The right nutrition for healthy hair

How does a diet for healthy hair work? A person has around 100,000 hairs. Every day around 100 of them fall out naturally. Hair can look shiny or dull, vital or dry. It can break or develop split ends. Hair can go grey or fall out. Our hair grows about 0.3 millimetres a day, so about one centimetre a month.

With a market volume of more than three billion euros, hair care products are the highest-selling segment in the German personal care market. Worldwide revenue stood at around 77.9 billion euros in 2022

The industry puts a lot of effort into bringing new “miracle cures” for shiny, full and fresh hair onto the market. But do you know which miracle cure is often overlooked? Your own diet. Because like everything else in your body, your hair needs building blocks that you take in through food. It makes a big difference to your body whether your meal consists of a pizza or of a fresh dish with plenty of vital nutrients.

In this article we look at the biochemistry of your hair. We tell you which foods and nutrients support your hair health. We talk about how hair loss and grey hair come about and whether they can perhaps be reversed with the right knowledge.

Healthy hair matters a great deal, both from an aesthetic and from a health point of view. It gives our appearance shine and vitality, it expresses our personality and can therefore reflect part of our identity.

That can also have a positive effect on our general wellbeing and our self-confidence. If we feel good about our hair and are happy with it, that raises our self-esteem and our emotional state. Healthy hair is also a sign of good general health, because it is influenced by various factors such as lifestyle, physical condition and diet.

Healthy hair can therefore point to good health in general. Our hair also serves as natural protection for our scalp against sunlight, cold and other environmental influences. Healthy hair can protect the scalp better.

As just mentioned briefly, various factors can influence the health of our hair. The most important factors are:

In order to understand the mechanisms behind healthy hair growth and potential hair loss, let us first look at the structure of hair and the hair growth cycle.

Hair has two different structures: the hair follicle in the skin and the hair shaft, the part that is visible on the outside. The outer layer of the hair shaft is the so-called cuticle. It consists of flat, overlapping cells.

The integrity and the properties of the cuticle are important for protecting the layer underneath, the cortex, from physical and chemical influences, and they affect how our hair looks. The cortex makes up the largest part of the hair.

It contains the protein keratin, which gives the hair firmness, structure and elasticity. The type of bonds between the keratin molecules determines the natural structure of the hair. In some hair types there is also the medulla inside the hair.

The hair follicle, which lies in the skin, is the part of the hair in which growth takes place. It consists of an outer and an inner root sheath. The outer root sheath contains keratinocytes, that is keratin-producing cells, and melanocytes, melanin-producing cells.

Melanins are the pigments in the hair that determine our hair colour. A distinction is made between eumelanin, the pigment responsible for darker hair colours, and pheomelanin, which is responsible for lighter hair colours.

The inner root sheath consists of Henle’s layer, Huxley’s layer and the cuticle layer. This cuticle layer borders on the cuticle of the hair shaft and therefore anchors the hair shaft in the follicle.

The part of the follicle that actively produces the hair is called the hair bulb. It too consists of various parts and layers, but that goes too far at this point. Let us rather look at how hair growth actually works.

Hair growth follows a recurring cycle, and every hair follicle has its own biological clock that controls the hair cycle. Three phases are distinguished during hair growth:

1. Anagen phase: The anagen phase is the time of hair growth, the growth phase so to speak. The hair root cell divides actively in this phase and the hair grows. It lasts about three to six years, sometimes even longer. During the anagen phase the hair keeps getting longer and eventually reaches its maximum length. The length of the anagen phase is therefore decisive for hair length. A normal scalp contains more than 80% anagen hairs.
2. Catagen phase: This phase is the so-called transition phase of hair growth. The metabolic activity of the anagen phase ends, the hair stops growing and the hair follicles shrink. In this phase, which lasts only a few weeks, the hair is cut off from the blood supply and slowly begins to separate from the root.
3. Telogen phase: The last phase is the telogen phase, also called the resting phase. The hair rests while a new hair develops beneath the resting hair root. After about two to four months the hair falls out and the cycle begins again. A normal scalp contains less than 20% telogen hairs.

An unbalanced diet can show up in our hair in various ways: brittle, dry, lacklustre hair, slower hair growth, all the way to hair loss. All of this can be influenced by our diet. In order to supply the hair follicles with the necessary building blocks and to shine with healthy hair, a healthy diet matters a great deal.

To support hair growth and hair structure, an intake of high-quality protein is essential. Because our hair consists mainly of protein, more precisely of keratin. It gives the hair structure and elasticity and makes it more resistant to breakage and damage.

Nutrients such as B vitamins, vitamin C, iron and zinc support cell division and the production of new hair cells, which promotes hair growth. To keep our scalp healthy as well, sufficient hydration through water and the consumption of omega-3 fatty acids are also important.

A low carb or ketogenic diet can also offer some advantages for your hair health. Through the anti-inflammatory effect of these two ways of eating, inflammation in the body is reduced, and inflammation can among other things also affect the hair follicles and thereby harm the hair.

With our nutrition plans you are also well supplied with high-quality proteins and therefore give your hair enough building blocks to grow and shine.

Another advantage: we make a point of not using any processed foods that are rich in refined sugar, trans fats or chemical additives. These foods promote inflammation, which in turn harms our hair.

Quite the opposite: we value natural, unprocessed, fresh foods and healthy fats. In that way we promote healthy hair that simply bowls everyone over.

