Skillful Hair Combing: Avoiding Hair Loss Worries
Combing hair is not only important for grooming appearance but also closely related to physical health.
Traditional Chinese medicine holds that the twelve meridians converge at the head. These meridians regulate blood and qi flow, nourish the entire body, resist external pathogens, and connect internal and external systems. Since hair is the glory of the kidneys and the luster of blood, hair growth, shedding, moisture, and dryness relate directly to kidney health and blood qi vitality. Observing hair can roughly indicate one’s overall health.
Using a comb to stroke hair passes through key acupoints such as Baihui, Taiyang, Yuzhen, and Fengchi, helping to unblock blood vessels, promote smooth qi and blood circulation, improve microcirculation at hair follicles, regulate brain function, and enhance nutrient supply to brain cells. Long-term practice can delay aging. Some say combing hair is a form of brain massage—this is reasonable.
Regular combing nourishes the scalp, prevents and treats hair loss, and some even report gray hair turning black. It also clears the mind, sharpens hearing and vision, relieves headaches, and eliminates fatigue from overthinking. With numerous acupoints and sensitive zones on the head, repeated stimulation from the comb helps unblock meridians, balance qi and blood, thus offering preventive and therapeutic benefits for migraines, eye disorders, and insomnia.
Three-times-a-day combing is easy to follow but requires consistency. After waking up, using the toilet, and brushing teeth, spend 10 minutes combing hair. Stroke front to back, left to right, from forehead to neck. Start gently, gradually increase pressure and speed. Close eyes, calm the mind, focus solely on combing. The scalp may feel slightly numb or tender, then pleasantly relaxed. After combing, rub your face, pull ears, and massage your neck to ensure full blood circulation throughout the head.
After lunch, spend another 5 minutes combing hair using the same method (no need to rub face, pull ears, or massage neck again). Reinvigorate blood flow in the head.
Before bedtime, spend another 10 minutes combing hair using the above method—including rubbing face, pulling ears, and massaging neck—to provide stronger stimulation and activation of head acupoints. However, nighttime combing should be slower and gentler. Keep eyes closed, release all worries, treating it as a pre-sleep head massage to improve sleep quality.