Your hair is always the first to know

Amazingly, a flaky face or wrinkles aren’t what set off an alarm for most women. Dieters often rush to doctor’s office because their hair is thinning or falling out. They get used to how their skin looks, so it takes longer for them to realize there’s damage.

Poor diet accounts for the hair problems that Philip Kingsley, a London- and New York-based trichologist (hair scientist), sees in 60 percent of the female patients. Within three months of kicking off a nutrient-poor diet, women will start to see a loss of body and bounce. Hair follicles are nonessential tissue, so a lack of nutrition starves them, gradually making each strand look thinner. The culprit is often a deficiency of protein, the stuff hair is made of. Even after you start eating properly, it can take two to three years to regain lost volume. And your hair may never again have optimum thickness.

Reference: Louise Jarvis