Hair Care Vitamins

Get Vibrant Healthy Hair through
Good Nutrition

Your hair and its health and appearance are a good indication of the overall health of your body. Dull, lifeless hair indicates you are not getting the hair care vitamins and nutrients that your body needs.

Hair Facts

Your hair is an extension of your skin and contains the same pigment cells.

Except for the palms, soles, and mucous membranes, hair is found over the entire skin surface. What most of us are concerned about is the hair on the head. Whether we have it or not and how long and healthy it is.

Hair is one of the fastest growing tissues in the body. Around 100 feet of hair is produced every day on the average persons scalp. This seems like a lot but there are around 100,000 hairs on your head. You can lose around 50% of this hair before anyone will start to notice.

Baldness

Hair loss affects about 35 million men and 21 million women in the United States alone. 40% of men have noticeable hair loss by age 35 and 65% by age 60.

Baldness is largely a genetic thing and neither diet not hair care vitamins will keep you from losing hair if you are genetically programmed to go bald.

However, Proper nutrition and specific hair care vitamins can help you maintain stronger, healthier hair and keep you from losing hair to environmental causes such as stress. It can make your hair thicker and more resilient. This can help you look like you have more hair and help to cover up the fact that your hair might be thinning due to genetic factors.

Hair grows in cycles. About 90% of hair is in the active growing phase and the other 10 percent is in the resting stage. The resting phase lasts three to six months, and then the hair goes into the active phase and starts growing.

During the resting phase, the attachment between the hair and the shaft weakens and the hair falls out. So, with about 100,000 hairs on a human head, it is normal for about 100 hairs to fall out daily. Most grow back; if more fall out than grow back, of course you become bald.

Unfortunately, once a hair follicle dies, it can not be resurrected. But we CAN nourish the hair. Research has created healthy treatment for our scalp.

Hair Killers

Drugs, alcohol, smoking and other stimulants create damage to your body's cells including the cells that grow hair. Chemical abuse reduces nourishment flow to the hair follicle.

We want healthy blood circulation with correct nutrient balance. Hair follicles extend deep into the dermis, thus they can benefit from a supply of blood. Your blood carries all the good or bad little soldiers that help or harm your hair.

Regularity reduces the bodies' toxic burden. Keeping the body clean, inside and out benefits the entire body. Exercise and good circulation, sends oxygen and nutrients to the hair follicles.

Stress reduces the circulation to the hair and body.

A high-fat diet and excessive body-weight also reduces peripheral circulation. Fat changes the shape of the red blood cells.

Hair Care Products

The Good

Finding a shampoo and conditioner that does not cause damage or breakage to the hair shaft is important. These products do make a difference.

To support an optimal environment for healthy-looking hair, the whole range of stresses faced by the scalp must be addressed.

Every head of hair needs gentle cleansing, restorative conditioning, and protection against damage. A hair care system should provide the vitamins and minerals your hair and scalp need without a lot of toxins that do more damage.

The scalp needs to be nourished and normalized in order for your hair to look and feel fantastic no matter what the weather is doing. With the right hair care vitamins and hair care products you can have healthy looking hair that is full and thick and lives up to its potential.

The Bad

While getting the right hair care vitamins into your body and on your scalp is important, it is just as important NOT to add bad things into the mix.

Leaving things out of hair care products is a good thing. Here is a list of some of the bad stuff you want to avoid -

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS)
• Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES)
• Cocamide DEA
• Lauramide DEA
• Occlusive oils
• Propylene Glycol
• Quaternium 15
• "Formaldehyde donor" preservatives (such as Imidazolidinyl Urea or Diazolidinyl Urea)
• Colors or dyes
• Excessive heat (from things like blow driers)
• Toxins and/or pollutants in the water

Taking care of your overall nutrition and picking smart hair care products can do wonders for making your hair the thickest, strongest, healthiest and most beautiful it has ever been.

Hair Care and Supplementation

To have healthy hair you must have a healthy body. Some of the vitamins and supplements that are specific to hair care are listed below. A good overall healthy diet will provide your body and your hair ample nutrition.

Good hair products are essential, but they are really less than half the battle. Proper nutrition and starting the hair off right is extremely important. Protein is a major ingredient of hair, at least ninety per cent. Protein improves the growth of each hair. So be sure you are getting enough. Besides meat, soy protein can also help improve hair health.

A word of caution – most people, even those who watch their food intake closely, cannot get all the required nutrition they need with the foods that we eat. Supplementation has become almost a necessity in today's world of processed, fast food.

• Vitamin A - Antioxidant that helps produce healthy sebum in the scalp.
• Vitamin C - Antioxidant that helps maintain skin & hair health.
• Vitamin E - Antioxidant that enhances scalp circulation.
• B-complex - which includes
  • Biotin - Helps produce keratin, may prevent graying and hair loss.
  • Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5) - Prevents graying and hair loss.
  • Vitamin B6 - Prevents hair loss, helps create melanin, which gives hair its color.
  • Vitamin B12 - Prevents hair loss.
• Omega 3 essential fatty acids will increase the sheen of the hair. This is a good beginning to good hair health.

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