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How to Grow Healthy, Long Hair
Health | January 24, 2020
Today’s post is for the ladies (although guys might benefit too)! Having long, healthy hair takes commitment, patience, and consistency. You can’t just take a bunch of “beauty gummies” and call it a day. To truly grow out your hair, you’re going to have to balance everything from lifestyle to management. Let this be your guide to some tried-and-true tips for having long and healthy hair!
Start with Food
Why is diet so important? Like building muscle, your body requires nutrients to carry out the process of growth. If you don’t nail this one, good luck growing out your locks. According to trichologist (aka, hair doctor) Dr. Dominic Burg, nutrient deficiencies are a huge hindrance to growing out your hair. “…your body will shut down your hair growth first and redirect nutrients and energy to the organs that need it most.”
Here are the key nutrients (and food sources) to be aware of when it comes to growing out your hair:
- Vitamin A (sweet potatoes, carrots, spinach, mango, cantaloupe, kale, eggs, cod liver oil, liver, herring)
- Biotin (organ meats, eggs, salmon, pork, beef, nutritional yeast, sweet potato almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pecans, sunflower seeds)
- Niacin (beef, liver, poultry, tuna, salmon, pork, peanuts, avocado, brown rice, mushrooms, peas, potatoes, sweet potatoes, nutritional yeast)
- B12 (liver, clams, fish, shellfish, beef, dairy, eggs, nutritional yeast, fortified foods)
- Vitamin C (citrus, kiwi, strawberry, guava, papaya, snow peas, bell peppers, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, spinach, cabbage, tomatoes, squash)
- Vitamin D (sunlight, salmon, sardines, cod liver oil, caviar, eggs, dairy, fortified foods, possibly mushrooms, although this is up for debate)
- Vitamin E (almonds, spinach, sunflower seeds, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, pine nuts, avocado, mango, salmon, trout)
- Iron (beef, liver, organ meats, eggs, turkey, oysters, clams, spinach, lentils, tofu, tempeh, pumpkin seeds, quinoa, dark chocolate or raw cacao)
- Zinc (oysters, shrimp, crab, beef, dairy, spinach, pumpkin seeds, legumes, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, cashews, dark chocolate or raw cacao)
- Protein (all animal-based foods, legumes, hemp seeds, tofu, tempeh, collagen peptides)
[2]
On the flip side, there are many foods you should be avoiding if you want to grow out your hair. These include:
- Sugar (as well as artificial sweeteners)
- High-mercury seafood (limit tuna, and steer clear of swordfish, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, and tilefish) [3]
- Trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oil- more on that here)
- Soda, candy, breakfast cereals, snack foods, ready-made meals
- Fast food
- Alcohol (avoid or stick to no more than one drink for special occasions only)
Think of your daily food intake as a box to be filled. There’s only so much that can be packed into one space, so if most of your diet is filled with the wrong kinds of food, then that leaves little room for the right ones. Try to crowed out the bad foods with the healthy ones.
Watch Out for Stress
Stress is not something to take lightly. It not only affects your mood, but it also disrupts other things you may not consider, including sleep, digestion, building muscle, weight loss, skin health, and hormones. With your hair, the same applies. If you’re always wrestling with stress and don’t know how to deal with it, then your body is constantly going to be high on adrenaline and cortisol, both of which will send the focus not on growing longer locks but on survival.
Because taking care of stress is easier said than done, I’ve got a few posts that show what you can do ASAP to start chilling out. Check them out here and here.
Scalp TLC
Your scalp is the epicenter of hair growth. Just like you need to take care of your skin to prevent breakouts, dryness, and premature wrinkles, you also need to treat your scalp correctly to grow longer hair. Many experts use skincare as a comparison. Just like you cleanse, moisturize, and tone, you also need to look at your scalp and hair similarly. Aside from using shampoo and conditioner, you can also give your scalp a massage. This is said to stimulate blood flow and circulation, helping to increase nutrient delivery to the hair follicles and encourage faster growth. Whether or not scalp massages truly work to maximize hair growth is up for debate, but many people claim doing it regularly made a world of difference. If anything else, it’s very relaxing!
Gentle on the Locks!
Be very careful with your hair. If you’re physically rough with it, then your goals may soon take a turn for the worse. Your hair should be treated gently. So, be mindful of how tight and how often you put it up into styles like ponytails and braids. When brushing, combing, and detangling, always start from the bottom up to avoid breakage. Out of the shower, replace towels or old T-shirts with microfiber ones, which won’t rub against the hair fibers and cause damage. Consider replacing your pillowcases with silk ones; this reduces tangling, breaking, and physical damage. Finally, try a simple overnight coconut or avocado oil hair mask. I have noticed my hair looking much healthier since I started doing these masks about twice a week All in all, the less damage you inflict on your hair, the easier it will be to grow it out and keep it healthy!
Trim or not to trim
Maybe you’ve heard that trimming your hair makes them grow faster. Yeah, that’s a myth. Trims are a form of maintenance, helping to keep split ends at bay and making sure they don’t grow even higher up hair strands. The more split ends you have, the more at risk you are for damage and breakage. However, you don’t have to chop off a huge chunk of hair. Just ask for a half-inch or so and see if your stylist can perform a technique known as “dusting,” which involves scouting for more split ends throughout your hair. It’s a wonderful way to keep your lengths and prevent further damage. I should also point out that hair growth takes place at the scalp where your roots are, not the ends. That’s just old hair. So it really just comes down to this question: Do you care if your long hair looks like a mop because you never trimmed the ends?
