How To Protect Your Hair During The Fall Season

how to protect your hair during the fall seasonA wild, untamed mane of hair while walking against the wind might look sexy in commercials but we all know in real life, a cold, windy day does a number on your hair. High winds and dropping temperatures can contribute to knotty hair which leads to damage. So how do you go about protecting your gorgeous tresses from those blustery, sharp winds?

Accessorize Your Hair

If you have longer hair that tends to whip you in the face (or worse) sticks to your lip gloss like super glue, it might be time to invest in some hair accessories to keep your hair pulled back. Make sure never to pull hair too tightly as this can lead to hair loss. If you have short hair, you can begin a hat collection to keep your scalp and hair warm, protected and (maybe) in place! Wrapping a scarf or shawl around your neck to cover the ends of your hair is also a good idea and with so many ways to tie a scarf the style possibilities are endless!

Protection From The Cold

When hair gets cold, the shaft of each strand is more susceptible to damage, just like our skin. Deep-conditioning treatments only work on protecting the surface of the hair, but by nourishing your body with healthy fats like those from avocados and salmon, you will notice a difference in your hair. It will look shinier and the oils will help protect your hair from the cold. Studies have found that getting adequate omegas in your diet can even stimulate hair growth, thus preventing extra hair shedding that Swedish researchers found happens more often in the fall.

Moisturize Your Ends

Moisturizing the ends of your hair is as easy as a trip to your kitchen; take a few drops of extra-virgin olive oil and rub in between fingertips and apply to the ends of your hair while hair is slightly damp from the shower. This will seal in some of the moisture already there and help protect the ends of your hair before you go outdoors.

Eat Plenty of Dark Leafy Greens

Dark, leafy greens like spinach, broccoli, Swiss chard and kale are filled with vitamins A and C which helps boost oil production in your scalp, which will in turn, protect and nourish your hair. Not a veggie fan? Never fear; these vitamin powerhouses also can be added to your favorite fruit smoothies!

By protecting our hair early on before any damage occurs, you can rest assured that your hair will look and feel healthy for years to come, with less visits to the salon….and doctor!

Mistakes That Keep Your Hair Short

Which of These Mistakes Continue to Keep Your Hair Short?The problem of slow hair growth or the lack of length can be caused by a number of reasons, such as the diet you consume, excessively styling or roughly handling your hair, and even cutting it too often. Now you probably know about these already, but chances are that you didn’t know about the following four habits that can affect the growth of your hair.

Habit #1: Shampooing Too Often

Your shampoo strips your hair of its natural oils, which can completely dry your hair if you use it on a daily basis. Once your hair grows dry, you may experience regular hair loss, which then keeps your hair short. So shampoo your hair after every two or three days to keep it healthy and prevent it from falling.

Habit #2: Not Moisturizing Your Hair

Spending too much time working outdoors and exposing your hair to various elements can dehydrate your hair. Dry hair becomes rough and breaks easily, keeping your hair short. So consider using a moisturizing conditioner to prevent such a thing from happening.

Habit #3: Getting the Wrong Haircut

As your hair grows long, its highly porous ends act like a magnet for all sorts of air pollution and dirt. However, cutting your hair too often is also a big mistake. To keep things balanced, keep your hair at collar bone length to give it a healthy look and make it look neater.

Habit #4: Choosing Tight Ponytails and Buns

Tight ponytails and buns cause hair breakage and can actually pull out the roots of your hair. This is especially true while pulling soaking wet hair through ponytails. So, to allow your hair to grow and keep it healthy, keep your ponytail loose or go for a loose bun or braid.

Now that you know your mistakes, make sure to avoid them to get the long, healthy hair you’ve always wanted.

 

 

Folate is an Essential Vitamin for Hair Health

Folate is an Essential Vitamin for Hair HealthFolate and folic acid are two almost identical vitamins that vary slightly in their chemical formula but have essentially the same beneficial effects for one’s nutrition and hair health. The vitamin is found in green, leafy vegetables like spinach or broccoli, in legumes, such as peas, beans or lentils, and in a variety of fruits.