At this point it is important to mention again that genetic predisposition, hormones, stress and hair care practices also have effects on your hair health.

And yet: a balanced diet is part of a holistic approach to hair care and can contribute to healthy, strong and shiny hair. So here are our top 10 nutrients for healthy hair.

Beauty from within, yes, that really does work. Your body relies on the building blocks of nature in order to produce hair, skin and nails and to let them shine.

Are you suffering from hair loss but do not know what you can do about it? As with so many things, your diet is one lever here that you can adjust in order to counteract it. There are, however, different types of hair loss, and unfortunately not every one of them can be influenced by diet. So if you have severe hair loss you should see a doctor in order to clarify the causes.

These types of hair loss exist:

• Androgenetic hair loss: This form of hair loss is the most common one and can affect both men and women. For genetic reasons the hair follicles are sensitive to a hormone derived from testosterone, namely dihydrotestosterone. The hair follicle shrinks over time. That leads to hair that keeps getting thinner, until hair loss finally occurs.
• Telogen effluvium: In the first part of this article you already got to know the telogen phase as the resting phase of the hair cycle, at the end of which the hairs fall out. With telogen effluvium the hair follicles enter the resting phase early and therefore fall out prematurely. Causes for this can be severe physical or emotional strain, medication, hormonal changes or a poor diet.
• Alopecia areata: This form of hair loss is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the hair follicles. As a result, round patches of hair loss occur on the scalp or also on other parts of the body. The exact cause of this is not yet fully understood.
• Scarring hair loss: Inflammation, infections or injuries of the scalp can lead to scarring and tissue damage that damages the hair follicles irreparably. This leads to permanent hair loss.
• Traction alopecia: If the hair is repeatedly put under strong tension or pulled, for example by tight hairstyles, traction alopecia can occur. The persistent pull on the hair can lead to damage to the hair follicles and to hair loss in the affected area.

Now that we know the different types of hair loss, we can take a closer look at how a poor diet can lead to hair loss. Various factors can contribute to this.

An insufficient intake of protein can mean that the body does not have enough keratin available for the hair to grow. The hair becomes thinner and weaker and can ultimately fall out.

An iron deficiency is also often responsible for hair loss. As a component of haemoglobin in the red blood cells, iron is responsible for transporting oxygen to the body’s cells. In this way it serves the sufficient oxygen supply of the hair follicles, which is important for hair growth.

Iron also plays an important role in DNA synthesis and cell division. These processes are decisive for hair growth, which is why a lack of iron can lead to hair loss. As you were able to read under our top 10 nutrients for healthy hair, nutrients such as biotin, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids are very important for the structure, the stability and the growth of our hair.

A deficiency can have a negative influence on hair growth and on the structure of our hair, which is why it is particularly important to make sure of a sufficient supply of these nutrients in order to counteract hair loss. In addition, a diet that is rich in inflammatory foods can promote chronic inflammation in the body. This damages the hair follicles and therefore leads to hair loss.

Particularly important nutrients in cases of hair loss are:

“Now don’t go growing yourself any grey hairs.”

Perhaps you have heard this saying before. It means that you should not worry or stress unnecessarily. But what does that have to do with grey hair? Is it actually true that stress leads to grey hair? And can anything be done about grey hair at all?

In a small US study from 2021, the colours of individual sections of hair were compared with the stress diaries of the participants. It became clear that during stressful periods the hair grew back grey more often. Stress is therefore indeed associated with grey hair.

But do not worry when you discover your first grey hair. It is entirely normal. And the good news: we may even be able to do something about it.

At the beginning of this article we learned that hair pigmentation comes about through melanins, which are produced in the melanocytes. So in order to maintain this pigmentation, the presence and the function of the melanocytes are decisive.

Conversely, a loss of melanocytes or of their function is connected with a loss of hair pigmentation, in other words with grey hair. The distribution and activity of the melanocytes can vary from person to person and can change over the course of life.

With increasing age the melanocytes can lose activity, so that less melanin is produced and the hair ultimately appears grey. But genetic factors, hormonal changes, environmental influences or certain illnesses can also influence the activity of our melanocytes.

One cause of grey hair is oxidative stress. It arises when there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body’s cells. Free radicals damage the cells and lead to oxidative stress. Because of their high metabolic activity, melanocytes are particularly susceptible to oxidative stress.

If it gets out of hand, hydrogen peroxide accumulates in the melanocytes. Hydrogen peroxide is also used for bleaching hair and can lead to damage to the melanocytes. Their function is impaired, so that less melanin is produced. The hair loses its pigmentation and appears grey.

A poor diet can increase the oxidative stress in our body. Heavily processed foods, refined sugar or excessive alcohol consumption promote the formation of free radicals. An insufficient intake of nutrients with an antioxidant effect, such as vitamin C, also means that the body cannot be protected sufficiently from the harmful effects of the free radicals.

So you should make sure that you take in enough antioxidants through your diet in order to prevent oxidative stress in your body and therefore protect your hair.

Psychological stress, smoking, UV radiation and air pollution also increase oxidative stress in the body, and hair can go grey faster. But there is hope: a small study suggests that the greying of hair can be reversed.

The following measures are definitely worth a try:

1. Make sure you get enough antioxidants through a diet that is colourful and full of vegetables.
2. Reduce the stress hormone cortisol through targeted meditation and restful sleep.
3. Support your body’s own antioxidant system through supplementation with liposomal glutathione.

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