And there you have it, everyone! Some tips for growing out beautiful hair. Did I miss anything else? I’m not an expert when it comes to hair, and would love to know what you do to keep yours healthy and long. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments!
Sources:
[1] https://www.cosmopolitan.com/style-beauty/beauty/advice/a36065/tricks-for-growing-your-hair-really-really-long/
[2] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/best-vitamins-hair-growth#section9
[3] https://www.nrdc.org/stories/mercury-guide
Private Member |
vancouver, british columbia, canada
Here’s my tip for better hair: few years ago I stopped blow drying and straightening my hair everyday. That’s when I found I stopped getting split and fried ends and didn’t need to trim it off.
I think in a Youtube video Zuzka said she started taking prenatal vitamins and then her hair finally started to grow. I was a little confused by what this meant, but my brother explained that he also had friends that couldn’t grow their hair past their shoulders. The friends with weak hair were usually very thin too. I think it’s mostly genetics but in comparison I was a fat kid that could eat A LOT.
I seem to have too much hair and it grows super fast. I lose a handful of hair every time I shower and brush my hair, and twice as much seems to grow back. My body makes so much hair (on my forearms, underarms, legs and extended bush) that it seemed to run out of pigment to use and I started going grey in my teens *sad* was hoping maybe prenatal vitamins would help me with grey hair, but they just made me break out in pimples. Still waiting for the grey hair miracle cure.
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
I remember that time when I noticed my hair grow faster after taking the prenatals. I stopped taking them because at that time I had extensions in so I didn’t really want my hair to grow too fast. I thought that after I’ll take the extensions off I’ll start taking the vitamins again and let my hair grow out. However, the second time it didn’t work 🙂 so I’m not sure anymore what made my hair grow so fast back then. Was it the vitamins or something else? Now I take cod liver oil and biotin and my hair grows ok but not at a rapid rate.
Private Member |
Maybe its the combination?
Private Member |
ellijay, ga, united states
I’ve kept long hair since my college years (college years it was below the butt. Since then I’ve cut a foot or so off and switch between juuuuust above the butt or a few inches higher…depending on when/how much I feel like cutting). I second skipping the blow-drying! Besides taking too long to dry when it gets long, I can’t imagine the heat being very good for it. I just let mine air dry.
One other thing I just have to add because I just don’t see it many places, but I see good effects whenever I use it! Rinse it with tea! I don’t brew a full bag to use on my hair — I drink a lot of hot tea during the day and just re-steep the leftover bags and save the water for the next time I shower. The tannins in the tea are supposed to be healthy for the hair. I don’t know how much truth there is to that, but I do notice that my hair is extra-shiny the next day whenever I do a rinse.
Private Member |
michigan, usa
So funny I was just starting a new hair care product today. I’m trying the Monat brand. I’ve heard amazing things about it. After a long battle of fried hair and a drastic hair loss from stress and hormones a few years back my hair is finally doing better and growing. I have fine wavy/curly hair so it’s pretty fragile. I take a lot of biotin because I feel like my body just doesn’t absorb it as well as most people. Also I noticed when I did your Bikini Meal plan last summer Z, my hair grew really fast!!! But over the Christmas break time I was on vacation and I had to get a store bought products for a week….it seriously stripped and damaged my hair so bad. It felt like straw and I haven’t been able to get it back to normal again since! 😢 I swear it felt like I was using dish soap. So I’m starting with Monat to see if I can repair it again.
Private Member |
The concept of trimming has never made any sense to me. We are not like plants where watering and trimming literal living parts of the plant can be essential for healthy growth. Thank you for calling out this old wives tale, Z!
Private Member |
mza, argentina
I am very stressed about hair. It is the only part of my body I don’t like and feel IT is beyond my management. I feel sad about IT. Years trying without results. So I preciate Any advice but feel have tried everything. My hair is very like yours zuzka, in terms of quantity, length and form. Never longer than the shoulders.
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
So your hair is like mine and you feel sad about it? 🙂 I’m actually quite happy about my hair.
Private Member |
mza, argentina
Ha ha. I meant that I would love to have longer and healthy hair !!!! and As it grows, saddly I have to trim it be cause of being so thin and scarce… dont you feel that? IT seems to me that you couldnt have longer hair…nor thicker…just As IT is…
Private Member |
lake tahoe, nv, usa
haha I get it. I don’t trim my hair very often. I’m just letting it grow. I let them air dry most of the time which gives me that beachy/dirty look and when there’s a special occasion, I blow dry them and they look healthy to the tips. I don’t have thick hair but I use products to give it volume. It works 🙂 I used to have extensions, but it’s too expensive and it gets itchy 🙂
Private Member |
mza, argentina
thanks Zu. you are my inspiration so I´ll try to get along better with my hair. 😉
Private Member |
petaluma
Keto Baby. Healthy fats did it for my hair. I’m 53 and my hair’s never been longer or healthier than since changing my way of eating 3 years ago. That and using Kevin Murphy Products and only washing it a few times a week.
Private Member |
mza, argentina
Good tips!!😉