This week the Daily Mail writes about the latest fad that is hitting our shampoo shelves, once upon a time products were only aimed at normal, dry or greasy hair, then of course came volumising, sleek & straight, de-frizzing & not to mention colour enhancing...but now we’re being treated to many new products claiming they can turn back the clocks on our apparent ageing hair?! So not only are we treating our faces to the latest skin care technology our hair also needs to defy time......or does it really??!! Some of these products are Charles Worthington Time Defy, Frederic Fekkai Ageless and Alterna Caviar Anti-Ageing & seem all to be leading the way on this new beauty trend.
Anyway according to some this new trend is seen to be a possible marketing ploy, after all between 2002-2007 anti-ageing was the fastest growing sector within the skincare market, increasing by 67% making a whopping £13Billion, so it makes sense for the haircare industry to try & cash in doesn't it!?
Obviously I'm huge fan of the anti-ageing skincare industry the only thing is there is a large difference seeing that hair is actually dead cells and only has a lifespan of four to five years at the very most anyway?!
So basically if a 30 year old as well as a 60 year old both have hair that’s ten inches long, then tips of their hair will all be the same age which is approximately 20 months.
Anyway here are a few points from the product creators themselves, Sara Botham from Alterna says 'you don’t have to be old to use anti-ageing haircare' -
‘When we talk about ageing hair, we’re not necessarily talking about the age of the person,’
‘Hair can be aged in a number of ways - there’s the environment, UV damage and pollution, which can damage hair; there are chemical factors, such as straightening and colouring, and then there’s chronological ageing as well.’
Of course this sounds all very good but is it not really a protective shampoo or one that treats dry/damaged hair, rather than being labelled as 'Anti-Ageing'
Another pioneer in this new beauty craze is Frederic Fekkai, he says the difference is that anti-ageing haircare should not just repair damage, but actively prevent it happening in the future -
‘My Ageless line is specially designed to combat the three signs of ageing: biological, environmental and mechanical'
‘It visibly corrects the first signs of ageing (dryness, damage, dullness and uneven texture), while proactively protecting hair from daily stressors that accelerate ageing, such as colour and chemical processing, heat styling, pollution and radiation.’
Independent trichologist Philip Kingsley sees this all a bit differently & says that nothing you actually put on your hair can change the structure of the follicle at all. -
‘What many people call ageing - chemical and environmental damage and so on - I call “weathering, and while whatever age you are your hair is subject to weathering, an older person may be more likely to have weathered hair. This is because as we get older, the hair follicles produce thinner hair, which is inherently weaker and has less body and volume than thicker hair.
‘As a result, you’re more likely to colour it or have a perm, and these processes will weather hair more, leaving it finer, dryer and more damaged.’
‘If you really want to try and diminish the effects of age on hair growth, the best thing you can do is eat sensibly.
The main outcome from this is that perhaps we're having the same products we have been using for years just re-labelled, re-bottled & plonked on our shelves...of course they can do great things to protect your hair, give it shine & volume, but didn't they already do this, so basically are they just spinning us a new line?!
