Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Best Thing You Can Do For Your Hair: My Observations and Personal Experience, pt 1

This particular blog has been on my mind for a while now. Lately, I have noticed that when it comes to hair care a lot of people, myself included, focus on the topical things they can do. Even when giving advice, we focus on what we can do for our hair. Don't get me wrong, deep conditioning, washing often, and moisturizing have done wonders for my hair. However, I think one thing that should receive more recognition is nutrition. It has become evident to me that when your nutrition is on point, it reflects in your hair, skin, and nails.

I came to this revelation via a stumbling block in my own healthy hair journey.A couple a weeks ago, I wrote a post about how I had been shedding a lot lately. I even purchased a conditioner to help with it. Then I thought of something. I have always been a shedder for as long as I can remember. I also remembered that back in high school I was told I am mildly anemic. This means that I have low iron in my bloodstream.I never really did anything about it and suffered through being cold and lethargic all the time. Could this be tied to my excessive shedding? Well, I looked it up and iron is an important mineral for healthy hair! Iron plays a role in healthy circulation and when you have enough of it, you get enough circulation to the scalp which equals healthy hair. When you don't have enough iron, your circulation will be focused on the most necessary of functions (e.g.- getting blood to your organs and other living tissue). Of course! This makes perfect sense. From then on, I began focusing on getting more iron into my diet, without the help of supplementation. For that reason, I eat a LOT of chicken and turkey. I also eat a lot of whole grain cereals (Frosted Mini-Wheats is my favorite). I have definitely noticed a MAJOR improvement in my shedding levels.

What are some other nutrients you should be aware of and how can you incorporate them into your diet? Stay tuned for part 2

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