Incomplete diet = "difficult" hair??

[Isis]

This was my aunt (still is)... Vaseline was her main hair-grooming product and she had hair for days. Weekly hot combing and vaseline. That was it.

And her hair was gorgeous. And if you look back at old pictures of black people from the 1870s up to say, maybe the 1950s, they had beautiful, thick and often long hair.

It is very interesting that now that we collectively are doing better than past generations, our hair has gotten worse. The products we're using are better too, but still... it's not helping.

IMO, part of the reason is because expectations changed somewhere along the line. Black women didn't expect their hair to be healthy-looking or to grow to long lengths. Weaves and extentions became increasingly popular.

With hair boards like LHCF, the expectations are changing for the better all over the country and in other countries as well. The ladies here are proof of that.

 

[kally]

Can someone tell me what the Vegan diet is and how it is done? I am willing to try just about anything.

 

[Isis]

Can someone tell me what the Vegan diet is and how it is done? I am willing to try just about anything.

A vegan diet is a vegetarian diet but consuming (or using) no animal products period. That means no honey, eggs, dairy, lard, gelatin, silk, leather, wook, etc.

 

[Divine Inspiration]

Can someone tell me what the Vegan diet is and how it is done? I am willing to try just about anything.

A vegan diet consists of plant products only, and vegans typically don't products derived from animals, as fur or leather.

Check out http://www.vegan.com/ to learn more about the lifestyle.

 

[Divine Inspiration]

A vegan diet is a vegetarian diet but consuming (or using) no animal products period. That means no honey, eggs, dairy, lard, gelatin, silk, leather, etc.

You beat me to it.

 

[kally]

A vegan diet is a vegetarian diet but consuming (or using) no animal products period. That means no honey, eggs, dairy, lard, gelatin, silk, leather, wook, etc.

Oh ok. Thanks. I will try it, but modified, because I love chicken and gelatin and I just started eating eggs for more protein.

 

[kally]

A vegan diet consists of plant products only, and vegans typically don't products derived from animals, as fur or leather.

Check out http://www.vegan.com/ to learn more about the lifestyle.

Thank you for this info and web site I will check it out.

 

[Isis]

You beat me to it.

We posted almost at the same time! :

 

[Bunny77]

There are however some people who can get away with not eating healthy and still have hair that thrives. Look at men. and teenage boys lots of them eat junk food on daily bases and their hair grows like weeds.

Someone had a theory about this and I have no idea whether it's true or not cause I'm not a scientist, but it makes sense.

We women also suffer more nutrient losses because of our monthly periods and our reproductive cycles in general can really throw our hormones out of whack, which can affect our skin and hair.

Since men don't have a monthly cycle in which they lose nutrients and other healthy stuff, they maybe can get away with eating junk food and a bunch of crap since they have a larger store of nutrients at their disposal.

I know that calcium, magnesium and iron are deficient in many women, but I've never heard of men needing supplements of these minerals, for example.

 

[Bunny77]

I think that goes across the board as far as people's health. Growing up, how many over-weight children did you know? We were too busy riding our bikes and running around to sit indoors. In the summertime the rule was "when the street lights come on, get your happy behind in the house." Now I pay good money to go somewhere and run around and sweat.

That's a great point. I think our financial and social advancement has bitten us in the butt in many ways at times. You are so right about overweight children who never go out and get exercise from just doing kid stuff.

 

[kally]

Here is my current diet I put together for my self. I tried to include a balance of everything:

Breakfast 1 cup of wheat puff (Plain not milk)
1 Boiled egg
Green Tea
1 Multi Vit Centrum and 1Iron tablet

Lunch: Baked Fish (Pollock)
Spinach and Shredded carrot salad (no dressing)
1 Apple
Nettle Tea
2 Biotin pills and 1 MSM

Dinner: Baked Chicken
Cooked or Steamed Veggie (plain)
1 Kelp tablet
Blueberry Tea
1 Flax seed oil
1 Fish oil

Mid DAy I take my GNC Evening Primrose and Ultra nourish

I am big salt eater I cut it out. As well as all sugary drinks.

