Many hair care and hair repair products promise to deliver vitamins directly to your hair and scalp. The key to evaluating their claims is understanding the role that different vitamins play in keeping your hair healthy. For some vitamins, evidence supports topical application or taking supplements to treat hair conditions. Other vitamins can be said to treat hair problems only insofar as the body requires them for healthy hair.
Vitamin B Complex
The eight B vitamins, known collectively as the B complex vitamins, play many essential roles in keeping you healthy. They convert carbohydrates into glucose, they help your body metabolize fats and protein, they keep your nervous system on track, and they are required for healthy skin, hair, eyes and liver.
One B vitamin specifically implicated in hair health is biotin. Though it is part of the B complex group, it's known as vitamin H. This water-soluble vitamin is often recommended for strengthening hair. It's an ingredient in many hair care products. According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, preliminary evidence supports the use of biotin supplements in improving splitting or brittle hair, and biotin in combination with zinc and topical clobetasol has been used to combat hair loss. Additionally, biotin supplements may help in treating cradle cap, a scaly scalp condition.
Another B vitamin that is necessary for hair maintenance is B6, or pyridoxine.
Vitamin C
Your body uses ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, for the growth and repair of tissues, healing of wounds, the formation of collagen and the repair and maintenance of bones, teeth and cartilage. It's also necessary for healthy hair. One of the symptoms of vitamin C deficiency is dry and splitting hair.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. This means that your body can't store it. Excess vitamin C leaves your body whenever you urinate. You also can't produce it, so it's very important that you get an adequate amount of vitamin C daily by eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is commonly known to promote healthy teeth and bones along with the absorption of calcium and phosphorous. Your body produces it under the influence of UV light. You also acquire it by eating dairy foods, fortified cereals and certain fish such as sardines and salmon.
In the field of dermatology, vitamin D is known to play a role in the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes. A study published in Dermatology Online Journal in February of 2010, which attempted to "evaluate the role that vitamin D and the vitamin D receptor play in the hair cycle and assess how this can be clinically applied to the treatment of hair disorders," found that "the vitamin D receptor, independent of vitamin D, plays an important role in hair cycling, specifically anagen initiation." The report emphasizes that the vitamin's role in hair follicle cycling isn't well understood, but "treatments that up regulate the vitamin D receptor may be successful in treating hair disorders and are a potential area of further study."
References
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Vitamin H (Biotin)
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
- Washington University in St. Louis: Chemistry 152
- Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center: Vitamin C
- Dermatology Online Journal: Does D Matter? The Role of Vitamin D in Hair Disorders and Hair Follicle Cycling
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