Welcome to Ask a Derm, a sequence from SELF through which board-certified dermatologists reply your urgent questions on pores and skin, hair, and nail well being. For the primary installment, we tapped Susan C. Taylor, MD, the Bernett L. Johnson Jr. Endowed Professor of Dermatology and the vice chair for variety, fairness, and inclusion for the division of dermatology on the College of Pennsylvania’s Perelman Faculty of Drugs. Her specialties embody hair loss, beauty dermatology, hyperpigmentation, and pores and skin of colour.
Should you’ve ever heard a pal, coworker, podcast host, or member of Bachelor Nation swear a sure complement helped their hair develop, chances are high it contained biotin—a vitamin that performs a key function within the manufacturing of keratin, the protein that makes up your hair and nails. However is swallowing it in capsule, powder, or gummy kind actually the key to longer, thicker hair? We requested Susan C. Taylor, MD, professor of dermatology and vice chair for variety, fairness, and inclusion on the College of Pennsylvania’s Perelman Faculty of Drugs, for her ideas.
“Round 50 million males and 30 million ladies in america have androgenetic alopecia, the scientific time period for male or feminine sample hair loss, so it’s no surprise everyone seems to be on the lookout for an answer that’s so simple as taking a tablet,” Dr. Taylor tells SELF. Google “hair development dietary supplements” and also you’ll get greater than half a billion (yep, with a b) outcomes, a lot of which embody suggestions for merchandise that tout biotin as a fundamental ingredient. And it is smart—in case your physique makes use of it to assist kind and develop wholesome strands, the extra, the hairier, proper? However right here’s the factor: You most likely already get sufficient of it.
People largely get their fill of biotin from widespread meals like nuts, egg yolks, meat, fish, and candy potatoes, which is why a deficiency is uncommon, in line with Dr. Taylor. “The really useful each day quantity for adults is 30 micrograms, however a typical Western food regimen accommodates greater than sufficient biotin—typically 35–70 micrograms per day,” she says. So until you’re not getting sufficient by means of meals—otherwise you had been born with biotinidase deficiency (BIOT), a situation that stops the physique from utilizing biotin—chances are high you’re not working low, she provides.