Vitamins for Hair Growth

Here is a list of my top 10 hair growth vitamins and minerals. There are many other vitamins and minerals that are great for hair growth, but this is my top 10 list.  

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant.  Antioxidants help you get toxins that are in your body, out.  Antioxidants are needed for your bodies overall health and like I noted above, when your body is healthy your hair will be healthy also.

B Vitamins

There are many different types of B Vitamins.  For a healthy overall body and hair growth focus on B12.   B12 provides nourishment to all the cells of the body including our hair follicles, so it is essential for hair growth.  It supports a healthy nervous system and the formation of new red blood cells. This is very important because the red blood cells carry oxygen all over your body, including the scalp. This helps nourish and aid in the development of healthy new hair strands from healthy hair follicles.  Since the hair follicles are now receiving the proper nutrients, your body is now able to repopulate and regrow hair.  This is especially the case for hair that has been previously lost, due to alopecia or other hair loss related conditions.

 Vitamin C

Vitamin C is a great immune booster and a powerful antioxidant. When your immune system is healthy, your overall body will be healthy and your hair will be healthy and grow. Also, when you rid your body of toxins (which is what antioxidants do), you give your body an extra boost in health. Vitamin C is so important because it encompasses both the immune system booster and the antioxidant booster.  Vitamin C is crucial in your hair growth journey.  Fortunately, Vitamin C is found in a wide array of fruits, vegetables and can be easily purchased from most food stores.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D promotes healthy hair follicle growth.  The best thing about vitamin D is that you can get this vitamin right from the sun.  Go outside for a brisk walk or sit under the sun for a little while. Allow your body and scalp to absorb the wonderful benefits of vitamin D.  Since your body cannot produce vitamin D on it’s own, taking a supplement is also a great idea on days when you cannot go out in the sun.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E  is essential in keep your hair growing healthy.  When you mix Vitamin E and some of the other vitamins I have listed, you are making your scalp healthy and when your scalp is healthy it promotes amazing hair growth.  Vitamin E is one of the ingredients in my All Natural Shea Butter Mix because I know of the importance of Vitamin E, a healthy scalp and amazing hair growth.

Biotin

My doctor recommend Biotin for longer, healthier hair.  Biotin is a B Vitamin and it is water soluble, meaning it dissolves very well in water, which also means your body can’t retain it.  Since your body cannot retain biotin you need to make sure you replenish your body with it daily.  So if you feel like you are not getting enough from your daily diet, there are plenty of supplements available.

 Iron

Iron is very important for your body to function overall and also for healthy hair growth.  As I listed in my Top 11 Reasons For Hair Loss, iron deficiencies was one of them.  So if you are deficient in Iron, your have a very high risk of hair loss or developing other very serious medical conditions.

Magnesium

Magnesium can detoxify and cleanse the skin, including your scalp.  Since magnesium has the capability to do this it helps with strong and healthy hair growth.

Niacin

Niacin is in the B Vitamin which helps to nourish the scalp, promoting healthy hair growth. If you do not have enough niacin in your hair strands your hair may become brittle, lifeless, and may even fall out.

Zinc

Zinc has a critical part to play in ensuring that our immune system is strong and healthy.  Zinc helps in promoting new and healthy skin cells, which aids in a healthy scalp which is responsible for hair lustre and growth.  For those with skin and scalp conditions, zinc is used as an anti-inflammatory, which helps to sooth the skin tissue, especially those suffering from psoriasis or eczema on the scalp.  Zinc can be taken orally or applied topically.  It is the main ingredient is some diaper rash formulas for this very reason.

While I was on my 50 day detox, I was taking vitamins and supplements to aid in making sure my body got all of the daily requirements it needed to be healthy. These are some of the supplements that I took.

Antifungals & Hair Growth

Antifungals were one of the supplements I was taking, in order for my body to be cured from the Candida Overgrowth. I was doing A LOT of research on candida and hair growth and I discovered more then I bargained for. I learned that if your body has yeast or fungal infections (of any kind), it will inhibit or even stop your hair growth. This happens because the yeast like parasitic fungi in the body, will eat from the foods you are eating and it will rob your body of the nutrients and minerals it needs to thrive.  *Remember if your body doesn’t have the nutrients it needs to thrive, your hair will not get the nutrients it needs to thrive and grow.* So I took a few different antifunglas and I interchanged them weekly to bi-weekly, based on what I learned.  I learned that the parasites in your body can adapt to the antifungals and build a resistance to them causing the antifungals to be ineffective and allows the parasites to grow and multiply.  

Probiotic & Hair Growth

During my 50 day Candida detox/cleanse, I was also taking a Probiotic.  A probiotic is a good, live bacteria or yeast, that helps to keep your digestive system/gut healthy.  This is one of the uses for taking a probiotic and that was why I was taking one.  There were two rain reasons I decided to take a probiotic. The first and most important reason is because our immune system is located in our gut.  If our immune system is weak, our bodies will be more susceptible to sickness and disease.  So I wanted to make sure that my immune system was healthy (I will touch on this shortly), so that my body could be healthy and essentially so that my hair would be healthy, strong and grow fast! The second reason I took a probiotic was because I wanted to put more of those good, healthy and more beneficial bacteria or yeast back into my body. This helped to crowd out or suffocate the bad bacteria or yeast that was already in my body, causing my body and hair to be robbed of the essential nutrients it needed and causing overall havoc in my body. By getting rid of these bad bacteria, yeast and parasites, my immune system got stronger.  My body was able to fight back (in other ways) to help cure itself and to be healthy overall. Now, taking a probiotic will not cause hair growth, but it will replenish your body with good bacteria in your gut.  Taking a probiotic helps to get rid of bad bacteria and it will help to protect your immune system.  In turn it will cause your overall body to be healthy and if your overall body is healthy, your hair will be healthy as well.

Multivitamin & Hair Growth

We have all heard about the vast variations of multivitamins on the market today.  There are many different brands that offer many different things. To make sure you are getting the appropriate recommended daily intake of vitamins and minerals that your body needs, take a basic 1 a day multivitamin, that you feel is best suited for you and your needs.  Please speak to your doctor or heal care professional on what they recommend for you. This is the best option for those who are overall healthy and maybe not getting all the nutrients from the food we eat daily. For those of us who have hair growth issues and are not getting the daily amount of vitamins and minerals that our body needs, we may need to take a multivitamin that is more focused on hair, skin and nails.  The reason why we should be taking a more specific supplement is equivalent to why a pregnant or nursing mother needs to take a specific “prenatal vitamin” and that is because her body needs and requires different things than an average (non pregnant) woman needs to keep her healthy. If you are struggling with hair growth, your body is deficient in some areas and these specific hair, skin and nails vitamins are more targeted to you regrowing your hair by focusing on the vitamins and minerals most important for  hair growth. So I was taking both a multivitamin and a vitamin targeting my hair and nails because I knew that my body needed extra help.  With that said I did not take them at the exact same time.

More Is Not Always Better

Please note that more is not always better. Don’t think that you can take a lot of multivitamins and that your body will get all the nutrients it needs and you will be healthy and have amazing hair growth. This is not the case.  Sometimes, if not most times, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Do not overdo it!  You may just be causing your body more harm than good.