It's Kamika, your resident Sugar Mama, back to talk about something that is often overlooked when we are dealing with hair and *gasp* Alopecia. Whenever I'm out meeting with you beauties in the field you all tell me your heartbreaking stories about how your hair was once long and healthy but now, you don't know what's happened. I often respond by going through a mental list of your symptoms and what their possible causes could be. One cause that stands out above all others is the amount of SUGAR we have in our diets. Everyone's mouth drops when I begin to talk about how this common ingredient can destroy your hair.
Sugar Could Be Causing Your Hair To Break!
Simply put, too much sugar causes a process called glycation. Glycation happens when sugar molecules bombard and attach to the protein molecules in your hair strands causing them to weaken and ultimately break. This weakening doesn't necessarily prevent your hair from growing but it does cause it to break faster with normal styling.
Wondering why your hair never seems to grow past your collar bone? Glycation may be the culprit.
Glycation creates byproducts called Advanced Glycation End products (or AGEs for short) which cause the protein fibers in your hair to grow in stiff and irregularly formed. These irregularities are inherently weaker and cause your hair to age faster, split quicker, and never reach its fullest potential.
We just finished the holiday season where cakes and cookies ruled, and sugar was everywhere. But outside of this season sugar has been steadily creeping in to take up a larger part of our diet. We eat sugar to make us feel good, sugar for rewards, and sugar to cope. Yes, COPE with life. Either in the form of candies and desserts or in simple carbohydrates (breads), we consume a lot of sugar. I understand the trap completely as I love it as well, hence why I call myself a Sugar Mama.
Recent studies have begun to prove what we've known at Makeba for a long time, that increased sugar consumption has been linked to scalp inflammation, weak and brittle strands, increased DHT (Dihydrotestosterone) causing Androgenic Alopecia, and hair fall.
If you plan to have your best hair year yet, consider reducing the amount of sugar in your diet and replacing it with whole foods such as whole grains, lean meats and whole fruits for a fiber and healthy sugar.
2022 has just started but with the information above you will surely have your best hair yet!