Hair Loss Prevention: Foods to Keep the Hair Follicles Healthy

If you dread trips to the barbershop and cringe every time you pass a mirror, there’s a pretty good chance you’re concerned about hair loss. Whether you’re starting to see strands of your hair at the bottom of your shower or are just worried that your thick head of hair won’t last forever, there are helpful foods that prevent hair loss.

Making sure certain foods are in your diet will help keep your scalp healthy, happy, and hopefully, hairy. Here are some foods that prevent hair loss:

Fish, Eggs and Beans

Hair is primarily made of protein and, therefore, it makes sense to eat a protein-rich diet if you’re trying to maintain your healthy hair. However, eating steak every day isn’t going to help you. High-fat diets will result in increased testosterone levels, which have been linked to hair loss — so steaks are not among the foods that prevent hair loss.

Stick to leaner proteins such as fish (which has a myriad of health benefits beyond just maintaining your hair), chicken, calf’s liver, brewer’s yeast, low-fat cheese, eggs, almonds, beans, and yoghurt. Soy milk and tofu are also smart to add to your diet because they are high in protein and low in bad fats.

Raisins

Iron plays a key role in manufacturing haemoglobin, the part of the blood that carries oxygen to your body’s organs and tissues. When your haemoglobin is at a healthy level, oxygen is properly dispersed. This means your scalp is getting a good flow of blood, which will stimulate and promote hair growth. Adding more iron to your diet doesn’t mean you have to feast on liver day in, day out, but when you’re craving something sweet, remember that dried fruits (like raisins) and cherry juice are packed with iron.

Eggs, dates, raisins, dark green leafy vegetables such as kale, and whole-grain cereals are all high in iron. Vitamin C improves the absorption of iron, so fruits such as oranges, strawberries and lemons should be on your grocery list of foods that prevent hair loss.

Bean Sprouts

Silica may not be a word you commonly hear associated with diet (or foods that prevent hair loss, for that matter). If you’re looking to promote hair growth and prevent hair loss, however, silica will need to be on your menu.

The body uses silica to help it absorb vitamins and minerals; if you’re not consuming silica, eating your vitamin sources might not be helping much. Silica can be found in bean sprouts and the skin of cucumbers, red and green peppers, and potatoes. Remember, when you eat these foods raw, as opposed to cooked, you’re getting more nutritional value out of them.

Hair Transplantation: The Main Solution to Male Pattern Baldness

The wide array of hair restoration options is certainly a far cry from the days when men reluctantly accepted baldness. They now have a raft of options for restoring a thinning thatch. As well as transplants, there are laser therapy treatments, which claim to bring follicles back to life, stimulating hair growth.

There are nifty little weaves that attach to your existing strands and a concealer (essentially microscopic hair-like fibres that you sprinkle on your scalp like hundreds and thousands, and which cling to your thinning strands). There is even hope for billiard-ball baldies in the shape of a tattooing treatment that creates the effect of scalp stubble.

Most of these options have been around for a while, of course, but it’s the transplant — ultimately the most effective treatment — that is the procedure du jour.

There is definitely a market out there for hair restoration. Eight million men in Britain suffer from hair loss, with 40 per cent of under-35s already going thin on top — and they are worried sick about it.

A recent survey showed that men fret more about baldness than they do about finding a long-term partner, bankruptcy or their bedroom performance — a fact that comes as no surprise to the psychotherapist Lucy Beresford. ‘Hair loss in most cultures is associated with ageing, and the subtext of ageing is a loss of strength and power,’ she says. ‘The implication is that men with thinning hair aren’t alpha males.’

Certainly, you’ve got to have an alpha-male sense of adventure — not to mention a deep pocket — to undergo a transplant (which may cost between £10,000 and £30,000). The procedure, though, is relatively straightforward. The preferred technique is third-generation follicular unit extraction (FUE), a treatment that involves hairs from the back or side of the head (or the chest, if necessary) being removed and implanted into the bald spots. Because the ‘donor hair’ from these areas is resistant to the effects of dihydrotestosterone (the hormone that triggers male-pattern baldness), it has a better chance of staying put once transplanted.