When your scalp is healthy, an oily material called “sebum” moisturizes your scalp and keeps your hair looking soft, smooth and glossy. One of the best ways to keep sebum production up is by ensuring you get lots of vitamin A, reports researchers. Getting too little of this nutrient can cause sebum to dry out, which impacts your scalp health and hair health.
Interestingly enough, not only does vitamin A keep hair looking like something in a hair commercial. A lack of vitamin A has also been linked to hair loss in studies.
How Much Vitamin A Do You Need?
According to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, your daily dosage of vitamin A is is 700 micrograms a day for women. If you’re a guy trying to stave off hair loss, the daily dosage is 900 micrograms per day for men. However, before taking a pill or supplement, try one of these vitamin A-rich foods.
1. Beef Liver
Beef liver might sound off putting, but you can enjoy it in a stir fry or scrambled with other ingredients like eggs. A single 3-ounce serving gets you three times your daily requirements.
2. Grass-Fed Butter
Have you heard of bulletproof coffee? Even if you’re not a big fan of the butter-in-your-coffee dietary fad, here’s another reason to reach for real butter and not margarine. A single tablespoon of grass-fed butter gets you almost 10% of your daily requirements of vitamin A.
3. Eggs
What came first, the chicken or the egg? Regardless, put your hair first by eating more eggs. A single egg gets you almost 10% of your daily needs of vitamin A.
