Like any hair loss sufferer I keep up with the latest hair loss news and occasionally surf the self-help forums just to see what's new in terms of a medical cure.

On the forums it is often shocking to see the lengths some hair loss sufferers go to get their hair back and I was horrified to read of the man who made himself so sick with his experiments in taking female hormones he could scarcely get out of bed to get to the bathroom!

Worse still, his hair was showing questionable signs of improvement, yet he told himself that was because he hadn't given his self-imposed regime long enough!

Though possibly the other side-effects he faced paled in comparison with the fact he could have been risking his life.

Then I remembered the time I tried a liquid fertiliser meant for plant growth because it contained at least four ingredients recommended for hair growth in much greater concentration than those synthesised for human use at a fraction of the cost and someone on the internet had claimed it had worked for them.

Luckily my desperation was matched only by my cowardice to dare to experiment beyond a couple of occasions of queasiness and I poured the rest down the drain, lest I be tempted again.

Eventually I gave up on the self-experimentation of various vitamin conconction OD's and decided that nothing short of a cosmetic solution was going to give me the results I wanted. After various research into various solutions and salons, I discovered eMPower and can honestly say I have never looked back.

It's easy to forget the desperation of those pre-eMPower days, but truly, nothing is worth risking your health for. Try vitamin combos in moderation by all means, but never let desperation dictate. And never be unrealistic about the results you can expect even if a vitamin combo does seem to be helping because 'helping' is usually a far cry from restoring the luscious mane of hair that you truly seek.

Here at eMPower, we are a bit like doctors who believe in the Hypocratic Oath; 'First do no harm.'   We also pride ourselves in keeping one step ahead of medical concerns regarding possible causes of hair damage and hair loss. To this end we were well ahead of the competition with our own SLS and DEA-free specially formulated salon shampoo,which we have been selling in our salons for years, albeit with minor tweaks to the formula each time we think of a way to refine and improve it even further. Now the use of sulphates in shampoo (the element most commonly used for generating a satisying amount of lather) is growing increasingly controversial, even being likened to 'paint stripper' in its effects on hair, blamed for stripping both colour and natural oils to cause dryness, we could be smug. But we prefer not to rest on our laurels and to carry on making our products even better.  Soon you too can enjoy the benefits of eMPower shampoo and products as our online shop is due to go live in the next few weeks. Watch this space...

Remember that whether you possess 100% natural growing hair or maintain hair replacement additions to supplement your natural hair (also using 100% natural hair at eMPower), you will benefit from a gentle but effective shampoo which doesn't damage hair, though it obviously also-helps to avoid over-processing if possible, which can cause damage in its own right and make even natural-growing hair appear artificial

We were amused to note that Wayne Rooney's hair transplant now has its own fanclub blog plotting its progress and monitoring whether it is fully taking or a further transplant will be needed.

Hair transplants are back in the news lately as it emerges that Dancing on Ice's Kyran Bracken still needs spray-on microfibres to hide the gaps after spending £30,000 on hair transplant surgery.

While we fully understand the psychological desire to feel hair growing out of your scalp again, it does seem like an enormous gamble to spend £30,000 on the latest hair transplant technology with no guarantee of success in terms of getting the results you really want.

Perhaps the hair will not be as thick as you would like, perhaps the hair will not take, perhaps the hair will carry on receding around the transplanted area necessitating further £30,000 procedures. Risks you may be willing to take perhaps if you are rich or a celebrity to whom money is no object, but what if you are not?

Even with all the money in the world some men's scalps will not prove suitable in terms of possessing thick enough side and back hair to harvest from. This also means hair transplantation will nearly always be a technique unsuited to women as women's hair thinning tends to happen all over, rather than just the front, temples or crown, which in turn makes hair transplantation very challenging if the whole scalp needs transplantation, aside from the issue of harvest sites.

So for no risk, no pain and typically for less than a tenth of the price, not to mention our eMPower Promise, why not come and talk to us about regaining a full head of fabulous natural-looking real hair with eMPower's bespoke hair solutions? No one but you need ever know and you can live your life as fully again as you could possibly wish.

