Proven Ways to Improve Your Hair Skin and Nails

I have been there… Your brush is full of hair and it just seems to keep coming. The shower drain is full of hair and you feel like if you lose anymore hair you are going to be bald.

After I had my daughter and I started getting my menstrual cycle back, my hormones took a massive shift and I started losing my hair like crazy, plus some other unpleasant side effects. My Mom had hair loss after her pregnancies so I just thought it was par for the course. But because of my other symptoms, my doctor ordered a blood test to check my hormone levels.

I was VERY low on estrogen. I was given an estrogen patch and things got much better, except it was like during pregnancy when dark spots on my skin got darker than usual. But I felt much better.

This whole experience made me think about hormone effects on hair, skin and nails. Funny enough, my continuing education this year to renew my cosmetology license was about hormone effects on hair skin and nails.

There are multiple factors when it comes to hair, though. Diet is a HUGE one and I can say that I have personally experienced the difference between poor and good diet and effects on hair, skin and nails. When I was younger I really struggled with thin hair for a while that was dry and brittle. I also felt like crap all the time. Once I changed my diet to a balanced diet with clean, whole foods (and really good vitamins and supplements*) it made a world of difference in my hair, skin and nails.

Another thing is stress. I have an art student that I have taken under my wing. Last time she was at my house we were talking about the effects of stress on hair. It is a real thing. She was talking about how she had really thick hair growing up, but now that she was in college (I’m sure the diet doesn’t help), her hair had become so thin and so brittle that her Mom was seriously alarmed when she went back home for a break. This is a common phenomenon with college students because the stress of their work load and all of the tasks they have to juggle.

A couple of things that have helped me in times when my hair and nails weren’t what they were supposed to be were supplements. My top favorite that I take every day now is Hyperbiotics. It’s a probiotic that I buy on Amazon. It is the best selling probiotic on Amazon and I can see why. It’s unique in the fact that it has less cultures than some other probiotic brands, but it reaches deeper into the gut with it’s patented formula. These are so great. I have seen such a difference, every time I take them my skin feels like silk. I have had blemishes on my skin disappear WAY faster than normal and have even had what almost seemed like a glow to my skin. The more consistently this is taken, the more effective they are, but I have seen results right away, personally.

Another one is Hair Skin and Nails by Buried Treasure. This stuff tastes…not so great, but works AWESOME. So much so, that I recommend it to a lot of people. This is definitely one that only works when taken consistently and you may not notice the results right away. A week or two is typically what it takes, taking it every day. But man oh man… This is great for hair skin AND nails! My nails became so nice and strong with this stuff. My hair was noticeably thicker (and I had been losing it in loads after my daughter due to hormone imbalance). And my skin was like a baby’s. Totally worth the bad taste. I will warn you though, I had gotten multiple bottles with the seal broken under the cap. One of the bottles I got the vitamin had actually gone bad inside. Being a liquid vitamin, you can run this risk a little more. I did say something though, so the problem may have been resolved. I haven’t taken the vitamin in a while. I had tried multiple hair skin and nail supplements and this one was definitely top pick for me!!

Prenatal vitamins are a good way to boost your vitamin intake. I would suggest this more as a temporary thing for ladies who have not been taking vitamins for a while. You may have some vitamin deficiencies and this can help give you a boost. With that being said, I don’t want to encourage anyone to overdo it with vitamins either. Chat with your doctor about this.

Calcium/ D3 vitamin supplement. a lot of women are deficient on either one of these. D3 helps you absorb calcium. If you get liquid capsules they can be more easily absorbed by your body. I have had times where my nails in particular were becoming very brittle and constantly breaking. Taking a good calcium supplement cleared this up in a short amount of time with regular use. Again, make sure you are not over-doing it on calcium. Look at how much you are getting in your daily vitamin, how much you typically get from food in a day and how much is in the supplement.

Supplements can be trial and error. Always check and see how much you are getting for each vitamin and the daily recommendations. Talk to your doctor about whether these supplements would be good for you to take if you are considering one or any of these. Especially if you are nursing.

Change how you eat to more nutrient dense and healthy food (organic if possible). You are what you eat, Just sayin’.

Another thing you can do, but I don’t highly suggest, is get a treatment called minoxidil. This only works for people with thinning hair, not a shiny bald scalp. This is a professional treatment that is done on people with hair loss in professional settings. It is also used in the popular home use product Rogain. It has to be massaged into the scalp and used regularly and consistently. A problem with this product is that it doesn’t yield massive results (I know because I used to do the treatments on people for a living) and it can actually crate a dependency on the product or cause further hair loss. This is not necessarily always the case, but it is a possibility. I have not used this on myself, but used to do these treatments on clients in a salon I used to work in. I never personally saw dramatic result, even though a few people did benefit from it.

Causes for hair loss

• Underlying health conditions
• Skin disorders
• Hormone imbalance
• Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
• Poor diet*
• Certain prescription medications
• Thyroid issues
• Substance addictions
• Chemical damage from perms, relaxers and coloring
• Damage from heat- curling and flat irons, blow dryers
• Hereditary conditions

Some of these things can improve with help from your doctor, or in the case of the chemical or heat damage, your hairdresser.

Thinning hair doesn’t always mean you have a permanent problem. With the right steps of action you can see what you can do to diminish your hair loss.