Vitamins for hair growth

The causes of hair loss or hair thinning go beyond genetics, for both men and women. In addition to the genes you inherit, your hair’s health can be affected by a number of factors including age, stress level, taking certain medications, hormones and nutritional deficiencies. Your hair type and over-styling your mane can also lead to hair loss.

One of the best hair loss solutions is to take a supplement for hair growth. To improve your hair health, look for a supplement that includes the following top vitamins and nutrients for your hair:

  1. Vitamin B7 (biotin)
  2. Vitamin B12
  3. Zinc
  4. Vitamin C
  5. Vitamin A

Hair growth 411

Everyone is born with 1 million hair follicles on our head with about 100,000 of those specifically on our scalp. As we go from childhood to adulthood and our scalp expands, most people notice the density of their hair reduces as the follicles spread out.

Each hair follicle goes through a growth life cycle, and not all follicles are in the same stage at the same time. The hair growth phases are:

  • Anagen (growing phase) – This phase is when new hair is growing, and usually lasts two to seven years.
  • Catagen (transition phase) – Your hair stops growing during this phase and the hair follicle decreases in size. About 3% of your hair at any given time is in this phase, which typically lasts 10 days up to two weeks.
  • Telogen (resting phase) – While the old hair is resting, new hair is beginning the growing phase. This phase is usually 90-100 days.

On average, we lose 50-150 hairs per day. As we age, though, the anagen phase decreases and your hair can start to become thinner and weaker with every growth cycle. Having a healthy diet is more important than ever so that your body is fueled with all the proper vitamins and nutrients to promote healthy hair growth. If your diet consists of a lot of fast food, fried foods or sugars, you’re depriving your body of several vitamins and nutrients your body needs.

Promote hair health from within

There are a several options for you to deal with hair loss. These range from the simple like buying the right grooming tools – brushes, combs, shampoos – to the most serious option of them all: hair transplant surgery.

But one of the best options (and something everyone can do) is ensuring you fuel from within. This means giving your body the proper nutrients to support healthy skin and hair. In particular, there are several vitamins that you should be sure to load up on if you’re dealing with hair loss.  While a well-rounded diet is vital, it’s often best complemented with an all-natural supplement that contains vitamins and minerals. But which vitamins should you look for in particular to help with hair loss?

Vitamin B7 aka Biotin – If you’ve read anything on natural treatments for hair loss, you’ve surely come across biotin. Biotin is a water-soluble vitamin that is part of the vitamin B family. Your body needs biotin to help convert carbs, fats and proteins into energy. It also plays a role in maintaining the health of your hair, skin and nails. A biotin deficiency, though rare, can cause hair loss and thinning on the head and body.

Vitamin B12 – This vitamin helps with red blood cell production, which in turn boosts hair growth. Common food sources containing vitamin B12 are proteins such as eggs and meat, milk and shellfish.

Zinc – OK, technically not a vitamin, but this essential trace element (yes, it’s a metal) helps our body perform important functions every day. From hormone production to facilitating digestion, zinc plays a role. When it comes to hair loss, zinc has an impact by ensuring hormonal balance. Weight gain/loss, digestive problems and hair loss can be signs you need more zinc in your diet.

Vitamin C – Taking vitamin C for hair loss is a good idea because this water-soluble vitamin is necessary to make collagen and has been shown to regenerate antioxidants within the body. As we get older, our body tends to produce more free radicals that can damage cellular structures and cause hair to age (read: gray hair). Vitamin C works to combat this.

Vitamin A – Immune function. Vision. Reproduction. Cell growth. Vitamin A is involved in all of this. It repairs your hair and helps to keep the scalp from drying out by producing sebum. Like vitamin C, vitamin A is an antioxidant that helps fight off free radicals in the body that can damage hair.