hair and nails vitamin..recommendations?

[trace1P167]

my sister and I both suffer from thin hair. she is loses more than I do (she is only 38) every day.

can anyone recommend or have used any hair/nail vitamins that are over the counter and not prescription?

[cynthia_waz]

my sister and I both suffer from thin hair. she is loses more than I do (she is only 38) every day.

can anyone recommend or have used any hair/nail vitamins that are over the counter and not prescription?

As a 'retired' hairstylist (i got a boring desk job - but it has benefits), my suggestion is to see a doctor first. Especially if you are losing clumps of hair or have any very thin patches where you see your scalp.
you want to rule out that it isn't something like alopecia first.
a regular plain old multivitamin is still good for you though for a number of reasons

[trace1P167]

As a 'retired' hairstylist (i got a boring desk job - but it has benefits), my suggestion is to see a doctor first. Especially if you are losing clumps of hair or have any very thin patches where you see your scalp.
you want to rule out that it isn't something like alopecia first.
a regular plain old multivitamin is still good for you though for a number of reasons

yeah she went to the doctor already and the recommended a type of blood pressure medicine but it can possible cause bad side effects if she becomes pregnant again.

she does take a pre-natal vitamin and had a baby 4 months ago. would the prenatal AND a hair/nails vitamin help?

[cynthia_waz]

yeah she went to the doctor already and the recommended a type of blood pressure medicine but it can possible cause bad side effects if she becomes pregnant again.

she does take a pre-natal vitamin and had a baby 4 months ago. would the prenatal AND a hair/nails vitamin help?

she had a baby 4 months ago? that explains everything.
the hair goes through three "life cycles". almost like birth, life, death. every strand of hair in your head does this over and and over again throughout your entire life. while pregnant, this cycles goes on "pause" and hair stops getting to the end stage. when the pregnancy is complete, and hormones go back to normal - the cycle picks back up and you end up losing alot of hair. its really freaky. i have a 9 month old daughter - i just went through it too.
she just has to be patient. it sucks, its a little scary, but it will stop. when? i can't say because it is slightly different for every woman.
as for the vitamins - she is fine to just stick with the prenatal vitamins. the hair/nail vitamins are fairly similar. the body can only absorb so much at one time, and then just pushes out what it can't/won't use. therefore, she is basically pissing away money on an additional vitamin.
i completely understand how freaked out she must feel, but be patient. IF she starts to notice bald patches, then there may be a cause for concern.
i can't even tell you how many times the maintenance guys at my apartment complex had to come and clean out my shower drain. we eventually went to the hardware store and picked up some hardcore drain cleaner because Drain-O wasn't strong enough!

[DaniGrrl]

Cynthia is spot on. The hair falling out in clumps typically happens 4 months post-partum. And it does suck, because then your hair starts to grow back in and you have little short hairs all over your head! I think that only lasts for a couple months.

If it still seems excessive after that, then check with a doctor. Could be alopecia, could be a thyroid disorder, most likely neither. It's common to lose hair and as long as there isn't huge bald spots, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Taking a multi or a pre-natal won't ever hurt, though.

[IronOrchid]

my sister and I both suffer from thin hair. she is loses more than I do (she is only 38) every day.

can anyone recommend or have used any hair/nail vitamins that are over the counter and not prescription?

Two or something years ago I started loosing hair (they were all over and everywhere!) and I though it was age related. So I read about it and I started taking vitamin B-complex plus additional vit B-12, Betaine supplement and made the rule of having one Whole Egg a day (how it is cooked does not matter). But you have to be patient: first results will be only withing 6-8 month. I have my hair back now and I'm even growing them long again!

As for nails I'm not a helper. I'm genetically lucky to have them strong (never had artificial ones or any problems). But you might try Real food with Calcium - cottage cheese, real cheese (no American processed), Greek yogurt, real milk (no milk-looking beverages like almond one etc.).

[elainedeluca]

You may also want to research a Biotin supplement

[trace1P167]

thanks ladies!! all these tips are greatly appreciated!! anything and everything is worth trying!!

