Collagen for Hair: Why It Is Essential for Healthy, Shiny Hair

Most of us are aware of the benefits of collagen for weight loss, but collagen can also have lots of anti-aging benefits on our skin. Collagen can help to improve hair growth, reducing hair loss, and keeping hair strong and shiny! We all lose collagen as we age, which can lead to premature aging and impact our bones, joints, and even our hair. Luckily, supplementing with collagen can help strengthen our hair and give us a healthy full body of hair. To learn about how to use collagen for hair, and how collagen can help your hair shine and grow, read on!

Collagen for Hair: What Are the Hair Health Benefits of Collagen?

So you want to know how exactly collagen can benefit you in a way in which you can see and feel the results. A lot of the ways collagen affects hair has much to do with how it affects our skin, which is the body’s largest organ. Collagen makes up a whopping 70% of our skin, and it can be found in the dermis. The dermis is the middle layer within human skin. The dermis is also where you can find hair follicles, which are small organs that regulate our hair growth. Maintaining the integrity of the dermis is how collagen helps your hair follicles – and therefore your hair (1)!

In other words, collagen helps your hair by supporting it from the ground up. Therefore, supplementing with collagen can provide the following major benefits to your hair:

• Collagen can improve hair growth, volume and length
• Collagen may help to reduce hair loss
• Collagen can help keeps your hair shiny

All the following hair health benefits you are about to read in more detail revolve around one simple trait: collagen powder is fantastic for your hair!

1. Collagen improves hair volume and length, and reduces hair loss.

What most people dread as they age is the fact that they’re gradually losing more and more hair each year. Hair growth and hair regeneration can be supported by collagen thanks to its antioxidant properties. Researchers in Japan in 2016 found that when collagen levels near the stem cells of hair follicles are decreased, more hair is lost (2). The mice from the study also showed a trend in which mice continuing to produce collagen experienced less hair loss. than those that were not.

Additionally, proline, an important amino acid found in Type I and Type III collagen, helps prevent cell damage from free radicals. Although free radicals are naturally produced in the body, they can lead to hair loss by damaging the hair follicles. Because collagen can help both reduce the damage from free radicals in addition to supporting your hair follicles, supplementing with collagen can benefit your hair (3).

By upholding the quality of your hair follicles, your hair will continue to naturally regenerate and grow. Collagen can also increase in volume —it has been found to be able to widen the diameter of your hair strands, giving your hair a fuller look and feel.

Your hair will be less likely to fall out given the strengthening it will get from collagen. So, now that you know that you can use collagen for hair growth, get ready to maintain that full head of healthy hair!

2. Collagen helps your hair shine.

Nobody likes when their hair is dry, brittle, and lacks that youthful shine. As we get older, it becomes even harder to maintain our hair’s integrity. Well, collagen is here to help! In the dermal layer of the skin, there are sebaceous glands. Sebaceous glands are internally attached to the top of each hair follicle. Their function is to help keep both hair and skin moisturized. They do this by secreting sebum, an oily sort of matter that lubricates the hair strands. The sebum is then deposited onto the skin and can thus be found on the hair. That special coat is what makes hair shine so glamorously.

Of course, balance is key. Excessive sebum production can lead to infection and hair loss, but low sebum production can lead to dull and unprotected hair — this is why washing your hair in a timely matter is important. Collagen can help this entire function by supporting the dermis and therefore the function of all tissue and glands within the dermal layer (4). Great conditioner isn’t the only product that can give your hair that healthy shine!

The big takeaway here is that collagen helps your hair all around. First, it helps keep your hair on your head. Then, it helps keep the hair on your head healthy and beautiful!

How Does Collagen Help to Grow Healthy Hair?

Let’s talk more about collagen’s role when it comes to helping your hair. In order for hair to thrive, the hair follicles and its sebaceous glands need to exist in a well supported dermal layer. The reduction of collagen in our bodies over time may be the way we tend to lose hair as we age. There is a visible relationship between hair thickness, hair moisture, and the total number of hair follicles with the amount of collagen in your body.

Because collagen is so integral to the dermal layer of the skin, which is where we mentioned all those important hair follicles are, ensuring you are giving your body back the collagen it is losing on a daily basis can help you grow and maintain your hair.

Collagen Supplements for Hair

Consider trying collagen supplements in order to experience these amazing hair health benefits that collagen has to offer. Just one or two servings a day can help to make your hair feel fuller, thicker and stronger in just 4-8 weeks time. You can simply mix in collagen powder into your daily beverages, smoothies, or other recipes. Or try some of these simple and delicious ways to help you incorporate collagen into your diet:

1. Keto Bulletproof Collagen Coffee

2. Protein Boosted Morning Green Smoothie

3. No Bake Almond Butter Protein Bars

Of course, these are just a couple of the many recipes out there that you can use if you want to incorporate collagen protein into your diet with ease. The best part about collagen peptides is that they have virtually no taste, so you can truly put it into almost any recipe you can think of. It’s almost too easy!

Collagen Improves More Than Just Your Hair

We love collagen, and we’re always eager to explain why. The why can actually be found just by learning about what collagen is. Collagen serves structural roles for parts of the body such as bones, tendons, joints, and stomach lining. It can also be found in external parts of the body, including our eyelashes, nails, teeth, and, as you have just learned, hair!

Collagen consists of a rather long chain of amino acids that is practically holding us together, connecting and building our connective tissue as well as our skin and bones. Unfortunately, as we stated before, the ability of the human body to produce collagen decrease in our twenties, which is why we begin to show signs of aging over time, such as developing wrinkles and experiencing achy joints.

Supplementing with collagen is not only great for your hair, but there are lots of benefits of collagen powder for your entire body. Collagen can help you build stronger bones, alleviate joint pain and stiffness, reduce inflammation in the body, support the digestive system, and so much more. If you’re curious about the many other benefits of collagen, definitely check out our collagen articles, because this special, anti-aging protein is here to help you inside and out.

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References:

1. https://www.derm101.com/inflammatory/embryologic-histologic-and-anatomic-aspects/collagen/
2. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/02/05/national/science-health/age-linked-hair-loss-caused-disappearing-collagen-researchers-say/#.WuJ0J8iUvIU
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25989472
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3583892/