If you’ve started researching hair growth vitamins and minerals, you may have stumbled across vitamin C at some point. Vitamin C is an incredibly important vitamin for your body, and in recent years, it’s become more popular to see vitamin C in the beauty world, with benefits for both your hair and your skin.
However, if you’re uncertain as to whether these benefits are legitimate, you might wonder whether vitamin C is actually a vitamin you should be adding to your supplement regimen to see more beautiful, glossy hair. Here, we’re helping you understand what vitamin C does for you and whether it might be a good choice for healthier hair.
How does vitamin C play a role in your body?
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is critical for your body’s functions, including tissue repair and immune system function. Humans also aren’t able to synthesize it, which means you need to have it in your diet. As a fortifying antioxidant, vitamin C helps to reduce the cellular damage that can result from free radicals and from environmental stressors, which can include pollution and UV radiation. As part of its tissue repair benefits, vitamin C can also smooth strands, boost shine, and create glossier, more beautiful hair.
How vitamin C deficiency impacts your health
Vitamin C deficiency is known to be a serious problem; you may already know that severe vitamin C deficiency results in scurvy, a serious disease that can cause a number of horrible symptoms, like swollen, bleeding gums and reopening of old wounds. However, even mild to moderate vitamin C deficiency can cause health concerns. Here are some of the symptoms of vitamin C deficiency.
- Dry, damaged skin
- Easy bruising
- Wounds that heal more slowly
- Painful, swollen joints
- Bleeding gums
- Fatigue
- Damaged and bent hair, especially body hair
- Iron deficiency anemia, which can also cause dry hair
Will vitamin C really help my hair grow?
Vitamin C deficiency can have significant impacts to your body as a whole, which can include your hair. This, combined with the fact that vitamin C is an antioxidant and widely used for skincare, has caused some scientists and dermatologists to look into whether vitamin C can be helpful for hair growth.
Much of the existing research on vitamin C has to do with skin and bones. However, because your scalp is also skin, some of these benefits may also transfer to your hair. One review, which looked at vitamin C supplementation in musculoskeletal injuries, showed that vitamin C supplementation decreased oxidative stress overall; oxidative stress has been shown to contribute to hair graying and hair loss, so decreased oxidative stress could help you retain hair longer. In patients with hair loss associated with iron deficiency, vitamin C has also been shown to be critical in improving hair growth. Additionally, the upper limit for adults is considered to be 2,000mg/day, which is quite difficult to hit unless you’re taking significant amounts of vitamin C supplements.
What foods can I eat that are high in vitamin C to support hair health?
The easiest foods to eat to support hair health are citrus fruits. They’re so well-known for being great at providing vitamin C that they’ve become essentially synonymous with the vitamin: two medium lemons or one large orange provides 100% of your recommended daily value of vitamin C. However, if you’re looking for other options to add vitamin C to your diet, here are a few foods to consider.
- Acerola cherries, also called Barbados cherries
- Rose hips
- Hot red or green chili peppers
- Guavas
- Sweet yellow peppers
- Blackcurrants
- Kiwi
- Broccoli
- Strawberries
If you’d rather get a simple, easy way to access your daily recommended vitamin C, you might want to consider the HAIRLOVE Growth Complex as well. Not only does this multivitamin offer a number of different supplements in a single two-capsule serving size, but it provides you with 300mg of vitamin C, which is more than three times the recommended daily value. Just take two capsules with a glass of water and you’ll immediately get enough vitamin C to maintain health and improve the appearance of your hair.
Other ways to encourage hair growth
Vitamin C is a great supplement for hair growth, but have you considered that there are other supplements that could also help? You may want to look into vitamin B5, selenium, or biotin, for example, as these supplements can also provide better health for your hair.
While supplements are a great way to encourage hair growth, they’re definitely not the only option out there. You can also see benefits to hair growth by treating your hair better overall. For example, you may want to consider switching out your basic scrunchies for luxury silk scrunchies, stimulating blood flow and hair growth with a derma roller, or treating your hair more gently with a Denman hair brush. All of these tools can encourage hair growth overall.
Supplement effectively with a hair growth supplement
While vitamin C itself can be a great supplement for hair growth, you’ll want to supplement with a number of different hair vitamins and minerals if you really want to see benefits. Instead of adding potentially dozens of supplements to your morning routine, consider adding just one: the HAIRLOVE Growth Complex. This multivitamin offers vitamin C as well as vitamin E, biotin, vitamin B5, zinc, selenium, Cynatine HNS, and Bioperine.
Vitamin C is a useful supplement both for overall health and for your hair’s health specifically. If you want to see healthier, stronger hair, you might want to add vitamin C to your routine.
