Diet and lash lifts – what you put in matters. - 2 Jun 2021

We have talked in the past about the effects that hormones play on hair quality, how hormones can create resistance to lash lifting outcomes and medications, pregnancy and breastfeeding are all matters to consider if dealing with an underwhelming lash lift result.  All who train with Elleebana are educated about how these factors are elements for consideration, but its time we considered our diets as a key factor in the hair porosity, the hair growth cycle and even hair loss, which are all key factors for lash lifting results.

The hair on our heads, bodies, lashes and eyebrows are not considered by our bodies as vital organs or tissue that the body can’t do without and so therefore the body does not prioritise the nutritional needs for our clients lashes or eyebrows. The very thought that our bodies view our lashes to be expendable in nature is concerning to those of us whom make a living out of lashing.  So, it’s time we started a conversation with our clients about their diets, because what they are putting in, can be affecting the services you are performing.

A diet that is lacking in nutrients such as Vitamin A, B vitamins, C, D and E, iron, biotin, proteins, essential fatty acids and zinc or a combination of any of these can see slower hair growth, breakage, and worst-case scenario – hair loss.

It seems contradictory that our hair cells are some of the fastest growing on our bodies, yet our body does not utilise the nutrition that we provide it with to immediately nourish our hair.  Instead, our bodies send the nutrients that we provide it with to other vital organs and tissues first and so it stands to reason that if we are deficient or only just consuming enough nutrients to provide for those vital organs, with no leftovers for our hair then the nutritional imbalances will be evident immediately in our hair and lash health.  When the imbalance continues for prolonged periods, we begin to see weakening, hair breakage or hair loss.

But its not just imbalances swaying in the deficit where we see these concerns, you will also find hair loss when there is an excess or over consumption of vitamins such as vitamin A found in foods like liver and oily fish.  Also altering your diet quickly or experiencing rapid weight loss, especially when moving your diet away from a heavily animal-based diet to a whole-food plant-based diet, can see alterations in hormone levels such as estrogen.

Estrogen plays a strong role in manipulating hair growth and can have an effect on the hair follicle size and hair production function.  This can be short lived and in-fact in some people altering their diet to be more whole-food and plant based can result in shinier and thicker or healthier looking hair due to the increased consumption of antioxidants, vitamins and minerals but the key is ensuring the alteration of diet is resulting in one that is balanced and well rounded and not imbalanced or lacking in vital nutrients or complete proteins.

Complete proteins are essential providers and producers of keratin and since hair is primarily made of keratin, consumption of complete proteins is critical to the health of eyelashes.  Complete proteins are generally animal-based foods such as meat, dairy and eggs which are made up of a perfect science of naturally occurring amino-acids.  These amino-acids are essential to your body to build muscle, repair tissue, support your metabolism and help other processes in your body to function.  Your body is unable to naturally produce these amino-acids and can only benefited from when consuming them.  In-complete proteins are considered to be plant-based proteins such as whole grains, legumes, seeds, nuts, spinach, broccoli and mushrooms.  However, some plant-based foods such as soy, quinoa, buckwheat and algae are complete sources of proteins and have a full amino-acid profiles, thus making a vegan diet still lash friendly as long as these complete sources of protein form part of the diet.

Vitamin deficiencies or imbalanced diets can be a key contributing factor as to why a clients lift worked last time at one processing time but at their next visit the lift over processed when using the same processing time.  You see a hair that is weakening on the inside due to the vitamin deficiencies or poor diet needs to be treated more carefully.

And retrospectively, a client whose diet has dramatically improved, as they have moved away from an unhealthy lifestyle and are consuming more complete protein and balanced vitamin profiles may see that their lashes require longer to process now as their keratin quality has improved.

Covid-19 and changes to everyone lifestyles over the past little while, in so many varied ways saw a dramatic change to people’s lifestyles and diets.  A rise in home cooked meals, instead of dining out or drinking with friends on the weekends, exercise often being one of the few reasons to be outside of your house and a focus on remaining healthy to avoid falling ill to covid can all be elements that may need you to open the lines of communication between yourself and your client about what in their worlds has changed and how you may need to adjust your services accordingly.