Stimulating Hair Growth

When people start to lose their hair, many of them react in different ways. Some of us just ignore it, and let Mother Nature get to work. Others tend to panic and look for ways to stop hair loss before it gets worse. These days, many of us would prefer to keep our hair for as long as possible, and there are a few things we can do to accomplish this task. What it all boils down to is how you treat your hair, and what you put in your body.
External
Physical activity is a great way to keep your body healthy, and surprisingly enough, it can also benefit your hair. There are a few things you can do to help keep your hair healthy, and to promote hair growth, that don’t require a lot of physical labor. Plus, there are a few things you may want to avoid when looking for hair loss treatments.
Physical Exercise – This activity is almost a given. Everyone benefits from a little physical exercise, be it going for a jog or pumping iron. A little known secret about keeping your hair growing and healthy is blood circulation in the scalp, and what does exercise do? It gets your blood pumping all over the body! If your main focus is blood circulation of the scalp, read on.
Manually stimulate your scalp – Aside from blood circulation being increased via exercise, stimulating your scalp doesn’t require you to break a sweat. Basically, give yourself a nice little deep-tissue head massage. Be sure to focus on the areas around the hair line and the crown, as those are usually the first places to go. If you really want to jazz it up, some people suggest using a few drops of olive oil with your scalp massage, and then really working it in there. Just don’t be too aggressive, or you could up root your hair follicles. If you use olive oil, you may want to stay indoors for a while—things could get a little messy.
Avoid styling your hair too often – Yes, we all love to get dolled up. Who hasn’t straightened their hair “just to see how it looks”? Put your hand down, we all have. However, doing this a lot will cause some major hair damage with all that heat application. Not to mention using gooey gels and smelly sprays to obtain that cool hairdo. The myth about your hair needing to breathe has been debunked, but you’re still introducing a lot of foreign chemicals to your hair and scalp.
Shampoo – Keeping your hair clean is of course necessary for having healthy hair. However, not all shampoos are free of harmful chemicals. Many of them contain ingredients like sulfates and paraben that damage hair. If you want to promote hair growth, and keep your scalp healthy, look into shampoos made with saw palmetto extract and natural oils such as emu and jojoba.
Internal
It may not surprise you that what you put in your body has an effect on it. After all, the body absorbs whatever it can in terms of nutrients from everything you eat. Once metabolized and stored, these nutrients will directly affect everything from your immune system to your hair. So, if you are thinking of trying out a new diet, or wondering what to eat to stimulate hair growth, we have a few suggestions for you to try.
Vitamins – Many of us don’t get enough vitamins, and although not overly detrimental to one’s health, not enough vitamins will give us a lack of nutrients, and a lack of nutrients can cause a lack of hair.
Vitamin C – Found in citrus fruits like oranges and lemons, vitamin C is necessary for healthy hair. Increasing your intake of vitamin C will help your body absorb iron, a nutrient essential for increasing hair growth and reducing hair loss. In addition, vitamin c helps to build up collagen, a major structural protein that surrounds hair follicles, keeping them strong and healthy.
Vitamin B – The B vitamin group does a lot more than play a role in cell metabolism. Blood circulation is a large part of hair loss; we need something to keep the cells in the scalp active. Vitamin B3 is widely known for its promotion of blood circulation in the scalp to prevent hair loss. Moreover, a vitamin like B6 can help stop the conversion of testosterone to DHT, a hormone that causes major hair loss.
Hormones – Oh boy, do these cause some problems, and more than just feeling all “icky” in our teen years. An imbalance of hormones can be a huge factor of hair loss for men and women. Hormones influence hair growth, and their production slows down as we age. However, there are a few things we can do to take care of that.
Increase your intake – It’s a common act for men and women to ingest hormone supplements for a variety of reasons. One of these is hair loss. For women, many of them take prenatal vitamins when expecting, and some increase their estrogen during menopause to balance things out. However, if you’re a lady, and not a fan of vitamins, you can eat some wild yam or have a soy protein shake.
Reduce DHT – Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is a major culprit of hair loss in men and women. Over time, the body converts testosterone into DHT, and this abundance tends to build up around hair follicles, ultimately suffocating them. Your best bet is to either take some DHT blockers, or use some shampoo that inhibits DHT absorption in the skin.
Liquids – We all need to drink liquids to keep our body lubricated and functioning. Water makes up about 60% of water in the body, so it’s clearly a big factor in keeping healthy. The suggested amount of water is 4-8 cups a day to keep regularly hydrated, more if you like salty snacks. If you like to have an occasional alcoholic beverage, you definitely want to increase your water intake to avoid a hangover. Additionally, alcohol increases body fat and hair loss in tiny ways that are unnoticeable until it becomes a problem.
These are just a few of the ways you can stimulate hair growth and avoid major hair loss. We will always reap what we sow, whether we do something to our hair or put something in it. The best thing you can do is keep your scalp stimulated and clean, and keep an eye on what you eat and drink. Just remember that hair loss isn’t the end of the world, but you can promote hair growth by treating your hair right.