Eating for Healthy Hair

Welcome readers! Last time we discussed Hair Goals and how essential they are to our hair care routines and our styling choices. Hopefully you have some goals in place and are working towards them.

However you choose to wear your hair, it’s vital that your hair is

Healthy! According to a trichologist P. Kingsley “Healthy hair is hair that grows appropriately out of every follicle and is not easily broken and is connected to a healthy scalp”. So whether you choose to be natural or you choose to relax (or even telex) the thing we All want to aim for healthy hair. I always encourage clients to be natural; however this is not always ideal for some individuals. So rather than judge a personal choice, let’s focus on ensuring we are growing our hair healthily.

This is where FOOD comes in. The nutrients we get from our food affect our scalp making it stronger. Our scalp is important for healthy hair as it surrounds and supports the hair follicle, the birth place of our gorgeous strands. This is not to bore you dear reader but rather to reinforce that however we wear our hair, healthy hair STARTS INSIDE our bodies. There are no shortcuts to anything good so what we eat will affect the health of our hair. Our food choices will either make our strands strong and healthy or weak and prone to breakage.

We will look at three types of nutrients in this edition with more to follow in the coming weeks making small but consistent changes to our diet and lifestyle easier.

1. VITAMIN C

Vitamin C supports tiny blood vessels that are responsible for feeding our follicles. Follicles are the birth place of each hair strand, remember? So we want well-nourished. We can achieve that by eating Kiwi, sweet potato, tomatoes and strawberries. Obviously there are lots more sources of vitamin C but bear in mind that your nails and hair get fed last by the body so the above sources contain more than average amounts.

2. BETA CAROTENE 

This is the stuff that produces oils that sustain your scalp so there is very good reason to include as many of the foods that contain Beta Carotene into our diets as possible.  Remember curly hair (afro hair is Curly) makes it difficult for scalp oils to travel down the strands of hair. (Straight haired individuals suffer from greasy hair if they don’t wash their scalp often because the oils almost slide down the strands). So if our scalps produce insufficient oils then we put our hairs health at risk. Yes we can oil our scalps but the saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure‘. Tuck into Carrots, apricots, cantaloupe, mango and sweet potato.

3.  ZINC

Apparently this mineral has a direct bearing on our skin and scalp health. Lack of zinc can lead to a flaky scalp as well as dry brittle hair. Brittle hair breaks easily so if length is your goal you now have good reason to finally try OYSTERS if you haven’t done so before. Admittedly they are an acquired taste so how does Beef sound to you? Unsalted nuts and eggs are also good sources of zinc

Please do keep in mind this is not a definitive list, we will look at other minerals and vitamins in other articles and you will notice some foods will appear more than one category. This is just an aid to get us started at looking at how our hair benefits from the foods we eat. Ideally eating a variety of these foods regularly and in moderation will over the coming months lead to noticeably healthier hair and skin.

Till the next time happy hair loving.

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AUTHOR: Afrotility

Afrotility is the founder of blieq.com , her focus is on natural hair care and styling. She is Passionate about afro hair in all its different degrees of curliness, and believes that “understanding your hair is the key to enjoying it and loving every single curly strand”. She also insists that “no styling without consultation” should be the new standard.

(Image by A Tribe Called  Curl)