There are many Vitamin C benefits for your hair, but what are they?

Did you know that hair cells are the 2nd fastest growing cells in the body*?

However, hair is considered a non-essential tissue by the body, so it will never send nutrients to the hair if you’re lacking elsewhere in another area.

So, it’s important we hit our recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals so our hair receives the nutrients it needs to grow. One of the most vital ones is Vitamin C.

*The intestinal cells are 1st

What is Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is an essential anti-oxidative vitamin that the body cannot make by itself. It also cannot store it. This means we have to manually make sure that our body is receiving it every day by consuming our recommended daily allowance: 75mg for adult females (85-125mg if pregnant) and 90mg for adult males, according to The Institute of Medicine, via Healthline.

Why do I need Vitamin C?

Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron efficiently. Without the right iron levels, you may experience chronic hair loss and/or hair not growing past a certain length.

Vitamin C also helps protect against the oxidative stress caused by free radicals.

What's oxidative stress?

Oxidative stress is when an oxygen molecule splits into single atoms with unpaired electrons. These are called free radicals. Electrons like to be in pairs, so free radicals (solo electron atoms) scavenge the body to seek out other electrons to pair up with.

Whilst they look for another electron to pair with, this causes damage to cells, proteins, and DNA. Vitamin C reduces this oxidative stress occurring.

In addition, your body needs Vitamin C to create collagen — a protein that plays an important part in your hair’s structure.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body: it literally holds the body together. As well as your hair, it also improves your skin quality and all connective tissue (muscles). Vitamin C is absolutely essential for the synthesis of collagen.

If you’re deficient in Vitamin C, you can experience dry, brittle hair, hair loss, and it can lead to anaemia.

How does Vitamin C work?

Because of Vitamin C’s antioxidant properties, it helps the skin’s natural regeneration process, so it supports your body to repair damaged cells.

We consume Vitamin C to help our body fight the effects of free radicals. By applying topical hair and skin products that include Vitamin C, it can do the same thing for our skin and hair by helping offset the damage we might get from pollution and/or overexposure to the sun.

What else can Vitamin C do?

So, we know Vitamin can promote hair quality, vitality, and growth but what else can it do for you?

Improve skin quality: As mentioned before, Vitamin C aids the production of collagen which is responsible for keeping the skin plump and firm. Because it’s highly acidic, the skin is triggered to heal itself by accelerating the production of collagen and elastin when applied topically within a skincare product.

Vitamin C also contains a property that inhibits your skin's melanin production. Excess melanin is what causes skin discolouration (like dark spots) and/or hyperpigmentation, so it can support in slowing this process down and prevent dark spots occurring in the first place.

Read more on how Vitamin C can benefit your skin here.

Promote nail health: Vitamin C maintains the integrity of our nails by helping strengthen (via collagen) connective tissue, bones, walls of blood vessels, and skin. Vitamin C also aids nail growth, and as it contributes to collagen formation, can directly support in preventing things like hangnails.

Are there particular Vitamin C foods?

Foods high in Vitamin C are Citrus Fruits (Oranges, Lemons), Orange Juice, Strawberries, Guava, Kale, Broccoli, Red & Green Peppers, Sweet Potatoes, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Blackcurrants, and Kiwi Fruit.

Nearly every multi-vitamin supplement will contain your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C too. There’s no point in over-consuming Vitamin C foods though, as your body will just use what it needs and then disperse the rest as waste: it doesn’t have any space/function designed to store Vitamin C.

If you consume over 1000mg of Vitamin C you are at risk of developing stomach pain, diarrhoea and/or flatulence, though those symptoms will subside once you reduce your levels.

But, where can you find Vitamin C in your go-to hair care products?

Here at Cel, we know that Vitamin C works and its benefits toward your hair are incredible. You can find it in Cel’s Hair Thickening Mask: Via Citric Acid and Citrus Aurantium (Orange) Fruit Extract, the Microstem Hair Thickening Mask strengthens each strand to prevent breakages and protects hair against day-to-day damage. This patented complex of ingredients works to both prevent hair loss and promote new hair growth

Final thoughts On Vitamin C For Hair...

Vitamin C is described as an essential vitamin because that’s exactly what it is: essential! Make sure you’re getting your recommended daily allowance every day and look for it on the ingredient lists of your future skin and hair product investments.