How to regrow your edges

The quickest way to regrow your edges is simple: eat enough. Sleep as soon as you feel tired, and keep stress low.

Ok, so it’s not that simple, but eating enough is a scientifically-backed and proven way to remedy those thinning spots at the edge of your Afro and curls. The exciting part is you don’t necessarily need a heavily-medicated regime, and you get to eat. Lots.

Hear from our founder:

I write this as someone who had severe seborrheic dermatitis and short curly hair for years. I used to be in a highly-stressful situation which left me underfed, with zero appetite and insomnia. As you can imagine my hair wasn’t great. It stopped growing.

Fast forward 2 years and my hair and scalp are the healthiest they have been. But I didn’t discover something magical, I overhauled by life - left a toxic situation, reduced stress, scheduled rest, but specifically I started to eat. Why am I sharing this?

The link between crash dieting and hair loss has been documented in research as far back as the 1970s. So what did I do specifically to regain my curls, regrow my edges, and finally have healthy curly hair and a healthy scalp?

I started to get my appetite back. Eating enough protein (that I liked, see: I have to be in the mood for eggs), but also a variety has helped a ton. I am very ok with eating yogurt at breakfast, turkey at lunchtime and plant protein at dinner time.

This is not a perfect recipe, but it works for me, and my hair is thriving these days.

I eat regularly: typically within an hour of rising, snack a few hours later, I have lunch, and then I’ll eat dinner. I personally love a coconut-black-bean-red-pepper stew with lots of veggies. And it works because turtle beans are high in protein. Note, they do not contain all 9 amino acids present in meat, but I typically eat meat at lunch time and protein at breakfast so that I get enough.

Snacks include cottage cheese, yogurt, walnuts, or beef jerky when I remember to buy the good stuff.

Twice a month I’ll eat liver too for the Biotin benefits. I eat walnuts (Biotin-rich, just 6 contains 9.6 micrograms of Biotin) every day for this exact reason plus I’m not so keen on eggs - a cooked egg contains 10 micrograms of Biotin. This B-complex vitamin that helps your body break down food into energy, but also helps with hair growth.

I cannot stress the imperative of eating enough food generally speaking.

This is not a push for meat-consumption, not at all. I was vegan for 5 years and I still love veggies. Rather, this is about food as a whole and a reminder that when we under-eat our hair suffers, along with every part of our body, skin, sleep quality, etc.

Here’s the science behind it:

Mal-nutrition means sub-optimal, less food than you are able to function on, a severe calorie restriction. This is detrimental to hair growth and a healthy scalp because:

“A malnourished patient may observe their hair thinning and the hair-shedding process accelerating. Aside from shedding, the hair also grows weak and brittle while the skin goes dry. According to biology, these are the symptoms of protein deficiency.”

“Fortunately, the effects of malnutrition on your hair are reversible as long as you regain nutritional stability for 6 months or more. Once the deficiencies are corrected, your hair will grow back — although it may take some time.”

Deficiency of such micronutrients may represent a modifiable risk factor associated with the development, prevention, and treatment of alopecia.

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