Haircare is very important for both men and women as it not only tells how healthy your hair and scalp are, but beautiful hair also adorns your overall appearance. Nobody wants to step out of their house with thin, damaged, dry hair. Right?
Type 1 collagen (from marine and bovine) is known for its hair-related benefits, from hair thickening to repair follicle damage, reducing hair loss to speed up hair growth, and the sky’s the limit.
Let’s have a look at the top 3 ways collagen improves your hair.
3 Ways Collagen Improves Your Hair
1. Collagen for Gray Hairs
Collagen antioxidant properties may slow down hair graying by helping fight cell damage.
Though genetics play a big role in age-related hair graying, free radical damage to the cells that are responsible for producing hair color can also contribute to hair graying. As you grow older, the melanin pigment cells begin to die. Melanin is a pigment that gives color to the skin, eyes, and hair. But sometimes your hair starts turning gray even at an early age because of free radicals resulting from stress, poor diet, and environmental pollutants. These free radicals damage the melanin-producing cells.
In case your body does not have enough antioxidants to combat free radical damage, your hair starts to turn gray. A test-tube study shows that the antioxidant activity of hair follicles containing melanin pigment was much higher than the gray hair that doesn’t contain pigment. Another study shows that collagen can fight free radicals in test tubes and prevent cell damage that produces hair color. Hence, collagen can help prevent premature graying.
2. Use Collagen to Fight Hair Follicle Damage
If you have healthy hair follicles, then you have thicker hair strands and minimal hair loss. However, your follicles become weaker due to the accumulation of free radicals formed due to extensive exposure to UV rays, smoking, chronic stress, and poor eating.
What happens is these highly reactive free radicals can damage the lipids, DNA and protein-like organs that make up the cells in the human body. Free radicals also damage hair follicles.
A study reported the relationship between free radicals and hair loss. It was found that a person having a high amount of free radicals on the scalp results in increased hair loss and thinning. Collagen antioxidant properties may fight the damage done by free radicals. Marine collagen can particularly help fight free radicals and prevent scalp and hair damage.
3. Collagen Supports Follicle Function
The hair follicle function is largely affected by collagen, although collagen is present in a very less amount in the outer layers of the hair shaft. But it is located in the dermal tissue around your follicles.
Research has shown that during the hair’s growth phase (anagen), the amount of collagen surrounding the hair bulb thickens and increases. As soon as the hair follicle passes into the next stage (catagen), it sheds two layers of collagen surrounding it.
This means if our body produces more collagen, it can help regenerate the layers. Hence, support our hair follicles to re-enter the growth phase and help maintain the ongoing hair growth cycle.
There are various ways collagen can improve your hair, make it thicker, and prevent hair loss, follicle damage, and hair graying. If you are wondering how to add collagen to your diet, start eating citrus fruits, berries, fish, and chicken. You can also consider taking multivitamins that contain collagen such as Diamond Glow that you can take every mixed with your drinks. This amazing powdered supplement is a great source of collagen, Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, and 14 other natural ingredients while offering improved skin and hair health.