Choose A Good Shampoo And Conditioner
A good starting point in hair care for pregnant women is to pick a good shampoo and conditioner. Shampoos keep hair clean and smelling fresh. A good shampoo with the right ingredients can also improve hair growth and control conditions such as dandruff that cause hair fall. Pick a shampoo depending on your hair type and with natural ingredients such as argan oil, aloe vera, avocado oil or jojoba that can boost hair growth and add lustre. Conditioners moisturise and detangle your hair. A good conditioner also contains nutrients that soften and nourish the hair. It helps regulate the pH value of hair and smoothens the hair cuticle, which is an outer protective layer covering each individual hair.
Is It Normal To Have More Facial Or Body Hair
Unfortunately, your facial and body hair may grow faster when you’re pregnant, possibly because of an increase in hormones called androgens.
To get rid of stray hairs, you can safely tweeze, wax, or shave. Avoid chemicals such as bleaches or depilatories, which could be absorbed into the bloodstream.
Permanent hair-removal techniques, such as laser and electrolysis, are thought to be safe, but the hormones that cause excess pigmentation during pregnancy can also cause darkening of the skin after these cosmetic procedures, especially if you have darker skin. Besides, while they’re considered safe, laser and electrolysis can be painful, and you may already have plenty of discomfort during pregnancy.
In any case, most of this unwanted hair should be gone three to six months after you deliver your baby.
Boost Vitamins A & C Intake
Vitamin C helps your hair stay moisturized and protects it from breakage. Its anti-oxidant property also protects your hair from damage caused by free radicals. Both vitamins A and C are responsible for protecting and repairing bodily tissues, including hair tissues.
Foods such as dark leafy greens, liver, eggs, and dairy are rich in vitamin A. You can easily get vitamin C from fresh fruit and vegetables, such as berries, kiwi, tomatoes. So dont forget your 5 a day!
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Trade Hair Growth Supplements For Healthy Fats
The Spruce / Maxwell Cozzi
Sure, you can easily pop a hair growth supplement, but honestly, the words still out on whether or not theyre an effective way to help your hair grow faster. Plus, they can contain unnecessarily large amounts of minerals and vitamins , which can actually wreak havoc in other ways . For this reason, eating your way to longer hair is actually a smarter, nutritionist-approved way to make your hair grow faster. Vitamins and minerals occurring naturally in foods are easier for your body to utilize, and theyll naturally deliver a healthier ratio of nutrientsjust the way Mother Nature intended.
According to Pritchard, getting plenty of healthy fats like omega-3s can jump-start hair growth. “Healthy fats are essential to hair health since our bodies cant produce omega-3 fatty acids on their own. Therefore, its important to get these fats through our diet,” she says. “They nourish hair follicles to give strands that strong, shiny, lustrous glow.”
Great food sources of omega-3s include salmon, tuna, flaxseed, walnuts, and plant oils such as soybean and canola oil.
Recommendations During Pregnancy And After Delivery:
There are a number of things that you can do to have healthier hair and/or reduce hair loss during pregnancy and after delivery:
- Consult with your health care provider to ensure a proper balance of hormones
- Avoid pigtails, cornrows, hair weaves, braids and tight hair rollers which can pull and stress your hair
- Eat a diet high in fruits and vegetables, which contain flavonoids and antioxidants that may provide protection for the hair follicles and encourage hair growth
- Use shampoos and conditioners that contain biotin and silica
- Hair is fragile when it is wet, so be gentle avoid fine tooth combs
- If you need to use blow dryers and other heated hair instruments, use the cool setting
- Supplement your diet with the following nutrients:
- Vitamin B complex
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Use A Hair Conditioner
The same way you might apply hair conditioner to your hair after shampooing, you can also use conditioner on your babys hair.
Conditioner is a moisturizing agent that replaces moisture stripped away by shampoo. It helps protect and strengthen the hair, which can promote growth and reduce breakage.
Hair conditioner is especially important if your baby has textured or curly hair, which can be prone to dryness. Apply conditioner after shampooing, then rinse the product from your babys hair with warm water.
Again, choose a kid-friendly conditioner thats gentle and tear-free.
When drying your babys hair after shampooing and conditioning, be as gentle as possible. Use a soft towel to lightly dry their hair.
Using a hard or rough towel can potentially damage their young hair follicles and slow hair growth.
Keep in mind that textured or curly hair can easily tangle and form knots. These knots can break off, causing your baby to lose hair.
Each day, gently use a soft brush to detangle your babys hair.
Apply Gelatin To Your Babys Scalp
Gelatin is an amino acid that can stimulate hair growth when applied to a babys scalp.
Mix 1 teaspoon of gelatin powder with water. You can also include a teaspoon of honey and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar to the mixture.
