To achieve optimum rates of hair growth, nutritional support is essential. African-Americans can expect about a 1/2inch per month hair growth when the body has the nutrients it needs to promote healthy hair and maximum growth rate. In choosing hair vitamins for African-Americans, select those that help the scalp get the nourishment it needs to support hair growth, as well as those that help combat dryness and help to prevent breakage.
Vitamin B Complex
The nutrients that make up the vitamin B complex are, as explained by the University of Maryland Medical Center, critical to African-American hair health and hair growth. Deficiencies in these vitamins can directly affect hair quality and growth. Deficiencies in some can even contribute to hair thinning and premature grayness. B vitamins are essential to the processes by which the scalp receives the nourishment and oxygen it needs to promote healthy hair growth. Nutrients are transported throughout the body by red blood cells. The hemoglobin in red blood cells transports oxygen. According to Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute, vitamins B-12 and B-6 are vital to the processes involved in the production of red blood cells and to the processes by which hemoglobin is able to collect and release oxygen. Whether by diet or supplementation, healthy hair and optimum hair growth requires a sufficient daily intake of B vitamins.
Vitamin D
This is an essential nutrient for many bodily processes, including hair growth and health, according to a June 2009 Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine article. It is a nutrient that African-Americans can be more likely to experience deficiencies in, depending on where they live and their day-to-day lifestyle. That is because, aside from vitamin D-fortified foods, one of the main sources of this vitamin is the sun. As explained by the Linus Pauling Institute, "people with dark-colored skin synthesize markedly less vitamin D on exposure to sunlight than those with light-colored skin." Other factors in not getting enough sun are living in northern climates, with less sun exposure during the cold months, and spending most of the daylight hours inside. Vitamin D is important to healthy hair and the growth of hair because of its action in producing and regulating hormones, which, as noted by the American Pregnancy Association, have a powerful effect on the growth cycle of hair.
Vitamin C
This nutrient is important to healthy African-American hair in a variety of ways. A powerful antioxidant agent, this nutrient "may provide protection for the hair follicles and encourage hair growth," as explained by the American Pregnancy Association. Vitamin C is essential to collagen manufacture in the body. Collagen helps make up the very structure of the blood vessels and capillaries through which nourishment flows to the scalp to support hair growth. Vitamin C also has a role in the production and regulation of hormones, which is another reason that this nutrient is essential to African-American hair growth and health.
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center, Complementary Medicine: Vitamin B1
- Oregon State University, Linus Pauling Institute, Micronutrient Information Center: Vitamin B 12
- Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine: Diffuse hair loss: Its triggers and management
- Oregon State University, Linus Pauling Institute, Micronutrient Information Center: Vitamin D
- American Pregnancy Association: Pregnancy and Hair Loss
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