What your hair is trying to tell you

Beauty, News & Trends

"Hair is a window to your health," says Anabel Kingsley, a consultant trichologist at the Philip Kingsley Clinic. As a non-essential tissue – meaning hair doesn’t serve a function in keeping us alive – "our strands are often the first part of us our body neglects when anything is amiss internally," she explains.

"No matter what products you use, if you aren’t eating a healthy balanced diet, or keeping check on your general health and stress levels, your hair’s health isn’t going to be as good as it could be." With this is mind, if you're experiencing hair-fall and thinning, or a flaky, itchy scalp, know that your body could be trying to tell you something.

Here, the expert explains the reasons behind the common problems she sees, so you can address your hair health holistically.

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A healthy hair diet and the supplements debate

Dr Megan Rossi (PhD, RD, APD), also known as @theguthealthdoctor, tells us that the perfect healthy hair diet is essentially the Mediterranean diet.

“You should aim for an inclusive diet, not a restrictive one,” she says, so avoid cutting out whole food groups. Carbs are important, for example. “Aim for 30 plant-based foods a week, including fruits, veggies, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and seeds.”

While Kingsley advocates eating your nutrients and antioxidants, she believes in taking healthy hair supplements as as a maintenance. “No one eats perfectly the whole time, and those busy days when you’re in too much of a rush to eat a proper lunch, or you grab something easy, but of low nutritional value, can take their toll on your strands,” she says.

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What Your Hair is Trying to Tell You

“Supplements help to give your hair an extra buffer – which is usually needed! As hair is the last part of you to receive the nutrients you ingest, a healthy diet alone often isn’t enough to keep it functioning at its best.”

However, Rossi notes that you should be mindful of overdoing it with supplements. “Excessive intakes of nutritional supplements may actually cause hair-fall,” she says. “Vitamin A and selenium supplementation have all been linked to hair-fall. So it is important to monitor your nutrient levels with a health professional before taking supplements marketed for hair health.”

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