Honey is an antioxidant that restores nutrients to the hair and scalp. Meanwhile, apple cider vinegar helps promote hair growth.
Apply the gelatin mixture to your babys scalp and allow it to sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse out the gelatin and shampoo your babys hair as normal.
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Give Yourself A Massage
A few small studies have indicated that regular head massages might help hair grow in thicker. We need more research on this. But massages are known to help ease stress, and stress can contribute to hair loss. Besides, they feel great. Try a scalp massaging tool. Or gently press, stretch, and pinch your own scalp for several minutes each day.
Vitamins Help Hair Grow Faster During Pregnancy
There are certain vitamins that help hair grow faster during pregnancy. These vitamins include vitamin B, Biotin, magnesium, zinc, copper, vitamin C, and folic acid.
The intake of iron is also important. This is because iron helps with blood circulation and helps with iron absorption in the body. Folic acid is found in citrus fruits and leafy vegetables.
It is important to eliminate stress in order to make the body healthier and allow the body to produce healthy cells.
This is especially important to do during pregnancy because the baby is growing and needs all the nutrients that it can get. When the mother is stressed out, her hair may become dull and may begin to lose its natural color.
This will affect the health of her baby and will make the hair grow slower during pregnancy. This is why it is important to take some time for relaxation and breathing exercises whenever possible to eliminate stress.
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Foods To Include In Your Diet For Your Babys Hair Growth During Pregnancy
Topic: 5 Foods to include in your diet for your babys hair growth during pregnancy
It is said that what you eat during the nine months of pregnancy decides your babys health. One of the most important aspects of getting the right nutrition in your body also affects your babys hair growth. Here are 5 foods to eat for your babys hair.
A babys hair starts growing in the womb during 14th and 15th week of pregnancy and this phenomenon occurs in two cycles. Shedding and then regrowing. There are no new follicles that appear after the birth of the child. Since hair too needs nutrients for it to grow properly, your body should have sufficient nutrients for the same. It is not only important for the babys hair, but also for overall health and optimum development.
If you wish for your baby to have thick and strong hair, you need to consume certain foods in your diet regularly. Since estrogen is responsible for your babys hair growth, these are the foods you must include in your diet for proper hair growth of your child during pregnancy.
Eggs
Consuming eggs during pregnancy is a must. This promotes good health and hair growth in the unborn baby. You can eat eggs as your daily breakfast meal or at night.
Fish
Nuts
Along with having multiple health benefits, nuts are to be highly recommended for pregnant women. They are packed with nutrients and are essential to provide essential vitamins for babys hair.
Avocado
When Will I See These Changes In My Hair
“In my experience, probably not till your 2nd trimester,” says midwife Mary Steen. “In your 1st trimester, when you’re generally not feeling too good, with morning sickness, for example, bad hair days are more common.
“But when you start to feeling better in your 2nd trimester the ‘blossoming’ phase your hair improves.
“Of course, the nature of all the changes are mostly dependent on your hormones, your hair type before pregnancy and how you treat it.”
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What Can Help Your Hair Grow
Genetics does play a role in maintaining healthy hair growth. However, several other factors also come into play.
Although theres no magical potion or remedy that will result in instant growth, there are steps you can take to help your hair grow and to prevent breakage.
Lets look at 15 tips that may help your hair grow faster and stronger.
How Does Hair Change During Pregnancy
Your body experiences dramatic hormonal changes during pregnancy. The first hormone that increases in your body in this period is human chorionic gonadotropin . This is the hormone standard pregnancy test measures to determine pregnancy. Other hormones like estrogen, oxytocin, and prolactin also increase in this period . These hormonal imbalances could have an effect on your hair.
There also is an increase in blood circulation during pregnancy, and this may accelerate hair growth. We will further understand this phenomenon in the following section.
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Purchase Products For Fine Hair
Products for fine hair tend to be far gentler and are naturally designed to not weigh your hair down. Whether you had thick hair before pregnancy or not, postpartum life might be the time to put a little more TLC into your hair care routine. Investing in gentle products that are designed for thin hair might be just what you need to support that regrowth.
Protect Your Hair While You Sleep
To help promote healthy hair when youre sleeping, try the following:
- Make sure youre getting enough sleep generally 7 to 9 hours. Not sleeping enough decreases your bodys production of melatonin, a hormone that plays a role in regulating hair growth.
- Use a silk or satin pillowcase to help prevent the friction, tugging, and tangling that can cause hair breakage, especially if you have long hair.
- Dont go to sleep with wet hair. Laying on wet hair can weaken your strands and can lead to breakage or matting.
