SupplementsHair, skin & nailsEvidence-ranked
This is one of the most heavily marketed corners of the supplement aisle, and one of the emptiest. Almost all of it — biotin gummies, collagen sachets, “beauty” blends — is sold to well-nourished people for whom it does very little. So let us be blunt about the order of operations. The single biggest lever is adequate protein (hair is keratin) plus correcting genuine deficiencies: iron and ferritin, zinc, B12 and vitamin D. Get those right and most people need nothing else. The branded actives below range from modest-but-real to barely-there — a few are worth a trial, most are optional, and none is a cure.
Read this first
- Fix the foundations before buying anything: enough protein, and correct low iron/ferritin, zinc, B12 and vitamin D.
- Modest but real: ch-OSA silica, L-cysteine combinations, oral keratin and Annurca apple all have trials — give any a few months and stop if nothing changes.
- Over-sold: biotin only helps if you are deficient (rare) — and it can distort blood tests, so stop it before bloods.
- These are food supplements, not treatments for pattern (androgenetic) hair loss or any disease.
Protein intake
Silica / silicon
Oral keratin
Annurca apple
L-cysteine
Biotin (B7)
B-complex
Millet extract
MSM (sulfur)The foundations most people skip
If you are shedding or your nails are splitting, spend your attention here before the fancy actives. Protein: hair is keratin, and under-eating is the commonest reversible cause of diffuse shedding — see the protein page. Iron / ferritin: low iron stores (a ferritin below roughly 30–40 µg/L, even without anaemia) are a well-recognised driver of hair loss, especially in menstruating women — worth testing and correcting, not blindly supplementing. Zinc deficiency causes hair loss and brittle nails; correcting a real shortfall helps, but routine high-dose zinc in replete people can backfire by depleting copper. Vitamin D is linked to several hair-loss conditions and worth keeping replete. B12 matters mainly for vegans, older adults and malabsorbers. The theme is consistent: correct a genuine deficiency and you get a real result; top up a level that is already fine and you mostly do not.
A note on MSM and collagen
MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) is an organic sulfur compound often folded into hair-and-nail blends on the logic that keratin and collagen are sulfur-rich; the direct human hair evidence is thin, but it is safe and covered in full on our MSM page in the joint section. Collagen supplements are marketed hard for skin and nails; the skin-elasticity trials are more convincing than the hair ones, and much of it is industry-funded — see the collagen guide. Marine collagen and omega-3 fish oils get bundled in for skin too; treat the skin claims as plausible-but-modest and the hair claims as unproven.
Educational content, not medical advice. These are food supplements, not treatments for disease. Persistent or patchy hair loss deserves a look from a doctor — it can signal thyroid disease, iron deficiency or other treatable conditions.