What Vitamins are Good for Hair Loss? A Complete Guide

January 26, 2022

While there's little evidence to suggest that individual vitamins––in excess––will encourage your hair to grow faster, there's plenty of research to suggest that a deficiency in certain vitamins can result in thin, brittle hair and even hair loss. 

Making sure that you get enough of these vitamins will help to keep your hair healthy, long, and strong.

If you're currently experiencing hair loss, it may be the result of a vitamin deficiency. If that’s the case, reversing it can be an easy fix without the need for complex surgeries or prescription hair loss medications. 

Simply increasing your nutrient intake should help your hair to return to normal. 

Grow visibly thicker, fuller hair.

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Multiple B Vitamins

B vitamins are essential for helping your body to regulate metabolism and to maintain your central nervous system. There has been plenty of research into the link between B complex vitamins and hair loss.

The B complex vitamins include:

• B1 (thiamin)

• B2 (riboflavin)

• B3 (niacin)

• B5 (pantothenic acid)

• B6 (pyridoxine)

• B7 (biotin)

• B9 (folate)

• B12 (cobalamin)

B vitamins are water soluble, which means that the body will excrete whatever it does not use in your urine. Because of this, it's important to maintain healthy levels of B vitamins via your diet. 

Some of the best foods for obtaining B complex vitamins include:

• Seafood such as salmon, oysters, clams, mussels, and trout 

• Leafy greens such as spinach, collard greens, turnip greens, and romaine lettuce

• Livers from beef, pork, lamb, or chicken

• Dairy products such as milk, eggs, and yogurt 

• Meat products such as beef, chicken, turkey, and pork

• Legumes such as black beans, chickpeas, edamame, peas, kidney beans, lentils, and pinto beans

• Fortified cereal

• Sunflower seeds

Vitamin B12 (cobalamin)

Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is responsible for the production of red blood cells, which deliver oxygen and essential nutrients to all parts of your body, including your hair follicles. 

When you lack B12 severely enough to impact production of red blood cells, your body will use what it has to support essential organs so that you can live. 

Some of the first areas to suffer are nonessential areas such as your hair follicles. While there have been some studies to suggest that vitamin B12 might play a role in hair health, several studies referenced in a 2019 review found no evidence of a link between B12 levels and hair loss or retention. 

Although a B12 deficiency might lead to hair loss, the research does not suggest that people without a deficiency can use a B12 supplement to increase hair growth.

That said, getting enough B12 is important for overall health. The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion suggests that adults should get at least 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B12 daily.

Vitamin B7 (biotin)

Vitamin B7, also known as biotin, is known to stimulate keratin production in your hair and can increase the rate of follicle growth. 

A study in 2016 found a biotin deficiency in 38% of the 541 female participants who were experiencing hair loss. As with vitamin B12, the evidence to support the use of biotin supplements to increase hair growth in people that have healthy levels is scant.

However, there is good research to show that supplemental vitamin B12 can be beneficial for regrowing hair in people with a deficiency. And research shows many people are at least somewhat deficient.

Vitamin D

While vitamin D itself may not have a direct link with hair growth, research has shown that having a deficiency can severely impact overall hair health.

A review in 2019 found enough evidence to suggest a link between vitamin D deficiencies and alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that attacks hair follicles, resulting in severe hair loss. Most of the studies in the review found that people with alopecia areata had lower levels of vitamin D. 

There is also research to suggest that while alopecia areata can occur with healthy levels of vitamin D, its symptoms can be much worse for people with a vitamin D deficiency. 

It should be noted that one study in 2016 collected information from nearly 56,000 women in the United States and could not find a strong link between total vitamin D intake and alopecia areata-related hair loss. Another study found that low vitamin D levels could be associated with androgenic alopecia, the most common type of hair loss in men and women alike.

How To Get More Vitamin D

According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, adults should get around 600 international units (IU), or 15 micrograms, of vitamin D every day. However, there are many experts that believe this daily recommendation is too low for optimal blood levels of vitamin D, which experts agree is somewhere between 30 and 60 nanograms per milliliter. 

If you think that you may be experiencing a vitamin D deficiency, you can easily receive a blood test from your doctor to find out. 

In addition to hair loss, other symptoms of a vitamin D deficiency include:

• Getting sick or infected often

• General fatigue and being tired often

• Bone, muscle, and back pain

• Depression

• Slow wound healing

One of the easiest ways to increase your vitamin D levels is by spending more time in the sun. Sun exposure is an essential method for the body to synthetically produce vitamin D.

Few foods contain a significant amount of vitamin D, but those with the most include:

• Salmon

• Herring

• Sardines

• Cod liver oil

• Canned tuna

• Egg yolks

• Mushrooms

• Fortified cow milk, soy milk, orange juice, oatmeal, and cereal

You can also take vitamin D supplements, but be aware that taking too much vitamin D can lead to toxicity. Overdoses are rare, and an excessively high dose that may result in toxicity is over 50,000 international units, or when your blood levels of vitamin D are more than 150 nanograms per milliliter. Although rare, vitamin D toxicity.) can lead to severe health complications. The most common symptoms are nausea, vomiting, weakness, and frequent urination.

Vitamin E

Vitamin E is an incredibly powerful antioxidant, working to protect you from the damage of free radicals, which play a role in several diseases and cancer types. 

A study in 2013 found that people with alopecia areata had significantly lower concentrations of vitamin E in their blood when compared to those without the hair loss condition. However, once again a more recent 2019 review did not confirm these findings. 

A 2010 clinical study found that using tocotrienol supplements, a group of chemicals in the vitamin E family, helped to improve the overall hair health of people with alopecia and helped to prevent hair loss. 

Some people choose to rub vitamin E directly onto their skin and scalp, but it’s also available as a supplement in capsule form or liquid. 

You can also increase your vitamin E by eating more:

• Oils such as wheat germ oil, hazelnut oil, sunflower oil, and almond oil

• Nuts such as almonds, pine nuts, and Brazil nuts, peanuts, and hazelnuts

• Seafood such as salmon, trout, and abalone

• Fruits such as mango, avocado, and kiwifruit

• Vegetables like sweet red peppers and turnip greens

• Goose meat

• Sunflower seeds

It’s worth noting that too much of the fat soluble vitamin E may actually result in hair loss.

How Rex MD Can Help

The most important vitamins for hair health are likely vitamin D, vitamin B, and vitamin E. Most important to strong, full hair is that you're not deficient in any of these vitamins: whether supplementation above your nutrition requirements can help with hair growth remains to be seen.

While proper nutritional support is helpful, for most men, hair loss is genetic. Fortunately prescription treatments like finasteride help reverse hair loss and regrow hair.

Hair loss doesn’t need to be your fate – Rex MD has got you covered. Get started today with a free, online consultation to learn more about the right plan of action for your hair.