What Foods Make Hair Grow Longer Faster?

Up to 40 percent of all women and men have a problem with hair loss in their lifetimes. Most people's hair grows about 1/4 to 1/2 inch every month. Almost everyone is on the search for longer, stronger, healthier hair and want to stop hair loss dead in its tracks.

With our trying times today, more stress and less time to pamper ourselves, we are in search of ways to help ourselves. There are foods that we can eat that are not only good for us, but also help us in our quest to have stronger, healthier and longer hair with little or no fuss or muss.

Reasons for Hair Loss in Men

• How men lose hair can be different from how women lose hair. Testosterone levels that are elevated, a high-fat diet and too much meat often help hinder hair growth and aid in hair loss. When men take in less fat in their diets, they can help to lower their hormone levels, thus helping their growth and hair loss cycles.

Reasons for Hair Loss in Women

• Women often can have gastrointestinal tract problems, which can help cause hair loss. Also, similar to men, women's fat intake helps to promote hair loss and hinders hair growth. To fix this problem, women need to aid their GI tracts by eating more yogurt with active acidophilus cultures. Having these active bacteria in their systems helps to clear up the GI tract and helps with hair growth.

Overall Reasons for Hair Loss

• There are several hair loss causes that can affect both sexes:

  Heredity: Does your family have a history of early baldness?

  Stress: Worrying too much, about anything and everything.

  Diet: Eating unhealthy most of the time (or all of the time).

Foods and Additives to Avoid

• There are certain foods that can hinder hair growth:

  Sugar: Sugar affects the balance of hormones in your body by regulating the insulin levels in your body. Your insulin levels regulate the amount of testosterone levels (which good levels are good for hair growth), so when you take in too much sugar you end up with imbalanced hormones. Unbalanced hormones are one of the biggest causes of hair loss.

  Fat: Added fats in your diet add extra stress to your body. The added stress results in your body needing a greater amount of nutrients, especially Vitamin B, which is essential for hair growth and strength. When your body is depleted of this essential vitamin, the other nutrients in your body then become diminished (vitamins A, D, E and fatty acids, all needed for strong healthy hair) and you end up with hair loss, split ends and more.

  Carbonated drinks: They weaken the body and can slow down or block your body's natural hair growth and potential newly grown hair. Most carbonated drinks carry lots of sugars in them, as well as caffeine, which is just recently been found to possibly be helpful to hair growth when added as a topical treatment. Those findings are still in the development stages, so for now, try to cut back on caffeine as well. Caffeine may very well help to stunt hair growth by blocking well-needed nutrients for hair growth.

Foods and Nutrients That Promote Hair Growth

• Foods with the right vitamins and minerals that can help hair growth:

  Protein-rich foods such as liver, brewer's yeast, fish (such as salmon, which is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin B-12 and iron), eggs, beans, cottage cheese, yogurt, tofu, poultry and nuts.

  Foods that carry high levels of iron, such as dark green vegetables like broccoli and Swiss chard, eggs, liver, whole-grain cereals and unprocessed breads, dates and raisins.

  Foods that have high levels of Vitamin B, such as eggs and poultry.

  Foods that carry essential fatty acids, such as fish (such as salmon listed above), soy foods (like soy beans), walnuts and canola oil.

  Foods that have high levels of Vitamin E, such as seeds, nuts, avocados and olive oil.

  Foods that contain high levels of sulfur, such as vegetables (especially onions), legumes, nuts and fish.