For hair to grow well, your scalp needs to be healthy.
That basically means that a number of things need to be ‘right’ in order to support the hair follicles that generate healthy hair. Those things basically involve blood flow, vitamin and natural oils and acids.
There are a number of illnesses that may affect the health of the scalp and hair and obviously these will need to be treated as appropriate. Using vitamins alone is unlikely to have any affect on hair problems that arise from these medical conditions.
Vitamins as a cause of hair loss
It has been known for centuries (if not articulated in modern scientific terms) that vitamin deficiencies can cause illness and even death.
In the British navy of centuries past, limes and other fruit were increasingly an obligatory part of the diet (hence the nickname ‘Limey’) as they were known to prevent scurvy – though the exact mechanics were not understood at all.
More recently, the effects of vitamin deficiencies on health have become better understood and it is known that some diseases arising as a result of vitamin deficiencies may also have the effect of thinning hair.
In the USA and western world in general, serious vitamin deficiencies arising as a result of the total absence of available sources (primarily food) due to the traditional historical causes of famine, war or the seasons, is now fortunately very rare.
Even so, it may still occur in cases of:
• Extreme social and economic deprivation;
• Poor voluntary dietary regimes associated with excessive consumption of junk food or strict dieting without medical supervision;
• Illnesses that prevent the body fully metabolizing vitamins available to it.
Vitamins and hair
If you are suffering serious vitamin deficiencies as a result of the above, then you may need some form of medical or other professional help. In fact, the effects on your hair may be very much secondary in severity to other more noticeable health effects.
However, what some may argue is that certain non-critical deficiencies in vitamins may play a part in your hair thinning.
In fact, the “how to improve hair growth through vitamins” advice often includes a fairly potent-sounding cocktail of vitamins and minerals including perhaps:
• Vitamin B-complex including biotin;
• Vitamin B-6;
• Vitamin E;
• Vitamin C;
• Zinc, Sulfur and Magnesium;
• Beta-Carotene.
Intuitively, few would doubt that keeping the body’s levels of critical vitamins and minerals up to healthy levels would do anything other than help you maintain good health and as a by-product, healthier hair.
However, it’s usually a good idea to consult your physician before taking any form of vitamin or mineral supplements.
Differentiating between hair growth and hair loss
The problem is that when talking about vitamin treatments for hair loss, vitamin deficiencies may rarely be the causative factor.
If you have, for example, an ingrown toenail, then taking an aspirin may help you feel better for a while but it won’t be doing anything for the underlying cause or helping the problem to resolve itself.
Although many experts in medicine will probably agree that vitamins are essential for healthy-looking hair and good growth, that’s a completely different thing to saying that vitamins can prevent hair loss or stimulate its re-growth.
The area is far from well understood but it is now widely accepted that the more common cause of premature hair thinning and loss in both sexes (often called pattern baldness) is due to a combination of genetics and hormone levels.
Other causes may be attributable to things such as stress, pregnancy (also hormone based), environmental issues, lifestyle (controversial and unproven) and illness or illness-related treatments. In only a relatively minor percentage of cases may the cause be due to vitamin deficiencies.
As a result of this, it is not immediately easy to see how vitamin-related treatments could significantly reduce hair loss and thinning for many people.
Summary
Keeping your hair healthy and more attractive-looking may be possible by the use of some vitamin-based regimes – that is a matter for personal assessment.
However, there appears to be little evidence that such treatments would have any effect on serious hair thinning and loss arising from things such as pattern baldness.
As such, for most people it may be something better seen as a cosmetic rather than remedial treatment.
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