You may have heard that taking prenatal vitamins will help your hair grow faster. Unfortunately, there's no truth to this claim; prenatals simply don't affect your hair growth rate. In fact, while they're a good idea if you're pregnant, prenatals really won't do you much good at all if you're not expecting.
Prenatal Vitamins
Prenatal vitamins are multivitamin and mineral supplements specially formulated for women who are pregnant. You may also benefit from prenatals if you're nursing a baby or trying to conceive, explain Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel in their book "What To Expect When You're Expecting." They help to ensure that you are getting the nutrients you and your developing baby need to maintain normal cellular function during your pregnancy.
Hair Growth
If you're wondering how fast your hair will grow on prenatal vitamins, the answer is, "exactly as fast as it would grow if you weren't on prenatal vitamins." Vitamins and minerals, prenatal or otherwise, can't affect your hair growth rate assuming you're not exceptionally nutrient deficient. If you're eating a normal, relatively balanced diet, your hair grows at a rate determined largely by genetics, and you can't take vitamins to make it grow faster.
Pregnant Women and Hair
The reason it's so common to think that prenatals make your hair grow faster is that most women taking prenatals grow thick hair very quickly. This isn't due to the vitamins, however; instead, it's a product of pregnancy hormones, which increase blood flow to your scalp, explains Dr. Raymond Poliakin in his book "What You Didn't Think To Ask Your Obstetrician." Taking prenatal vitamins can't reproduce the effects of pregnancy hormones.
Safety
While prenatal vitamins won't help you, or your hair, if you're not pregnant, they won't likely hurt you either, explains dietician Katherine Zeratsky for MayoClinic.com. Most otherwise healthy women aren't harmed by prenatal vitamins, despite their high levels of iron, though they may cause you to develop constipation or other uncomfortable gastrointestinal effects. As such, you can probably try prenatals safely if you're curious about them, but don't expect them to change the rate at which your hair grows.
References
- "What to Expect When You're Expecting"; Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel; 2008
- "What You Didn't Think to Ask Your Obstetrician"; Raymond Poliakin, M.D.; 2007
- MayoClinic.com: Prenatal Vitamins
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