Showing posts with label vit d hair growth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vit d hair growth. Show all posts

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Best Products for Hair Growth: Biotin, Vitamins and Folic Acid for Longer Hair


Many myths exist surrounding hair growth. The truth is there we are born with as many hair follicles as we will ever have. Nothing can add more or reduce that number and you CANNOT generate new ones. When you were smaller, you may think you had more hair because your scalp had not fully grown so the density of that finite number of follicles made your hair appear thicker, but it was only perception.

Hair grows on average about half an inch each month. Each hair follicle will only produce about 20 hairs in a lifetime. The completion of a lifecyle of hair is 2- 8 years. So, even if you are cutting one of those hairs it is still growing from underneath the scalp. The cycle is such that at any one time about 90% of the hair on your scalp is in the growing phase. You might all notice that in pregnancy your hair appears thicker - it's not that you're actually growing more, but the hormones of pregnancy influence the hair follicle to extend it's growth cycle such that you are losing less. Then, after you give birth the body sheds the hair more quickly, losing what you really would have to make up for the hormonal influence.

What you eat will influence how your hair looks. Hair is also made up of 5% water so it is important that you keep hydrated with 8 glasses of water a day for beautiful locks. Below is a list of Vitamins and supplement that can also improve hair growth.

1. BIOTIN
Many experts recommend Biotin - it is probably the number one supplement that is mentioned and used for hair growth. I like it because it is water soluble which means that your body will get rid of whatever is not needed by excreting it. The other reason I like it is that you can find it in drugstores for not a lot of money.

Biotin is a B complex and the most significant food sources for it include peanuts, carrots, egg yolks, fish and cauliflower. You can also find it in pork, raspberries, and whole wheat bread.

Try: Biotin Dietary Supplement Tablets from Walgreens or Costco for about 15 cents a tab.

2. FOLIC ACID - WARNING 
You may be thinking to yourself that if your hair looked great pregnant why not just take a prenatal vitamin every day. This is tricky because remember it was the hormones that are most responsible for those thick locks.

A much more compelling reason not to take prenatal vitamins is new research linking breast cancer with supplemental folic acid. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition women who take supplemental folic acid increase their breast cancer risk by 20-30%.

Prenatal vitamins also contain more iron than most of us need if not pregnant. The danger is that even mild iron toxicity can increase your risk for a heart attack, diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver according to the Iron Disorders Institute.

This is why even with natural supplements and such we really need to research what we take and get the advice of our physicians before adding vitamins or supplements to our daily routine.

3. Vitamin D
It seems that the sunshine vitamin may also play a role in our hair health!  Besides helping to keep your bones and skin healthy, researchers at Harvard have shown that Vitamin D may play a role in waking up hair follicles that have been dormant. In fact, the research on this long time vitamin is exploding as it may be responsible for turning on the genes for hundreds of other diseases. 

I live in Arizona where the sun shines almost EVERY DAY and for that reason I wear sunscreen EVERY DAY. Statistics show that over 1 billion people in the world are Vit D deficient.  It is very hard to get enough vitamin D through natural sun exposure if you are wearing sunscreen so I take a low dose supplement just to be safe.

4. VIVISCAL
My girlfriend swears by this Scandinavian over the counter hair product. It has become highly hyped for the reason that it works for many people. It has a few ingredients you might be skeptical of like Shark Powder and Horsetail Extract along with Vitamin C and a fish protein. It does contains Biotin, but in such a small amount that many people will add a Biotin supplement along with Viviscal.

5. HAIR EXTENSIONS
Of course the fastest way to make your hair appear fuller and longer is to use hair extensions. My number one recommendation is Halo Crown Extensions - this is a new design that will not damage your natural hair like clip ins, tape ins or fused in salon extensions. The best part is that it will take less than a minute to put in your hair and is temporary - causing no permanent damage. 100% real human REMY hair - these look natural and healthy. It is the quickest solution for more hair and safest! Buy yours here: HaloCrown.com