Why Crash Diets can Ruin Your Locks

Trichologist Iain Sallis tells us the Truth and Trauma behind Fad Diet Hair

Oct 2010

As a professional trichologist (hair doctor) every single day I see the implications dieting and an unhealthy lifestyle has on people’s hair.

It’s both distressing and frustrating as often people leave it a long time before coming to see me about their problems – when often the simplest of lifestyle changes or eating habits can make no end of difference.

More people than ever are faddy with their food, on a diet, on a crash diet, don’t eat certain food types or don’t eat at all!

This can have a huge impact with your hair, especially for women. Your hair relies on essential vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy growth, cut down on Proteins, fats or carbohydrates too much and your hair will be one of the first things to suffer.

Cutting down or stopping eating altogether as with eating disorders such as, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia, and the newly coined Anorexia Athletica (over exercise for the calories you intake) and Manorexia (men who are starving themselves to get the ultimate 6 pack), will see the hair react badly and start shedding excessively.

This is called Telogen Effluvium and can be incredibly distressing – especially as the thing you wanted most (to look better) is now being hampered by excessive hair loss.

How to prevent this from happening? Simple. Just don’t crash diet.

Restricted calorie diets all plummet the body into a starvation mode which results in the body cutting nutrient supply to parts of the body which does not need them (eg: the hair).

Make sure you maintain a balanced diet.

The hair needs protein, iron, zinc, Vitamin B complex as well as most other things to grow well. Vegans and vegetarians are more prone to hair shedding disorders due to their restrictive diets.

Remember! Supplements for hair rarely work!

Due to the fact that your body is very good at providing the nutrients it needs, you only need supplements if you are clinically deficient in that certain vitamin or mineral, so there is no use throwing everything down your neck in the vain hope that something will happen, it won’t!

The special herbal hair growth doesn’t work for that very same reason either!

Don’t become overweight: circulation suffers if your overweight and hormonal imbalances occur in overweight women, this may result in oestrogen effects being reduces in the body and testosterone effects increasing...this means women are more likely to start suffering from genetic hair loss!

Finally, Look after yourself and you’ll see the benefits through your hair!
Your hair is a marker of what you do to your body and how you treat it, so eat well...but not too well!

Iain Sallis will be holding seminars in January throughout the country to develop relationships with salons/hairdressers and provide training and information about how both disciplines (hairdressing and trichology) can work together to help your salon service and clients, if you are interested please contact Iain Sallis on info@hairmedic.co.uk.