Biotin causing Acne!

[demitasse]

I took Biotin for a few days until I saw the dreaded M word—migraine. I get a couple a year and don't want to do anything that could encourage more. Just learning to be more patient instead.

[curls2grow]

I started taking biotin (2500mg a day) to boost my hair growth. I started this about 3 months ago and have coincidentally have had the worst cystic acne breakouts EVER.

I started reading your post and thought it was just like what happened to me several years ago when I tried adding a biotin supplement. I was taking 5000 mg/day and got horrible, large acne cysts. I cut down to 2500 mg but I think it was too late; my skin already screamed that it didn't like the extra biotin and seemed to be holding onto cysts even at the reduced dose. I stopped completely and the cysts calmed down and eventually went away. I do still get a bit of extra biotin in my multi-vitamin, but it doesn't aggravate my skin.

All that aside, I may have an a slight increase in growth at the time, but it was definitely not worth the hassle with cystic acne.

[bluemoon1891]

A lot of people claim that an increase in water intake helps with the acne, and that your skin is simply going through a "purging" stage...However, when I was taking Biotin (3000mg) the acne never cleared up until I stopped taking it MONTHS later. It was like cystic pimples too that would leave ugly scars everywhere. The scars took forever to heal up and are still slightly visible. Bleh.

I do believe it helped with my hair growth, but it was doing too much damage to my skin for me to keep up with it. So you are not alone.

[SeaShell]

actually I've been taking biotin since January and have had more breakouts than usual...I figured I'd just grown immune to the pro active system which usually keeps my skin clear, but now you have me wondering. I also had one cyst and have experienced slight breakouts on my neck which has never happened before. I never knew biotin can cause that

[lockslessmonstr]

I'm so glad it's not just me! I think some people can tolerate biotin just fine but not me. If you can take it with no acne issues, YAY and I'm jealous. And daaaaaaaaaaaaamn that one pic of the cystic acne that was posted!!! Holy crap! Mine's not anywhere near that bad, but I don't want ANY at all.

[rach]

I'm so glad it's not just me! I think some people can tolerate biotin just fine but not me. If you can take it with no acne issues, YAY and I'm jealous. And daaaaaaaaaaaaamn that one pic of the cystic acne that was posted!!! Holy crap! Mine's not anywhere near that bad, but I don't want ANY at all.

i know, sorry about that, but i gave the idea

[s_tresses]

Has anyone tried lowering their biotin dose and seen a difference? I believe the minimum they have in vitamins is around 500 mg...

Any other vitamins that help with hair growth?

[aldasbeke]

I've noticed a pretty bad breakout that has correlated with taking a lot of Biotin. I really don't think it's worth it when I think about it..

[Igor]

I was really begin to wonder if I should make a pre-made post for all the Mega Dose Biotin = Hallelujah! –threads going around trying to warn people, but maybe I should just link people to this one since no one seems to want to listen.

Just because something is water soluble doesn’t mean its okay to take a ridiculous overdose of. It still needs to be processed by the body. Kidneys can still fail from having to filter things out. The body can react strongly to everything in excess, even water soluble vitamins

The body doesn’t need a lot of biotin because it’s made by benign bacteria living in our digestive system and the body is getting what it needs from that. Mega dosing on something the body is almost self sufficient on, is frankly put arrogant and dangerous.

I really wish people would use the search functions, either on LHC or even Google before they start mega dosing on a single vitamin like this. Unfortunately people seems so adamant on that biotin is the single solution to better hair growth that they can’t be bothered to do the research.

I’m a firm believer in taking vitamins or supplements for the body and you will be rewarded with good hair health, as opposed to overdosing on the handful of vitamins that pop-knowledge tells you can help hair growth.

[BellCat]

I've been taking biotin about a month now. At first I was getting little weird spots on my face :S however I did a bit of research and found that taking another vitamin B with the biotin stops the breakouts so I went and bought a multivitamin with lots of different vitamin B's in it and my breakouts stopped