Facts on Silica and Vitamins for Healthy Hair

Healthy hair is tied to a healthy diet. While brittle and damaged hair can't always be cured by the right intake of vitamins and nutrients, careful intake of silica and other vitamins can help slow hair loss, add luster and improve overall hair health.

How Vitamins and Minerals Affect Hair

• The only way to provide nutrients and vitamins to your hair is by including them in your diet. Consuming the recommended daily allowances of vitamins and minerals can benefit hair by decreasing breakage and brittleness, adding moisture, promoting growth, and healing scalp dryness and dull hair. According to registered dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner: "If you eat a healthy diet, you will grow stronger and healthier cells throughout your entire body--inside and out."

Healthy Hair and Silica

• Adding a multivitamin can ensure you meet your daily vitamin requirements.

  A trial of 10-mg supplements of silicon--the primary building block in silica--in women with dry and brittle hair showed improvements in hair roughness. Additional studies have linked silica supplements to stronger and thicker hair, when taken over a nine-month period. Diets rich in whole grains, leafy vegetables and other unprocessed foods typically provide high levels of silica.

Other Important Vitamins and Supplements

• Walnuts provide key nutrients for hair health, like omega-3 fatty acids and zinc.

  Protein, the major building block of the keratin in hair, is vital to a hair-healthy diet. Without enough protein hair is brittle and dry. Omega-3 fatty acids help coat hair and leave it moisturized. Omega-3s are found in fatty fish such as salmon, walnuts, almonds and flax seeds. B vitamins, especially B-6, B-12 and folic acid, also promote hair production and hair strength. Vitamin A improves scalp health. Consume enough zinc, as a deficit leads to hair shedding.