The importance of folate derives from its ability to stimulate the growth and cell regeneration process in the body. It is widely considered to be a factor in growth because it accelerates tissue repair and healing after prolonged disease or intense physical exercise.

Folate is among the most important vitamins not only for humans, but also for other animals and even bacteria. For example, there are antibiotics used for medical purposes to treat bacterial infections that kill bacteria by inhibiting their ability to use folate for their growth and multiplication. Without folate or folic acid, the bacteria stop growing and soon dies.

In the same manner, the human body needs folate to grow, repair its cells, and replace old cellular structures and components. For example, the hair contains a specific protein called keratin, which offers strength and flexibility.

Folate deficiency in one’s diet can cause the hair to become fragile or grey, and greatly accelerates hair loss. Introducing enough folate in the diet usually results in adequate hair growth. Folate is also very important for individuals who engage in physical work or exercise because it helps repair the muscles and recover faster by stimulating protein production and replacement. Athletes, military personnel and other physically active individuals are encouraged by nutritionists to increase their ingestion of folate or folic acid to satisfy the growing demands for healing, cellular repair and regeneration in their bodies.

A diet rich in “green” vegetables, legumes, and fruits usually provides enough folate for one’s nutritional needs. Fresh juices made from a variety of fruits or vegetables are especially rich in folate.

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Vitamin A for Vibrant, Healthy Hair

Vitamin A for Vibrant, Healthy Hair

Vitamin A is a powerhouse when it comes to keeping your hair feeling healthy and looking fabulous. It is one of the hardest working vitamins when it comes to the well being of the hair and scalp.

Many foods that you eat contain vitamin A including; cantaloupe, carrots, pumpkin, dark leafy greens and meat, but it’s difficult for you to receive all the benefits associated with a full daily allowance without taking a vitamin A supplement, available at most pharmacies and grocery stores. An expert recommended intake of vitamin A is 900 micrograms for men and 700 micrograms for women. More than the recommended amount is too much and can actually cause other health problems.

Vitamin A is an effective source of anti-oxidants, these anti-oxidants can remove unwanted and harmful free radicals from your hair, free radicals which are known to attach themselves to healthy cells and oxidize them, causing premature aging, and dulling and graying of the hair. Eliminating free radicals will make your hair feel lighter, give it more body, and help promote the strength and appearance of younger hair.

Vitamin A is also an anti-inflammatory agent and can stimulate the production of sebum in the scalp. Our bodies produce sebum in the follicles of the hair. The natural lipids, or oils, contained in sebum are essential for keeping your scalp healthy and moisturized. Many shampoos contain an overdose of powerful cleansing agents such as sulfates that can strip this naturally occurring substance from the hair. Washing too often or using a “cleansing” shampoo might make your hair feel squeaky clean, but it is drying your hair and leads to tangles. A properly moisturized scalp that receives a healthy dose of vitamin A helps keep the cuticle of your hair shaft smooth and leads to strong, naturally shiny hair.

A diet rich in vitamins A, D and C is an important source of nutrition for the health of skin and hair. They encourage the growth of healthy cells as well as connective tissues, increasing the efficiency of the entire body on a daily basis. Add vitamin A to your beauty regimen to ensure that your hair always remains abundant and vibrant.

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How to Make Your Hair Breakage-Proof

How to Make Your Hair Breakage-Proof Having long hair is the dream of most girls. However, not all of them manage to achieve this. One of the reasons behind this is the amount of breakage their hair experiences. If you really want to flaunt long tresses wherever you go, you need to take action against your brittle, easy to break hair. So, here are four bits of advice you should abide by.

Do Your Best to Minimize Your Hair Loss

It is normal to shed 50-100 hairs per day. If you start losing more, you need to make a few changes, such as choosing a protective style for a week or two or resisting the urge to unnecessary comb your hair. Through these small steps, you’ll be able to reduce your hair loss.

Stop Breakage from the Roots

Detangling your hair should never be painful. If that’s not the case and you’re pulling out a lot of hair, your roots will grow weak. So, either change your method of detangling or consider detangling in smaller sections to avoid breakage from the roots.

Try to Avoid Breakage from the Ends

Hair tangles around the ends of shafts, making it prone to breakage. To prevent this from happening, simply dab the tangles with oil for a few minutes and you’ll find it easier to get smooth, tangle-free hair.

