In the quest for long luxurious locks, or big beautiful hair we can sometimes get carried away with trying everything and anything possible, (no matter how questionable), to achieve our goals in the shortest time frame possible. But at what cost? Rarely do we stop to think about how these hair experiments are affecting our overall health. The following are a few hair growing schemes with potentially harmful effects on the body.
Vitamin Junkies: I've heard people raving about the newest hair vitamin/multi-vitamin they've come across and how they're completely ignoring the dosing instructions and taking double or even triple the dose to get better results.
FAIL! Vitamin toxicity is real people! Just because it's easy to get vitamins off the counter does NOT mean you should be poppin' them like gummy bears. First of all, it is wasteful because your body only takes what it needs then flushes out the water soluble vitamins it doesn't need so those extra vitamin pills you just took just went straight through you and down the can/lav/toilette. More importantly, it can be dangerous because there are certain vitamins - fat soluble ones like A, C, D and K- that our body does not get rid of so easily. This means whatever doesn't get used is then stored in your body and accumulates over time potentially leading to vitamin toxicity a.k.a. vitamin poisoning. You can experience vitamin toxicity with water soluble vitamins as well but fat soluble ones have the most potential to build up. If possible, please consult your physician before beginning a new vitamin regimen or at the very least follow the dosage instructions on the bottle.
High-Protein Diets: Another potentially harmful practice I've seen bounced around hair forums is the introduction of a high-protein diet to increase hair growth. While getting enough protein in your diet is very important, a long term high-protein diet may accelerate the loss of kidney function in people with pre-existing problems. According to this article as many as 20 million Americans are at risk for reduced kidney function but are completely unaware of it. For this reason you may want to stay on the safe side and consult your physician before beginning a high-protein diet.
The Mixtress: Mixing your own hair concoctions can be fun. I enjoy mixing up my own oil blends, hair/body butters and sometimes I'll even add a little bit of oil or humectant to my conditioners to make them more nourishing for my hair. However, there are times when people get so confident in their mixing abilities that they consider playing around with chemicals that could potentially harm them. I have seen someone ask for advice on making their own relaxer...at home. Not to mention, someone asking if she could apply pure lactic acid to her hair or products because she read somewhere that lactic acid loosens curls. When I read posts like these my usual gut reaction is to place my hands on my head and yell "NOooooooo! Don't do it!" at my computer monitor, because unless you are a chemist with access to a state-of-the-art lab with proper ventilation, you should not be messing around strong alkalis, or acids. Thank goodness, these women asked before they attempted to do these things because all I can hear are ambulance sirens in my head when I think of what could have happened if they didn't.
Let's face it, many of us want long hair and we want it fast but we shouldn't get our priorities mixed up. A healthy body will produce healthy hair. You can't have the latter without the former so try focusing on having a healthy body first and your hair will follow suit. Getting optimal hair growth may be serious business to some of us but what's the point of getting it at the expense of our health?
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