How to Grow Your Hair Super Fast!

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

As I promised in my article, “It’s Hair Growing Season People!” we are all growing our hair out for Wigs for Kids (they only need 8”)! So I am going to talk about the best natural medicines for growing healthy, strong, shiny hair, super fast. After all we want those wigs looking good!

Spring and Summer are the best hair growing seasons, so to optimize the hair growing season let’s talk about the things that make hair grow FAST!

First and foremost Chinese Medicine considers hair the ”glory of the kidneys,” and what that crazy talk means is that your hair is an excess of your total well-being.

“Kidney chi” is our “energetic bank” in Chinese Medicine, and if our energetic bank is all dried up, then there is not much left over for such frivolties as hair! Think about it. The healthiest people naturally look beautiful.Second and most importantly, I would like to just say FLAXSEEDS, FLAXSEEDS, FLAXSEEDS! If you get nothing from this discussion on how to grow your hair faster, then just visit my article, “How to Unleash Your Inner Fabulosity!” and follow the instructions on adding 1-3 tablespoons of freshly ground flaxseeds to your daily routine. You can do up to three tablespoons twice daily if you are a flax seed fanatic like me.

On the advice of my vet, since fish oil gives my dog the runs, I now give my Golden Retriever freshly ground flaxseeds and in just a week his coat became shiny, less itchy, and the bare patches filled in (normally this time of year he pulls his hair out like a mad man.

Thirdly we want to have PROTEIN. Flaxseeds are a great source of omega 3 oils and protein, but I would also drink a protein smoothie a day; you can add your flaxseeds to the smoothie as I recommend in my “Favorite Smoothie Recipe.”

Omega Up! If you are doing the flaxseeds hard core, you are getting enough omega 3’s to ensure shiny strong hair, if not, then try a tablespoon of fish or flax oil daily (no cod liver oil for pregnant women because the vitamin A is a teratogen.)

Multivitamin: B-vitamins are crucial to hair growth as nearly the whole B family plays a role in hair growth.

Multimineral: A mineral rich diet is important for healthy hair growth. I like the Tri-Boron Plus by Twinlab, or visit this page or your local health food store for other high quality recommendations.

Biotin: Your multivitamin may not contain that much biotin so check the label and see if you are getting the RDA.

Skip the Sodium Lauryl Sulfate! A known carcinogen and skin irritant, look for SLS free shampoo’s.

Skip the daily shampooing! You can still rinse your hair every day and condition it, but daily shampooing is stripping your scalp of essential oils. This saves not just your hair, but your water and shampoo bill. See? You can afford that more expensive SLS free shampoo after all now….No excuses, organic isn’t really that much more expensive when you look at it as a whole.

Get a trim! Don’t forget to get a bit trimmed off your hair every couple of months (another great way to save money in these tough economic times.)

Try some handstands! Even if you aren’t a gymnast, you can still hang your head off the edge of the bed to increase blood flow to the scalp periodically throughout the day, or you can do some extra downward dogs if you are a yoga fiend like me.

Rosemary and Mint! The invigorating herbs of the Laminacea family bring more circulation to your scalp as I just talked about in the above handstand blurb. Rosemary has been associated with improving hair growth for quite some time.

You can try some of the shampoos available at eVitamins or your local health food store, or buy rosemary essential oil and add a few drops to your favorite shampoo. Start with 1-2 drops and then work up to about 5-10 drops of the pure essential oil (remember never apply any essential oil straight to the skin unless it is lavender.)

Silica! Horsetails have long been touted as hair growing herbs because of their high silica content; unfortunately as our soil becomes more toxic, I don’t feel comfortable using them unless they are certified organic. The reason for this is that they suck up minerals like silica from the soil along with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium and arsenic. I would instead ensure my multi-mineral formula contains about of silica.

Don’t OD on vitamins and minerals! Remember, we can only absorb so much and selenium toxicity, for instance, is associated with hair loss when we get up to the 1000mcg range.

Have a hair growing tip? Feel free to leave it in the comments section.

Related reading:

Acupuncture, Acupuncture, Acupuncture!

Dying to Look Good

Topical Natural Treaments for Seborrheic Dermatitis, Dandruff, Cradle Cap, and Itchy Scalp

Chlorine Shower Filter

©KitchenTableMedicine.com, LLC ™

Vitamins: How to Save Money 20-70% Off!

By Dr. Nicole Sundene

Someone asked how to get cheap vitamins after reading my article “How To Get Free Prescription Drugs.” Now I can’t get you free vitamins, as I discussed in that article, but I can teach you a simple trick that I use to save money on natural medicines.

Getting high quality stuff for the best price is simply about planning ahead, shopping smart, sticking with the best brands, and reading labels for food coloring and other unnecessary ingredients.

Recently I read a study published at Consumer Reports that concluded that vitamins purchased at “The Dollar Store” were not found to be of quality and may actually be a hazard to our health. First of all why did someone even bother to do such a study?  Is anyone else laughing?

Now I LOVE eVitamins because having spent 12 years in the natural medicine field, I can easily find high quality brands such as Enzymatic Therapy, Twinlab, Jarrow, and so forth to name few.

You can save a ton of money over there because things are listed at 20-70% off, and if you just plan ahead and order $75 of multivitamins, fish oil, health supplements, supplies, lotions, herbs, and so forth you get FREE SHIPPING.

• Yes, I checked the packing peanuts, and they are made from recyclable materials and can be recycled.

• Yes, your purchases help support The Kitchen Table, so if you ever have any questions just leave them in a comment on this article, or message me and I will post the answer for all to benefit from.

It seems like many of my readers have the same questions about supplements, but I cannot sell you the prescription grade products that naturopathic physicians supply.

However, I can at least direct you towards what I like at eVitamins as they ship everywhere, and many of their products are just as high quality and shown to pass independent laboratory evaluations for purity and potency over at ConsumberLabs.com.

If you are confused I’ll help you sort it out.  Leave your questions here and in the mean time stick with the standards for quality like Enzymatic Therapy, Twinlab, and Jarrow when purchasing vitamins or supplements.

Sincere thanks for supporting Kitchen Table Medicine with your purchases!

~Dr. Nicole

Related reading:

Best Vitamin D

Best Chewable Fiber

Best MultiVitamin 2008

21 Free Preventative Medicine Habits!

©KitchenTableMedicine.com, LLC ™