Healthy Hair, Skin, and Nails

by Kristine · Published December 23, 2022 · Updated January 3, 2023

I don’t know if it was Covid, or hitting that 40 year mark, but last year I suddenly felt like I had aged 10 years over just the past couple of years. Maybe it was the stress that everyone felt with the pandemic, maybe it’s my hormones slowly dropping as I am now 41, or maybe it was getting Covid itself. Or possibly a combination of the three. All I know is I felt old!

I know I started losing hair after getting sick with the Covid virus. This is a side effect that I keep hearing many women have after fighting off the Covid virus. I started finding more strands in my hairbrush, more coming out as I washed my hair in the shower, and my part line suddenly was thicker. I wanted thicker hair, not a thicker part!

Then I found my nails were thinning and even cracking and peeling backwards. I was starting to worry that I was completely falling apart. I felt like I was trying to do everything right… with my diet and exercise, yet my body felt like it was hit by an “age stick”. Wham! Your old! This is how life is now! Wrinkles where I had non or minimal before, thinning hair and nails, and just a lack of that youthful glow I once took for granted.

Don’t get me wrong. I am all about trying to embrace aging. I just want to do so gracefully. I’m not afraid of being old. In fact, each day is a gift. It means God is not finished with me yet. I have purpose and I’m breathing and I’m surrounded by the people I love. But I had always taken for granted my youthful skin, nails, and hair. I was starting to have aches and pains than I once did. My recovery time seemed to be getting longer after workouts. I didn’t all these “side effects” of living a life after 40. So, I decided to pamper myself a little more when it comes to my skin, my hair, and my nails. Age is just a number. I want to age well and feel well.

Now a year later, I’m 41 and while I still have some wrinkles, they are seeming less prominent and I have that glow back in my skin. I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to for the last year and how it has effected my hair and nails as well.

Pampering my Hair, Skin, and Nails:

