Does Exercise Help Hair Growth?
Does exercise help hair grow? Does exercise help prevent hair loss? What kinds of exercise help hair growth?
Can exercise increase hair growth speeds?
In fact, yes it does.
How does exercise help hair growth?
Incorporating regular exercise into your daily and weekly routines is good for overall health, which means it’s good for hair health too.
Hair is an afterthought when it comes to keeping the body alive. If the body is ill, the hair is not the first priority. If the body is stressed, hair isn’t a priority either.
Overall health is imperative to healthy hair.
What happens to our hair when we exercise?
It’s all in the blood.
Blood feeds the follicles, where the hair grows. And whatever is in the blood is also in the hair. Medications tend to impact hair health as well. And so, overall physical health impacts hair growth because of the health of the blood.
When we exercise, the blood in our body circulates faster, better, and more thoroughly throughout the body. An increase in blood circulation allows nutrients in the blood, such as omega-3s and iron, as well as other vitamins, to make their way to the hair follicles thus nourishing the follicles and encouraging hair growth.
Regular exercise makes the blood circulate to all parts of the body, flushing out toxins, and replenishing the life-giving cells all over, including the scalp.
Exercise increases the heart rate, making the blood flow to the muscles. Sometimes the muscles and other parts of the body need the blood more than the scalp. This is not always the case. But when it is, incorporating a head massage, like while you wash or condition your hair, or brushing your hair when it’s dry can help bring blood to the scalp as well.
Reducing stress with exercise help hair growth
Why does stress decrease hair growth?
When a body is stressed, it releases the hormone cortisol. Excess cortisol can lead to alopecia or hair loss.
Does this mean that all stress causes hair loss?
No, not necessarily.
Stress happens. Life is stressful. We live in a post-COVID world, and in the midst of global uncertainty.
Stress does discourage growth, but mostly because of how the body is responding to stress. Again, hair is an afterthought to keeping the body alive.
Exercise decreases the amount of cortisol in the body. And so, exercise is good overall because of the other hormones released when we do exercise.
And once again, all hormones are released into the blood, and the blood circulates to the hair.
Happy, healthy body = Happy, healthy hormones
Happy, healthy hormones = Happy, healthy mental health
Happy, healthy mental health = Happy, healthy hair
Why does good mental health and exercise help hair growth?
Exercise encourages the body to release happy hormones, right?
And exercise increases blood circulation.
AND exercise maintains overall physical health.
But mental health…
Mental health is a subject that we should focus more on, as a society. Taking mental-health days for ourselves is becoming more and more socially acceptable. But allowing ourselves to actually take time for our own health is hard.
Prioritizing working out, whether it be a brief 10-minute walk in the morning or evening helps improve mental health.
Lifting weights. Riding a bike. Yoga. Or another type of exercise that you have designated for the time you’ve taken to take care of your body, will INCREASE
✔️ Hormonal balance
✔️ Healthy body image
✔️ Detoxing the body through blood circulation
✔️ Restful sleep
And DECREASE
✔️ Feeling unproductive
✔️ Brain fog
✔️ Weight gain
✔️ Cortisol production
Exercise is also an excellent way to discourage depression from rising. So yes, exercise helps hair growth AND helps mental health. A double whammy!
But really, working out is much more beneficial than just the two awesome whammy’s here.
But of course, we can’t forget that when we workout, we have to keep replenishing our fluids and drink plenty of water. Water helps flush toxins out of the blood and out of the body, as well as increase the blood circulation. The more hydrated you are, the easier the blood moves through the body, and the better your hair grows.
Does Drinking Water Promote Hair Growth?
Does exercise help hair grow thicker?
Hair density can vary due to genetics, hormonal changes, and even medication or illness.
Typically hair changes every 7 years. Either in texture, color, or growth pattern. Hair growth can be affected by any number of things.
As far as making your hair thicker… extra blood circulation and healthy overall body health can increase growth.
However, if your scalp simply didn’t develop as many follicles as your friend, sister, or neighbor, that’s okay! No two people have exactly the same hair or number of hairs on their heads. But you can’t magically develop new follicles for hair to grow out of.
But does exercise make hair grow thicker? With increased blood flow and nutrients feeding the scalp, yes, it can potentially help hair grow thicker and definitely will help hair grow faster.
Does working out help with hair loss?
Again, mental health and steady, blood circulating regularly throughout the body will help prevent hair loss.
If you have suffered from hair loss, or have seen a decrease in thickness, I would recommend using the product Nioxin.
