It’s the muse of smoothie and juice bars everywhere.
It’s constantly highlighted in wellness magazines and a hot topic in clickbait articles you come across when surfing the web.
We’re talking about kale, the Queen of greens, and a food that puts ‘super’ in superfood.
Like other leafy veggies, kale is chock full of antioxidants that help prevent damage caused by free radicals and reduce oxidative stress. It also helps boost immunity, fights inflammation, and promotes cardiovascular health.
What you probably don’t know is that it can be just as good for your strands and scalp as it is for your insides. Want to know how?
Keep scrolling to find out why this clean ingredient has been making waves in the haircare industry.
Quick Facts
Properties Featured: Moisturizer and strengthened
Primary Benefits: Boosts cellular turnover, promotes hair growth, and strengthens strands
Perfect For: Individuals with sensitive, flaky scalp and those struggling with thinning hair. It is also ideal for dry strands, frizzy hair, heat damaged tresses, and split ends
How Often Can You Use It: Daily and once a week if it’s in mask form
Works Perfectly With: Every other ingredient – rosemary, olive oil, ginseng, aloe, name them!
Shouldn’t Be Used With: Since it’s easily absorbed when used together with acidic ingredients, it would be advisable to steer away from alkaline substances like avocado and cucumber for optimal results
Perks of Using Kale Extract for Hair
Kale provides hair with numerous benefits. These include, but are not limited to:
It’s loaded with vitamins and minerals: Kale is like royalty among the leafy greens. It contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, beta-carotene, omega-3, iron, quercetin, and vitamins A, C, and K – ingredients that are integral in having a healthy scalp and, in turn, healthy hair.
It can soothe scalp irritation: Scalp irritation may be caused by numerous reasons. Key among these is lack of hydration and low sebum production. This can manifest as dry patches on your scalp.
Kale, the mighty warrior, contains omega-3 and omega-6, which can soothe your scalp while also making your hair look and feel silkier.
Boost cellular turnover: We know that buildup on the scalp is an enemy of progress, especially if the progress you’re aiming for is increasing the length of your tresses.
The vitamins in kale allow for better circulation of blood in your scalp and enhance cell turnover, making it a lot easier to attain the inches you desire.
Reduces oxidative stress: The presence of free radicals in the products you use or even just in the atmosphere causes oxidative stress to your scalp. This can, in turn, lead to the weakening of the hair strands and even hair loss.
The vitamins and minerals in kale can combat oxidative stress while also reducing the damage from the free radicals.
In short, kale might very well be the answer to your most concerning hair woes.
How to Use It
You don’t have to walk around munching on an entire bag of kale leaves.
You could opt for a topical application, maybe in the form of a hair mask.
One of the best DIY kale-infused hair masks involves blending a ripe banana and ½ a cup of pure kale juice.
After your regular wash and conditioning session, you can then massage this paste on your scalp once a week.
Alternatively, you could buy products enriched with kale extract.
These products are available as conditioners, hair mists, leave-in treatments, and even serums.
The topical application of the kale will be particularly beneficial for soothing an irritated scalp and managing issues like dry patches.
Products you can try:
Would you try a Kale mask or a product infused with Kale? Comment below!
