How to get Stronger, Longer and Healthier Hair (Part 1)

Ang’s Healthy Hair Journey: We’re making progress!

I had written a while back on about how I was starting my healthy hair journey after years of heat damage leading to severely weakened hair. My primary motivation being this one instance a few months back where I had tied my hair into a ponytail after blowing it out. To much concern, I noticed that my edges appeared far thinner than they had ever been previously. I immediately began to freak out and assume that I was balding… like my father.

After having a long and drawn-out pep talk with myself where I concluded that women don’t bald overnight, I took to the interwebs for a solution. Today I want to share some of the minor changes I made to my previous regimen in order to obtain stronger, longer and healthier hair.

Where do I start?

The first thing I desired to figure out was what kind of hair I had. I knew that my hair was naturally curly but I had been relaxing it for years. So I first looked up how to strengthen relaxed hair. While I found quite a few relevant articles, I was still ultimately confused by the end of my search. As you may have realized, there are way too many hair products out there and my wallet simply cannot afford to perform ritual sacrifice every time I feel like purchasing an eighth of them. So I looked towards the next best thing; vitamins!

Vitamins

Vitamins are organic compounds that are needed in small quantities to sustain life. Most vitamins need to come from an outside source, primarily food, because the human body either does not produce enough of them, or does not produce any at all. Here are a couple of vitamins I have been taking specifically for the purpose of strengthening my hair:

Vitamin E

Vitamin E helps with overall scalp health. It increases blood flow which makes the processes that facilitate the production of healthy hair, far easier. Optimal blood flow = optimal hair growth. In other words, if the scalp is healthy, that which proceeds from it will be healthy as well -and not to mention increasingly endowed with a natural and more noticeable sheen.

Biotin

Biotin (also known as vitamin B7) is a water-soluble B-vitamin that helps your body convert food into energy. This energy is utilized for everything from proper muscle function to, you guessed it…hair growth. I trimmed my hair back in early October and now, at the end of November, it looks even longer than it was before I cut it. That is something I am very happy about. This particular supplement has also had an enormous positive impact on my nails. Once brittle and sensitive, they are now growing faster and stronger than before.

In addition to these vitamins, I have also begun using certain leave-in conditioners while exercising self-control by being more conservative with my relaxer (which is not an easy feat). However, I will share that part of my journey for stronger, longer and healthy hair in a future post, so stay tuned.

Regarding the usage of these supplements (which I must emphasize are “merely supplements,” not to be taken in lieu of, but rather along with a clean and healthy diet), please note that, at least to me, this is not a vanity project.  Instead, this is my earnest attempt to correct years of poor dieting and a largely careless lifestyle when it came to my health. When people think “healthy lifestyle” for the most part they often think about weight control. This view could not be more limited. Being healthy means taking care of the whole body -including, though not limited to, our skin, and nails and hair. We are to be good stewards of the bodies that God has given to us, the whole body.

SDG – “Soli Deo Gloria”