The key to having high-quality locks is to have a healthy diet, which means eating the most appropriate and best hair growth foods.
But sometimes, what you eat in a day may not be enough to supply your body with all the required nutrients for your growing tresses. Therefore, the hair care industry has found a way to make up for the missing nutrients by introducing hair supplements.
There are claims of hair supplements being an effective hair growth stimulator, and there are some that discredit these dietary supplements.
How effective is taking supplements for hair loss problems? Should you include hair supplements in your hair care regimen? Let’s analyze the truth as you learn more about hair supplements and their benefits and drawbacks for hair growth.
What are Hair Growth Supplements?
Hair growth supplements are dietary enhancements that promote hair growth and maintain your hair’s healthy condition. These supplements usually come in various forms: tablets, powder, liquid, and even gummies. They are enriched with vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients such as amino acids and enzymes for your thriving locks.
What can you gain from consuming hair growth supplements? Can they cure your hair loss problems? Check out the benefits of hair growth supplementation.
Benefits of Taking Supplements for Your Hair Loss Problem
1. It can give you a load of essential hair growth vitamins.
Below the scalp’s surface lies the hair follicle with hair cells enveloping it, all working together to foster hair growth. These living cells also need enough nourishment to keep the ball rolling. However, a poor diet can prevent your hair from getting its share of nutrients. It’s a good thing that hair supplements can provide you with vitamins A, B, C, D, E, and K vital to hair growth. This product gives you the convenience to grab your daily dose of vitamins without the need to buy a basket of fruits and veggies every week.
2. Dietary supplements will also help improve your skin’s condition.
All nutrients found in health supplements are vital to your overall health, but some essentials can significantly impact hair growth and skin condition.
Hair and skin are interconnected; they both belong to the integumentary system. Whatever nutrient you ingest for your hair can also affect the quality of your skin.
For instance, taking collagen supplements will not only strengthen your hair strands, but it will also maintain your skin’s elasticity and structure. Thus, collagen is an essential protein needed by your hair and skin.
Ascorbic acid as a vitamin supplement is needed to keep your skin clear and glowing. It also makes your hair more lustrous than ever because its antioxidants can keep free radicals at bay. Vitamin C also stimulates collagen production for the preservation of your hair and skin’s healthy structure.
3. It can make your hair moisturized, soft and shiny.
You can get your fair share of vitamins A and C from your daily diet. However, these vitamins are also needed by many body organs to function correctly. Thus, your daily consumption may not be enough to sustain your hair growth needs.
Thankfully, supplements with vitamins A and C can help you boost your scalp’s sebum production. This enhancement allows natural oils to coat your strands, thereby locking in moisture and keeping them soft and shiny.
4. DHT-blocking nutrients in hair growth supplements can help you fight against hair loss problems.
Dihydrotestosterone, commonly called DHT, is an unwanted hair loss culprit, but you can eliminate this threatening androgen with DHT-blockers. They prevent the 5-alpha reductase enzyme from forming DHT and block DHT from infiltrating hair follicles. That’s why a lot of anti-hair loss products contain DHT-blockers as their components.
Many herbs and foods such as kale, saw palmetto, pumpkin seeds, green tea, red ginseng, and flax seeds are high in DHT blockers. However, you may not quickly get a hold of these unique ingredients because: a) they may be unavailable in your local supermarkets; b) they are hard to grow in your area, or c) they are expensive food items. Fortunately, it’s easier for you to get your dose of DHT-blocking nutrients, thanks to dietary supplements.
5. It can sustain your body with hair growth nutrients that can’t be found in your everyday meals.
An apple a day can indeed keep the hair loss problem away since apples are rich in vitamin A. However, sustaining yourself by eating apples every day can be quite unfriendly for your purse. It same goes for the other sources of vitamins and minerals; they can also be quite expensive.
However, you can save so much from taking supplements instead. You don’t have to buy carts of fruits, veggies, meat, and dairy products to nourish your hair with loads of nutrients. Your tresses can go a long way with a bottle of hair growth supplements.
Taking Supplements and Hair Loss: Is There a Connection?
Men and women have always been worried about their physical appearance, including their hair. Since there is a need to curb hair loss problems, more dietary supplements have been created to cater to these concerns.
Nowadays, biotin supplements have become much-hyped products. Its superstar, biotin, is a water-soluble vitamin that has been used to cure nutrient-deficiency alopecia. It is an outstanding nutrient that coordinates with enzymes for cell growth and metabolic processes, all of which are needed for hair growth. Several studies have been administered to prove its efficacy on hair loss. However, most of the results showed progress only to those with biotin deficiency problems. Thus, taking biotin supplements may only provide you some skin and hair growth benefits but may not grant the best results against hair loss.
Another popular hair growth product is the niacin supplement. It is loaded with vitamin B3 or niacin, a nutrient that promotes good blood circulation and enhances energy metabolism for your hair follicles. Without enough niacin in the body, you may experience thinning locks and hair shedding. Thus, it has become an in-demand vitamin in various multivitamin hair growth supplements.
You can find a myriad of dietary supplements in pharmacies and beauty shops, but do you really need these additional nutrients to fight hair loss? The answer can be a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ If you’re losing hair strands due to a particular nutritional deficiency, you definitely need to amp your nutrient consumption. However, if your hair loss concern is rooted in other health-related problems, health supplements don’t treat hair loss issues.
Therefore, it is essential to consult a dietitian and a dermatologist if you’re suspecting nutrient deficiency as the cause of your hair loss problem. Never pop some nutritional pills just because your hair’s not in excellent condition. Self-medicating your alopecia might aggravate the hair fiasco.
The Cons of Consuming Dietary Supplements for Hair Loss
Is hair supplement consumption totally safe for one’s health? Read some drawbacks of taking supplements for hair loss problems.
1. Too much consumption of hair growth supplements can adversely affect one’s health.
No matter how beneficial hair growth supplements are, it would be best if you still manage its daily consumption. Research shows that vitamin overdose can cause hair loss problem instead of curing it.
Too much fat-soluble vitamin intake puts your hair condition at risk. According to a 2018 study, over-supplementation of vitamin A can speed up the hair growth process. The anagen phase will be shortened, pushing many follicles into the catagen and telogen phases.
On the other hand, investigations show that too much supplement intake can also harmfully affect your other body organs. It is because your body only uses the needed nutrients to keep the systems well-functioned. Thus, you can excrete the excess water-soluble vitamins by urinating. However, an overdose of fat-soluble nutrients can be toxic for the body; it can cause specific problems, especially on your digestive, muscular, circulatory, and nervous systems.
2. There is still a necessity for more studies to prove the promising results of dietary supplements for hair loss.
Most supplements are made to bolster your condition in case of deficiency problems. However, if you’re a healthy person with a well-balanced diet, you may have to think twice before ingesting dietary supplements. There is still a call for more in-depth investigations about the supplements’ effects on healthy individuals.
Does Taking Supplements for Hair Loss Really Work?
Yes, it’s safe to say that supplement intake is effective against your hair loss problem only if it’s been caused by nutrient deficiency. However, an individual must not hastily ingest hair growth supplements. Hair loss can happen due to ample reasons. Thus, you need to seek medical advice before opting for a dietary enhancement. It would also be best for you to improve your diet and lifestyle to solve your hair growth issues quickly.
Boost Hair Growth.
It’s not enough to protect your hair internally; use the best hair growth products to keep your hair’s external structure in excellent condition. Fight off all signs of alopecia. By selecting the best shampoo for hair loss, you’ll never have to bid goodbye to your hair strands again.