How to have healthy hair in a natural way

If you’re looking for solutions to your problem, the best place to start is to identify where the cause lies. In this article we will review the 7 factors that, alone or in combination, are at the root of hair problems.

Although genetics has given us a type of hair, it is up to us to enjoy the best version of it. Healthy hair is hair that requires minimal care to be manageable, shiny, grow easily, fall just enough and have a certain density.

Take a look at what your hair looks like when it’s freshly washed and blow-dried. Is your real hair, without additives, conditioners, masks, straighteners, keratin, fixers, serums, etc., healthy?

When the hair problem is at the root, there may be generalised or localised hair loss, changes in the thickness of the fibre or in hair growth. If it is on the scalp, you may experience itching, irritation, dandruff, seborrhoea or inflammation. And if it is in the hair fibre, you will notice dryness, weakness, dullness, brittleness and split ends.

If you have noticed any of these signs in your hair, you can look for the cause in one of the factors discussed below.

Bear in mind that they often influence each other and can appear in combination. For example: a difficult and stressful time can lead to dietary imbalances. Stress and poor nutrition can aggravate the signs of ageing and hormonal changes. If the weather or harsh hair treatments have damaged our hair, we may be using too many chemicals to mitigate the effect.

But if you already have healthy hair and want to maintain it, from an Ayurvedic and holistic view of health, external as well as internal care is as important for your hair. In addition to protecting it from the elements and keeping it clean and moisturised, your hair needs balanced nutrition, a healthy lifestyle and a good emotional balance. We’ll explain how in our next articles.

I’m sure you’re not surprised. Your hair needs nourishment and it does so through your diet. There are elements, such as zinc, which, if lacking in your diet, can lead to hair loss. Others, such as sulphur, are needed for hair to grow strong and resilient.

Vitamin C will help to ground the hair in a strong collagen network. All of these elements, and a few more we’ll talk about later, should be part of your diet. If they are not in your diet, or there are temporary deficiencies, that’s when you can help yourself with a supplement.

For this reason, one of the elements we recommend to improve our diet are green smoothies.

Our emotional state influences the health of our hair, especially stress which contributes to causing or accelerating hair loss. A major emotional conflict may be behind some alopecia.

Our hair is no stranger to the weather. Very dry environments, wind, cold and above all the sun end up dehydrating or damaging it. What suffers here is the hair fibre, which becomes excessively dry or brittle. But it is not only the natural elements that affect it, pollution is also an enemy for healthy hair.

A deterioration in health, such as anaemia or a thyroid problem, can be the cause of hair loss. In other cases, it is medication that can affect the hair, almost always aggravating or causing hair loss. Among the most common medications that can have this effect are antihypertensives and antidepressants.

We refer to the treatments we do to modify the shape of the hair or its colour and which require heat or aggressive chemical products. Both damage the hair fibre and make it brittle. In some cases, as with some dyes, it can affect the scalp.

In the pursuit of that shine and manageability that makes hair look healthy (and which our hair should have with some simple natural care), we sometimes make excessive or inappropriate use of cosmetics that can affect the hair and scalp. As a result, hair becomes excessively greasy or dry, loses its natural shape, scalp irritations and itchiness appear, etc.

This is our first article in a series dedicated to hair health. In the next ones, we will go more in depth into reviewing these causes and the possible solutions offered by Ayurveda.