Hair growth occurs in cycles: Growth is initiated from the follicle, continues for a certain amount of time, and then the hair falls out. Longer hair and faster growth comes from maximizing growth time and preventing hair loss. By maintaining a balanced diet rich in hair-friendly vitamins and minerals, supplementing your diet with specific vitamins, and maintaining the strength of your hair, you can achieve long, flowing locks in no time.
Manage Your Diet
Maintaining a balanced diet is the most important aspect of growing your hair faster. Your hair is an indicator of your overall health, so a healthy diet and fitness routine will lead to faster-growing, healthier hair.
A healthy diet will help delay the time before the hair falls out, and will therefore help you get thicker, longer hair. Severely diminishing your caloric intake due to crash diets or not consuming adequate protein or fat, will cause your hair to grow slowly and fall out more quickly.
Hair growth also requires a number of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C and zinc, so ensuring your diet includes a wide range of healthy foods will ensure you consume a variety of vitamins to support your hair growth.
Supplement With Vitamins
A number of vitamins and minerals are important for hair growth, including folic acid, biotin, vitamin B6, magnesium and zinc. Taking a complete multivitamin should supplement the intake of each of these vitamins and minerals in your diet to aid with the growth of your hair.
Folic acid, vitamin B6 and zinc magnesium are all important in preventing hair loss and prolonging the growth phase of your hair. Ingesting high doses of biotin, around 5-8 grams daily, helps grow new hair, in addition to preventing hair loss.
Vitamins A and E help improve the health of the scalp, which allows for faster growth of healthy hair. Overall, taking vitamins will supplement the nutrition in your diet and will help with faster hair growth.
Strengthen Your Hair
As your hair grows, it steadily loses protein and moisture, becoming brittle and prone to breakage. Regular deep conditioning will keep your hair healthy so it will require less trimming, and will therefore allow you to grow your hair faster.
There are a number of high-quality hair conditioners available, but simple virgin coconut oil will help keep your hair moisturized and strong. The chemical structure of coconut oil allows it to penetrate into the hair shaft and act as a glue to secure the protein structure of your hair, preventing the protein loss that weakens hair.
Conditioning with coconut oil is easy. Before you shower, dampen your hair from mid-shaft to end. Melt coconut oil in its jar under hot water, if needed, and apply the oil over the water to saturate your hair. Allow the oil to soak into hair for at least 30 minutes, then proceed to shampoo and condition your hair as normal.
After your shower, rub some coconut oil between your hands and lightly apply to the ends of your hair to seal in moisture. Coconut oil conditioning two to four times a week will keep your hair strong and healthy, so it will grow more quickly.
References
- Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine: Diffuse Hair Loss: Its Triggers and Management
- Journal of Nutrition: The Role of Biotin and "Folic Acid" in the Nutrition of the Rhesus Monkeys
- National Institutes of Health: Effect of Mineral Oil, Sunflower Oil, and Coconut Oil on Prevention of Hair Damage
- I Love India: Vitamins Good for Hair
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