Does Exercise Make Your Hair Grow?

Exercise, the same thing most people often avoid in order to protect their hair from sweats. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, “about 45% of black women avoid exercise due to their hair.”

However, what you may not know is that some of the things you’ve been avoiding are the same things that may be oppressing your hair growth and texture.

But does exercise make your hair grow?

Yes! Exercise is important not just for long-term health but also for optimizing your hair growth rate.

The health of your hair is basically influenced by several factors – and all of these factors can be organized into 2 categories; physical and mental.

Everything you do on a daily basis from the things you consume to deciding to walk home instead of using taxi effects your overall health and consequently effects your hair.

Scientific studies have also shown that things like stress can lead to thinning hair or hair loss, but making the right health choices can lead to the opposite effect.

Furthermore, regular exercise can cause 3 changes in your body that will make your hair grow thicker and longer.

In this article, we’ll cover how exercise affects hair growth as well as the best scalp exercise for hair growth.

That said, let’s get started:

How Does Exercise Make Your Hair Grow?

According to Dr. Ratey, a professor at Harvard Medical School:

Basically, exercise helps to increase heart rate and improve blood flow.

This blood flow equally takes place around the scalp area, which helps draw vital nutrients to the scalp, leading to stronger and longer hair growth.

Furthermore, exercise also helps to boost serotonin levels in the body (the happiness hormone). When the serotonin levels are increased, it helps to reduce stress in your body. Apparently, the way you feel can have either a positive or negative effect on your hair.

As you probably know, when your body is stressed out, it affects your overall body function including the hair follicles, which can cause stalled hair growth and hair fall.

Another benefit of consistent exercise is a decrease in cortisone (stress hormone). Cortisone is a hormone in the body that results in hair loss and thinning hair.

Lower cortisone will lead to thicker hair. Your body needs some levels of this hormone to function properly, however, too much of it can also be a bad thing.

It’s also worth noting that too much exercise can cause an increase in cortisone levels, therefore, living a balanced lifestyle as regards to working out is just as crucial as deciding to work out at all.

By simply making the conscious decision to commit to a regular form of exercise, you’ll be able to improve your overall health and the health of your hair.

Finally, if you’ve been finding it difficult to grow longer and thicker hair, this may be the perfect solution for you.

What Can Not Exercising Do To Your Hair?

As I said earlier, regular exercise stimulates hair growth and keeps you glowing in good health. The effects of exercise are not limited to hair alone, but your entire being will feel strong and healthy.

However, not exercising at all and eating a healthy diet is like applying oil on your scalp and leaving it without massaging, which won’t help much.

So even if we eat healthily, not exercising will deprive our skin, muscles, and scalp of essential nutrients exchange, which will lead to lifeless hair and skin.

Best Exercise to Grow Hair Faster

There are literally many exercises you can do to improve hair growth, some of these exercises include:

1. Breathing exercise

Kapalbhati pranayama is one of the most popular yoga forms of breathing exercise. It’ll help you to oxygenate your body, while also strengthening your stomach and abdomen’s muscles at the same time.

That way, it can supply the scalp with all the oxygen that is required to revitalize damaged hair and help to grow new hair. It is equally known to cure hair loss.

2. Jogging

Jogging lets you sweat it out, which might be good since sweat uncovers the pores in your scalp and helps to flush out all the dirt and toxins that are detrimental to the hair.

Apart from that, cardio exercises like jogging can also help to boost the circulation of blood to the scalp and this blood flow stimulates the healthy growth of the hair.

According to the experts, it’s good to jog for at least half an hour daily in order to enjoy the good benefits that come with this type of exercise.

3. Neck exercise

Moving your head and neck front and back, as well as side to side,  may seem to be an excellent way to promote hair growth.

Furthermore, stretching the neck muscles can equally help hair growth by freeing any trapped stress or tension in the surrounding muscles.

As blood circulates more in these areas, the increased blood flow helps to encourage hair growth and combats any damage caused to the hair.

4. Lifting your legs

Lifting your legs up in the air and holding it there for some time helps to regulate the working of the thyroid gland and gives the head a good supply of blood.

This type of exercise for hair loss is perfect for people who are affected by baldness and hair loss due to hormonal imbalance.

5. Acupuncture

This is a more unconventional practice to revitalize and encourage hair health. Acupuncture has actually proven to be highly effective in alleviating hair loss.

This type of exercise works by stimulating the pressure points on your fingers that promote healthy hair and increased hair growth.

Other exercises for hair growth you can do today are:

Now, let’s also talk about a few scalp exercise for hair growth:

Scalp Exercise for Hair Growth

Below are the 3 best scalp exercises for hair growth you should start doing today:

1. Scalp massage

One of the most crucial and simple exercises for hair growth is scalp massage. With a very relaxing and effective scalp massage, you can seamlessly improve hair growth.

Scalp massages are not only relaxing, but you will equally come out of it with healthy and strong looking hair. It also helps to increase blood flow to the scalp, which circulates and supplies all the important nutrients to the hair follicles, promoting hair growth eventually.

7. Rubbing your nails

When properly treated, acupressure points in the body can lead to good hair growth. Pressing on these points helps to revitalize the hair follicles and enhances blood circulation to the scalp.

Ideally, acupressure points that are linked to hair growth are located in the fingertips beneath the nails.

Massaging these points can stimulate the hormones that promote hair darkening and hair growth. Apart from treating hair loss, you will be happy to know that rubbing your nails can also help to lessen dandruff as well as premature greying of the hair.

When you regularly press on the acupressure points, the roots of the hair follicles will supply to the scalp the energy required for hair growth.

Finally, you can go with any exercise you enjoy doing provided that it’s something that increases your heart rate and pumps blood through your body.

How Much Exercise is Good for Hair Growth?

Typically, there’s no need to exercise for hours to enjoy the benefits. In fact, excessive exercise can be counterproductive in the long run and result in injury. Too much exercise can lead to hair shedding and buildup on your scalp through sweating.

Exercising daily for about 30 to 45 minutes is enough. And if you cannot exercise daily, try to make at least 3 to 4 times per week your target.

Conclusion

It would not hurt you to try any of the exercises for hair growth listed above, who knows, it could be just what you’ve been missing! Stay committed and positive and never forget that consistency is key.

Funny enough, we all want celebrity looking hair, but we do not want to do the necessary hard work that’ll guarantee that.

As the saying goes “there is nothing like a free lunch, even in free town.” Celebrities have a stern diet and exercise regime. But you don’t have to mimic their schedule – and you also don’t have to be hard on yourself – If you miss any day, just start again.

Moreover, it is important to have a precise expectation of your own hair. Every individual has a different hair color and texture. Yet, regardless of hair texture or color, shiny and healthy hair by default look perfect. And that is exactly what you should always aim for.

Exercise not just because you should, but because it makes you feel healthy, strong, energized, and happy.

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