Which vitamin deficiency causes hair loss?

Generally, what do you do when you start experiencing hair loss and got no idea why you are facing hair loss. If you see a lot of your hairs in your hairbrush than normal or see lots of hair spread over the pillow. Then you may have hair loss due to vitamin deficiency. Let us see which vitamin deficiency causes hair loss.

What is Hair & How it is made

Nutrition and Hair Loss

Nutritional diet, vitamins play an important role in your health. Diet is internally related to the growth of your hair. Let us see how nutrition and hair loss is interrelated, and what are the vitamin deficiencies which causes hair loss.

Protein:

Hair is made up of proteins, mostly by the Keratin. Lack of protein might cause hair loss. When you lack protein, your body stats to save a lesser amount of protein and it changes your growth cycle to resting and falling phase. And suddenly you see hair loss after two-three days. So eating a variety of protein-rich foods like eggs, meat, fish, chicken, paneer, green peas, nuts provides the balance our hair needs.

Iron:

You should know that Iron, supports the red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout your bloodstream. Lack of Iron, blood flow becomes less oxygen-rich. This can slow down your hair growth and even increase shedding or thinning. Since our body doesn’t produce iron on its own, we have to get it from our own diet or supplements. You should start consuming nuts like dry fruits, jaggery, beetroots, and leafy green vegetables as a good iron source.

Zinc:

Another essential nutrient for healthy hair is Zinc. Zinc supports normal cell function and helps the body synthesize proteins. Even zinc deficiency identified as a key nutritional component in telogen effluvium hair loss. You should start eating zinc-rich food such as whole grains, spinach, eggs, dairy products, meat, nuts, and seeds.

Vitamin A:

Vitamin A helps in regulating retinoic acid for keeping the scalp moisturized and prevent dandruff. Even an excess of vitamin A causes hair loss because your hair goes into completing a growth cycle very fast and then the hair fall phase also comes very suddenly. You should start having food which is Vitamin A-rich, such as cereals, spinach, kidney beans, eggs, sweet potatoes, carrots, mangoes.

Vitamin B5:

Vitamin B5 is important for rebuilding the damage caused by heated hair tools, over-shampooing, and sun-damage. You should include food in your intake which is Vitamin B5-rich, such as Eggs, Avocados, Mushrooms, Nuts, Legumes, Whole Grains, Chicken, etc.

Vitamin B12:

If there is a Vitamin B12 deficiency, then it is a must reason for your hair fall. Vitamin B12 is a co-factor that is responsible for making RBCs that in turn carry nutrition important for DNA replication. It is vital for the growth of hair follicles. You can add up Fortified Cereals, Nutritional Yeast, Fish, Chicken in your diet.

Biotin (Vitamin H):

Biotin is the best vitamin for hair growth. It helps to strengthen our body’s Keratin. Keratin is the protein of which our hairs and nails are made up of. So the lack of Biotin makes your hair weak and which leads to hair breakages. Ample amounts of biotin can help to improve hair follicles and strengthen individual hair shafts. Remember to include foods which include eggs, nuts, bananas, cauliflower, mushrooms, etc in your diet which helps boosting Biotin.

Vitamin C:

Vitamin C is another important nutrient, which helps for better absorption of iron in our body. It is rich in antioxidants, it also fights off free radicals that cause brittle hair and hair follicle damage. It also increases collagen production, which improves hair health. So to improve hair health you should include vitamin C – rich food such as strawberries, oranges, guava, kiwi, bell peppers, amala.

Let’s see what are essential nutrients for hair loss?

If to reduce your weight you cut off your protein and carbohydrate. This definitely works for weight loss, but the amount of protein and carbohydrates in your body will not be adequate for hair growth. During the growth cycle, your hair goes prematurely from the growth cycle to fall cycle and your hair starts to fall tremendously. So avoid extreme dieting. In such kind of scenarios, start taking proper diet with a balanced amount of vitamin B12, other vitamins, biotin, iron, zinc.

It is extremely important to have a balanced diet in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle and have a perfect hair growth cycle.

Essential Reading

Does Vitamin E help Hair Growth?

How to stop hair fall immediately?

I have tried giving you all the information about Vitamin Deficiency, Which vitamin deficiency causes hair loss, etc.

Thank you for reading!