Choose the Correct Detangling Method

Healthy natural hair is a process, not a goal. Therefore, you need to know what works for it to make the process successful. One aspect you should concentrate on is finding the correct detangling method to prevent breakage. You can take your pick from damp detangling, shower detangling, or sink/mirror detangling to prevent breakage.

Following these simple four steps will ensure that your hair grows long, healthy and breakage-proof. Just make sure to complement them with a healthy diet and a more active lifestyle for the best results.

Vitamin B6, Your Hair, and Your Health

Vitamin B6, Your Hair, and Your HealthVitamin B6 is a rather neat and necessary vitamin that you can find in a lot of common foods such as certain vegetables, meats, fish, milk, and grains that are likely in your diet. It’s also artificially injected into other foods and in supplements. What it does is provide your body with essential enzyme reactions and plays a hefty role in the metabolism.

When combined with azelaic acid, vitamin b6 is known to stimulate hair growth. This does not mean to overdose on vitamin b6 though, as this can have side effects. Instead you should be aiming to keep your levels of vitamin b6 on the healthy side and looking at supplements where your regular levels are insufficient. (Consuming too much vitamin b6 is a bit tricky anyway. It is a water soluble vitamin so any excess that your body cannot handle will be expelled when you go to the toilet. You would have to consume an awful lot of it in a very short period of time in order to hurt yourself.)

By no means is vitamin b6 some kind of magical hair growth elixir, it is just a natural process in the body being fueled by the necessary components. By consuming enough vitamin b6 to keep your body running at full capacity you will see a healthy regrowth of hair in many cases. Should you be seeing hair loss then checking to make sure that your vitamin b6 intake is sufficient can be a great first step to reversing the damage.

Healthy amounts of vitamin b6 will give you a healthy scalp which in turn acts as an excellent place for hair growth. Besides, on the inverse, failure to consume enough vitamin b6 has some nasty negative side effects. You will start becoming depressed and fatigued, as well as feeling weak and irritable. Stay healthy and keep your vitamin b6 levels at a good level.

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Make your Hair Zing with Zinc

Make your Hair Zing with Zinc

Crab is a great source for Zinc

If you want to get healthy hair, zinc might be the way to go, as Amino acid chelate is important for hair health. Zinc does amazing things to your hair by allowing the moisture in your scalp, called sebum, to be produced at a faster rate. That means less of that white stuff called dandruff giving you a hard time. It also means that you won’t lose as much hair in the shower or bath, too because the zinc keeps your hair healthy.

When you don’t get enough zinc in your system, you will find that your hair is more prone to breakage. It also will have problems growing again, which you don’t want to happen. Deficient levels of zinc can also be the cause of premature gray hair and hair loss that leads to balding.

So, you’re probably wondering how you can get zinc in your diet. Well, bread has a lot of zinc in it because of the yeast in bread. Also, you will find that meat has zinc in it, so if you love meat you are getting a good amount of zinc in your diet. If you eat seafood like mussels, you are also getting a good amount of zinc in your diet. Pumpkin seeds have zinc in them, so if you like those, you should eat up. Nuts are also a great source of zinc, as well. You can also get zinc if you take certain supplements with amino acid chelate, as well.

You should get around eight milligrams of zinc a day if you’re a women. Men can have as much as eleven milligrams of zinc each day. Don’t take calcium supplements with zinc because they will not work well together.

To conclude, zinc is really great, but you shouldn’t take too much zinc in your diet because it can have the opposite effect of what you intended and you could lose hair.

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Selenium Helps Protect your Hair from the Harsh Environment

Selenium Helps Protect your Hair from the Harsh EnvironmentSelenium Helps Protect your Hair from the Harsh Environment

Most of us will lose some of our hair by the time we are fifty, which is unfortunate and annoying. Hair gets thin and dry and brittle, which can lead to hair loss. There are certain nutrients, like selenium, that are really good for the hair and can keep it in better condition. Selenium can help to minimize hair loss if you use it in the right dose. Here’s how it works.

