Did you know? Scalps are totally the New Black. I’ve been trying out a whole buncha products that target the roots of the hair, and I must say, The Hair has been, overall, pretty happy about it.

THAW = Thinning Hair Awareness Week, and Nioxin and the Institute of Trichologists have teamed up to expand our awareness of this issue. Now, okay, you may look at my head and wonder What’s she care? but in this, I am all about prevention — as opposed to my coming very late to the eye cream party, for example. I got my hair from my dad’s side of the family, which is the way it works, I think? While he hasn’t gone  bald, his hair has thinned. Sure it’s a by-product of aging, but if I start now, I could possibly add on another decade of thick, healthy hair.

^^That’s my wishful thinking, anyway. Who knows? In twenty years, Science may have figured out a way to non-invasively recreate the hair we had when we were twenty. Or is that what is more commonly known as a ‘wig’?

Anyway: when I went to get my colour done — no, not done, created — with Andrew at Mane Salon, he was already talking to me about scalps. He recommended that I try Nioxin’s Scalp Renew Dermabrasion Treatment, an in-salon facial for yer head. I was happily given that opportunity last month, and let me tell you, it puts the ‘treat’ into ‘treatment’.

I got did at Wella Professional in D8. Clarie Doyle, the Field Technical Trainer for the studio, took care of me before, during, and after the treatment. With thirteen years of experience in haircare and styling, including long-term gigs with Dylan Bradshaw and Foundations, I couldn’t have been in better hands.

Claire hopes that THAW, as an event, will ‘give people who suffer with thinning hair, or scalp concerns, the confidence to take the steps they need to get help for fragile hair and problem scalps. Many solutions currently on the market are either drug-based, or look to camouflage the issue. Nioxin aims to take a skin-care inspired approach to create thicker, fuller looking hair.’

I had been given a sample of the 3 Part System. ‘The Cleanser removes follicle- clogging sebum and residues from the scalp and hair,’ Claire explains. ‘The Scalp Revitaliser is a lightweight conditioner that provides resilience and controls moisture balance, and the Scalp treatment, which contains antioxidants to provide a refreshed scalp environment,’

The last is a spray, and I was certain that it was going to weigh down my hair — after all, that’s where my hair gets greasiest, right? I duly tried it out, and found it to be only okay. Then I got my scalp dermabrased my Claire, and everything changed.

The treatment is applied by your salon professional: it feels cool on your head, but if you hold your hand close to it, it feels warm. Weird! Claire massaged it in, and left it for about ten, fifteen minutes. I got rinsed and shampooed, and blow dried, and honestly, my hair has never looked healthier — and my scalp has probably not been in such a pristine state since the day I was born.

In the following days, I went back to the 3 Part System, and the difference was noticeable in the extreme, soft-focus iPhonage notwithstanding.

That’s with nothing but the scalp spray — no styling oil or gel or mousse or anything. As well as sprucing up my cranial skin, the treatment also gave my hair colour a new lease of life.

I am very conscious of my scalp, now, which is the point, and I’m hoping to feel the good effects of this for as long as I can. It’s been about a month now, at least, and I would dearly love to get another blast of dermabrasion sooner rather than later.

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Nioxin 3 Part System kits have an RRP of €33.99.

See nioxin.co.uk for stockists.

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There’s an excellent online diagnostic here — figure out which one of the six systems suits you.

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