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Writer's pictureWellness Care Team

How Much Hair Loss Is Normal? Here are 5 Evidence-Based Ways Collagen May Improve Your Hair


How much hair loss is normal in a day?

According to the American Academy of Dermatologists, it’s normal to lose anywhere from 50 to 100 strands of hair per day. For people with longer hair strands, losing them may be more noticeable. Since there are 100,000 hair follicles — or more — on each person’s scalp, the loss of 100 or so hair strands a day doesn’t make a big difference in appearance.


 

Average hair loss in men and women

Women tend to lose more hair strands per day than men. There’s no way to measure the difference objectively, because daily heat styling and frequent hair coloring plays a big part in how much of your hair sheds. Approximately 40 percent of women lose extra hair every day because of the way they style it. Women are also more likely than men to experience periods of increased hair shedding due to life events like pregnancy and menopause.


 

Can you tell if you are losing too much hair?

You can perform a “pull test” on your hair at home. Start with a small area of clean, dry hair, and run your fingers through it, tugging gently once you get to the ends of your hair strands. If more than two or three hairs are left in your hand after each tug, you may lose too much hair. No more than 10 hairs per 100 strands being tugged should be coming out.


 

5 Evidence-Based Ways Collagen May Improve Your Hair

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body and helps make up tendons, ligaments, and your skin.


Your body produces collagen, but you can also get it from supplements and foods, such as bone broth. It may offer a variety of health benefits, such as promoting healthy, strong hair.


Here are 5 evidence-based ways that collagen may improve your hair.


 

1. Provides Amino Acids That Can Be Used to Build Hair

Hair is primarily made up of the protein keratin. Your body uses several amino acids to build keratin — some of which can be found in collagen.


When you consume collagen and other proteins, your body breaks them down into amino acids that are then used to build new proteins and compounds.


There are 11 nonessential amino acids that your body can make and 9 essential ones that you need to obtain from your diet. Collagen is primarily made up of 3 nonessential amino acids: proline, glycine, and hydroxyproline.


Proline is also the main component of keratin. Therefore, consuming proline-rich collagen should provide your body with the building blocks it needs to create hair.


 

2. Helps Fight Damage to Hair Follicles

Collagen can act as an antioxidant and fight damage caused by free radicals.


Free radicals are compounds that develop in your body as a result of stress, air pollutants, smoking, poor dietary choices, alcohol, and other environmental influences. Too many free radicals can harm your cells, proteins, and DNA.


Research shows that free radicals may also damage hair follicles. Since your body’s defense against free radicals decreases with aging, older adults are especially susceptible to hair damage.


To fight free radicals and promote healthy hair, your body needs antioxidants.


Several test-tube studies have shown that collagen — especially from fish scales — may have powerful antioxidant activity.


One study found that marine collagen was able to fight four different free radicals, while another study observed that the protein may be a more effective antioxidant than a well-known compound found in tea.


 

3. May Prevent Hair Thinning Associated with Aging


Collagen makes up 70% of your dermis, the middle layer of your skin that contains the root of each individual hair.


In particular, collagen contributes to the elasticity and strength of your dermis. With age, your body becomes less efficient at producing collagen and replenishing cells in the dermis. This may be one of the reasons why hair gets thinner over time.


Therefore, providing your body with collagen may help maintain a healthy dermis and prevent hair thinning.


One eight-week study in 69 women aged 35–55 found that taking daily collagen supplements significantly improved skin elasticity compared to a placebo.


Another 12-week study in more than 1,000 adults found that a daily collagen supplement improved the amount of this protein in the skin and reduced signs of skin aging.


Since hair grows out of your skin, the potential of collagen to counteract the effects of skin aging may contribute to better hair growth and decreased thinning.


 

4. May Help Slow Graying

Due to its antioxidant properties, collagen may be able to fight cell damage and slow graying. Age-related hair graying is largely influenced by genetics, but free radical damage to the cells that produce hair color may also play a role.


As you age, the cells that produce the melanin pigment that gives your hair its color naturally begin to die. However, free radicals that result from poor diet, stress, and environmental pollutants can damage melanin-creating cells as well.


Without enough antioxidants to fight free radical damage, your hair may begin to gray. In fact, one test-tube study found that the antioxidant activity of gray hair follicles was much lower than that of hair follicles that still contained pigment.


Since collagen has been shown to fight free radicals in test tubes, it may, in theory, help prevent damage to cells that produce hair color. As a result, it may prevent premature graying or slow down age-related graying.


 

5. Easy to Add to Your Routine

You can add collagen to your diet through foods or supplements.


Since it makes up the connective tissue of mammals, it’s found in the skins, bones, and muscles of chicken, beef, pork, and fish. In addition, eating foods high in vitamin C may boost your body’s natural collagen production.


BARLEYGREEN+ contain Premium Hydrolyzed Type 1 Collagen powder which supports all parts of the body - skin, joints, nails, hair, and bones. BARLEYGREEN+ also include more than 300 Live Enzymes for better absorption and nutrients such as Vitamin C, Zinc, Copper, and Essential Amino Acids to support collagen formation.


 

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