The body needs certain nutrients for all of its tissues, including hair. According to the Huntington College of Health Sciences, a deficiency of selenium in your diet can cause problems with your hair growing the way you would like it to. The University of Maryland Medical Center says that selenium works because it’s an antioxidant that helps to reverse some of the damage in the body from environmental effects. Selenium is also really good for your immune system too. Because of all this, the selenium helps with hair growth.

You are probably now wondering where you can get selenium from. Eat lots of liver and fish to get selenium in your diet. Eat a lot of butter, whole grains, and even garlic to get the selenium your body needs. You can also get selenium in the form of a vitamin as well, but don’t take more than fifty mcg per day. This is because if you take way too much selenium, it can actually become toxic to your body. So, use it in moderation.

You might not know this, but selenium can not only help you to grow your hair, but it’s good for your health overall. It helps with the repair of environmental damage. It can also help with the health of your heart and can help to boost resistance to some kinds of cancer, so it is imperative to have it in your diet.

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Keeping your Healthy Hair with Iodine

Keeping your Healthy Hair with IodineIodine is a neat little trace element that our bodies have grown accustomed to having. It is so necessary in our body that iodine deficiency can lead to hair loss, increased chances of cancer cells growing, and serious thyroid problems.

If you’re experiencing hair loss, checking whether you have enough iodine in your diet is a great place to start troubleshooting. If you are not getting enough iodine, you can look for a supplement which contains the recommended daily dose.

Getting a healthy amount of iodine is not hard in the first place, so you may as well ensure you’re getting your fill. You might have noticed that many forms of food will even advertise that they have iodine in them. Take for example iodized salt. Other great sources of iodine are kelp, eggs, and many kinds of sea foods.

For shiny, healthy hair you will want a fair dosage of iodine in your diet. Adequate levels of iodine can help hair regrow if you are experiencing hair loss due to iodine deficiency, and can perhaps improve normal growth.

Just think, a little bit of kelp every few days and your hair will love you for it. Most Americans need it too. Many Americans do not have enough iodine in their diets, which leads to problems with metabolism, premature hair loss, unhealthy hair and skin, and worse problems. Do not starve your body of what it needs if you want to keep it healthy.

There are a lot of products out there that advertise being able to make you regrow your hair or get healthy hair back. Before you go looking for pills and ointments to help your hair, look at giving your body everything that it needs to be healthy first. Put a little bit of iodine in your diet and your hair will be happier for it.

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How to Make Dull Hair Look Sleek and Polished

How to Make Dull Hair Look Sleek and PolishedAll of us want to have the sleek and shining hair flaunted in beauty and fashion magazines. The fact is that these glossy locks are usually achieved with the help of a lot of hair products, professional lighting and some smart technical edits. However, that doesn’t mean that your hair can’t get shinier and healthier. You can easily get your hair to look good within certain realistic limits and without any special effects.

Before solving your problem, you need to understand why hair gets dull. If you tend to use a lot of heat and chemicals to style your hair on a regular basis, your hair will lose its luster. Using harsh styling techniques, excessive stress and exposure to environmental soils can also lead to dull hair. Now that you know why your hair has grown dull, here are a few simple tips and tricks to help you counter this situation.

Rinse Your Hair with Cold Water

One of the best ways you can retain the shine of your hair is by keeping it moisturized. Excessive heat to your hair results in opened cuticles, which in turn make your hair dull. By simply rinsing your hair with cold water, you can close down these cuticles and improve the look of your tresses. Just make sure that you don’t undo the benefits you get from cold rinsing by blow drying your hair with excessive heat.

Embrace Rinses with Natural Products

You can also rinse your hair with some natural products to add some luster to it. For instance, you can use vinegar to rinse your hair after shampooing and conditioning it. To carry this out, add a cup of white vinegar to a gallon of water and use the mixture to rinse your hair. Using this mixture regularly will tighten the cuticle layer of your hair, helping you keep your hair shiny.

Make the Right Shampoo Choices

To prevent your hair from looking dull, you need to use a shampoo that can moisturize your hair and a moisture rich conditioner to complement it. You can find several of these shampoos and conditioners in stores to help you maintain the healthy look and shine of your hair.

So make sure that your hair is always looking its best using these simple natural remedies.

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