Spring Cleaning for Beautiful Hair 
Spring is the time of renewal and revival. After a winter of harsh weather it’s time to create a rich foundation within our bodies to help us have more beautiful hair. Your hair is a reflection of your inner health and I want to share with you how beautiful eating creates beautiful hair!
Just as we accumulate stuff in our lives, our bodies accumulate food toxins and residues that need to be spring-cleansed. Cleansing our bodies from within is especially important in today’s environment when we are exposed to more pollution, pesticides and chemicals in our daily life.
Get the Toxins Out
Cleansing your body for 3-5 days is a great way to jumpstart beautiful eating for beautiful hair. Here are some simple steps you can take to help rid your body of its winter stuff.
To cleanse our body we need to eliminate all processed refined foods, animal products, especially red meat and dairy, as well as stimulants like caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and sugar. Oh my, that’s tough for some and easy for others!
Focus on eating seasonal organically grown fresh foods like dark leafy greens, wild fish, whole grains, fresh fruit and veggies. Keeping hydrated is really important when cleansing: flush out toxins by drinking lots of water and decaffeinated herbal teas. Aim for 8-10 eight-ounce glasses of water a day.
Put the Nutrients In
Healthy locks are created from clean blood flow which “feeds” hair with protein, vitamins, and minerals. Especially important are iron, zinc (which helps iron absorption), vitamins A, B, C and E. So too are essential fatty acids (EFA’s) and plenty of water.
Mmmm… how do I make a meal out of these?
Well… start by focusing on foods that provide all the amino acids needed for a complete protein. This is the basis of beautiful hair. Healthy protein choices include my favorite whole grain quinoa or whole grain brown rice combined with beans. Whole eggs, active-culture yogurt, nuts, and seeds are also great choices for healthy proteins.
Add essential fatty acids: salmon is a great source (preferably the healthier wild caught Atlantic variety) or other oil rich fish like sardines. Cold pressed oils like flax, sesame, and olive oil are also great choices. (Don’t use flax oil for cooking however, as heat changes the oil’s structure. Use flax oil cold, as a dressing.) Walnuts and avocados are also a great source of EFA’s.
Healthy hair minerals and vitamins can be found in the underwater treasure of sea vegetables such as nori, wakame, arame, kombu, and hijiki. These seaweeds have been used in Japanese cooking for centuries. They are highly nutritious and aid in digestion. They are high in iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus and iodine, and vitamins A and C.
Healthy Hair Roller or Salad
You can make a beautiful Hair Roller Nori Roll that will improve your hair from the inside out! Nori-maki are sushi rolls wrapped in nori, dried seaweed sheets. You will need a makisu (a sushi rolling mat) to make your Hair Roller.
Roll your Hair Roller with cooked quinoa, flax oil, salmon, avocado and fresh thinly sliced peppers, carrot, cucumber, chopped raw spinach and fresh grated ginger.
If you don’t want to make a Hair Roller you can take the same ingredients and make an enjoyable hair-healthy salad. To use the nori in your salad, just slice a sheet into strips and add it to the salad. Enjoy your healthy Hair Roller or salad with some watermelon for dessert and drink plenty of cleansing, hydrating water.
Beautiful hair starts with Beautiful Eating. Make your next hair treatment a Spring Cleansing.
Coming soon Foods as Beauty Treatments including a Mayan Hair Wrap recipe made from eggs, olive oil & avocado.
Fiona Barrett is a certified Holistic Health Counselor trained at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in New York City. Accredited by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. She creates unique nutrition and life style programs to help you personally discover what nourishes and feeds you to live an energized and passionate life! Fiona was born in England and now lives and practices in the greater Boston area.
For more information and for Fiona's speaking schedule go to www.fionabarrett.com or contact Fiona at . Do you have a Beautiful Eating question or comment? Comments for Fiona.