[oregonchick76]

My doctor recommended to me hair skin and nail vitamin from vita4life. They are FDA approved and completely filler free. After six months of use I am happy to report that it has helped me with my hair fall issue up to 80%.

Most doctors are not going to recommend a specific brand. Before I ran out and bought something that some random poster put on a forum, I'd want to know what the active ingredients were in said product and how that directly related to inhibiting/reversing the particular reason hair was falling out.

Hair can fall out for a number of reasons - hormones are a big part of that.
If DHT is an issue, Nizoral (or other antifungal-based dandruff shampoo) does a good job of blocking DHT and can really help reverse the falling out process.

[girl81]

Increasing my healthy fat intake helped my hair regrow.

[Madi-J]

Most doctors are not going to recommend a specific brand. Before I ran out and bought something that some random poster put on a forum, I'd want to know what the active ingredients were in said product and how that directly related to inhibiting/reversing the particular reason hair was falling out.

Hair can fall out for a number of reasons - hormones are a big part of that.
If DHT is an issue, Nizoral (or other antifungal-based dandruff shampoo) does a good job of blocking DHT and can really help reverse the falling out process.

Since all that is in the signature field is the product's website, I'm going to guess that was a spam post.

[Amanda76]

For nails, mine won't grow nicely without taking more biotin than is in my multi and what I get in food. Supplementing with a pill containing 5-6,000 mcg (notice that's micro-grams) per day makes drastic improvement to my nails within a couple of weeks. There may be an improvement to my hair but there are a few factors involved in changes to it (last year, I quit bleaching it and it has been a PITA growing the bleached ends out gracefully), so it's nothing that I'm 100% certain about. While I was bleaching my hair, I did notice feeling like I had to touch up the roots a week earlier when using biotin but I wouldn't say I noticed a difference in the structure of the root or anything like that. Because the current color I'm using is closer to the natural shade of my hair, I don't notice the roots as much as they grow out so the amount of additional hair growth (lengthwise) that you get from biotin may not seem dramatic unless your root color is dramatic compared to the length color.

Biotin definitely helps my nails grow, but I'm hard enough on my nails (I don't wear gloves when doing housework and wash my hands reasonably frequently) that moisturizing them is necessary to keep them from being dry or splitting/peeling). I like massaging different oils into the nail and cuticle before bed if I'm not being lazy, but any moisturizer (even lip balm) will improve their appearance if applied regularly.

Over the last week, I started using a supplement that contains 5,000 mcg of biotin with 800 mcg of folic acid but it's too soon to tell whether additional folic acid will cause a change in my hair. If you've been using a pre-natal vitamin, it probably has about the amount of folic acid I'm currently experimenting with, but probably not nearly as much biotin.

I know people who use silica or alfalfa (high in silica) supplements to counter hair fall. Alfalfa also has other nutritional benefits for your hair so I'll probably try alfalfa after I see what a higher dose of folic acid does. I have not looked into what the effective doses for hair improvement are on either of these things, but my guess is alfalfa supplementation is going to end up being less expensive and easier to accomplish than actually eating pounds of alfalfa every day. LOL

I agree that your sister may just need to patiently wait out some of the hormonal changes her body is going through now. You'll probably have better luck seeing what the effects of diet and supplementation are at this point.

[thezey]

others suggested Nizoral. You could add Berocca for vitamins as well. All you are looking for is on nizoralshop.com

Hope it helps!

[Jodie10]

my sister and I both suffer from thin hair. she is loses more than I do (she is only 38) every day.

can anyone recommend or have used any hair/nail vitamins that are over the counter and not prescription?

Ditto the biotin and B vitamin recommendations, also calcium, vitamin d and gelatin capsules.

Disclaimer I take handfuls of supplements every day. People think I'm about 10 years younger than my actual age. On top of the above add a collagen/hyaluronic acid supplement and mega vitamin c and you are good to go. Don't skimp on the sunblock either...