Why Sunlight on Your Skin Might Be the Best Hair Growth Supplement

SalonSolids has been diving deep into vitamin D—not as a supplement, but as a vital process your body is built to handle naturally. And it all starts with your skin.

Let’s get one thing straight: Vitamin D isn’t a vitamin. It’s a hormone. A steroid hormone, actually, and one your body makes—but only under the right conditions.

Here’s how it works:

Your skin produces a substance called 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC). It’s an oil—technically, a cholesterol—made right in the outer layers of your skin, particularly the epidermis, which includes your scalp. When UVB rays from the sun hit this oil, it’s converted into vitamin D3, which your body can then use for all kinds of critical functions—from immune regulation to calcium absorption to... hair growth.

Yes, healthy hair from this angle starts at the surface, literally. If your skin/scalp is compromised, your hair’s foundation is weak. No nutrient or serum can override that.

So what’s going wrong?

1. Soap is sabotaging your skin.

The average shampoo, body wash, or facial cleanser is loaded with synthetic surfactants—chemicals designed to break down oils. Problem is, they don’t discriminate. They strip away the very oils (like 7-DHC) your skin needs to make vitamin D. Less 7-DHC = less D3 = disrupted hormonal support for healthy hair and skin.

2. You're exfoliating away your hormone factory.

Harsh peels, scrubs, acids? When overused, they erode the outer skin layers where 7-DHC lives. That outer layer isn’t just dead skin—it’s a lab. Remove it too aggressively, and you’re peeling away your body’s ability to generate this critical hormone.

3. You're coating your skin in synthetics that block the sun.

Moisturizers, makeup, SPF-heavy products, silicone-based hair treatments—they form a film over your skin and scalp. That film blocks UVB light, stopping the 7-DHC in your skin from converting into D3. No UVB, no conversion, no hormone.

So what’s the solution?

• Use ultra-gentle cleansers. Support your skin barrier, don’t strip it. Avoid sulfates and synthetic surfactants that degrade oils.

• Let your skin breathe. Choose clean, breathable, non-occlusive products that don’t block sunlight from reaching your skin.

• Be smart about sun. Controlled, daily exposure—10–20 minutes on bare skin—can jumpstart your body’s natural D3 production.

• Skip unnecessary exfoliation. Your skin renews itself naturally. Constant scrubbing is counterproductive. Dry brushing once a week is sufficient.

SalonSolids knows your hair health starts before the follicle. It starts in the terrain of your skin , in how you treat your body’s largest organ, and in letting your biology do what it’s designed to do—without interference.

When you support that natural process, you don’t just get stronger hair. You get better health, more balance, and a body that feels like it’s working with you, not against you.

Let your skin make its own medicine.