Written by the SiWell content team
Your hair no longer does what you want. It hangs limp, your part seems wider than last year, and no matter what you try, it doesn't get any fuller.
First, something you rarely read on product pages: there are two very different things going on, and they require a different approach. The number of hairs on your head is different from the thickness of each individual hair. What helps one usually does nothing for the other. Below, first the cause, then the solution.
Why do I have thin hair?
Predisposition
Some people naturally have fewer hair follicles or thinner hair shafts. This is genetically determined and does not change. Recognizable by: your hair has always been like this, even as a child.
Hereditary hair loss
Here, hair follicles gradually become more sensitive to the hormone DHT. The hair growth cycle becomes shorter and the hairs that grow back are thinner. In men, you see receding hairline and a thinning crown; in women, a widening part. This continues if you do nothing about it, and it is the only cause where medical treatment can really make a difference.
A deficiency
Too little iron, protein, or certain vitamins and minerals can make hair thinner and more brittle. This is the only category in which diet or a supplement actually adds something, and only if the deficiency truly exists. A blood test at the GP can provide clarity on this.
A temporary disruption
After childbirth, an illness, a crash diet, or a stressful period, many hairs can enter the resting phase simultaneously. This looks dramatic but usually recovers on its own within six to twelve months.
Hair breakage
Blow-drying on high heat, straighteners, coloring, and tight updos break hairs in the middle. Your hair then feels thinner even though you have the same amount. This is the fastest win to be had.
Thicker hair or hair that appears fuller
Most tips you find online fall into the second category, and that's fine, as long as you know what you're buying.
Appears fuller, immediately visible: a layered cut, volume powder, sea salt spray, a part on the other side, drying with your head upside down. This really works, but it only lasts until the next wash.
What influences the thickness of your hair itself: correcting a deficiency if it exists, stopping hair breakage, and for hereditary hair loss, medical treatment. There are no other options, and anyone who promises you something else is selling you something.
Difference between men and women
Men's hair is on average thicker and coarser, but men go bald more often and earlier, in a recognizable pattern. In women, hair usually thins diffusely, spread over the head, with the part being the first thing to notice. This same pattern means women often seek help later, as no clear bald spot develops.
What we can and cannot say with certainty about silicon
Silicon occurs naturally in the human body, including in connective tissue, skin, hair, and nails. Research has been conducted on it, including on oral intake in women with sun-damaged skin (Barel et al., 2005).
View the composition of Triple A Silicon.
Good to know Zinc and selenium are nutrients that you normally get through your diet. A supplement is a complement to a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, not a replacement for it. The mentioned contributions apply at the recommended daily dosage of 12 drops (0.5 ml), which provides 4 mg of zinc and 30 µg of selenium. Do not exceed the recommended dosage.
Treatments you can do for immediate results
For completeness, because they belong in this list:
- Minoxidil, a remedy for hereditary hair loss, available at drugstores and pharmacies. Works as long as you use it.
- Mesotherapy, where a doctor injects nutrients into the scalp. The evidence for this is more limited.
- Hair transplantation, where hair follicles are moved. The only procedure that actually increases the number of hairs in one spot.
Frequently asked questions about thin hair
Can you increase the number of hairs on your head? No, except with a hair transplant. You are born with a fixed number of hair follicles. What you can influence is how many of them are active and how thick the hairs that grow out of them are.
Does washing more or less often help? Neither makes your hair thicker. Oily hair sticks together and therefore looks flatter, so if your hair gets oily quickly, washing more often will make it look fuller.
Why does my hair seem thinner since my part got wider? A widening part is often the first visible sign of diffuse thinning in women. Photograph your part every month in the same light, and you'll see if it's really progressing or if it's not so bad.
Do hair supplements work against thin hair? Only if there is a deficiency that they correct. If you eat a varied diet and your blood values are good, there's little to supplement, and you shouldn't expect much from it. That's a less appealing answer than most advertisements give, but it's the honest one.
Read more: the six causes of hair loss · what zinc and selenium do
Sources
- EFSA NDA Panel (2009). Scientific Opinion on health claims related to zinc. EFSA Journal.
- EFSA NDA Panel (2009). Scientific Opinion on health claims related to selenium. EFSA Journal.
- EFSA NDA Panel (2011). Scientific Opinion on health claims related to silicon. EFSA Journal.
- EU Register of nutrition and health claims, Regulation (EU) No 432/2012.
- Barel A. et al. (2005). Effect of oral intake of choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid on skin, nails and hair in women with photodamaged skin.
