Salon • Inspiration
The Only New Year's Diet Your Clients Need: Nourishing Foods for Healthy Hair
The Only New Year's Diet Your Clients Need: Nourishing Foods for Healthy Hair


How to choose foods that improve hair health inside and out
Come January 1, a sense of renewal is in the air. Clients may start talking to you about their goals or chatting about changes they want to make in this new year. It’s an exciting time, but unfortunately, a lot of us don’t set ourselves up for success with new year's resolutions.
That doesn’t mean all resolutions are a waste of time; experts agree that breaking down big goals into small, achievable ones is the way to go. That includes restoring hair health, a process that requires time and patience. Taking baby steps, like adding a few nourishing, hair-friendly foods into your recipe rotation, is an easy and tasty way to make progress.
Here are some foods that science says may help hair recovery.
Healthful fats
Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, flax seeds, walnuts, and avocados have been shown to restore hair loss and strengthen hair strands. As a bonus, omega-3s have other benefits, including improving heart health and brain function. That’s a good enough reason to load up on avocado toast, eh?
Sources of healthy fats:
Flax and chia seeds (try adding them to smoothies, granolas, your morning oatmeal, and as toppers on salads and soups)
Walnuts
Oily fish, like salmon or mackerel
Avocados (don’t pass on the guac)
Canola oil (use as a base for homemade salad dressings)
Lean proteins
Lean sources of protein from plants (soy, hemp, oats) and animals (poultry, fish, eggs, dairy) help build stronger hair strands. Hair is mostly made up of keratin, a type of protein, so a diet low in healthy proteins can lead to brittle, dry hair.
Sources of lean protein:
Tofu
Hemp hearts or hemp tofu
Chicken
Turkey
Eggs
Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
B vitamins
B vitamins like folate (B9) and biotin (B7) may play a role in healthy hair growth. The research is still ongoing, but since folic acid and biotin are already popular supplements for hair growth and B vitamins have many other health benefits, it can’t hurt to add some spinach to the plate.
Sources of folate:
Dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, turnip greens)
Legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
Brown rice
Whole-grain pasta
Sources of biotin:
Eggs
Sweet potatoes
Sunflower seeds
Salmon
Almonds
Iron-rich foods
Iron helps your body create hemoglobin, a type of protein that carries red blood cells. Red blood cells deliver oxygen and other nutrients to all the other cells, including hair follicles. People who are iron deficient will often have brittle dry hair and hair loss because their strands are not getting a timely nutrient delivery.
Don’t skimp on these iron-rich foods:
Pumpkin seeds
Legumes
Lean red meats
Spinach
Quinoa
Style and substance
Cuts and colors are only a part of a hair stylist's job. Helping clients understand the connection between nutritious foods on this list and shiny, Instagram-worthy hair will have them coming back month after month for more of your expertise.
Think you know what clients truly want? We surveyed 800+ beauty patrons to discover what matters most to potential clients. Here's what we found

Shanalie Wijesinghe
Content Strategy Director
Shanalie Wijesinghe is the Content Strategy Director at Boulevard. She lends her industry and platform expertise to both in-house staff and partner salons and spas. A salon industry veteran with more than 15 years of experience working for high-end luxury salons such as Sally Hershberger and BENJAMIN, Shanalie was previously Director of Education for Boulevard and blends her knowledge of the beauty and technology industries to help put the company’s partners and employees on the path to success. A Bay Area native and first-generation immigrant, Shanalie is a graduate of the Paul Mitchell School specializing in cosmetology, styling, and nail instruction.
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