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These 4 ingredients are key to unlock Hair Growth 🔑
We’ve teamed up with award-winning nutritional therapist, Claudine J Thornhill, to explain exactly how to eat your way to longer, healthier hair. Plus, improve the condition of your skin and nails too.
Expert’s opinion: How much does diet matter?
As Claudine explains:
“It really is true that beauty comes from the inside. The importance of diet shouldn’t be underestimated in terms of the condition of your hair, skin and nails. While there’s no magic food that will keep us looking young forever, your nutritional choices really do affect how your hair grows and how your skin looks as you age.
The average healthy-ish diet usually doesn’t contain enough key nutrients to prevent signs of damage and ageing. If you’re noticing dry, brittle hair with slow growth and lots of breakage or thinning patches, it could well be down to nutrition deficiencies. Same goes for skin that’s dehydrated and increasingly showing fine lines, or nails that chip easily.
Luckily, it’s possible to start turning back the clock by simply incorporating 4 main nutrients into your day. These can work wonders, and the best part is you’ll be doing a whole lot of good for your body’s overall health.”
Want to know what those 4 top nutrients are? Let’s dive into them...
Top 4 nutrients for healthy hair, skin & nails
1. Collagen
What is it?
On average, 30% of the protein found in our body at any one time is classified as collagen, making it the most abundant protein we produce naturally. It’s a fundamental building block and a vital component of hair, skin, blood vessels and the digestive tract.
There are 16 types of collagen but around 80-90% within the human body consist of types I, II and III. While all serve slightly different functions, we highly recommended consuming pure marine collagen for beauty benefits.
How does it help?
Collagen keeps the pores on your scalp moisturised, firm and close together. This allows your hair to absorb the maximum amount of nutrients, and contributes to an abundance of growth and thickness.
In terms of skin, it’s just as vital. Collagen plays a major role in strengthening skin, while also improving elasticity and hydration.
But here’s the bad news:
Collagen levels drop dramatically as we age, since the body increasingly struggles to absorb adequate amounts of the nutrients needed to make it. This is particularly true for women who’ve gone through the menopause.
Without topping-up your collagen supply, you’ll start to see the impact of this natural reduction; your hair might lose thickness and become dry or brittle. You’ll also notice more breakage and slower growth, caused by lower protein (known as Keratin) within the hair follicles and strands.
Skin typically loses its youthful glow, becoming thinner, duller and dryer with more visible wrinkles. By consuming more collagen, you’ll be able to reverse some of these changes in no time at all – sometimes as quickly as a few weeks.
2. Vitamin C
What is it?
You’ve already seen vitamin C mentioned several times above but this nutrient definitely deserves its own section.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin found in many foods and also sold as a supplement. It’s needed by the body to produce and synthesise collagen, and acts as an antioxidant to combat free radicals (compounds that develop in your body due to environmental influences like air pollutants and UV exposure). We need to consume foods containing vitamin C every day to maintain our levels.
How does it help?
In fighting free radicals, vitamin C also protects hair follicles so your hair can grow freely and healthily.
We need vitamin C to help with various other bodily functions, including:
- Removing unwanted substances (known as Reactive Oxidative Species or ROS)
- Absorbing iron
- Boosting immune system
- Reducing inflammation
To prevent vitamin C deficiency, EU guidance currently states that the average healthy person needs 80mg per day (this figure is known as the Nutrient Reference Value or NRV).
3. Hyaluronic Acid
What is it?
Hyaluronic acid is actually produced naturally by your body just like collagen. It’s found in our skin, eyes and connective tissues, and is the stuff that keeps cells hydrated by holding onto 1000x its weight in water.
Beauty brands have well and truly woken up to the powers of hyaluronic acid and tripping over themselves to harness its insane moisture-binding abilities.
How does it help?
Think of this nutrient as your personal hydration assistant. It will keep your hair healthy and glossy, and your skin plumped, youthful and glowing.
Studies show that ingesting hyaluronic acid orally leads to improved skin appearance by softening wrinkles and increasing lustre.
Researchers also agree that hyaluronic acid and collagen are something of a power pairing – working synergistically to repair your hair strands, skin and nails while protecting the outer layers too.
If you suffer from dry hair and experience lots of breakage, or your skin has lost its mojo, don’t think twice before adding more of this ingredient to your diet.
4. Biotin (Vitamin B7)
What is it?
Biotin is vital to many bodily functions and is also important for keratin production (remember that’s the primary protein found in hair, skin and nails!).
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, biotin is also used by the body to metabolise carbs, fats and amino acids.
Though intestinal bacteria can produce small amounts of biotin, you’re not able to synthesise it on your own – so that’s why adding extra into your daily diet is essential.
How does it help?
Although rare, biotin deficiency can lead to hair loss and skin issues. Some evidence suggests that biotin can help prevent hair thinning, so if this is a problem for you, it’s worth making sure you consume a little extra.
But there’s another reason you’ll want to get your hands on biotin…
Healthier nails.
There is promising evidence that this nutrient improves fingernail strength and durability. Mani/pedi, here we come!
Hold on, can’t I just take a supplement instead?
Yes, you absolutely can.
Supplements are an effective, easy and convenient way to boost your nutrient intake in the exact quantities you need. While supplements shouldn’t be taken as a substitute for a varied, healthy diet – they can be added to your daily menu for additional body benefits.
You’ll have the choice between taking select individual supplements or a supplement expertly blended with the precise nutrient formula you need e.g. to help your hair grow and your skin glow.
Our Hair Boost Collagen Drink is a fantastic 5-Star rated option that includes all 4 of the nutrients mentioned above (plus much more). It's a delicious berry drink bursting with all the nutrients your body needs for healthier, longer hair and youthful, glowing skin.
