Hair!! From a TCM perspective

Hair is something I’ve always kind of been obsessed with. I have naturally curly hair but spent years straightening it (much to my grandma’s dismay). Now, I love my curly hair and hardly ever straighten it. I approach hair health the same way I do skin health, from a TCM perspective. I always start with a focus on health and wellness which leads to naturally beautiful results. If we start with our internal health, naturally it will show externally.

In TCM- hair health comes from strong overall health, with a focus on Blood. Our Qi and Blood first nourish all our necessary organs, which does not include our hair, skin, nails; we don’t need healthy or beautiful hair, skin, and nails to survive. So when under extra stress or when our body’s aren’t being properly nourished, all the nutrients will be sent to our vital organs, which can lead to sad hair, skin, and nails. So I encourage you, if you want to improve the aesthetics of your hair (or skin or nails for that matter) instead of focusing on topicals, first start with properly nourishing your body and giving it the chance to be able to properly encourage beautiful, healthy hair!

How? Food therapy- focusing on Blood building foods.

What are Blood building foods? High quality meat is going to be paramount, grass fed beef (see my food blog post for recommendations on where to source meat from), pastured raise chicken, pastured raised eggs (these yolks will be dark orange in color), wild caught salmon, etc. Liver and if you can’t stomach eating liver (can easily be mixed with ground beef for burgers or in a red sauce with pasta- again see my food blog post, but Northstar Bison makes some great beef liver blends), then beef liver supplements can work well. Dark leafy greens, foods that are red in color. BONE BROTH!!!

And last but definitely not least, collagen. The collagen I highly recommend is by Root and Bones- its a marine collagen blend with pearl, bamboo silica, and tremella- the most gorgeous herbal combination to support hair, skin, and nail health. You can buy this at the clinic, or online through or website, or through the Root and Bone website. I have been taking this collagen for over a year, and combined with a focus on a nutrient-dense diet and other lifestyle choices (acupuncture, herbs, at least 8 hours of sleep, gentle/supportive movement, hydrating with electrolytes, meditation, etc), my hair has never been healthier.

As noted above, regular acupuncture can absolutely support hair health. Additionally, we can use herbal medicine as well to support these concerns.

Products are the last thing I will address, as from a TCM perspective, the internal health choices should be the first step, and at the very lease need to be used in conjunction with product support. I have been using Innersense hair care products for ~6 months now and really like them. I was hellbent on finding a clean but effective haircare line. There are a lot out there that may claim that they are clean, but sneak in “fragrance” in their ingredients. Innersense is legit clean and smells lovely. For hair loss/shedding, I’ve had great luck with Vegamour gro and gro+ line. I will say, these are not 100% clean and some of the products do include fragrance. However, I think used for a period of time when recovering from shedding or hair loss (stress induced, postpartum, etc), this line can be very effective.

And very last but definitely not least!! I get my haircut every 6 weeks on the dot by Caitlin at Haus Salon in North Loop. She is amazing, I freaking love my haircuts with her. I always leave feeling so fabulous and have to take a million selfies to document the amazing hair moment. I absolutely adore Caitlin and feel so strongly that regular haircuts have been a game changer for the health and growth of my hair. Its really nice to have someone who can keep tabs on your hair regularly to see it through periods of stress or postpartum, etc, so that you can have some feedback on what you’re seeing.

Thoughts? Questions? I hope this is helpful!!

*The information contained on this website/page is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide a diagnosis or substitute for medical, nutritional or acupuncture advice or treatment. Any reference to or mention of any particular diagnoses or dysfunctions is intended for informational purposes only and not an attempt to diagnose your particular problems. You should always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medicine or nutritional, herbal, or homeopathic supplement, or adopting any treatment for a health problem.