What Goes Into Healthy Hair?

Good morning!

Wow, has this January been cold, I hope that you are all recovering and safe from the frigid weather we’ve been seeing these past few days. I know we’re all looking forward to some well deserved sunshine (I hope). 

In this week's newsletter I thought that it would be interesting to dive into the enigmatic world of hair care. Yes, that “one more minuteee!” activity before leaving the house that has us looking in the mirror for hours every week. Not kidding!

On average, women spend about 52 minutes a day caring for their hair, while men spend around 37 minutes. Even more striking, people aged 16-24 spend roughly 8 hours and 26 minutes every single week on their hair!

Key Takeaways

• Biotin and collagen shampoos aren’t effective because these molecules are too large to get near the hair follicle.

• Penetrating oils help structural repair while sealing oils aid in surface protection.

• Diet can play a significant role in hair health. Including minerals like magnesium may prove crucial.

CORE

Why should you care?

Hair is one of those features we notice, and worry about, the most. And yes, that’s because we often assume other people will judge us by it (I totally do too). That obsession is exactly why so many of us spend hours each week tending to our strands of keratin. Just imagine if we dedicated that same amount of time to hitting the gym or going for a hike!

But the negative part of the “hype” around hair is that we are more prone to believe just about anything that we are told, and will buy any beauty product just because Rihanna recommended it in her last IG live, so today I hope that I can give you some tools that will help you make healthier and more cost efficient decisions.

CORE

What is hair?

And yes, I do need to explain what hair is because it will help explain another concept later on regarding the two types of oils that you can add to your hair. So super briefly; hair serves a whole bunch of purposes in our body such as keeping us warm and keeping things out of our eyes and airways, they trap stuff like dust and other particles. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Cuticle: The outer protective layer, made mostly of overlapping dead cells.

• Cortex: Made of long keratin proteins, it gives hair its strength, elasticity, and texture, plus the melanin that gives your hair its color. Curly, straight, or frizzy? That’s all the cortex.

• Medulla (the core): Scientists aren’t entirely sure what this is for but the consensus is that it gives the hair more structural integrity.

Hair Oils, Types and Purpose:

If you care about keeping your hair strong and healthy, you’ve probably heard of two main types of hair oils: penetrating oils and sealing oils.

Penetrating Oils actually get inside the hair, reaching the cortex. Even though hair is made of dead cells, the keratin proteins inside that make up the cortex are sturdy, which is why we can grow hair for years. Penetrating oils help by:

• Filling in the gaps: As hair gets damaged it loses fats, developing holes in the cortex, similar to a sponge. These gaps make the hair lose integrity making it less flexible and easier to break. Penetrating oils fix this by “filling in” the holes.

• Preventing hygral fatigue: Your hair is constantly getting wet and dried out, and this causes the constant expansion/contraction of the cortex which weakens the protein bonds of keratin. As you know, oil repels water which is why it can mitigate the negative effect of so much hair washing.

• Lubrication from within: By adding oil to the cortex of the hair, the long keratin proteins don’t rub up directly against each other when the hair moves which can reduce the amount of breakage and snapping.

The best, natural penetrating oils are: Coconut Oil, Ucuuba Butter and Olive Oil!

Sealing Oils are also pretty important, but truthfully, they aren’t as cool as penetrating oils. Their job is just to stay on the surface of the hair and insulate the hair, providing flexibility and also helping to make sure that less water gets into the hair.

The best natural sealing oils are castor oil, argan oil and drumroll please… Jojoba Oil!

Bottom 3 Hair Products

Before I discuss the top 3, evidence based hair products I thought that it was worth going over some of the most ineffective ones.

• Biotin Shampoos: Biotin is quite the important vitamin to get down to make sure that your hair is luscious and not brittle, but I have seen way too many biotin infused shampoos this week already. For biotin to work you need it to be near the hair follicle, where hair is made.

• Collagen Shapoos: Another example of a wonderful nutrient (like biotin) that does quite literally does nothing on your scalp. It’s way too big of a molecule to get absorbed through the cuticle. You’ll see better results getting it in your diet.

• Stem Cell Extracts: Stem cells are wonders of biology, really. However, many (very expensive) of the hair products and serums contain plant stem cells. Unfortunately since we aren’t of the leafy kind, our body can’t communicate with these cells, so they just sit there. If you have 5 full minutes, I would highly recommend our Stem Cell edition. It’s truly a fascinating read!

Top 3 Hair Products

1. Hydrolyzed Proteins: Proteins broken into smaller pieces that can penetrate the cuticle and help fill gaps in your hair’s cortex, similar to what penetrating oils do.

2. Rosemary Oil: A very powerful hair growth agent that also helps keep your scalp healthy and less itchy. It even rivals the artificial compound minoxidil, as per this study that stated that the restorative properties of minoxidil 2% and 2% rosemary oil were very comparable!4 (Rosemary oil is much cheaper than minoxidil and completely natural)

3. Biotin: Confusing, I know! Even though we did mention that it was practically useless when added to a shampoo, it is one of the most important and critical nutrients that you need to get into your diet and check off in order for your body to be able to make the keratin that gives your hair its strength and flexibility!

Honorable Mention

Although there is a lot of focus on different oils and vitamins for the hair we shouldn’t forget minerals, the activators that keep our bodies metabolism working. There’s two especially important ones:

• Magnesium: As you have seen in past newsletters, magnesium and calcium generally compete with one another, and this helps keep your scalp healthy by helping to clear up calcium buildup. When calcium builds up, it can restrict blood flow to your hair follicles which hinders the ability to grow healthy hair.

• Copper: As a critical mineral involved in the production of melanin, the molecule that gives your hair its distinct color. Even though it can’t reverse grayed hair it can help slow down the process.

If you want a simple way to support your hair, and your overall metabolism, OmniBlue Original delivers over 70 trace and essential ionic minerals. It helps address deficiencies, giving your body the nutrients it needs to function at its best.

Try it risk-free with our money-back guarantee!

ENDNOTE

Final Thoughts

I hope this edition keeps your hair growing and luscious! And if your hair decides to take an early vacation and go bald? Well… you’ll have a healthy body to rock that look with confidence (and those extra hours every week, don’t forget!).

Until next week!

Adrian Macdonald | Team Dietitian | The 8% Newsletter Author