Reader Question: Do Prenatal Vitamins Help Hair Grow?

Reader Question:

I’ve always had short hair, until I got pregnant. My hair usually was to my ear at best, but after only 9 months my hair grew to down past my shoulders, it was thicker than ever and healthy. A year later I had to get it cut because it broke all off. Which could be due to stress and I got my hair dyed and I didn’t know how to maintain it. Now I’m trying to grow it back, by going to the beautician once a week, but its still not growing back. Its very depressing. Yes my hair is relaxed and I do not want to go natural. Should I buy prenatal vitamins or hair vitamins?? Are there any special tips for growing out relaxed hair?

Our Answer:

I’m sorry to hear about the problems you are having with your hair. I find it amazing that most of the ladies that contact us with problems about hair that will not grow are usually relaxed. The main problem that I have come across is that more often than not, it is simply because the hair is overprocessed. Many relaxers give a 20 minute window in which to apply it and while it may be accurate for an average black women, we are not all the same and 20 minutes may be way too much for some.

In my case, I found out that a mild texturizer applied for 5 minutes more or less did the same thing as a relaxer, got my hair straight enough to move on to styling. Now considering that I thought that my hair was resistant and I used super relaxers in the past applied for about half an hour, you can imagine how damaged my hair was. Many ladies do not relise that styling does not end with relaxing. Hair will still need to undergo some sort of proces (rollersetting or flat ironing) to achieve the sleek straight look so many times relaxing bone straight is unhealthy and more often than not, does not work because hair will usually be left with a bit of curl anyway! You may want to consider texturizing or texlaxing instead of relaxing to wear straight hair but keep strength in your hair. This way you preserve much of your natural hair’s strength while being able to wear it straight easily by rollersetting or flat ironing. Read this article for more information.

Pregnancy hormones makes your hair stay in the anagen phase (hair growing phase) during the course of the pregnancy which is why most women experience thicker longer hair. However not much of your hair is shedding at this stage so you do not experience the shedding that usually happens daily. After the pregnancy is over, the body’s hormones drop to normal levels which means that all the lovely hair that should have shedded during the pregnancy will shed all at once. This can be distressing and I am speaking from experience here because I lost most of the hair in my hairline a few months after my daughter was born but the hair will grow back (mine did!). Taking pre-natal vitamins will not help much because your hormones are at a normal level and the vitamins do not affect your hormone levels. Some supplements however are designed to enhance hair growth but will only work as part of a solid regimen.

Another thing is that double processing is never a good idea. If your hair is relaxed, it would be best to avoid permanent hair color unless you enjoy short hair anyway. It is notoriously difficult to grow relaxed colored hair. You will need to look at your regimen again and adjust it to include all the necessary components to grow relaxed hair long. Use this article as a starting point.

Good luck in your hair journey!