Your Guide to Healthier Hair, Skin and Nails
The key steps for maintaining healthy skin, hair and nails may not be something you’re already doing. But with a few lifestyle changes, you too can fix it to look & feel amazing.
What Makes Healthy Hair, Skin, & Nails?
Our hair, skin and nails are made up of three different types of proteins; collagen, kreatin and elastin. These provide structure and support and are key to keeping them healthy and strong. When you have deficiencies in any of these proteins, you might notice a change in skin elasticity or weak and brittle nails/hair.
Key Step 1: Maintaining healthy multi-protein consumption is important to ward off deficiencies. You can find these essential amino acids in proteins such as meat, fish, and eggs. However, turning to supplements often can give your diet a helpful boost when you may not be getting enough day-to-day protein.
Key Step 2: Mind the outward signs that you may not be getting enough nourishment. Does your skin look dull or flakey? Are your nails brittle? Healthy glowing skin starts from within. Consuming essential vitamins, healthy fats and proteins, and healthy fats are very important. Healthy fats provide hydration to your hair, skin and nails. Your hair is primarily made of protein, so protein intake is necessary for hair growth. Weaker nails can also be a sign of a calcium deficiency.
In addition to proteins, your skin also needs healthy fats to maintain healthy hydration levels which is what is ultimately responsible for your glow up.
Key Step 3: Get Enough Calories. Severely restricting your calories or your carb intake may do more damage than good. Your body can start using what few calories you consume to only keep the internal organs and muscles functioning, while skin and hair get left at the drawing board. As a result, you might experience dry, brittle, and breakage-prone hair and nails. You also need to get enough calories to support healthy hair and skin cell turnover production.
You Can Eat Your Way to Healthy Hair, Skin, & Nails
Drill down into what the cornerstones of your diet are. If you want to maintain healthy hair skin and nails that glow you need to focus on the right nutrients. You also need a lot of healthy fats to keep your hair shiny and maintain skin elasticity. Without Omega 3’s and 6’s, your skin and hair can suffer.
Here are some nutrients worth the added calories:
- Omega 3’s and 6’s: Examples of foods with healthy fats are olive oil, canola oil and found in nuts or avocados.
- Lean Protein sources: You need to make sure that you are consuming enough protein and getting protein from high-quality & unprocessed. Some examples of lean meat that offer high-quality protein are: turkey, fish, and chicken.
- Calcium: Your body needs a balanced doses of calcium several times a day to keep your bones and nails strong. Examples of calcium-rich foods include milk, cottage cheese and yogurt.
- Iron: Having an adequate iron intake can help promote healthy and glowing hair, skin and nails. Examples of iron-rich foods include lean, red meat and dark, leafy greens.
Drinking a lot of water is also key! Hydration is one of the largest contributing factors to healthy hair, skin, and nails. The average adult who is moderately active should be drinking at least 2-3 liters of water per day. This can fluctuate daily based on a number of factors:
- Activity level: The more you sweat, the more you need to rehydrate
- Diet: Including supplements and medications
- Age
Benefits of Collagen
A lot of people have been turning to collagen peptides, which has gotten a wrap as the ultimate beauty supplement. Collagen protein supplement improves the way we look and feel in our bodies in multiple ways, including improving hair, skin, and nail health. There are many benefits to adding in a collagen powder to your diet:
- Improves skin elasticity
- Strengthens bones
- Aid in joint health
- Studies have shown it may reduce inflammation
- Can help increase muscle mass
- Improves cardio health
It’s important to remember that nutrition changes and collagen supplements don’t work overnight. As we age it can take time to rebuild your depleted stores and see the benefits of fueling your body with the nutrients it needs to thrive and glow from within.
For collagen supplements, here’s when you can expect to start to see results:
- Skin: 4 - 12 weeks
- Nails: 24 weeks
- Muscles: 3 months
- Joints: 4 - 6 months
However, these time frames might vary depending on your natural cell turnover rate, age, and overall diet. But after you start to notice the difference, you’ll feel stronger, leaner, and look your best.
Collagen Supplements Are Hair, Skin, & Nails Essentials
As we age, our body’s natural collagen production slows down dramatically. It might not be enough to eat a well-balanced diet. Both women and men, so everyone can benefit from collagen supplements. But not all collagen is created equally. Some are loaded up with sugar and fillers and may find you in a worse place than when you started. Other collagen powders aren’t as easily digested by the body. It's been found that collagen peptides are best for you because they are more easily digested. Transformation Protein’s complete collagen protein is a multi-collagen type 1 & 3 blend that contains your daily dose needed to maintain radiant skin, strong nails, healthy hair and joints.