Do Hair Growth Vitamins Really Work?

Or is your best friend’s cousin’s school friend pulling one on you?

- Chloe Metzger

Open Instagram, set a timer for two minutes, and see how many pictures you can find of celebrities, influencers, and ex-best friends from high school endorsing hair vitamins as the greatest thing to happen to the beauty world since dry shampoo. I just did it and found, like, 10. It’s because for the first time in the history of the universe, vitamins are trendy. Or at least that’s what social media says. But are they BS? I asked one of the sleuthiest hair experts I know to help break it all down.

WHAT THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO DO

Allegedly—and we’re saying ‘allegedly’ because supplements and vitamins are not FDA-regulated, meaning brands’ claims go unchecked—hair vitamins revamp your strands from the inside out thanks to a mix of ingredients like biotin, folic acid, zinc, Vitamins A, C, D, and E, and other hair-friendly botanicals. After a few months of taking them, your hair can (supposedly) look silkier, shinier, thicker, and longer than usual, and your scalp’s oil production can speed up or slow down, depending on which kind you take.

WHAT THEY REALLY DO