I started taking collagen religiously. I’ve always added collagen to baked goods and drinks. But I’ve never taken it consistently each and every single day… until this last year. It didn’t take much. I took 1/4 scoop at the very least (all the way up to 1 or more if I had added it to any baked goods.) I had heard about a study where taking a small amount of collagen daily improved nails, hair, and decreased the look of fine lines. There have been numerous studies and this is a link to just one of them. After about 6 months I saw improvement in all 3! The lines in my face seemed less pronounced. As we age out body produces less collagen. Collagen gives out skin that plump look that fills in wrinkles. I can see the difference as I look in the mirror. My nails are no longer peeling and are much stronger. I used to be able to push my thumb nail to bend it. Now they are super strong and not bendy! My hair is not falling out and I am able to leave it in it’s natural state (curly) without a ton of brittle frizz I once had. Collagen is also great for your joints which helps with my recovery after workouts! I typically buy collagen from Thrive Market. I find that it’s super inexpensive there compared to other places I shop at (especially when they have a sale). They also sell it at Costco and on Amazon. My 2 favorite brands are Great Lakes and Vital Protein from grass fed bovine. The study I sited also included the use of hyalaronic acid which brings me to my next change.
I added a daily moisturizer with hyaluronic acid. I LOVE Honest Beauty products because they are non-toxic and affordable. I was able to find a daily moisturizer that had hyuluronic acid and didn’t make my skin break out (a big win for me as my skin is acne prone… even at the age of 41. Ugh!) I use this Honest Beauty Hydrogel Cream with Hyalaronic Acid in the mornings. If I’m being honest, I’ve never been a daily moisturizing kind of girl. Before the age of 30 I barely used ANY moisturizers or creams. My beauty shelves were bare. My skin was naturally pretty glowy. If anything I felt like I had too much oil so I didn’t want to add to the oil. But as I am aging, I find that any oils or moisturizers that don’t break out my skin (like this one) help diminish the look of my fine lines around my eyes and add to that youthful glow.
I added a vitamin C oil to my skin AND nails. I bought this Multi-Vitamin + Antioxidant PM Facial Oil from 100% Pure after reading how vitamin C and antioxidants can do wonders for your skin and wrinkles. This oil is meant for skin but I have to admit I use it on my nails as much as my face. Oils tend to give me breakouts (depending on where I am on my cycle). I love this oil as an eye makeup remover as well. Then I put it on the skin around my eyes and on my forehead (where I have some wrinkles but I’m not prone to breakouts). I do this at night. Then in the morning I rub it into my nails before putting on lotion with essential oils on my hands. I feel like the oil strengthens my nails and gives a protective barrier from the essential oils which I find can be harsh on my nails otherwise. I try to keep the lotion just on the skin of my hands as much as possible (avoiding my nails). I feel like this oil has had a really big impact on the look of both my skin and the strength of my nails.
I use a morning coffee eye cream to “wake up”. I’ve fallen in love with this Coffee Bean Caffeine Eye Cream by 100% Pure. I don’t think I’ve gone a day without it. Even when I was sick with the flu and didn’t put on makeup or products, or real pants for that matter. I lived in my comfy joggers for a week. But I still put on my eye cream. It made me feel like I could face the very rough day ahead. It smells amazing! And I find that my morning puffy under eyes diminish drastically when I use it. I’ve bought this for multiple family members because I love it so much and they love it now too!
I changed my makeup. I now wear Beautycounter Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer daily rather than my previous foundation. This is by far my favorite makeup product. I actually became a Beautycounter consultant because I didn’t think I could ever go without this product and I wanted to share it with the world. Beautycounter has a lot of amazing products (their lip gloss is my other favorite!) but this one has changed how I do makeup. It’s a lightweight tinted moisturizer. You can use one application for a super fresh no makeup look since it’s just a moisturizer with some tint. Or you can apply another layer if you want a slightly more finished look. I have friends who also buy Beautycounter’s Mattifying Powder to use afterwards because they don’t like a liquid foundation feel. But I LOVE this without any finishing powder. I love the dewy look that it gives me that I seemed to have started to lose as I age. I feel so much more youthful when wearing this. AND it’s got SPF 20! Now, I’m all for getting my vitamin D from the sun. But I also want to protect my most vulnerable skin (on my face) from the damage of sun. I had never been big on wearing sunscreen on my face before. Like I’ve mentioned already, I’m acne prone and any sunscreen has always meant break out city. But this stuff doesn’t cause breakouts for me. I had been noticing sun spots and I wanted to protect the skin on my face from any more of those. I still like to soak in the sun, but I now wear my sunhat and you will not find me out in the sun without my Beautycounter Dew Skin Tinted Moisturizer. It’s amazing! Beautycounter is also non-toxic. If you want to know more about their products check out this post on why I love Beautycounter.
I keep hydrated! This is one I have always done but I know some people struggle with this. I feel like I’m constantly telling my daughter to drink more water. If you don’t love water by itself, try adding some lemon to it, or buy some Pellegrino! That helps my daughter. I personally just carry around my Yeti Insulated water bottle and I’m good to go. I have zero issues getting in enough water. And this is one of the best things you can do for your skin and overall health.

So there you have it. I have other products from Beautycounter and 100% Pure that I love as well but these are the items that I feel have made the biggest difference. I also used a product called Vegamour Hair Gro for about 3 months when I first lost hair after Covid. I saw a difference in my hair part (my part thinned as my hair thickened). I was also taking collagen at the time of using Vegamour. So it’s hard to say what helped the most. But I used Vegamour for 3 months then stopped. I am no longer losing hair in the shower since the collagen. I do lose some in my hairbrush but it seems like the “normal amount” rather than the “scary amount” that I was losing originally post Covid. Yikes!

I’ve found that just these 5 additions have made a world of difference. My hair is no longer thinning, my nails are thicker, and my fine lines are less visible. My skin is glowy again. 🙂

If you have any non-toxic products or supplements you swear by, feel free to share in the comments below.

Here is a post about collagen which really is my favorite protein powder and supplement ever!

What is Collagen Post