Vitamins and Minerals in Herbal Remedies for Hair Loss

One of the most common causes of hair loss and early balding is decreased blood flow to the hair follicles, resulting in slowing or stopping of hair growth. Applying the mineral silica, combined with activated oxygen, to your scalp may be able to encourage scalp blood flow and ensuing hair growth.

Silica is an excellent alternative to prescription hair loss treatments because it does not alter your hormonal balance and works as a treatment for female hair loss, unlike pharmaceuticals, which can alter your hormones and commonly don’t work for women who are balding.

Other herbal hair loss treatments, when applied topically, have proven to nourish the human scalp. Algae oils contain vitamins, minerals and phyto-nutrients. These oils plus fatty acids and plant sterols, reduce dihydrotestosterone, a hormone known to cause hair loss and early balding.

Another herbal hair loss treatment is grape-seed oil, which acts as an antimicrobial and encourages scalp healing. When combined with sunflower and safflower oils, this herbal hair loss formula works even better, due to their essential fatty acid content, which nourishes and heals the scalp. Grape seed contains proanthocyanidins, which are potent antioxidants and act as smooth muscle relaxants in the blood vessels and capillaries, preventing or offsetting damage to the hair follicle blood supply.

If you are looking for hair loss treatments in the way of internal supplementation, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) as well as sulfur-rich amino acids offer the dietary sulfur required for the construction of hair proteins. Sulfur and MSM is found in foods, but due to its volatile nature, it is quickly lost when it is processed, cooked, and/or stored so it needs to be taken in the form of a supplement. The specific sulfur-rich amino acids are cysteine, methionine and glutathione.

In order for hair follicles to be productive, they must have a healthy, continuous supply of blood. The B vitamins — including niacin, thiamine and biotin — enhance hair health by improving factors that promote circulation of blood to the skin of the scalp. In addition, studies have shown that the amount of vitamin B6 within cells affects the response rate of cells to steroid hormones. Cells that are vitamin B6 deficient will become more responsive to steroid hormones.

It can be assumed that cells that have a higher level of B6 within them will be less responsive to the hormones that can cause androgenetic alopecia or early balding and other disorders related to dihydrotestosterone (DHT).