Hair Supplements

Give it three to six months. Hair grows roughly a centimetre a month, and what you can see in the mirror was made weeks or months ago, so nothing you take today changes it. A supplement can only affect hair that is still being built.

That is why the honest window is a season rather than a fortnight. If nothing has changed after six months, whatever you were topping up probably was not the issue, and that is worth a conversation rather than a second bottle.

They are four different things, and the choice matters more than the brand.

Biotin is a B vitamin your body uses in the production of keratin, the protein hair is made of. Silica supplies silicon, a trace mineral, and in this range it comes as colloidal silica in liquid, tablet and capsule form. Collagen is a protein, taken as peptides from marine or bovine sources. A hair, skin and nails blend combines several of these with zinc, selenium or vitamin C rather than concentrating on one.

A single ingredient product makes sense if you are filling a gap you know about. A blend makes sense if you want general cover in one dose.

Not necessarily. The standalone biotin in this range runs from 5,000 mcg to 10,000 mcg, which is hundreds of times what you would get from food. Biotin is water soluble and the excess leaves in your urine, so a bigger number on the front of the pack does not mean more of it gets used.

The dose does matter for one practical reason, which is blood tests. See the next question.

Tell whoever is taking the blood that you take it, and follow the instruction your doctor or laboratory gives you.

High dose biotin interferes with a range of laboratory immunoassays. That includes troponin, which is used to diagnose a heart attack, along with thyroid, hormone and fertility tests. The interference can push a result too high or too low without anything looking wrong, and the FDA has reported a death that followed a falsely low troponin result. Laboratories commonly ask people to stop biotin for at least 48 hours beforehand.

If you ever go to hospital with chest pain, say that you take a biotin supplement.

Not as a direct building block. Hair is made of keratin, not collagen, so collagen peptides are not the raw material your body uses to build a hair.

What a collagen product does give you is a concentrated source of amino acids, and most of the ones here add vitamin C or biotin alongside. If you like the powder format and want something that covers skin and nails too, it is a reasonable buy. If your interest is specifically hair, a biotin product or a hair focused blend is the more direct pick.

Check for overlap first, particularly if you already take a multivitamin. Hair, skin and nails blends commonly contain zinc, selenium, vitamin A and B vitamins, and doubling up is easier than it sounds.

Vitamin A and selenium are the two worth watching, because both have an upper limit that is not far above a normal dose. Bring your current list in and we will read the labels with you.

Yes, but read the ingredient list rather than the front of the pack. Collagen in this range is marine, which means fish, or bovine, and some capsules are gelatine.

Silica and most standalone biotin products are suitable for vegetarians, and the products labelled vegan use plant or fermented sources. Marine collagen is not suitable if you avoid fish, and it is the one people most often miss.

Ask before you start. The question is usually not the hair ingredient itself but what is with it: several blends contain vitamin A, which has an upper limit in pregnancy, and some contain herbs that are not recommended.

Hair shedding a few months after giving birth is common and usually settles on its own. Your midwife, doctor or our pharmacy team can tell you whether a particular product is suitable for you.

If the change came on suddenly, if hair is coming out in patches, if your scalp is sore, scaly or itchy, or if you also feel tired, cold or generally unwell.

Hair changes can follow iron deficiency, a thyroid problem, illness, a new medicine or a stretch of real stress, and none of those is fixed by a supplement. A blood test costs a good deal less than six months of guessing.