Nioxin is a medicated shampoo and conditioner therapy treatment originally designed for chemo patients, to encourage the healthiest environment for hair to grow.
Nioxin does not grow hair back, but prevents further loss. Sometimes, if a follicle has been clogged due to dirt and oils and the hair doesn’t grow anymore but the follicle is still alive, Nioxin can clear it out and the hair will begin growing again.
Which exercises increase hair growth?
Treating Hair Loss for Men and Women
Are there specific exercises that help hair grow?
🏃Scientifically, studies have shown that traditional cardio, pushups, running, etc. have helped hair grow because of the increase of blood flow.
Other exercises to help hair growth…
🏊♀️ Swimming, as long as you are clarifying your hair and preventing chlorine buildup on the hair and scalp.
🚴♂️ Riding your bike. Please wear a helmet!
🧘Yoga. Deep breathing in yoga, though not always a form of exercise that is heavy in cardio, detoxes the muscles, the blood, and the mind. Which means it can increase mental health and help you de-stress. And so, even this kind of exercise helps hair growth.
Natural oils on the hair when working out
The scalp naturally produces sebum, or natural oil, to help regulate the pH of the skin- especially after you have been sweating- and keep the skin and the scalp hydrated.
When we sweat the skin produces salt and water. Salt dries the skin out. So the skin and scalp counter the salt with natural oil.
That’s a good thing!
Stripping the natural oils that the scalp produces more often than necessary can be catastrophic for the scalp and might make it produce twice as much oil as it was before.
The sebaceous glands in the scalp communicate with each other. They talk about if the scalp needs more oil or less. So if it produces just the right amount of oil, but is stripped constantly, the scalp is still dry. So the glands think that it’s not enough and communicate that they must produce more.
If you are trying to re-train your scalp to not be too greasy too fast, please read Greasy Scalp SOS and Apple Cider Vinegar Rinse Recipe- Natural Shampoo to learn how to regulate the oil production properly.
Your scalp needs these natural oils. Exercising regularly and detoxing the body keeps the blood flowing to these glands that hydrate the scalp and keep them healthy.
Washing your hair after exercise
When should we wash our hair after a workout? Right away? Or do we wait?
This is my philosophy- If your hair is dirty, wash it!
If the hair can wait a day or two more, then wait.
Again, you don’t want to strip the good and natural oils from the scalp too often. Or leave the natural pH of the scalp off of the natural 4.5-5.5 too often.
But also, if you don’t wash often enough, your scalp will develop build-up.
A build-up of oils, dirt, salt from your awesome sweaty workout, and the products that we use to cover up the sweat, like dry shampoo and powder, or styling pomades if left for days or weeks at a time will start to clog the pores and follicles. And we already discussed the importance of keeping the follicles unclogged so the hair can continue to grow.
How to Wash your Hair to Prevent Hair Loss
How often do we wash then?
For some, 3-4 days is just right. For others, they only have to wash their hair once a week.
No two people will produce the same amount of sweat or oil at the same rate.
If you can, rinse the sweat and product out of your hair after a workout.
If you have long hair, this might be more trouble than it’s worth, and that’s okay too. Only you can gauge how long is too long for your hair to go unwashed.
Is It Okay To Wash Your Hair Once A Week?
Salon Professionals
We, as salon professionals, are always taking care of other people. Never taking time to take care of ourselves.
Even if you don’t work in a salon, we live in a stressful world! We are up to our ears in ‘could happen’s’ and ‘we’ll see what happens tomorrow’. We HAVE to take care of our mental health and physical health!
Allow me to take a brief moment to encourage you, dear reader… the sun will still rise again tomorrow, no matter what happens. The world will turn and everything will end up being okay.
Please take time to take care of yourself. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
If you need help and ideas of how to go about doing this for yourself, please see Work/Life Balance in the Salon- Preventing Burnout
In Summary
Does exercise help hair growth?
Yes, it does. Through blood flow and detoxing the body.
Is overall health important for hair growth?
Yes. Because, if the blood is healthy, and our mental health is in good shape, our hair will grow fast and strong too.
Can exercise help prevent hair loss?
Again, yes. Overall good health means that the blood is healthy. And when regular exercise encourages the blood to make it all the way to the scalp to feed and nourish the follicles. Not only that but regular exercise helps decrease stress, which in turn discourages hair loss.
How else does exercise help hair grow?
Exercise helps hair growth because of the blood circulation, detoxing the body, decreasing stress, and increasing mental health.
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