Nioxin Hair System

I wanted to take some time to talk about what I’ve been using on my hair lately since, as I mentioned a few months ago, it started to thin out again after the wedding. It was really frustrating considering all of the work and all of the time I put into trying to restore it and regrow it to have it start falling out again. But, again, my doctor was optimistic about it coming back, I just needed to regulate and replenish some of my vitamin and nutrient levels that were one of the main culprits of the hair loss.

While I started working on my health, internally, by taking biotin and actually starting to take an Iron supplement and all of the things, I wanted to do something on the outside to make sure that my scalp was healthy and that my hair was nourished in every way possible. Historically, when it came to shampoo and conditioner (outside of my clarifying shampoo and deep conditioner) I wasn’t too picky about brands, formulations, cost, etc. I typically just went to Ulta and picked whatever looked interesting to me. Sometimes it was a volumizing line, sometimes moisturizing; it all depended on my mood.

With my old hair demons popping up again, I decided to do some research on shampoos and conditioners to see if there truly was something to help thinning hair. The issue I found with a lot of products, however, is when you stop using them, the effect they had goes away. So, if you discontinue them and use other things, the hair it helped to re-grow could start to fall out again.

And, to a point, I understand that happening, it’s hard to use something externally if you aren’t working on the actual source of the loss.

I will preface this next statement I make to say: I am not a doctor, I do not have the ability to make medical advice, I just go by my experience and what I have found in my own personal research.

Many cases of hair loss are caused by something going on internally; it could be a vitamin deficiency, a thyroid issue, an auto-immune issue; so many things. Stress also plays a huge factor, so if you feel you’re experiencing hair loss, please see your doctor for a full work up so you can try to get to the bottom of what is going on.

I say this because if there is an internal reason/cause of your hair loss, nothing you do externally is going to “fix” or “cure” your issues. As much as I love the products I’m sharing with you and as much as I believe they are helping me; I also credit the fact that I am working on myself internally to replenish my vitamin and iron deficiencies which my doctors believe are the causes of my hair loss.

The Nioxin hair systems popped up in a lot of my research, so I looked into them further. One of the first things that made me want to try them is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of hair restoration line. Nioxin actually has several different systems based on your hair type, your degree of loss, whether you color/chemically treat your hair, etc. On their website, you can use their Consultation Tool to determine which of their 6 systems are best for your hair type and hair loss.

For my hair needs, they recommended their number 4 system because I feel that my hair loss is significant and because I have color treated hair. So, I ordered the shampoo and conditioner (the system actually also has a third leave in treatment step that, admittedly, I’ve never used for literally no reason outside of laziness, if we’re being honest) and decided to give it a try around the middle of October.

I have to be honest, I started using this with the lowest expectation possible. Basically, as long as I didn’t go completely bald, I was going to call it a win.

Spoilers: I didn’t go bald.

The shampoo works a cleanser (they even refer to it as a cleanser over a shampoo) because it is designed to completely clean your scalp, remove build-up, products, grease, dirt, pollutions, etc that can clog the pores and follicles on your scalp that would impede re-growth. Since I do have the color care version, they do this cleansing with a color care component so it’s not ripping all of the dye out of my hair, which is a plus because typically any product like this will rip all of the color out of your hair without hesitation.

The conditioner, they refer to as scalp therapy because it’s meant to be hydrating to your scalp and your hair without adding a lot of weight or oily/greasiness. The last thing you want when you’re worried about thinning is to use a conditioner that is so heavy that it will weigh your hair down. This is very hydrating (and I say this as someone who has somewhat dry hair) and super lightweight; it feels like nothing is on my hair once I’ve rinsed it out.

As I said, I haven’t used their third treatment step, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness, but I’m not against it. I do, however, use their thickening spray when I style my hair (after my Kerastase thermal protector). I spray about 9 pumps around my scalp where my more problem areas are; work it through a bit and then blow dry my hair. I used to use another thickening spray until I realized it had gluten in it (yes, that’s a thing) so I had to stop using that and I started using this since Nioxin doesn’t contain gluten in any of its products.

I think the Nioxin thickening spray works just as well at adding volume and thickness to my hair as my original, more expensive, salon brand thickening spray. It also has a really light fragrance that I really like along with the hair and scalp restorative properties that the shampoo and conditioner have. And did I mention it’s half the price of the product I was using before? Because it is.

One thing that I love about using this line is that all of the products contain peppermint oil (and believe me, you notice it in there the first couple of times you use the product – but I promise you get used to it) which has been shown to be incredibly effective at helping re-grow hair, even better than well-known chemical treatments but without the extra possible toxins that the chemicals can bring. Plus, it smells really good and it really makes my scalp feel clean after using it.

I will caution, these products take time to work. I’ve been using them for about 5 months now and it was when I had my hair appointment a couple of weeks ago that my stylist actually said, “hey your hair is looking thicker and I see some re-growth”.

But, I do feel like they are actually working. My stylist sees it and I also see it. I can see it in the thickness of my hair, in the little baby hairs I see sprouting (which are partially annoying, but also make me happy), and the overall health of my hair.

Again, I am using this system in conjunction with taking iron and biotin and vitamin D, all things that I’m pretty deficient in; but I am seeing results a lot sooner than I did the last time I went through this and that, I believe, is because of this line.

With anything concerning your health, hair, overall wellness, always check with your doctor (also your hair stylist) before starting new treatments. Both my doctor and my stylist were on board with me trying out this line; they did caution that I do still need to regulate the internal systems but this can help as well.

You all know I don’t share things unless I truly believe in them and this is something I genuinely feel has been incredibly helpful to me in my hair loss journey. This is not sponsored or affiliated, no one is asking me to talk about this in any way; I just really love this and I think if you are someone experiencing hair loss, it might be helpful for you to hear my experience with it.

You can purchase these lines through their website online as well as Ulta.