Hair fall is quite a common issue nowadays and there are many factors that can trigger severe hair loss – hormonal imbalance, stress, nutritional deficiencies, wrong dietary practices, are counted as main causes. If you are encountering severe hair fall, the first person to turn to help would be your physician, who would rule out underlying causes and prescribe you appropriate medicines to combat the issue. Stress, lifestyle changes, and hair care products is what you can look into and make necessary changes. As we have mentioned above, deficiency of nutrients such as vitamin A, C, E, iron, zinc, selenium, protein, potassium, biotin, etc., can cause hair fall, and here’s a list of 18 foods rich in hair-friendly nutrients that can help tackle hair loss.
1. Milk: Hair is essentially made up of protein, so increasing protein would benefit hair a great deal. The proteins in milk – casein and whey do a whole lot of good to the hair. If your hair lacks protein, it might stunt out hair growth, and milk is a good source of protein. If you do not like milk, you can switch to almond milk instead.
2. Eggs: Egg is a superfood. It has all the nutrients that are necessary for healthy hair growth and to prevent hair fall – protein, vitamins, folate, calcium, iron, phosphorous, zinc, selenium, biotin, etc. At least one egg a day would keep all your hair problems away.
3. Fish: Seafood, particularly salmon, has omega-3 fatty acids and also vitamin B. Omega-3 fatty acid is not only good for the heart, it’s great for skin and hair too.
4. Spinach: Spinach is rich in potassium, an essential nutrient for healthy growth of hair. It is also rich in vitamin A and C. Actually, vitamin A, folate, and potassium deficiency can cause hair loss and supplementing your diet with spinach can give your hair a new boost.
5. Nuts: Nuts are not only rich in multitude of nutrients, they also provide trace essential elements that can nourish and help hair grow. For example, walnuts provide biotin, almonds are a rich source of iron, raisins are also high in iron. Pistachios stimulate hair growth as they contain fatty acids and also biotin to fight hair loss.
6. Curry Leaves: It’s not a myth, but those who include curry leaves in their daily diet have thick, lustrous, and long hair. There’s no secret – curry leaves are rich in iron and folic acid. Many people in South India boil curry leaves in coconut oil to reap its benefits apart from consuming it abundantly in their diet.
7. Gooseberry (amla): Amla is a superfood like egg, contains a great source of hair-beneficial nutrients like vitamin C, A, potassium, magnesium, calcium. Along with hair growth, it improves your vision and immunity too.
8. Cabbage: You can directly apply cabbage juice to your scalp to prevent hair loss and to stimulate hair growth too. Cabbage is rich in biotin and sulfur, so that explains the magic.
9. Carrots: The vitamin A content in carrots keeps hair healthy and promotes hair growth. Vitamin A has antioxidants that reverses damage done and strengthens hair.
10. Sweet Potato: Like carrots, sweet potatoes too are rich in Vitamin A and help in nourishing hair and reducing hair fall.
11. Watermelon seeds: Zinc and copper are trace elements that are great for hair, to prevent hair loss, to let hair grow strong and healthy, but the problem is that it’s difficult to find foods that are rich in zinc and copper. Copper will also help prevent premature greying. But you can find these two elements along with protein content in dry watermelon seeds. You can roast the seeds up and include them in your green salads.
12. Peanuts: Peanuts are a great source of protein, zinc, and also biotin.
13. Onions: Onions are loaded with hair stimulating nutrients like sulfur, iron and can treat a variety of scalp and hair problems like itchy scalp, hair loss, dandruff, damaged hair, thinning hair, etc. You can make this hair stimulating potion with onions to prevent hair fall.
14. Tomatoes: The vitamin C content in tomatoes help prevent hair loss. Vitamin C helps repair tissues and cells. Vitamin C also has antioxidant properties that cancel out the harmful effects of free radicals that can make your hair weak.
15. Papaya: Papaya is a great source of Vitamin A and C, both great to prevent hair fall.
16. Avocado: A rich source of vitamin E and healthy fats, it’s absolutely great for lustrous hair.
17. Pumpkin Seeds: These seed are packed with vitamin E, zinc, healthy fats, and even selenium.
18. Rajma: There’s one more reason to love rajma-chawal now – black beans or rajma, as it is popularly called in India, has hair-friendly nutrients such as protein and folate.
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