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Hair loss is something that affects a lot of people. Sometimes, to a small degree and others more. While there’s nothing that guarantees you won’t lose your hair, certain things like Vitamin E can help.
What Is Vitamin E?
To understand how Vitamin E can help, let’s look at what it is and what it does for you. You probably know that Vitamin E is good for you, but you may not know much more than that.
Vitamin E is a group of 8 different molecules, four of which are tocopherols. The other four are tocotrienols. One of the main things that these two things do is they work as antioxidants in your body.
It’s the job of antioxidants to remove bad things from your body. In turn, it helps protect you. The other thing that antioxidants do is help your body regenerate its different tissues. It does this by helping it access what it needs.
Being deficient in Vitamin E and other vitamins that have antioxidant qualities can lead to a weakened immune system. It can cause negative things like muscle loss and, in very severe cases, even nerve damage. As the negative things build up in your body, your circulation is affected for the worse as well.
How Can Vitamin E Help Hair Loss?
Both your hair and your nails are one of the last things that your body takes care of. So, if you are lacking in Vitamin E, your body is going to give what little you have to your vital organs first. Therefore, your hair losses out. This can make your hair brittle and thin. Know what else? It can cause hair loss!
Vitamin E helps your circulation, including the circulation to your scalp. This fact alone is vital in growing back hair in areas where you are losing it and where it is thinning. Meanwhile, the protective antioxidants make sure the new growth will be stronger and less likely to be damaged.
This vitamin is also moisturizing. This can help if your scalp is particularly dry. On the other hand, you don’t have to worry if your hair is naturally oily, because Vitamin E does a good job of helping your body to balance out its oiliness. This means that if your scalp is dry it will moisturize it and if it is already oily it will help tone that down a bit so that it is not so oily.
How Should You Use Vitamin E For Your Hair Loss?
There are essentially two main ways that you can use Vitamin E for hair loss: topically and internally. Depending on the severity of your hair loss it might be worth considering trying both of these two options at the same time.
As a general rule, taking Vitamin E internally has more effect for a longer amount of time but you don’t see results as quickly. Putting it topically on your hair in one way or another is the opposite in that you tend to see results more quickly but these results do not last.
Topically
When it comes to applying Vitamin E topically you have a variety of options to choose from. There are three main ways that you can do this which range from using shampoos that have Vitamin E in them to putting some Vitamin E oil directly in your hair or using it as an ingredient in a hair mask.
If you want to put it as an oil directly on your skin, however, you should add something else to it. This is because sometimes pure Vitamin E oil can be too strong for a person’s skin and can cause a form of a rash or itching.
One good option for diluting it is by using some other oil like coconut oil or a mineral oil. Vitamin E oil can also be a bit thick, so diluting it with something else will help it last longer and make it easier to apply over all of your scalp.
When you are applying it, you should massage it into your scalp as well as you possibly can for at least 5 minutes, especially in the area that is suffering from hair loss. This will help to stimulate your circulation in that area and if you are putting a hair mask on it is something that you should do both as you are putting it on and as you are taking it off.
The oil when applied topically makes a protective layer that also strengthens your hair, making it seem thicker and be less brittle. It also makes your hair seem shiny, though if you put too much then it will make your hair look oily.
Internally
While taking Vitamin E supplements internally is a good idea if you think you are not getting enough of it, you should also make sure that you are eating foods that have natural Vitamin E in them. One of the best food groups that have this in it is leafy greens like spinach, kale, and other greens.
Other foods that have notable amounts of this vitamin are avocado, kiwi, mango, broccoli, sweet potato, tomato, and other foods. Meats also have some Vitamin E in them, as do nuts and almonds in particular in addition to nut oils and other oils like palm oil, safflower oil, wheat germ oil, sunflower oil, and olive oil.
However, while including these foods in your diet is better for you to do, it is almost impossible to measure just how much Vitamin E you are actually getting this way. This is why taking both a supplement and eating foods with this in it is better to make sure you are at least getting the recommended amount.
For most adults, this is somewhere between 400 and 1,100 IU of Vitamin E a day which is equal to between 15 and 19mg. It’s important not to overdo it. Too much increases the blood circulation that this vitamin gives is in part due to the fact that it does thin the blood some.
This can obviously be dangerous if taken too far. For this reason, start off small and increase slowly. If you already have problems and are taking a blood thinner, talk to your doctor before adding a Vitamin E supplement to your diet.
Try to look for supplements that are made from natural ingredients instead of chemicals. Your body gets more benefit from Vitamin E natural sources, though, these do tend to cost a bit more.
Conclusion
Vitamin E is a simple and effective way that you can help reverse the effects of your hair loss. While it is doubtful this alone is all you need, it’s easy to take and easy to find.
One thing to keep in mind, whichever route you choose when using Vitamin E, is to store it out of sunlight. This helps prevent it from breaking down. On this same note, once it’s passed its expiration date, it’s not going to do much good. In this case, avoid using old Vitamin E.
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