Take a moment and think about the verbiage that accompanies nice hair. Healthy hair. Full hair. This isn’t an accident. While many people don’t think of hair or skin the way you may think about your stomach or your muscles, there are some base similarities. These are systems of your body, and to do what they do best, you need to make sure that you are fueling them properly. This means making sure that you are getting the right nutrients that support hair growth and appearance.
There are more options than the Hair Extension Professionals at Denver’s Elle.B Salon when it comes to supporting your hair. Consider complementing the expertise of the stylists there with your own natural efforts and dietary choices. You’d be surprised what a more balanced and healthy diet can do for your hair, on top of all the other benefits.
You Are What You Eat
Rather than saying you should eat fish or avocados for better hair, it makes more sense to break down the conversation to the nutrients themselves that that do the work. Here are a few things you should make sure you’re getting plenty of if you want the healthiest hair possible:
Protein: Protein has the label of the building block of life, and the same things applies to hair growth and health. Your healthiest sources of protein are going to be lean meats and fish. These are nice because they both have a complete set of proteins as well as other helpful components like iron. However, vegetarians may have a bit of trouble going along without meat. Fear not, as eggs, beans, and legumes can help you get the proteins you need.
Biotin: You may have heard of this option before if you’ve done a little bit of research on your own before reading this. Biotin is a member of the B-vitamin family, and helps promote faster and stronger hair growth. It also is good for the skin. You can get biotin in eggs, nuts, berries and fruits, but you may want to take the supplemental route if you want more of it.
Zinc: Zinc deficiency is actually associated with hair loss. Getting more zinc won’t necessarily mean you’ll grow hair, but you want to make sure that you are getting some levels of it. There are plenty of healthy food sources of zinc out other, including leafy green vegetables, Brazil nuts, and walnuts.
Vitamin A: Vitamin A plays an important role in scalp health, being partially responsible for helping skin glands create sebum, which moisturizes the scalp. Beta-carotene, which is made into vitamin A, can be found in kale, spinach, and sweet potatoes, but you don’t want to go overboard. Too much vitamin A can actually cause hair loss.
Supporting Your Choices
All of these can help, but you can increase your chance of seeing benefits by doing a few other things before you start changing up your diet to try and benefit your hair. One thing you may want to do is go to a dermatologist or even your stylist to really get an idea of what type and texture of hair you have. This is important because we often underestimate exactly how much the type of hair product we use can actually impact our hair health. Different hair requires different approaches. For example, people with oily hair may need to shampoo more than people with dry hair. You wouldn’t want to negate the work your diet puts in by covering it up with a hair product. As a general rule of thumb, try to avoid the harsher ingredient, and don’t always let cost determine what you should get.
The nice thing about taking this approach is that in many ways, it costs less than a hair treatment, not to mention the fact that a better diet literally improves nearly every aspect of your life. Not to mention, the next time you head to a salon, your stylist will be able to do more and get more work out of healthy hair rather than hair that is brittle, dry, or thinning. If you find yourself grappling with this issue and want to get more help, your first stop is going to be a nutritionist. By taking an assessment of your diet, and medical history, they may be able to point out to you where to start first on the nutritional approach to your hair care regimen.