Prioritize *This* Food Group Every Day For Healthier Hair

While hair oils and leave-in conditioners are great for maintaining the health of your strands and protecting against heat damage, they don't necessarily contribute to overall growth when applied to the shaft. Hair growth starts inside the follicles, after all.

Yes, serums can help stimulate the scalp and promote circulation, but to encourage healthy hair from the root, you shouldn't ignore your overall nutrient intake. 

See, your hair is made up of keratin, a protein consisting of about 18 amino acids1—including cysteine, proline, and glycine. In order to support the protein found in hair, you should be getting your daily fill from food. 

The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. However, many nutrition experts see that as a minimum, and recommend going beyond the RDA2, increasing protein intake to closer to 1.2 to 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight (roughly 110 to 120 grams a day). 

Let's be honest—getting this much protein isn't always easy. You'll want to prioritize animal products like poultry, lean meat, and fish, as well as plant-based ingredients like chickpeas, lentils, and beans. 

Do your best to prioritize protein intake in the morning with a satiating breakfast. But if you're not one to reach for protein-dense foods in the morning, you may consider adding a supplement (like collagen or protein powder) to your routine. 

Collagen is a worthy contender—it supports overall protein intake while providing skin and gut support. You can easily add a scoop of collagen powder to your coffee to boost your morning protein intake, whip it up in a smoothie, or incorporate it into whatever else fits your fancy. 

While hair does not contain collagen (like the skin does), collagen peptides can provide your diet with more amino acids. Those amino acids can then be turned into keratin to form healthy hair at the follicle. Additionally, it can support scalp health and buffer against follicle irritation.

In order to tend to your hair from the inside out, you should prioritize protein in your diet.