Magnesium (mg) is a hair healthy nutrient because it helps your body in the formation of the proteins that make up your hair, and hair is partially made of magnesium. This mineral works with your body and other nutrients like biotin to transport nutrients to and across your cells and follicles to develop proteins which in turn helps grow healthy hair.
There are studies like this one from the NIH where they researched a few common issues like alopecia in women with polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects up to 13% of reproductive aged women, and evaluated how magnesium supplementation helped to prevent hair loss and encourage regular growth.
Magnesium citrate, aspartate, lactate, and chloride are the ones to look for in particular if you have a deficiency as they are more easily absorbed into your system. And if you don’t like supplements, there are plenty of foods rich in this nutrient that are easy to add into your diet.
Spinach and pumpkin seeds are a great source and both make a great salad for lunch. You can try edamame and brown rice for sides at dinner, and oatmeal or bananas are perfect to eat during breakfast and for a snack.
Fun fact: There is less magnesium in brown hair than red hair.
Preventing Hair Loss
Some studies like this one found that headaches may have a correlation with a type of hair loss called Cephalgia Alopecia. And if you rub your head or lay down while you have a headache, the friction on your hair strands can cause breakage or pulling hairs out prematurely appearing to be hair loss.
Magnesium deficiencies also affect men’s hair loss just like it can impact women. If you suffer from migraines, it could be a lack of magnesium as this study and these slides published by Dr. Greg Shumer found.
Helping with Hair Growth
Magnesium is part of our hair’s makeup and it helps with developing the proteins for new hair growth. This is especially important in the anagen phase (first stage of hair growth) where magnesium biotinate has shown positive effects in aiding the process. Like the name sounds, magnesium biotinate is a hybrid of sorts that is more easily absorbed (40 times more than D-biotin) and biotin has plenty of hair healthy benefits too.
The hair health benefits of magnesium don’t stop there! Magnesium works with biotin to help make fatty acids. And fatty acids can help lead to shiny, healthy feeling, and more manageable hair.
Magnesium is important for many reasons, and healthy hair is one of them. But before you supplement you’ll want to talk to your doctor to make sure it will help as you may not be deficient.
