You can spend hundreds of dollars of beauty products that claim to make your hair look beautiful. These products may claim to help make your hair become thicker, fuller, and shiner. However, the secret to beautiful hair may not be a product. The secret may be in your diet or more specifically the foods you eat.
According to the website Web MD, and dermatologist, Amy McMichael, healthy hair is hair that has a strong follicle and is attached to a healthy scalp. These strong follicles and healthy scalps are created by eating the right nutrients which include:
Protein
Each strand of hair is mostly made of protein. Ninety percent of the time, one’s hair is in the phase known as a growing phase. Each strand of hair will stay in a growing phase from two to three years. Then it will enter a resting phase that will last about three months and then the strands will shed and more hair will regrow.
If the hair isn’t getting enough protein, it may enter the resting phase too soon. This can cause more hair to enter the shedding stage and hair loss can occur.
Iron
The hair needs iron for it to maintain its health. Iron is mostly found in meats. However, it can also be found in fortified cereals, soybeans, pumpkin seeds, and spinach.
While one needs iron, one should also not overlook the importance of vitamin E and the trace minerals selenium, copper, and magnesium in one’s diet, as well. All of these minerals and vitamins can also be found in a multi-vitamin, as well as food.
Vitamin D
Yes, vitamin D is beneficial to our hair. This is the vitamin that comes from both the sun and such dairy products as milk and cheese. However, one does not want to go overboard with their sun exposure because too much sun is also harmful to hair. Too much sun can cause hair to become dry and brittle.
Scientists do not know exactly why the sun is beneficial to the hair. But small amounts of it do seem to make one’s hair a bit more shiny and bouncy.
Hair Supplements
Can hair supplements replace good food choices? No. Simply put supplements should never take the place of eating the right foods. However, there are some days in which it can be hard to eat the foods we need. These are the times when supplements do come in handy
Recommended hair supplements should contain vitamins B, C, D, and E. They should also contain Iron, and the source minerals selenium, copper, and magnesium.
Yes, we are what we eat. Therefore, if we eat the foods that can help us grow beautiful hair; we may actually have beautiful hair.