After sporting a glorious head of hair for all nine months of my pregnancy, I thought that surely I would be one of the lucky ones to escape the horrors of postpartum hair loss. And I almost believed that to be true until five months into motherhood, I started to lose hair in alarming clumps each time I stepped foot into the shower.
Google told me that this was a natural – and passing – side effect of your pregnancy hormones going back to normal, but when my husband started commenting on the abnormal amount of hair clogging up our shower drain, I knew I needed some form of intervention to save my thinning head of hair.
After dabbling with a number of hair loss shampoos with no results, it was time to seek professional help from the experts. I knew nothing about trichology, but if a visit to TK Trichokare would get me a step closer to hair recovery, I was game to try it.
Rocking up at TK Trichokare, I was confident that the root of my hair loss problem was postpartum hormones. But it wasn’t until a trichoscopic examination of my scalp revealed a host of more sinister problems.
The first glaring problem my attention was brought to was the excessive flakiness of my scalp. Unbeknownst to me, my occasional dandruff hadn’t disappeared; it was just hiding in a blind spot at the back of my head.
My trichologist also pointed out another worrying fact: normal hair pores house 2-3 strands at any one point, but quite a few pores on my scalp only had one strand – an obvious sign of thinning hair.
This was also compounded by a thick, visibly gunky layer of dead skin, oils and dirt that had built up over time even though I thought I was thorough on the hair washing front. While we identified hormonal changes as one of the main culprits of my thinning hair, stress, an unhealthy diet and a congested scalp were also likely accomplices.
My hair loss cloud was growing darker and angier, but the silver lining on it was that at this stage, the hair loss I was experiencing could be reversed with regular treatment.
And so, a customised TriOxy treatment was chosen to remedy my sensitive thinning scalp. The first step in this treatment saw my trichologist dousing my scalp in a botanical hair cocktail comprising a mixture of essential oils, glycolic and salicylic acids that would soften the buildup and exfoliate the surface of my scalp.
To enhance the absorption of the softening solution, an airbrush-looking apparatus termed the OxyPeel was used to blast cool streams of oxygen into my epidermis, increasing blood circulation. If you’re a fan of minty shampoos that leave a tingling sensation post-shower, you’ll thoroughly enjoy the sensation of this step.
This was followed by a 10-minute wait for the OxyPeel to work its magic before my trichologist shuttled me over for a shampoo sesh.
It was also at this stage that I was schooled on the “right” way to shampoo my hair – this method involved a certain amount of applied pressure and working your fingertips – not nails – into each layer of hair to ensure you scrub out all the crusty flakes and excess sebum that might be lining your scalp.
Thereafter, the same OxyJet machine was used to deliver a fruity-smelling hair loss ampoule containing Procapil, an acid derived from olive trees that’s been naturally proven to reduce and prevent hair loss, and the herb saw palmetto. The latter also slows the conversion of testosterone to DHT, an enzyme which causes hair loss.
The nutrient- and mineral-rich ampoule penetrates the scalp to improve blood circulation and activate my lazy hair follicles.
To understand why oxygen plays a crucial role in retarding hair loss, one first needs to dig out old biology knowledge from the recesses of your brain. Just like all the cells in your body, your scalp’s cells need a healthy amount of oxygen and blood circulation in order to flourish. This also determines the health of your hair follicles and whether or not hair strands are replenished.
If you’ve been spending precious dollars on all sports of tonics that haven’t been doing the job, you might be facing a case of inactive hair scalp cells. The beauty of the TriOxy treatment here is that it delivers 98% pure oxygen directly to the scalp through cold pulses to stimulate the absorption of things like nutrient-rich shampoos and tonics.
Fair warning: This portion of the treatment will cause your scalp to feel very cool because there is direct contact between the apparatus and your scalp.
The final step of the process had me donning this futuristic helmet for some low-level laser therapy – an FDA-approved, non-invasive treatment that has been proven to restore thinning scalps to their full glory and helps accelerate healing.
Having had a rude awakening during the initial trichoscopic scan, I was honestly amazed to see that most, if not all, of the ghastly chunks of dead skin clogging up the base of my follicles had been removed and the surface of my scalp looked clean and fresh.
My trichologist could also now identify redness signalling a sensitive scalp, and I was cautioned against using products with artificial scents and additives.
And while I wasn’t expecting any instantaneous results, it was heartening to know that my scalp went through a thorough detox and received an intensive session of oxygenation to reboot the cells that were weakened or on the brink of death.
And because I’d suffered from a great deal of hair fall after giving birth, I was advised to follow up my everyday shampoo and conditioner routine with some hair tonic to ensure my scalp is sufficiently nourished.
Experiencing severe hair fall at 29 years of age is no easy pill to swallow, and I’m glad that there are treatments on the market such as this one from TK Trichokare that helps to halt and reverse the effects of hair loss via improving the internal health of your scalp.
It takes religiously committing to multiple sessions to be able to reap the benefits of the TriOxy treatment at Trichokare, but I would recommend it to all mothers, women and men who are experiencing forms of premature hair loss.
If you’ve new to the world of hair loss treatments, you can sign up for your first trial session of TK Trichokare’s Advanced Scalp Detox & Care Treatment at just $40 nett (price includes free HairGRO ampoule and hair care kit worth $745). Register your interest here.
PSA: First-timers who are also TSL readers will be privy to TK Trichokare’s newly launched Peptide Ampoule for just $69 (worth $399) as well!
This post was brought to you by TK Trichokare.
Photography by Clare Ong.
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