Welcome, beautiful! Has your hair been falling out post-partum or unrelated to babies? Does it have a lot of split ends, damage easily or is it breaking? In this blog post, I’ll give you fabulous natural tips for healthy hair. Get ready!
If you don’t know me, I’m Nathalie, I’m a Holistic Nutritionist and I help women lose weight, gain energy and thrive. I coach women from all over the world, and I love seeing them get vitally energized and then start doing the things they’ve held in their hearts (like running that big race). Today, I can’t wait to help you get wildly healthy hair!
Essential Fats for Healthy Hair:
If your hair is dry, brittle, sparse or has lots of split ends, essential fats could be your missing piece to healthy hair.
Make sure you’re eating raw seeds (like pumpkin, sunflower, flax, chia and hemp) and making use of hemp oil or flax oil in your smoothies and salad dressings to kickstart your fabulous hair health.
Ideally, you’d want to get in about 1-2 tablespoons of cold-pressed flax oil per day for fabulously healthy hair (not recommended if you have gallbladder issues, or if you’ve had yours removed).
Protein for Healthy Hair:
If you don’t eat enough protein, you’ll likely find yourself with dry, sparse, loose and falling out hair. Eeep!
Make sure you get enough protein with breakfast and lunch. I see SO many women who eat hardly any protein until dinner in an effort to lose weight, and then try to get a day’s worth in all in at once with a steak or chicken at dinner. This isn’t your best bet for healthy hair, or fabulous energy levels.
If you track with something like MyFitnessPal, make sure you’re hitting roughly 1/3 to 1/5 of your protein needs with every snack or meal.
If you’re an adult woman, it’s recommended you get in 46 grams of protein per day. And 71 grams of protein is recommended if you’re pregnant or nursing. If you’re working out, you’ll require a bit more (or a lot more depending on your regimen).
Beans, nuts, seeds, lentils and quinoa (and puffed quinoa in granola bars), alongside powders like Vega, Sun Warrior or Kaizen Vegan are fab, low-calorie and clean sources of protein for healthy hair.
Zinc for Healthy Hair:
If your hair and nails grow slowly, chances are you need a little more zinc in your diet.
Oysters are the best food source for zinc, followed by raw cacao, raw sesame and pumpkin seeds, lentils, chickpeas, cashews and poppy seeds.
Sulphur for Healthy Hair:
If your hair is super-dry, increasing the amount of sulphur in your diet can help a lot.
Kala namak salt (as used in THIS fabulous vegan fried egg recipe), onions and garlic are sulphur-loaded and excellent for glossy, moisturized hair from the inside out.
Silicon for Healthy Hair:
If you have weak hair shafts, thinning hair and lots of split ends, silicon could be to blame for your not-so healthy hair.
Cucumber (with the skin!), aloe vera juice and the herb horsetail contain lots of this essential nutrient.
Vitamin A for Healthy Hair:
If you’ve got brittle or dry hair, getting adequate Vitamin A might be the key for you.
Sweet potato, carrots and spinach are all LOADED in pre-vitamin A (plant vitamin A that your body will convert into Vitamin A), and organic liver is the best source for pre-formed Vitamin A. If you’re trying to conceive or you’re pregnant, the amount of vitamin A that’s in liver (if you’re eating it consistently) could cause birth defects.
If you have a thyroid issue or diabetes, your body may be less effective at converting plant vitamin A to the usable form.
Vitamin E for Healthy Hair:
If your hair is falling out and/or brittle, vitamin E may be at the root of it all.
Raw sunflower seeds, almonds and spinach are fabulous food sources of this essential nutrient for healthy hair.
The B Vitamins for Healthy Hair:
There are a few B vitamins involved in healthy hair, so if you have brittle hair, greying hair or hair loss, it’s super-important to make sure you’re getting enough B vitamins in your diet. Keep in mind this group of vitamins works better all together, rather than supplemented individually.
Quinoa, brown rice, chickpeas and algae (like chlorella or spirulina) are amazing sources of B vitamins.
Keep in mind that if you’re stressed out, you’re losing LOADS of these vitamins, so you’ll need to re-fuel and possibly supplement them for healthy hair.
Vitamin C for Healthy Hair:
So many people do not get enough vitamin C in their diets. And I know it’s easy to look at your carton of orange juice in the morning and think you’re getting enough, but keep in mind that our food guide recommends just enough Vitamin C to prevent immediate diseases, not enough for optimal, feel good, thriving health.
If your gums bleed when you brush or floss, or if you bruise really easily alongside hair loss, adding more vitamin C into your diet can be incredibly valuable for healthy hair.
Organic papaya, red bell peppers and broccoli are fabulous food sources of Vitamin C.
Thyroid Health for Healthy Hair:
If you find that your hair is sparse, dry, dull and brittle, your thyroid hormones could be running a little low. There are so many things that cause this on a regular basis that we’re all exposed to (if we’re not watching out and armed with knowledge) and reversing this naturally can help you feel a million times better – AND give you shiny, moisturized healthy hair.
Keep in mind that the blood test range for thyroid ‘health’ is pretty huge, so lots of people that fall within ‘normal’ show loads of symptoms of a still-running-slow thyroid. And lots of women who are medicated and within the smaller medicated range also show symptoms that can be relieved by natural methods.
If you’d like thyroid help from someone super-knowledgeable, I have the most complete thyroid talks inside The Glow Membership Program. If you need more help in this area, and/or you also feel a heavy exhaustion all the time, you’ve constantly got cold hands and feet, you have hair loss from the outer third of the eyebrows, and you gain weight easily but fail to lose it even with LOTS of trying, then The Glow Membership Program will be invaluable to you. Find out more about The Membership here.
Natural Shampoos for Healthy Hair:
Swapping from conventional to super-clean (ingredients-wise) shampoos can really help give you shiny, healthy hair. But it is my second-last recommendation because if you’re eating in a way that leaves you deficient all the time, yet you’re using a good shampoo, you won’t get the healthy hair you’re after. Food comes first.
The two brands I trust are The North American Hemp Co. and Dessert Essence (I go coconut shampoo and green apple ginger conditioner for think hair that can get dry).
Whenever I use traditional shampoo at someone else’s house, even the ones that claim they’re more natural, I ALWAYS find my hair feels stripped for days and I don’t have to wash it as often. That, to me, goes to show it’s stealing MY awesome hair oils and stripping out harsher than the ones I’m used to using.
On a hair beauty note: once you swap to these natural shampoos and conditioners, just be aware that if you’re curling your hair for an event, you’ll want to wash it the night before. Don’t skip a day like they recommend when you’re using traditional shampoos!
Additional Help and Personalized Care for Healthy Hair:
I covered a lot of different nutrients for fabulous hair health. If you’re a little confused, or need more help, I can help narrow down which nutrients YOU need to focus on based on your daily symptoms and diet, and help you get rich, healthy hair with a targeted supplement plan.
For more information on how I can help, or to jump into one of my healthy hair 1-on-1 programs, send me a note at [email protected] and I’ll be happy to help you out.
Happy health, healthy hair, and amazing confidence!
Nathalie
Holistic Nutritionist