Are you starting your natural hair journey with a big chop? Or are you eagerly waiting for your teenage locs to reach maturity? Whatever your hair goals are, you're probably dreaming of healthy, gorgeous growth. While plenty of things impact hair growth, one factor stands out: sleep.
Using products tailored to your hair type and style, like nourishing styling creams or loc care and maintenance products, can promote visibly healthy, happy strands; sleep can help hair reap the benefits of these great products and naturally support strands. Here are two sleep-related hormones that impact hair growth and tips for better sleep.
Melatonin: Rejuvenate and Repair
While we drift off to dreamland, our bodies are busy! During sleep, our bodies release essential hormones that repair our muscles and tissues, promote cell rejuvenation, strengthen our immune systems, and more. While these functions are important for overall health and wellness, they also play key roles in hair growth.
Specifically, melatonin, the hormone that regulates our circadian rhythms, plays a key role in hair growth. Human hair follicles have melatonin receptors, meaning that this relaxing hormone influences the natural growth cycle of our hair. The healthy levels of melatonin our bodies produce during deep sleep are thought to extend the anagen phase of the hair cycle, which is when the most growth occurs.
TL;DR: Consistent, quality sleep promotes melatonin production, which may prolong the growth phase of the hair cycle.
Cortisol: Manage Stress Levels
When we're well-rested and relaxed, it's easy to feel radiant, confident, and beautiful. A little stress is part of life, but significant stress can cause our hair follicles to enter a resting phase, halting hair growth and even causing hair loss. While high-quality protective styling or loc maintenance products can strengthen strands and support scalp health, reducing stress levels can help regulate our hair's growth cycle. Luckily, sleep is a great way to reduce stress levels naturally.
Just as sleep increases the amount of hair-loving hormones our bodies produce, it also lowers levels of hormones that disrupt the natural hair growth cycle. While cortisol, a hormone that impacts our fight or flight response, plays a vital role in our overall health and wellness, too much of this hormone can halt our hair growth goals. Since our bodies produce less cortisol during sleep and ramp up cortisol production when we're sleep-deprived, getting a healthy amount of quality sleep improves our overall health and supports hair growth.
TL;DR: Sleep regulates cortisol production, helping mitigate stress that could lead to hair loss or reduced growth.
Tips for Improving Sleep
Now that we've covered how sleep impacts hair growth, here are four tips for improving the quality of sleep.
- Avoid blue light for at least 30 minutes before sleep
- Try to wake up and go to sleep at the same time each day
- Incorporate exercise into your daily routine
- Limit caffeine intake in the afternoon
Sleep is essential for every aspect of health, wellness, and natural beauty. By understanding how sleep impacts hair growth, using nourishing products, and following these tips for better sleep, you can achieve the hair of your dreams.
About Jaycee Naturals®
Beauty routines are about more than just appearance; they're also a way to honor our inherent magnificence and practice self-love. As a Black- and women-owned haircare brand, Jaycee Naturals® celebrates the beauty of natural, textured hair with nourishing, results-driven products. From a hydrating rosewater for locs spray designed to hydrate and nurture lovely locs to a moisturizer cream for styling, Jaycee Naturals® designs products for any stage or style of natural hair. With curated bundles and high-performance products, this haircare brand helps transform wash and styling routines into luxurious self-care rituals. By taking a health-centered approach to haircare, Jaycee Naturals® addresses unique textured hair concerns at the source to reveal visibly healthy hair. With products that celebrate your radiance, you can feel like your most authentic, gorgeous self.
Learn more about the relationship between health and natural hair beauty at https://jayceenaturals.com/
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