Following a well-balanced diet that contains all of the essential
vitamins and other nutrients can help improve hair growth and maintain hair
health.
In this article, we will tell
you about the role of diet, especially vitamins, to strengthen hair and prevent
hair loss.
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| The best vitamins for hair growth and thickness |
The 8 Best Vitamins & Supplements for Hair Growth (+3 Other Nutrients)
Hair Growth and Thickness
Hair grows
at an average of 1.27 centimeters a month, and about 15 centimeters a year.
The speed of
hair growth may depend on many factors, including: age, hormonal changes,
undernutrition, medications, stress, family history, and general health.
Science has
discovered little information about how to control hair growth, but it is not
enough to know how to accelerate hair growth directly.
It is worth
noting that most of the factors are beyond the daily control, however,
following a healthy diet and drinking sufficient quantities of fluids is the
best step that can be taken to strengthen hair and prevent hair loss.
Just as diet
plays an important role in the health of the body, it also plays an important
role in the health of hair.
Hair needs a
healthy, balanced, and integrated diet in order to be in good health.
Healthy hair
is defined as the hair that grows naturally from all follicles from a healthy
scalp and is not easily breakable.
A healthy
scalp generally contains around 120,000-150000 hairs, of which about 50-100
hairs fall daily naturally, but when the hair falls out in large quantities,
this hair fall becomes noticeable.
A healthy
diet is important to keep hair healthy and strong and prevent it from falling
off, and the lack of nutrients affects hair health.
The 8 Best Vitamins for Hair Growth and
Thickness
In general,
hair to be healthy needs all the components of a healthy, balanced diet
necessary for a healthy body, which includes all vitamins.
Here is the
list of 8 most important vitamins for hair growth and thickness.
1. Vitamin
A: As all tissues
need this vitamin for growth, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human
body, and it also helps the skin glands to make sebum; It is an oily substance
that moisturizes the scalp and helps to maintain its health.
A
low-vitamin diet may cause many problems, including: Hair loss, so it is
important to get enough of this vitamin, but large amounts of it can be
dangerous and contribute to hair loss. A sufficient amount of vitamin A is the best female hair loss treatment.
2. Vitamin
B6: It is a vitamin
that is widespread in many food sources, such as meat, poultry, fish, potatoes,
and some other vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, tomato juice, and some
non-acidic fruits, such as bananas, watermelons, and plum juice, in addition to
legumes, and grains fortified with vitamin B6 such as fortified bread, soy
products, and nuts.
3. Vitamin
B12: It is found in
animal sources only, such as meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese/eggs, in
addition to fortified soy milk.
Vitamin B12
is damaged by exposure to microwave radiation, and therefore it is necessary to
avoid heating its food sources using a microwave to preserve its content from
it.
4. Biotin: Biotin is important for healthy
hair, and its deficiency causes hair loss.
Among the
most important nutritional sources for internal organs are egg yolks, soybeans,
fish and whole grains.
5. Folic
acid (folate): It is
found in vegetables and legumes, especially in green leafy vegetables,
especially spinach, asparagus, and broccoli.
It can also
be obtained from fortified cereal products (such as fortified bread and flour),
orange juice, and whole wheat bread, as well as liver and seeds.
6. Vitamin
C: This vitamin is
one of the powerful antioxidants that help prevent oxidative stress caused by
free radicals, and whose accumulation may cause hair growth.
Vitamin C
also goes into collagen formation; which is considered an important part in the
structure of hair, in addition, this vitamin helps to absorb the iron necessary
for hair growth.
7. Vitamin
E: As this vitamin
is also necessary for healthy hair, this vitamin can be obtained from many
nutritional sources, especially vegetable oils.
Wheat germ
oil is distinguished by its content of this vitamin, but it must be taken into
account that this vitamin is easily damaged by heat and oxidation.
8. Vitamin
D: Some studies
suggest a role for vitamin D in the hair growth cycle, but this role needs more
scientific research to clarify it.
Vitamin D
can be obtained by exposure to sunlight for a sufficient period. It can also be
obtained from some foods (but not usually in sufficient quantities) such as
milk, juice, fortified grains, and fatty fish like salmon and sardines, in
addition to fish liver oil, which is considered the richest food source.
You can Include Hair Growth Supplements in Your Diet for
Healthy Hair
Hair growth
supplements provide nutrients that your body lacks. Although vitamins are
important to healthy hair, taking nutritional supplements for hair is not
necessary, and it is best to eat a varied and balanced diet that ensures the
body gets all of its nutritional needs.
Perhaps the
greatest evidence of the importance of a healthy diet for hair health is the
loss of hair that affects people when they lose weight quickly after following
a strict diet that is very low in calories, and often these diets do not secure
the needs of the body from all the nutrients it needs, and therefore hair loss
occurs.
In cases of
following a healthy diet for losing weight, although hair loss can occur after
losing 7 kilograms of body weight or more, then hair health can be restored if
the general health is good.
But taking
nutritional supplements can lead to an improvement in hair growth, especially
in the absence of a balanced and healthy diet.
Other Nutrients That may be Important for Hair Growth
Protein: at any time by 90% of the hair in
the case of growth, as it continues on this case for a period of 2-3 years,
after which then enters the resting phase, which lasts for a period of
approximately 3 months before falling.
In the phase
that the food diet does not contain an adequate amount of protein, the
percentage of hair that enters the resting stage may become larger, which
negatively affects the health of the hair.
Omega-3
fatty acids: They
are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and sardines, and in flaxseeds,
almonds, and nuts.
Minerals and more: Hair also
needs iron, whose deficiency can cause hair loss, in addition to many
minor mineral elements, such as selenium, whose deficiency causes
brittle hair and nails, and copper and magnesium and zinc, whose
deficiency causes hair loss as well.