Introduction

Healthy hair is everybody’s desire. It doesn’t matter if your hair is curly, wavy, or straight. What matters is if it’s thick, frizz-free, bouncy, and elastic. Your overall appearance could be up a notch with that. Healthy hair is effortful! Your hair not just reflects exposure to external factors such as pollution, sunlight, moisturization, chemical treatments, and more. It speaks a lot about the internal contributors such as your diet, water intake, exercise, stress levels, hormonal imbalance, other physical illnesses, and medications. If you are trying to attain healthy hair, it should begin by assessing both internal and external contributing factors. Here, we deep-dive into what dietary inclusions and changes can bring back healthy hair.

The right diet for your hair should include proteins, vitamins, and minerals. Regular intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, and fish can help meet this. Nutritional deficiency can cause hair loss, thinning, premature greying and breakage. In order to prevent or reverse these conditions, the right kind of food that targets hair growth is essential. Understanding your hair and what nutrients they are deficient in, is the first step.

Vitamins

Vitamins help in preventing hair thinning and hair shedding. Essential vitamins that you must include in your diet on a daily basis are

Vitamin A

The sebum produced by sabaceous or oil-producing glands are essential to keep the hair smooth. It acts as a natural hair conditioner and protects the scalp. Itchy and dry scalp is a result of vitamin A deficiency. Foods such as sweet potato, spinach, carrots and pumpkins contain beta carotene, a component of vitamin A, which repairs fragile hair.

Vitamin B

Biotin is an important B vitamin that helps stimulate hair growth. It helps in the production of healthy red blood cells. Yoghurt, wheat, egg, banana, cauliflower, almonds, tomatoes, spinach, milk, cheese and others contain vitamin B. Atleast 10 milli grams of biotin must be consumed on a daily basis.

Vitamin C

The C vitamin plays multiple roles in the rejuvenation of hair follicles. It contains amino acids that promotes hair growth, it synthesises collagen, and also helps in better absorption of iron in the body. Most citrus fruits such as oranges and lemon and others like gooseberry, red cabbage, bell peppers contain Vitamin C. It also helps keep the hair in the growth phase (anagen) for a longer period and hence promotes hair growth.

Vitamin D and Vitamin E

Vitamin D helps in the growth of new hair follicles and vitamin E helps with better blood circulation to the scalp. Fish liver oils, salmon, fatty fish and animal fats are great in vitamin D. Nuts, green leafy vegetables, olive oil, almonds, sunflower seeds, peanuts and beets are Vitamin E rich food items.

Proteins

Keratin is the most commonly found protein in the hair. This helps the hair to maintain a smooth and silky texture. Hair deficient in protein will look sry, frizzy and brittle. Adequate amount of protein intake is essential to promote regular hair growth. Severe protein deficiency could result in hair loss. Protein rich diet that includes chicken, turkey, eggs, diary products, legumes, nuts, sweet potato, salmon and others is recommended. A combination of Biotin (Vitamin B7) and proteins can stimulate keratin production and ensure healthy hair follicles are formed.

Iron

Individuals who are aneamic are at a higher risk of hair loss. Iron is an important mineral that helps in the formation of heamoglobin which carries oxygen to the cells. Low iron levels can hamper enough oxygen supply to the hair follicles. This disrupts the hair growth cycles and leads to hair loss. Red meat, chicken and fish are great animal products for iron consumption. Spinach, lentils, oats, dried fruits, broccoli, kiwi and others are rich in iron.

Zinc

A deficiency of zinc in the body can lead to male and female pattern baldness, and alopecia. Zinc is an essential mineral that helps in healing weak hair follicles. Zinc helps in the production of keratinocytes which increases keratin of the hair. Zinc can be found in food items such as lobsters, crabs, walnuts, almonds, peanuts, beans and diary products. A nutritious diet is just as important as catering to the hair with external care. Ensuring that enough vitamins and nutrients are supplied to the hair follicles helps with hair regrowth. It would be a great to identify what nutrients you are deficient in and ensure a higher intake of the same. Age, genetics, lifestyle and stress also play a major role. A dermatologist can help with identifying the root cause and suggesting the right dietary and treatment plan.