It's Not Just Finasteride: How to Create a Lifestyle of Great Hair

You may have already noticed that hair care and nutrition tend to go hand and hand. Many of the nutrients that we eat go on to help us grow a strong and healthy head of hair. For this reason, there’s far more to good haircare than your hair loss regimen – no matter how effective it is. Creating a lifestyle of healthy hair requires us to live a healthier life altogether, and here’s how we can do that.

More than Finasteride

Perhaps you already know that finasteride is proven to be an effective way to stop male pattern baldness from robbing you of your hair. But your daily dose of finasteride is only one aspect of creating healthy hair. You also need to know how to maintain hair, which is something a lot of people don’t know how to do.

Your first steps towards creating a healthy hair lifestyle should start in the kitchen. We already know that the foods we put in our bodies have an effect on our overall health, but are you aware of how important of a role nutrition plays in healthy hair? Before can grow strong and beautiful hair, you first need to eat a diet rich in the following vitamins and minerals:

• Iron
• Zinc
• Protein
• Omega-3 fatty acids
• Vitamins A, C, and E, as well as Biotin (vitamin B complex)

Fortunately, getting all of those nutrients isn’t nearly as difficult as it looks. Just skip on the processed food and eat more fruits, veggies (leafy greens especially), and lean meat. Also, make sure to eat a little bit of seafood from time to time to get your omega-3 servings. And if you’re a vegetarian, substitute meat for a plant-based protein like quinoa or soy.

Taking Care of Your Hair

The next thing you’ll want to do is take the necessary steps to keep your hair protected from unnecessary damage. And one of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people make is shampooing every day. Using too much shampoo can strip your hair of its natural oils, drying out your hair and creating weakened and damaged strands of hair. What you should be doing is waiting until your hair gets dirty before you start shampooing it; this typically takes two or three days, depending on how oily your scalp is.

While it’s okay to pass on the shampoo, you’ll want to use conditioner with every shower. A good conditioner is loaded with all sorts of important nutrients that reinforce your hair’s strength and give it a natural healthy glow. Also, avoid taking extremely hot showers, as they can also strip your hair (and skin) of important oils.

Be Gentle When Styling Your Hair

Bad haircare habits create damaged hair, and if your hair gets too much abuse then it can shed excessively and even create bald spots. You might be surprised to know that a lot the things we do to our hair is actually harming it. For example, aggressively drying your hair the towel when you step out of the shower creates unneeded stress on your scalp and hair. Furthermore, brushing your hair too much can also damage follicles and cause your hair to thin prematurely. For this reason, you should always brush your hair with a wide-tooth comb and try not to go overboard with brushing.

Keep Your Scalp Protected from the Heat

First off, you really should be minimizing the amount of time you spend blowdrying or straightening your hair. Exposing your hair to high level of heat can really damage it, causing it to look frizzy and faded – or worse, it causes strands of hair to break away. If you must use these products, make sure that you use them on the lowest setting to minimize the amount of stress you put your hair through. You’ll also want to keep your scalp protected against the sun, even if you have a thick head of hair protecting you from sunburn. This is because the sun’s rays can actually damage your hair in a way similar to your blow dryer, so make sure to always wear a hat when outside for extended periods of time.

Maintaining healthy hair starts with you. By giving your lion’s mane the nutrients and pampering it needs, you’ll be less likely to have damaged and broken hair. If you’ve taken all the necessary steps to keep your hair happy and healthy only to find that it’s still shedding, you might want to consider finasteride and minoxidil. Both of them are recommended by the FDA to treat androgenic alopecia and could be just what you need to keep your hair loss under control.

If you want to learn more about finasteride — especially it's potential side effects — check out our blog Fact or Fiction: Diving Into the Side Effects of Finasteride.