Whilst it is not uncommon to notice a woman of sparse locks in extreme old age, it is good to see the once-taboo fact that a much-younger woman’s hair can thin from something as mundane as childbirth hormones or the peri-menopause is now becoming more widely acknowledged.

Unfortunately rectifying a hormonal/vitamin deficiency or imbalance or redressing your work/life balance to reduce stress will not necessarily automatically correct the hair thinning problem as you might hope, for hair appears to have a life (or death) all its own and hair loss remains largely a mystery, with its treatment, a far from exact science.

Nothing I did in my early 30s made the slightest difference to my hair loss and I hadn’t even had a baby and was nowhere near approaching the menopause either.

That said, sometimes an individual WILL derive benefit from trying to correct their hormones or vitamin deficiency or by reducing their stress levels so it is important to rule these things out as potential causes of hair loss before giving up hope of improvement to your natural hair.

Occasionally sufferers will be lucky and their hair will choose to thicken or grow back spontaneously, particularly if lost through a specific illness or via cancer treatment. But my advice is don’t bank on it and have a plan B to ensure you look and feel confident in the meantime. Try things by all means, but maintain the attitude; ‘It may work, it may not’ and manage your expectations.

At the other end of the scale don’t delude yourself into thinking there is genuine improvement if there is not, though some days your hair will try and deceive you by seeming improved and thicker one day, but going back to exactly how it was the following day. In reality hair generally takes six months to show a response to any treatment, so any treatment requires a degree of persistence and commitment in order to ascertain real results, if a treatment is going to help.

For some, hair loss may first be noticed in unusually large volumes of hair collecting in the shower tray (normal shedding is 150-300 strands per day depending on growth phase). For others they will first notice it, as I did, in a photograh of myself, not sporting my usual thick and wayward locks, or in the form of hair changing texture to become wispier or frizzier and more flyaway than it used to be. This is owing to miniaturisation where the DHT hormone slowly strangles the hair follicle in order that it produces thinner and thinner hair shafts until the strand becomes near-invisible (though the strand count may remain the same until this stage is reached), This is probably the reason why hairdressers tend to advise against exceptionally long hair in women after a certain age.

Cosmetically, a flattering haircut and colour is a must for anyone (man or woman) discovering thinning hair, quickly followed by good quality moisture-rich thickening products used regularly and a professional-standard hairdryer, all of which will help give the appearance of more volume.

Not forgetting a visit to eMPower to discuss their further options. 

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You might have thought that there was no good news about going bald. However the University of Washington School of Medicine has just announced that according to their latest research men who recede from an early age have 45% less chance of developing prostate cancer.

eMPower can obviously offer the other good news - that receding men don't have to be happy with a mere consolation prize. They can enjoy both a full head of hair again with the forefront of modern hair replacement, eMPower's help, AND a lower prostate cancer risk.

Like most people, I have known a number of solitary Valentine's Days in my time and, after female hair loss struck, pessimistically assumed I'd be doomed to many more.

Instead this morning I rose bright and early to wash my eMPowered hair and set off to work with a spring in my step to look forward to being told how gorgeous I am tonight when I meet my beloved off the train.

He can touch and stroke my glossy locks without a flinch on my part as nothing's about to fall off or out. I merely draw the line at him mussing it up too much in case he 'over-tangles' it (not to mention manages to feel the line between lace and scalp, almost undetectable as it is.)

Luckily he never has and remains convinced I am as naturally blessed as I used to be with my hair.

Leaving me free to focus on loving him back and without fear of what my hair might get up to by way of slipped hairbands, camoflage rubbing off or other lesser solutions  (a real passion killer!)

He is such a lovely man, I feel pretty sure he would love me even if I didn't have a single hair on my head, but it's still nice not to have to put him to the test.

If hair is the most important thing, love is definitely the second most important thing!

I wish everyone reading this a Valentine's Day as happy as mine.

(*Please note the accompanying photograph is not intended to be representative of eMPower hair or clients, just Valentine's Day and the way this client feels!*)

So has your New Year's resolution to do something major about your hair solidified into resolve? Or is it melting into dissolution as lack of confidence or plain fear win the day?

