens to everyone, just age-related…l do get tired of hearing that phrase!!!! Also notice more hair loss when I wash my hair now. My hair is now mostly white but I just can’t seem to give up coloring it yet- still doing the permanent color touch-up every month at the salon. Those crazy” ramen noodle hairs” are a thing, though!! Man, do they have a mind of their own! I am using a line of products for wavy hair that I order online- shampoo, conditioner and an all-in-one styler- Love Ur Curls, made by LUS, a company in Canada. I was really happy with how my hair looked in the summer- finally decided to quit fighting my natural texture and wear it in a looser, wavy style. The summer humidity here in central IL became my friend, but now with less humidity it’s harder to make it look good-think I might have to add a strong hold gel to the mix.
The good thing about my hair now is that it’s so much drier I don’t have to shampoo as often! I do use my flat iron more to just touch up the hair around my face, though. My hair is in a layered bob about chin length- always wished I was good with wearing it long so I could style it more ways.
Since I went through menopause in my mid 40’s over a decade ago the thing I’ve noticed most is how much hair I’ve lost. Admittedly I don’t think my hair was ever the same after my daughter was born in my 30’s but it’s definetly got progressively thinner over the years. I’ve just started using all these shampoos and conditioners with rosemary and other ingredients that are supposed to stimulate hair growth so we’ll see how that goes. On a different note, yesterday I tried my brand new heatless silk hair curler for the first time : I waited till my hair was 80% dry put the curler in ( took less than 5 mins), secured it with the accompanying scrunches and left it for 4 hours ( you can sleep with it in) and Goodness me! It’s brilliant! The volume from the curls made my hair look thicker and smoother so I’m really thrilled with that! Anyone else tried this?
No I haven’t tried but would like to. Do you have a link?
I’m in New Zealand and the company I got mine from is called Lovesilk.co.nz- they ship internationally. That said , these silk heatless hair curlers seem to be very popular and I’m sure there’d be a company where you are that does them. All I know is I got several compliments from my friends last night at dinner :-). Normally my hair being so fine and naturally curly ends up looking like I’ve got a dandelion sitting on my head. It’s was nice seeing it with defined curls and shiny too.
My wavy hair got a LOT thinner after I turned 60 though I still have very little grey. I used to wash it daily but after seeing all the hair in the sink after combing it out I just wash it 2-3 times a week, and that has helped. A detangling spray also has helped a lot with breakage. Currently, I use the Honest Everyday Gentle spray detangler and once a week I use the dpHUE hair masque.
Happy Friday!!
Soooo much texture change!
As a little kid, my hair was super thin, stick straight, and nearly black.
It is now incredibly thick, coarse, wavy, and not very porous. It’s also lightened considerably, and I’m greying considerably (have been since my mid-20s!).
I also dye my hair vivid purple regularly…but those greys lose the color fastest. To be expected.
My current wavy-hair arsenal is: Redken color shampoo, AG Boost conditioner, Olaplex 3 every so often. I use JVN air styling creme most wash days, and I really love Cult + King’s salt jelly for my waves (it is $$$ though!!). Not Your Mother’s Mousse is probably my favorite mousse, and gets thrown in sometimes. I’m trying a new gel once it arrives….the never-ending experiment! I have to be careful because usually rosemary and/or tea tree oils cause bad reactions for my skin and scalp and they’re in SO many products. Somehow the AG conditioner seems ok.
I also find my waves “behave” better in the winter here, the midwest humidity absolutely wreaks havoc on my hair.
Hi Christine,
Ya know, I think I need to give the JVN Air Creme another chance. When I smelled it months ago I was in the middle of having a migraine episode, so the scent was overwhelming. I’ve heard great things about it, though. Do you use it as a leave-in? Or is it more for styling?
It definitely has a stronger, more “salon” scent! I wouldn’t use it on a migraine day, myself (also graced with super smell, ugh).
I’ve been using it as both, honestly – on soaking wet hair, I notice it helps a ton with frizz and keeping gentle body over the next couple of days if I use it alone.
If I’m using it with gel or mousse: this is all on soaking wet hair – I brush with a wet styling brush, I use JVN first, scrunch scrunch scrunch, layer on gel or mousse, scrunch scrunch scrunch, and then scrunch with a towel for excess water and air dry the rest.
Girl don’t even get me started on hair loss. My hair started thinning in my mid 40s and frankly I was in denial for quite a while until my mother pointed it out to me. Until that point I had grown up with thick luscious locks. And now that I’m in my early 50s my hair has thinned even more it’s so bad.
