Do You Really Need Vitamins Or Supplements To Grow Black Hair Long?

Contents:

• Separate The Fact From The Fiction In Black Hair Growth
• What Influences Hair Growth?
• The Importance Of Diet In Hair Growth
• Final Considerations
• Further Reading

Separate The Fact From The Fiction In Black Hair Growth

Hair vitamin pills and potions are rampant on the internet and in health food stores but do they actually work or are the results tangible enough to make them worth it?

The first time I remember making a connection between supplements* and hair growth I was about ten. My mom would send me next door to the neighbor to get my hair done. “Tell your mother to buy the cod liver oil pills, they will make your hair grow faster,” Joy had said a couple of times.

I finally told Mom who went to the pharmacy and stocked up. Those things tasted horrible when they popped. I haven’t thought about those pills in ages. I can’t say for certain whether or not those pills did what Joy said they would. At aged 10 you’re really into immediate results and after the first week or so of pulling, the cornrows got old.

Now a couple decades later supplements are being marketed directly for hair growth. I doubt they were so prevalent back when I was 10 but these days, it seems like every other beauty vlogger is singing the praises of a hair growth supplement. If you watch enough YouTube videos it starts to make you wonder if you can have healthier, longer hair without having a bottle of supplements in your arsenal.

The truth is hair grows at an average of 6-10 inches per year, the exact rate of your hair growth being genetic. The human body works in such a way that food consumed will provide energy to the brain, heart, lungs and all other major organs before it is converted into the protein required to build hair and nails. In layman’s terms, hair and nails take a back seat in the body’s daily food distribution!

The only known time that hair has been proven to naturally grow at a faster rate is during pregnancy and this is due to the change in hormones in the body. Many believe that taking pre natal vitamins even when not pregnant will have the same effect. If this works at all, it may be because the nutrition going to the organs and cells have levelled off enough to allow some nutrients to trickle down to the hair and nails.

What Influences Hair Growth?

Hair growth in one person can vary depending mostly on external influences. If the person is malnourished, the hair growth will be stunted as the body will prioritize more important bodily functions. A lot of stress will have much the same effect including increased shedding of the hair.

B complex vitamins as well as Vitamin C*, E and Zinc* are known to play a part in hair growth. Many of the hair growth supplements* on the market today contain these vitamins in a variety of combinations. The principal is if you are over consuming these vitamins, then the body will grow the hair and nails at a faster rate. The human body however has its own ideas.

Unfortunately, if these vitamins are in excess of the body’s needs, they can also just be removed as waste. The vitamins are certainly helpful to people who are lacking in them. They can help fill in the gap that daily food intake does not fill hence ‘normalizing’ the hair growth which can be seen as an increase in growth.

Some people may notice a jump in hair growth after the first few months or so after taking these vitamins. This is likely due to the increase in the nutrition the body has been lacking by consuming an imbalanced diet. The hair growth may then stabilize to its ‘genetic norm’ for that particular person.

If the person has a diet that includes eating fast food a few times a week, if they are taking supplements* then despite nutritionally poor food they will still get some of the nourishment that they need for their fastest hair growth.

The Importance Of Diet In Hair Growth

The truth is, if you are eating a balanced diet, drinking plenty of water, exercising and taking good care of your hair, it will flourish. With black hair care this includes washing the hair with suitable shampoos which will not dry out the hair, deep conditioning* after every wash and keeping it strengthened with protein treatments.

This should help tremendously with length retention and coupled with a good protein rich diet and exercise, your hair will reach greater lengths than you ever imagined, but if you have gaps in your diet and you want to give yourself a better chance at growing healthier tresses, supplementation could help you a great deal too.

The USA and in fact the western world has in recent decades reached extraordinary levels of overweight and obesity with black people being more likely to be affected both by the obesity and the possible related conditions of diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

It has been speculated that overweight people are simply not getting adequate nutrition from their diet so in an effort to increase nutrition from food the body forces the individual to overconsume calories resulting in further weight increase as excess calories are stored as fat.

There are those who eat resonably healthy diets on weekdays then ‘treat’ themselves to take out or eat out at the weekend. This seemingly innocent habit can also wreak havoc on the body as it expects adequate nutrition every single day and over decades this will also lead to worsening health.

In this fast world of convenience meals that we live in, it can be difficult to get all the vitamins and minerals that we need daily and it is estimated that 60% of us are deficient in one vitamin or other. It may be worth your while to try a hair growth vitamin, you will be able to tell in the first 3-4 months if it has enhanced your hair growth. A single month is simply not suffecient to reap the rewards of any supplement you decide to try.

Final Considerations

Many persons have benefited from a healthier lifestyle after embarking on the quest for healthier skin and hair. Some have sought to include a more balanced diet and frequent exercise. We have always maintained that healthy hair hinges on proper nutrition. What’s our conclusion?

Simply put, in a perfect world where everyone is eating nourishing organic food then certainly nobody needs supplements. However in the world we currently live in where fast food is a weekly if not daily occurrence then there are huge gaps in our nutritional needs that are not being met by food only, especially with all the processing some of our foods go through; hybrid foods and gmo modification changing the food landscape, who knows what we’re really getting.

At the end of the day, you know what your diet is like. If your diet needs a boost there’s no shame in that, that is why supplements exist. You can check out our very own Elongtress Hair Vitamins right here.

Further Reading

If you want to find out more about hair vitamins and how they affect hair growth, peruse through these posts:

• A-Z of Hair Growth Vitamins And Their Natural Alternatives
• How Hair Vitamins Can Help To Promote Healthier Hair
• Eating For Your Hair Health – How To Feed Your Hair For Maximum Growth
• Vitamin C is Vital For Hair Health And Growth, Here Are 4 Reasons Why
• The Truth About Your Diet, and How it Affects Your Hair Growth
• Delicious DIY “Root Juice” For Long, Healthy Hair
• 4 Vitamins You May Need If You’re Experiencing Hair Loss
• 5 Dietary Vitamins You Need To Have Long And Healthy Hair
• The Connection Between Vitamin D And Your Hair
• Hair Vitamins Not Working For You? Learn About The Cummulative Effect of Supplements
• The Same But Different: Herbal Supplements Vs Vitamin Supplements For Hair Growth

Updated by Marsha Buchannan