Would it help boost that dutch courage to know about the eMPower Promise? The eMPower Promise is simple and has been around for as long as eMPower has. At your first (free) consultation your hair will be assessed and your non-surgical treatment options explained.

Choose any of these non-surgical treatment options and if you feel you are not getting the exciting results you desire in six months (and in the majority of cases overall hair improvement takes at least six months), we will redeem the cost of the treatment - a laser comb for example - against the cost of your first hair systems.

So ping that e-mail or pick up that phone and hotfoot it to the specialist salon where you can't lose and ALL our clients benefit from the eMPower Promise that within a short space of time they will walk out the door with a full head of hair, whether their own natural hair or eMPowered hair (and only YOU will know the difference!)

During the hinterland twixt Christmas and New Year I was strolling through the streets of Soho one fresh morning when I was accosted by a hairdresser who stopped me to ask if I would consider being a hair model for his salon! Naturally I was not just flattered but deliciously amazed that a top hairdresser could not tell that my lustrous locks had added eMPower! This was not the first time this had happened either, but the second, albeit different high class salons in different cities. The previous stylist had even run along the street after me when I did not hear his request the first time.

A fellow eMPower client tells a similarly uplifting Christmas story;

It was a busy December weekday afternoon in the city of London and I was trying to flag down a cab before the heavens opened, not what you want when wearing open-toed stilettos.

Just as I lifted my hand I noticed that I had successfully already hailed a cab and literally threw myself in. Well to be more precise, fell in, probably on account of the high heels.

As soon as I had sorted myself out and shut the door, the cab drivers' first words to me were; 'Wow, your hair is gorgeous. It is amazing!'

I was a little taken aback as I had not expected this at all so I replied in a meek, childlike way; 'Thank you'.

The cabbie and I talked non-stop for the 15 minute journey to my destination. He explained that he was an ex-hairdresser of 20+ years and that he was on a private job but had stopped to admire my beautiful hair.

His comments only re-affirmed how natural and beautiful the eMPower hair systems really are and how natural they look. the cab driver was an ex-hairdresser after all.

Like my fellow eMPower client, I didn't give any secrets away to the two stylists who wanted me to model for them either, but simply told them; 'Thanks, but I'm happy with the stylist I have' . Not a word of a lie!

We'd like to wish a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our eMPower clients, existing, new and thinking about it! We hope you'll have a wonderful holiday.

Then how could you not when you've chosen the best cosmetic cure on the market for your hair loss!

In festive spirit, we're offering three free re-grooms worth £55 each for any systems and extensions ordered by 31st December.

Other news: Our King's Road VIP salon is now open for business for A-listers, wedding and special occasion clients or just those clients who seek that extra bit of luxury and seclusion or feel in need of some extra pampering after cancer treatment. Please click link above for full info.

Our new salon in Leeds has just opened and Sean and Andy are already busy welcoming eMPower clients through their doors, so don't be shy about popping in if you're in the area and book that consultation!

Finally we announce the arrival of some rather exciting new European hair to add to our array of options for both systems and extensions, and whose purity and integrity is second to none as it is not pre-processed in any way. Though naturally with eMPower you can expect no less than genuine human hair in all our products and to look pretty wonderful whichever you choose or can afford. What you will find with the top end hair though is an extra silky-softness which stays that way throughout its lifespan, with minimal assistance needed from hair products.

Warm Regards,

The eMPower Team

When my once so-thick I couldn't get a hairslide to stay in without it popping open immediately had thinned to old lady thickness by age 33, a fine-tooth comb sufficed to tame it.

One of the immense joys of discovering hair replacement at eMPower was that I now needed hairbrushes again. Even de-tangle combs!

I attach a picture of the best design of of wide-intertooth comb I have found for minimising your new hair breakage and damage to any extensions and systems, though it works pretty well to tame 100% naturally-growing manes too. This type of detangle comb used to be all the rage and you could buy them in several funky colours in your local Boots but sadly it now takes the internet to track one down.

If you also want a brush, the Tangle Teezer is the best one of those I've found, though do try to buy one with a handle if you don't want it slipping out of your hand like a bar of soap every minute or so to land with a plonk in the bath as the actual holding bit is not so well-designed.