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Dont Lose Weight Too Fast
When you want to shed pounds, make sure your hair doesnât go with them. Just as stress can trigger hair loss, so can sudden weight loss. For example, if you donât get enough protein, your body will use what it can get — and hair growth is low priority. When your nutrition returns to normal, itâll grow back. But itâs much better for you, and your hair, to follow a healthy, slower-paced diet plan.
Hair And Nails During Pregnancy
Nails and hair often grow faster than normal when you are pregnant. Hair can also become thicker and look better than ever. Finally, some positive pregnancy symptoms.
Many pregnant women lose less hair than before pregnancy and the hair can therefore be perceived as thicker. There are also those who say that hair can become curlier. Even the nails grow like never during pregnancy. You can probably notice that you need to cut them more often and that they become coarser or drier and more brittle.
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Hair Thats More Brittle Than Usual During Pregnancy
Some women who experience dry hair during pregnancy may also notice that it feels more brittle and prone to breakage. Nix this situation by always conditioning and shampooing gently .
Air dry hair or wrap it in an absorbent towel rather than turning on the blow dryer. Use a wide-tooth comb on wet hair to detangle, rather than a brush, which can pull and snap delicate strands.
You might also consider a different approach to styling. For mamas with kinky or curly hair, choosing updated tension-free cornrows, box braids and twists are recommended. Brittle hair is usually fragile, so these protective styles are clutch for this texture type because they allow the hair to rest without being manipulated, says Bennett.
Other ideas to try include wearing your hair naturally or loosely pulled back with a hair tie made of soft fabric instead of sporting a big bun or high ponytail.
Your Nails During Pregnancy
Have you been checking out your nails lately? Around week 20 of pregnancy and onwards, it is likely that the nails will grow faster than usual. The nails can often be experienced as something softer, dry, and brittle.
The nails are also affected by pregnancy hormones, especially estrogen. The increased blood circulation and your increased metabolism also contribute to the nails getting more nutrition during pregnancy.
As with most other pregnancy symptoms that you experience during pregnancy, nail growth is also temporary. It is likely that the nails will return to your normal growth rate and structure within three to six months after delivery.
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Trim Your Ends Regularly
This may sound counter-intuitive at the first glance. But its crucial to ensure that your hair grows healthily. When the ends of your hair splits, they will entangle each other and finally die off. Cutting a little part of your hair can make your hair healthier in the long term.
For how much to be taken off, it depends on how your split ends looks like:
Dust your hair when the ends look a bit loose vs Trim your hair when the ends become uneven and brittle
This video will tell you what to pay attention to when trimming your ends:
Using Natural Products During Pregnancy
In addition to using all natural products, another suggestion for those wondering how to grow hair faster during pregnancy is to avoid using combs with sharp teeth.
The sharper the teeth of the comb, the more likely it is that the mother-to-be will rip through her hair. In addition, it is advisable for women to avoid using hair dryers as well.
This is because high temperatures can cause damage to the scalp and will most definitely result in hair loss. Instead, it is advisable for women to utilize low-temperature hair dryers for only a few minutes at a time or even for a brief period of time.
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If Your Hair Gets Drier
It’s not uncommon to find your hair in pregnancy has become dry, coarse and straw-like. This could be down to the fact that your changing body just isn’t stimulating your skin’s sebaceous glands to produce as much of an oily substance called sebum as they used to. Or it could simply be down to the hair products you use no longer being quite right for your changing pregnancy hair.
Dry hair can be annoying prone to breakages and hard to moisturise effectively, as MFMer KB found: “My hair was the driest it had ever been. It felt brittle, limp and desperate for some moisture. But every time I tried another conditioner, it felt like it just stuck to my hair instead of absorbing it.”
What About The Hair On My Head
Remember, since you saw an increase in hair growth during pregnancy, it may appear that you are now losing a large amount postpartum. This is both normal and temporary as well. Hair shedding concerning and debilitating for postpartum women, and often adds to preexisting postpartum depression, says Dr. Grover. Its best for the new mom to understand that this is a temporary state and more than likely, they will go back to baseline prior to pregnancy.”
Since very little hair shedding happens during pregnancy, the amount during the postpartum period may seem alarming, but its really just your body playing catch-up. The best thing new moms can be aware of is that the hair will grow back but, but its important to keep in mind that continued stress or a neglected diet can affect the new growth, says Shab Reslan, a Trichologist & Hair Health Expert based in New York City.
Reslan suggests being mindful of your diet and asking your doctor to check for the appropriate levels of B vitamins, magnesium, iron, Vitamin D3, and zinc, all of which are important for hair health.
Excessive stress can have a serious negative impact on the hair growing back at around six months postpartum, says Reslan. The increase in cortisol levels from stress raises testosterone levels, leading to more hair loss. I recommend stimulating the scalp post-pregnancy in order to get ahead of the hair fall by activating your hair follicles.
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Tips For Hair Care During Pregnancy
