Hair Growth Vitamins For Black Hair

Vitamins for healthy hair growth is something that is very popular to try, and for good reason. This is because vitamins can help your thinning hair naturally and without any of the harmful ingredients that can come in hair growth pills.

Technically, each and every vitamin the human body needs can be referred to as a hair growth vitamin. This is because all vitamins are necessary for one function or another of your body. Anytime a part of your body isn’t able to function properly, it has the tendency to cause a domino of negative effects.

For example, a deficiency of something your liver needs can cause your liver to work improperly. That, in turn, can allow toxins to build up. These toxins can then cause problems with other areas of your body, technically perfectly capable of causing hair loss.

However, there are certainly vitamins that help with your hair growth more directly than other vitamins do. It is these vitamins that are considered ‘hair vitamins’ and that are used to promote natural hair growth.

Vitamins For Black Hair Growth

In some respects, hair is simply hair, and each vitamin that is good for faster hair growth of straight hair is also faster for black hair growth. However, black hair has some slight but noticeable differences. So, while the same vitamin supplements can work, there may be a difference when it comes to which ones work the best.

Even the hair care for black hair is different than it is for other types of hair. This is largely due to curly hair being very porous, which makes it so much drier. Dry hair, in turn, is very brittle and easily damaged.

This is why black hair sometimes needs a different set of vitamin supplements. Some vitamins, if you take too large of a dose of it, can make hair oily. However, for black hair, this type of supplement is a very good thing, as this hair type can almost never get enough oil.

Therefore, some of the best vitamin supplements for black hair growth are ones that either are oily or that encourage your scalp to make more oils itself. Black hair rarely has problems with things like alopecia areata or other problems that center around the hair follicle.

So, hair supplements that help prevent dryness or help with these other things aren’t going to be as good for curly hair. They may still assist your hair health in some way, but they probably won’t do as much as you’d hope.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is probably the top vitamin for black hair growth. Internally as a hair supplement, Vitamin E is actually an antioxidant that helps fight free radicals with its amino acids. The radical cells are known as bad for your body, and they can also attack your hair follicles.

That is beside E’s help preventing oxidation, which is something that can make your hair gray. Gray hair can be caused by your hair follicle essentially running out of what it needs to add color. However, it can also be caused by oxidation, essentially bleaching your hair even though you would otherwise still have color.

Even better, Vitamin E is also an oil that can easily be applied directly to your scalp and hair. Like any hair oil, this vitamin helps give you stronger hair by forming a protective layer over your hair strands. This has the added advantage of making curly hair look shinier.

It is also enough protection to make a slight difference when heat styling. Considering that heat styling, especially straightening, is very popular with black hair, this type of protection can do a lot just by itself. It does even more by potentially helping with circulation as well.

As mentioned, Vitamin E can both be taken as a supplement and put in its oil form directly on your hair. Besides those options, Vitamin E can also be found in hair growth supplements, as a key ingredient in shampoos, in hair creams, and in a variety of other things. With so many ways Vitamin E can be used, it is very easy to add it to both your diet and your scalp.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is one of the vitamins used by your body to encourage growth in general, including hair growth.

Vitamin A also helps the cells on both your skin and your scalp that make natural oil. This oil protects your skin and scalp, which is very important. Since it makes this in the hair follicle, this oils the roots of your hair effectively.

Therefore, the natural oil that Vitamin A encourages is great to have even if you use other moisturizers. Considering fish oil is pretty high in Vitamin A, there may be some oiliness to this vitamin as well.

However, Vitamin A is mainly found in vitamin form. You can get it as a single vitamin supplement, or you can get it with a mixture of other vitamins. Either way, in addition to its oil benefits, this vitamin is also an antioxidant.

As Vitamin A is also used for vision problems, including night blindness and dry eyes, this is another benefit that you can get when you take it. That, and the fact that this vitamin also helps your nails and skin in other ways, make Vitamin A even more appealing.

Zinc

Zinc is not the first vitamin than comes to mind when people think about supplements that help with hair growth. However, zinc actually plays a couple of different roles when it comes to hair growth.

First, like Vitamin A, zinc helps keep your oil glands working properly. This includes the oil glands that are around your hair follicles on your scalp. As mentioned, these oil glands are particularly needed for those with black hair, which tends to be drier.

Next, zinc also plays a role in cell growth and cell repair. This is largely because zinc helps with your protein cells, which exist in every part of your body. Proteins are also what goes into making some of the cells that make up your hair strands.

Therefore, zinc both goes into making your hair and protects your hair by helping your oil production. As for indirect assistance, zinc also helps your immune system. Since it helps with repairs, zinc also assists wounds and injuries to heal faster.

Vitamin D

Fatty fish and cod liver oil are great sources of Vitamin D, so this is a relatively good oil. However, a lack of Vitamin D also can supposedly contribute to alopecia. This is likely because this vitamin is what activates the cells in your hair follicle.

Also, it helps your hair texture, making it feel better, though it is not quite clear exactly how Vitamin D does this. It may not be clear, but a deficiency in this vitamin has been proven to cause hair loss. So, it is clear that Vitamin D does something important for your hair follicles.

One benefit of vitamin D is that it improves your mood. A lack of sunlight, which helps you make Vitamin D, often leads to being depressed. This is a specific type of depression with the acronym SAD. Since depression is linked to hormones, Vitamin D must affect these.

Considering hormones are known to affect hair growth, it can make a little more sense as to how this vitamin can affect your hair. So, between getting more sunlight and making sure you get fish oils, adding a Vitamin D supplement to your diet is another way to make sure you are getting enough of it.

Biotin

Biotin is probably one of the top hair growth supplement vitamins out there. Though biotin is the most popular for healthier hair, it is actually not the only one of the B vitamins to help with hair growth. It is both in supplements meant for hair, nail, and skin health, but also in Vitamin B complexes for energy.

Biotin strengthens your hair and nails and prevents them from becoming brittle, which means that they break easily.

Biotin also helps slightly with preventing fungal infections, which can undermine hair growth. Biotin also helps your metabolism, blood sugar, heart health, and nervous system.

Biotin is easily one of the most popular vitamin supplements. There are whole articles focused on biotin, how to take it, what the benefits are, and more. In short, this B vitamin has far too many to list them all here.

You can get biotin as both a supplement and a liquid that can be applied to your scalp. Though the supplement is probably more popular and is certainly a less troublesome way to add biotin to your routine, the scalp oil is a good choice as well. For more details about biotin, please see our full review.

Honorable Mentions

Though those vitamins are possibly the best for black hair growth, there are several others that are almost as beneficial. Vitamin B complexes, aside from giving energy, have a ton of underrated benefits for hair growth.

Aside from the Vitamins A, E, D, B, etc., there are also iron and Vitamin C as a couple of specifically noteworthy examples. Iron goes into making your blood by forming a part of your blood cells. A lack of blood cells makes for poor circulation, which negatively affects your body, including your hair growth.

Meanwhile, Vitamin C is commonly touted as one of the best vitamins for your immune system. As your immune system is also something that helps prevent infections, including the fungal infections that can infect your scalp, this can do a world of good. Not to mention Vitamin C’s assistance in fighting free radicals.

Though protein may not be a vitamin, it is also a vital part of making your hair. Without protein, your hair follicles won’t be able to make the strands of cells that goes into your hair. On that note, keratin is also something your hair needs, and the same goes for melanin.

With so many vitamins being necessary for your hair, it is often better to take a mixture of them. This is easily done with a hair growth vitamin supplement or even a daily multivitamin. Looking at which vitamins are in a supplement is easy to do, so make sure you are getting plenty of these.