What are the Best Vitamins for Hair Growth and Thickness?

Following a well-balanced diet that contains all of the essential vitamins and other nutrients can help improve hair growth and maintain hair health.

In this article, we will tell you about the role of diet, especially vitamins, to strengthen hair and prevent hair loss.

The best vitamins for hair growth and thickness

The 8 Best Vitamins & Supplements for Hair Growth (+3 Other Nutrients)

Hair Growth and Thickness

Hair grows at an average of 1.27 centimeters a month, and about 15 centimeters a year.

The speed of hair growth may depend on many factors, including: age, hormonal changes, undernutrition, medications, stress, family history, and general health.

Science has discovered little information about how to control hair growth, but it is not enough to know how to accelerate hair growth directly.

It is worth noting that most of the factors are beyond the daily control, however, following a healthy diet and drinking sufficient quantities of fluids is the best step that can be taken to strengthen hair and prevent hair loss.

Just as diet plays an important role in the health of the body, it also plays an important role in the health of hair.

Hair needs a healthy, balanced, and integrated diet in order to be in good health.

Healthy hair is defined as the hair that grows naturally from all follicles from a healthy scalp and is not easily breakable.

A healthy scalp generally contains around 120,000-150000 hairs, of which about 50-100 hairs fall daily naturally, but when the hair falls out in large quantities, this hair fall becomes noticeable.

A healthy diet is important to keep hair healthy and strong and prevent it from falling off, and the lack of nutrients affects hair health.

The 8 Best Vitamins for Hair Growth and Thickness

In general, hair to be healthy needs all the components of a healthy, balanced diet necessary for a healthy body, which includes all vitamins.

Here is the list of 8 most important vitamins for hair growth and thickness.

1. Vitamin A: As all tissues need this vitamin for growth, hair is the fastest growing tissue in the human body, and it also helps the skin glands to make sebum; It is an oily substance that moisturizes the scalp and helps to maintain its health.

 A low-vitamin diet may cause many problems, including: Hair loss, so it is important to get enough of this vitamin, but large amounts of it can be dangerous and contribute to hair loss. A sufficient amount of vitamin A is the best female hair loss treatment.

2. Vitamin B6: It is a vitamin that is widespread in many food sources, such as meat, poultry, fish, potatoes, and some other vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, tomato juice, and some non-acidic fruits, such as bananas, watermelons, and plum juice, in addition to legumes, and grains fortified with vitamin B6 such as fortified bread, soy products, and nuts.

3. Vitamin B12: It is found in animal sources only, such as meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese/eggs, in addition to fortified soy milk.

Vitamin B12 is damaged by exposure to microwave radiation, and therefore it is necessary to avoid heating its food sources using a microwave to preserve its content from it.

4. Biotin: Biotin is important for healthy hair, and its deficiency causes hair loss.

Among the most important nutritional sources for internal organs are egg yolks, soybeans, fish and whole grains.

5. Folic acid (folate): It is found in vegetables and legumes, especially in green leafy vegetables, especially spinach, asparagus, and broccoli.

It can also be obtained from fortified cereal products (such as fortified bread and flour), orange juice, and whole wheat bread, as well as liver and seeds.

6. Vitamin C: This vitamin is one of the powerful antioxidants that help prevent oxidative stress caused by free radicals, and whose accumulation may cause hair growth.

Vitamin C also goes into collagen formation; which is considered an important part in the structure of hair, in addition, this vitamin helps to absorb the iron necessary for hair growth.

7. Vitamin E: As this vitamin is also necessary for healthy hair, this vitamin can be obtained from many nutritional sources, especially vegetable oils.

Wheat germ oil is distinguished by its content of this vitamin, but it must be taken into account that this vitamin is easily damaged by heat and oxidation.

8. Vitamin D: Some studies suggest a role for vitamin D in the hair growth cycle, but this role needs more scientific research to clarify it.

Vitamin D can be obtained by exposure to sunlight for a sufficient period. It can also be obtained from some foods (but not usually in sufficient quantities) such as milk, juice, fortified grains, and fatty fish like salmon and sardines, in addition to fish liver oil, which is considered the richest food source.

You can Include Hair Growth Supplements in Your Diet for Healthy Hair

Hair growth supplements provide nutrients that your body lacks. Although vitamins are important to healthy hair, taking nutritional supplements for hair is not necessary, and it is best to eat a varied and balanced diet that ensures the body gets all of its nutritional needs.

Perhaps the greatest evidence of the importance of a healthy diet for hair health is the loss of hair that affects people when they lose weight quickly after following a strict diet that is very low in calories, and often these diets do not secure the needs of the body from all the nutrients it needs, and therefore hair loss occurs.

In cases of following a healthy diet for losing weight, although hair loss can occur after losing 7 kilograms of body weight or more, then hair health can be restored if the general health is good.

But taking nutritional supplements can lead to an improvement in hair growth, especially in the absence of a balanced and healthy diet.

Other Nutrients That may be Important for Hair Growth

Protein: at any time by 90% of the hair in the case of growth, as it continues on this case for a period of 2-3 years, after which then enters the resting phase, which lasts for a period of approximately 3 months before falling.

In the phase that the food diet does not contain an adequate amount of protein, the percentage of hair that enters the resting stage may become larger, which negatively affects the health of the hair.

Omega-3 fatty acids: They are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and sardines, and in flaxseeds, almonds, and nuts.

Minerals and more: Hair also needs iron, whose deficiency can cause hair loss, in addition to many minor mineral elements, such as selenium, whose deficiency causes brittle hair and nails, and copper and magnesium and zinc, whose deficiency causes hair loss as well. 

Read Also: What are the Best Nutrient-Rich Foods for Healthy Hair Growth?