As a health professional, I must mention that hair products and creams alone won’t make your hair healthy.
We are what we eat, so, we can see by the state of our hair if our as our nutritional intake is adequate or not.
A hair with low nutritional intake will be reflected by fair amounts of hair loss, dull, large breakage and weak. There is also evidence that a poor diet can influence the appearance of grey hair.
Healthy Hair
The importance of a nutritionally adequate diet promotes growth and hair health.
A healthy hair grows about 1,25 cm per month and 15 cm per year. The growth rate depends on factors such as age, health, genetics and diet.
Hair is as strong as an iron wire. A hair strand breaks if applied a force equivalent to 60 kg after having stretched about 70%.
Chemistry
Hair is mostly made up of protein (65%-88%), lipids (1%-9%), other elements in smaller amounts, polysaccharides and water.
The composition of a normal healthy hair is 45.2% carbon, 27.9% oxygen, 6.6% hydrogen, 15.1% nitrogen and 5.2% sulfur.
Keratin is an important insoluble protein and consists of 18 amino acids. It may be denatured with water vapor (to straighten hair for example). The most abundant amino acid is cysteine which has the property of providing hair strength.
Amino acids present in Hair:
| Cysteine | Aspartic Acid |
| Serine | Alanine |
| Glutamic Acid | Proline |
| Threonine | Isoleucine |
| Glycine | Tyrosine |
| Leucine | Phenylalanine |
| Valine | Histidine |
| Arginine | Methionine |
For this reason, the best vitamins for hair are those who have amino acid sources like keratin, melanin and protein.
Why do I need to have a good diet to have healthy hair?
A bad diet will undoubtedly contribute to problems in your health and hair.
To have a completely healthy hair, you need to feed it appropriately.
The most important thing is to eat food with all the macro nutrients necessary for your body, so, stop eating processed food, choosing high protein sources, vegetables, fruit and nutritious fat sources.
PROTEIN
Hair is composed of protein, so you should be certain that protein is present in your diet. This is the most important nutrient in order to have a strong and healthy hair.
If there’s not enough protein intake, your hair is likely to stay dry, dull and weak.
Diets with extreme lack of protein leads to hair loss. Nowadays it is very easy to have lack of protein on our diet, because most of our foods are focused on carbohydrates and fat. Protein deficiencies in diets lead to a modification of the hair structure, being very obvious on a microscope due to the presence of very thin hairs.
TIP: Always choose to put on your plate food with high protein in its composition, such as chicken, turkey, fish, red meat, eggs. For vegetarians you might choose tofu, seitan, lentils, etc.
IRON
Iron is an important mineral for your hair and if you have it in small amounts it might lead to anaemia and therefore hair loss. When there is anaemia, it is more difficult to transport nutrients from the blood to the hair, thus leading to loss and disruption of the hair cycle.
TIP: Animal products like red meat, chicken, fish have large amounts of iron. Vegetarians can opt for lentils, spinach, broccoli, and other vegetables.
VITAMIN C
Vitamin C helps in absorption of iron, so it is important to have this vitamin present in food. This vitamin also helps in the production of collagen which is important for hair health.
TIP: You can find Vitamin C in oranges, kiwis, papaya, blueberries, broccoli, strawberries, etc.
OMEGA-3
These fatty acids are very important for our organism. Our body can’t produce it and therefore it must be obtained from our diet. Omega-3 helps the hair nutrition and production of natural hair oils.
TIP: Can be found in fish like salmon, sardines, trout or avocados, pumpkin seeds and nuts.
VITAMIN A
Vitamin A is needed by our body to produce sebum. Sebum is an oily substance created by our sebaceous glands. It behaves like a natural conditioner for our hair, thus leading to a healthy scalp. Without sebum, we can feel an itchy and dry scalp.
TIP: You can find this vitamin in animal products and orange/yellow vegetables, which are high in beta carotene (who produce vitamin A) such as carrots, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
PHYSICAL EXERCISE
People who exercise regularly are less likely to have weak and brittle hair.
This is because physical activity helps to improve digestion and boost metabolism, allowing proteins to be synthesized easier in the organism. Aerobic exercises (run, swimming, gymnasium) are ideal to reduce and cope with stress, a major cause of hair loss.
Exercise releases endorphins that will affect the production of melanin, preventing the appearance of grey hair. This also has the advantage of regulating the hormones in your body, since they are responsible for the growth and synthesis of many proteins.
To conclude…
There are many factors that we can control to get the best health of our hair. Having a healthy lifestyle, a good nutritional intake and physical activity are the best way to prevent weak hair and lose their natural colour.
The synthesis of keratin in hair is regulated by many different elements, such as hormones, vitamins, metabolic and genetic factors.
Here the aim is to look at it holistically analysing all natural ways to prevent hair loss and grey hair.
Eating a balanced diet with the right nutrients can help promote hair growth, especially if you’re experiencing hair loss due to poor nutrition.