And the loss seems to be really focused in the root areas so I always look like I have flat hair flat head in comparison with the rest of my hair. My mother told me to start using Rogaine and so did my dermatologist but I haven’t yet. I’ve had to change my routine because even though my hair is stressed from all the color I use I can’t over conditioner or it looks like a greasy mess. But if I don’t put any conditioner on my roots then it’s all totally fly away and it’s just sticking everywhere because it’s gotten wavier as it stands not wavy enough it would look cute like in a wavy hairstyle it just looks like I never ever brush my hair even though I brush it like 4 to 5 times a day.
So yeah I feel your hair pain.
Plus I’ve got some weird wiry gray hair growing above my left eyebrow so I have to remember to look for that and pluck it before it gets too long.
I have always had fine hair my entire life, but I always had LOTS of it…until I hit 40. My hair loss has been more in the “underneath” part on the back sides and loss–just loss of density though I am not going to complain because I know it could be and might get worse now that I’m in my 50s.
Throw in some menopause, and I go through major periods of shedding. I have been using Kerastase Genesis shampoo and mask weekly (I only wash once a week [that has been a habit for the last 10 years or so] and try to chill on the dry shampoo [in the last year] as much as I can) for the last month, and that seems to have helped slow down the shedding and breakage that was epic this summer.
I have had a little gray at my crown since my late 20s but major life stress for 10 years now (terminal illness with mother, dad in poor health for some time, career ups and mostly downs) and now menopause have really got it going full speed ahead at my crown and in that “underneath” layer on the sides—more so on the right side than the left! It is just astonishing how much your hair (among other things, Lord help) changes once you hit 40 and then 50 with menopause in the mix.
And OH! The texture has changed too even though I don’t have a ton of gray. In the past, I could have a long layer with the ends very softly texturized and my hair would lay just the I wanted, but now? NOT SO MUCH! UGH!
I’m a ginger and we don’t lose pigment the same, but my hair used to be extremely straight, and now it’s wavy in an unpredictable way that doesn’t look good without effort. It’s still very fine, but annoying.
I usually just brush it through and oil it to be a little flatter LOL
I’ve been going grey since my mid- 50’s and my hair feels like straw. I’ve also had hair loss, especially after washing it. I admit that I don’t obsess over it. I just accept it as pasty of the aging process.
Enjoy the weekend.
This is a timely post!
I am currently changing all my hair products and still need to scrap some (sadly expensive) items that just won’t work for me any longer. Menopause has done a number on my hair. The stylist found a bunch of slightly wavy grays clustered in the back of my head (who would look there?). She then informed me that I can no longer use a single color process, which is a shame because I’d been doing it myself for, oh, twenty some odd years. She didn’t even recommend highlights. My natural color has grown in and is dishwater blonde. It’s not cute, which is why I’d been coloring it for so long.
My hair has always been baby-fine but there was a lot of it. It went from stick-straight to slightly wavy in my 30s. Now it’s baby-fine and there’s not much of it. Hair has instead decided to grow on my chin and upper lip. Thankfully most of it is blonde (there’s an occasional red, because why not) but it needs to be eradicated once a week.
The most recent salon visit revealed that I have a dry scalp (after being oily for years) so all my volumizing shampoos will be too drying. I’m nervous about using my root lift products lest they prove drying as well. I am currently using Klorane Nourishing Shampoo with Mango and Kristin Ess Weightless Shine Leave In Conditioner Spray as well as CHI Know It All Multitasking Hair Protector if I am going to blow dry. Basically I need moisture that won’t weigh down my thin, flat hair. A bit of shine wouldn’t hurt.
I am finding with the change of hair color, much of my clothing no longer flatters. I look washed out with my natural hair color so am having a style identity crisis!
My curl pattern is loosening, like everyone else with curly hair in my family. I also have a fair amount of white coming in on the front inch or two of my hairline. That hair is a bit drier than everything else, but my general texture is all over the place so it doesn’t stand out. Other than the hairline, the white hair is sporadic. The rest of my hair is dark blonde/light brown with very warm red tones, so it’s a big clash.
In a couple of months, I’m going to try semi-permanent color in the front. The demi-permanent glaze I tried a few years ago didn’t stick at all. If the semi-permanent doesn’t work, I’ll just let it grow in because I don’t want to get on the permanent haircolor treadmill.
Oh so many changes! Right now I’m debating what to do about the gray, I really thought I’d embrace it but the problem isn’t the color, it’s the crazy texture, like you were talking about! So I’m currently trying to smooth it as much as possible without making my roots greasy. And we have extra hard water where we are so there’s that to try and combat. 🫣
My greys are weird in texture as well, so while they aren’t as noticeable in my hair by color (I am blonde, so they blend in), they are in terms of the way they stick out.
I am not sure how I will deal with that, as coloring obviously doesn’t help with that…