Hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season and getting the chance to spend some quality time with family and close friends. With the new year quickly approaching, I‘m sure everyone’s getting those resolutions set, me included, except I this time I plan on sticking to “the plan” dang-gone it! lol We’ll see...
Well, one of the to-do items on “my plan” is to take extra care of this head o’ hair of mine! When I first went natural, I started taking the supplement Biotin (and *MSM). One of the benefits of biotin is it helps stimulate hair growth and hair thickness, as well as improve nails and skin. Because I was newly natural and wasn’t sure of my natural hair growth rate, I wasn’t able to determine if biotin had much to do with the rate my hair was growing; I was averaging about ½” to ¾” of growth per month. *NOTE: The average growth rate for hair is between ¼” to 1” of growth per month. When I BC’d in November 2008, I had about 1 ½ inches of new growth (stretched). *In the picture below, I still had a little bit of relaxed ends hanging on.
Later, during the month of December, I joined a “5 Inches By Next December” challenge with my natural sisters on Nappturality.com. I was able to reach my 5” goal by late-March/early April...that means about 3” of growth in 3 months. Shortly after ending the challenge, I stopped the supplements. Since April, I’ve trimmed my hair twice and have “dusted” my ends about three more times...so I can say I’ve cut about 1 ½” to 2” off since April. Today, my hair is between 5” (center of head, hard-to-retain-length section) and 6”. Yep, about 3 ½” of growth in almost eight months, which equates to about 3/8” of growth per month. Not bad, in fact it’s about average but I was getting close to an inch a month before.
Soooo, yesterday I went to Walgreens and found Nature’s Bounty brand of Biotin 5000mcg (5 mg). It was a “Buy One, Get One” at that! I probably could have found them for less but I got both bottles for $11.00, each contains 60 capsules to be taken once a day. If taken as suggested, these should last me 4 months which should be more than enough time to see if the biotin is doing anything for me.
I found an interesting read on www.webmd.com that tells about biotin and its benefits:
“Eating for Hair Health continued...
According to experts, this nutrient is also essential for hair growth. It's so important that biotin supplements are often prescribed right alongside medical hair loss treatments such as Propecia, Proscar, or minoxidil (Rogaine, Ronoxidil).
"Biotin is a major component in the natural hair manufacturing process -- it is essential to not only grow new hair, but it also plays a major role in the overall health of skin and nails," says Andrew Lessman, clinical researcher and creator of Your Vitamins, an all-natural supplement line manufactured in Henderson, Nevada.
While Lessman says we can get biotin from our diet -- it's present in foods like liver and egg yolks -- we would have to consume thousands of calories daily to get what our hair needs. That's one reason why he and so many dermatologists suggest biotin supplements.
Indeed, Daly says he routinely recommends up to 3 mg of biotin daily for his hair loss patients, while Lessman developed a healthy hair, skin, and nails product containing 2 mg of biotin per daily dosage, which he believes is the minimum for healthy hair.
The recommended daily intake (RDI) of biotin is a scant 300 mcg -- and even the healthiest diets usually contain no more than 30 to 50 mcg, says Lessman.”
.....
Notice the clinical researcher recommended a daily intake of 2mg (2000 mcg) as the minimum for healthy hair; the supplements I have are 5 mg (5000mcg). I’ve read on several hair boards where women are taking up to and beyond 13,000mcg!! Now, although biotin is a water soluble vitamin and any excess is flushed out of the body, I wouldn’t recommend taking that much. As usual, please do your own research on Biotin to see if it’s something you’d be interested in. And I will keep you updated on how my plan goes with using the Biotin 5 mcg!
*A Lil’ Extra: “MSM” is methylsulfonylmethane (METH-əl-sul-FON-il-METH-ane); MSM provides sulfur, a vital building block of joints, cartilage, skin, hair and nails, and methyl groups, which support many vital biochemical processes in the body, including energy production. MSM is a naturally-occurring nutrient found in small amounts of many foods.
No comments:
Post a Comment