A Nutritionist's Guide to Healthy Hair
The nutrients that make a real difference, key considerations and a couple of recipes
We spend so much money trying to make our hair look good - products, styling tools, expensive serums - but as with our skin, we often forget that the health of our hair starts inside.
Nutrition plays a huge role in how your hair grows, how strong it is, and how long it sticks around for.
If your hair’s been feeling thinner, drier, or more prone to shedding than usual - it might not just be down to your shampoo.
There are lots of internal factors that can impact hair health - including nutrient levels, stress, hormones, gut health and more.
So in this post, we’ll cover -
What actually affects hair growth
Key nutrients that support healthy hair
What to reduce or keep an eye on
When to see a doctor
What I personally do
My favourite product pick
My weekly recommendations (including a podcast I’m loving!)
This post is part of the paid subscription, where readers get the bulk of my work. Free subscribers still get the occasional post in full!
Hair Grows in a Cycle
Growth (anagen)
Rest (telogen)
Shedding (catagen)
Most of your strands are in the growth phase at any given time, but stress, illness, under-eating, or nutrient deficiencies can shift more hairs into the shedding phase.
And it’s not instant. You might go through a tough or depleted patch in January and only notice increased hair fall in March.
That’s because hair growth has a delay and it takes time for internal changes to show up externally.
Why Nutrition Matters
Hair can be one of the first places your body shows you that something’s off.
This is because it’s not considered essential for survival and your body deprioritises it when you’re low on nutrients, under chronic stress, or dealing with hormonal shifts.
It’s often an early signal that your body’s under pressure - even before more obvious symptoms like fatigue or skin issues show up. That’s why paying attention to changes in your hair can be such a useful clue.