Encouraging hair regrowth, especially after chemotherapy or hair loss due to stress, is easily accomplished as long as you are willing to make a few lifestyle changes. These changes include taking supplements that encourage you to grow healthy hair as well as staying away from hairstyling and coloring practices that can seriously damage your hair.
Eat a Lot of Protein
Your hair is made of protein so you need to consume a lot of protein to grow thick, lustrous locks. Your best sources of protein are nuts, seafood, whole grains and milk. However your most perfect source is an egg. Egg yolks are rich sources of all the B vitamins including biotin.
A good way to get extra protein is to eat quinoa which is a whole grain that has as much protein in it as meat. You can also add a whey protein powder to milk too double up on your protein intake.
In order for your body to create protein your diet needs to include amino acids. This happens if you are eating a healthy diet that is low in fat and high in fiber and if it includes vegetables and fruit.
Take Vitamin Supplements If Necessary
If you are eating organically and well and not seeing improvements in your hair growth it might be time for you to take vitamin supplements for hair health. Keep in mind that vitamins are not always easily absorbed by the body. Most people only absorb five to ten percent of the minerals they take as a supplement.
The vitamins that encourage hair growth are A, C, E, all of the B’s, D and E. You should also look for supplements such as MSM (organic sulfur), zinc, copper and silica.
Buying all of these supplements individually would cost at least a couple of hundred dollars so look for good multi-vitamin supplements and hair growth supplements that have been designed specifically to encourage hair growth. A great hair formula will include omega 3 oils, silica, magnesium, sulfur, zinc and selenium. Make sure that there is some kind of protein included in the formula as your body will not absorb vitamins
Most quality hair supplements also include amino acids; they are the building blocks of protein. Supplement formulas that contain MSM are also good because studies have shown that it helps to prolong the anagen phase of hair growth.
Green Tea Helps Grow Hair
Many people are reporting great success drinking green tea to encourage hair growth. You can mix it up as a powder or you can take the extract. Taking the extract may be more effective if your goal is weight loss. Also the extracts often have less caffeine. Many green tea extracts have incredibly high amounts that can make you jittery or anxious. Being caffeine-free is a good thing because it can prevent your hair from falling out.
The magic ingredients in green tea extract are catch tins: namely pigallocatechin-3-gallate and epicatechin-3-gallate. These two ingredients are hormones that also function as powerful anti-oxidants. They really are facilitators of faster growing hair.
Eat Grape Seeds and White Pine Extract
It might sound bizarre to suggest that you eat grape seeds and white pine extract but this is a newer oral hair treatment for new growth that is getting rave reviews from those who have tried it. This sounds like an old remedy for hair growth but it is actually quite new. That is because in recent years it has been discovered that both contain proanthocyanidins and procyanidins. These are potent flavanoids that fight aging, disease and encourage hair growth.
They also fight any hormonal action in your body that might be sabotaging your hair growth efforts.
Massage Your Scalp Frequently
Hair grows in a faster and healthier manner if you have good blood circulation. You can massage your scalp using your fingertips. It also helps to massage your scalp oils such as coconut oil, argan oil or burdock root oil. These substances encourage hair growth and also help to heal and clarify the hair follicles.
You can also get Indian hair oils made from pressed botanicals that do wonders for the scalp and hair. The herbs in these solutions help stimulate the scalp.
Massaging your scalp is all about increasing blood flow to your hair follicles. If you gave yourself a scalp massage just three times a week the health of your scalp would be substantially improved. If you did it every day it is possible you could work miracles on your hair.
Use Healthy Organic Vitamin Rich Products
Make sure that the shampoos and conditioners that you use on your scalp and head are healthy ones. Make sure they do not contain any toxic colorants or lather producing chemicals that can actually make your hair fall out!
Ingredients that you should look for in hair products include MSM, argan oil, coconut oil, copper, nettle, green tea extract, avocado oil, oat extract, saw palmetto, aloe vera, grapeseed extract, biotin, pantothetic acid, CoQ10, burdock root, gingko biloba, pine extract and vitamin E.
Make sure that you avoid products that contain silicone. Silicone is a particularly harsh ingredient for Afro-American hair. Silicone initially seems to smooth the hair and straighten it out but over time it dehydrates it so it dries right out.
Instead of silicone or other damaging ingredients that are only a temporary, cosmetic solution (often not lasting even a day) to making hair look smoother or shinier, attractive hair is encouraged by those use of natural oils such as wheat germ, jojoba and argan oil.
The reason that these oils are so effective at making hair grow faster is that they help develop the tensile strength of the hair strand so that it does not break off. These oils are also loaded with omega 3 oils that help support the faster growth of hair by prolonging the growth phase. The other benefit of using oils like this is that they help clear cellular build up in the hair follicles that might be blocking new hairs from taking root.
A lot of the advice in this article is common sense and has been proved for decades to help hair grow. Stay traditional and make sure that you keep eating a healthy diet and that you do not stress out your hair with unnecessary abuse in the name and beauty and you should be boasting a gorgeous head of hair in no time