I have been at this diet for 2 weeks now and have lost 10 pounds. It is also starting to show in hair and nails.

I Snack on Whole wheat cracker, Jello-(sugar free) raw nuts, unlimited water,veggies and fruit,

My Skin also has cleared up and people have been noticing both.

 

[Bunny77]

That sounds like a good plan Kally. You might also want to include a fat at breakfast... maybe like a teaspoon of Cod Liver Oil? Or if you cook eggs/omelettes, cook them in olive oil.

Also at lunch, it's okay to have some dressing on the salad, but make it pure olive oil or something like that. The fish will have some fat, but the oil will give you a little more. Just maybe one or two tablespoons.

I went to a personal trainer and she mentioned that good fats (omega-3s), believe it or not, actually help weight loss, plus they promote healthy skin and hair.

 

[karmelsassy]

Yeah, I remember. Makes a huge difference, huh? We really are what we eat.

We really are

 

[JustKiya]

*nods at a LOT of the aboe stuff*

I'mma be talking bout a bunch of stuff - forgive me if I misquote someone....

I think that there is a big difference between OPTIMAL nutrition, Good nutrition, Poor nutrition, and pisspoor nutrition.
I suspect that MOST Americans have poor nutrition - not saying that other countries have better, but - well, ours sucks, in general. And it's because we've moved away from natural, fresh foods, into the more processed foods.

Just because we are American, and have been exposed to the toxins in the air, water, soil and food for all of our lives, doesn't mean that our bodies just 'ignore' that stuff - it still affects our nutrition, our retention of nutrients, and our overall health.

As far as the boys still growing hair - I'm telling ya'll - it's the testosterone - they have a (hairy) leg up on us. On the real, I'll keep my soft voice and (mostly) hair free face & chin in exchange for a slightly SLOWER hair growth rate. *LOL*

*sigh* My personal goal is to eat as few processed foods as possible - I garden (not nearly as much as I would want to!) and plan on having chickens for eggs and meat - I figure that KNOWING (intimately) where my food comes from and whats been put into it (from the ground up) will do me better than any 'diet' ever could.

 

[DSP]

*sigh* My personal goal is to eat as few processed foods as possible - I garden (not nearly as much as I would want to!) and plan on having chickens for eggs and meat - I figure that KNOWING (intimately) where my food comes from and whats been put into it (from the ground up) will do me better than any 'diet' ever could.

That's what I'm talking about!

The way my grandparents grew their food would be considered "organic" and "free-range" today. And you know they never gave their chickens growth hormones or planted genetically engineered vegetables. I'm not a scientist, but I believe our bodies don't like it when we eat food that's been significantly altered from what we find in nature. But these days, you spend big bucks if you want fresh natural foods.

 

[DSP]

Back on topic, I do think the purity of our foods/air/water, our level of physical activity, and indoor "climate control" effect our bodies. Our hair is like the canary in the coalmine. If we can take more control of the quality of what we put in/on/around our bodies, I think it will eventually show in the health and resilience of our hair.

 

[Bunny77]

That's what I'm talking about!

The way my grandparents grew their food would be considered "organic" and "free-range" today. And you know they never gave their chickens growth hormones or planted genetically engineered vegetables. I'm not a scientist, but I believe our bodies don't like it when we eat food that's been significantly altered from what we find in nature. But these days, you spend big bucks if you want fresh natural foods.

I saw an ad once that said, "Remember when organic farming was just farming?"

I thought that was deep.

 

[Arcadian]

Diet does play a part but its not the total picture. Some people can have pretty bad diets but have some seriously banging hair (who knows how they do it but they do!!)


So, in that respect we're all going to be a lil unique in how we process the foods we put in our bodies.


Optimal growth environments and longterm care also play a role and in most people. In my case I had the diet down, but OGE and care was lacking. When I made my hair's growth environment better, My hair became stronger. When I learned how to care for what I had I retained what grew in.

So instead of looking at a singluar piece of the pie we should look at all of them and how the coincide with each other.


-A