Doubt with biotin

[Mademoiselle]

Hi beautiful hair carers! Yesterday I bought biotin and today seeing the ingredients it says that it has the amount of 400 μg, I think it's little compared to the quality that I've seen here that they take daily, even so it says that it is 800% of the recommended daily amount, Do you think I will notice any extra growth in my hair with that amount? Maybe I should have bought another biotin ...Can you tell me about your experience with biotin? worth?

[Nini]

If you're deficient you might see a change, but there's no use overdosing on vitamins and minerals as the excess will be washed out of the body, some of them with added work to our internal organs as well.

[Joules]

I gained an insane amount of weight after I started taking huge doses of biotin. After a quick google search I discovered that it's not something unusual, people gain up to 20 pounds because of biotin pills for hair. And I didn't see any effect on my hair, I gained all that weight for nothing. So yeah, I trust my regular hair skin & nails supplement to give me an adequate dose of biotin without overloading my system (I usually take either Perfectil or Supradyn, both contain 45mcg of biotin).

[Claireabelle123]

Hello, I have a lot of experience of taking biotin. I started out at 1000 ug and got on alright with it, it made my nails stronger and I got less hair fall, but my hair didn't actually grow any faster or stronger. Then I upped it to 5000, my hair did grow a little faster but I got a few more spots and had to drink a lot of water to help. Then basically there was a wedding coming up and I wanted really nice long nails so I upped it to 10,000... Not recommended at all! Got loads of breakouts, yeah as a consequence my hair grew a little faster but to me it was just not worth it. I'd just take a very small amount to see if your hair fall goes down but in my opinion high doseages just aren't worth it

[Arciela]

I took biotin before and noticed no difference in my growth rate. It was still an inch a month which is fine with me but it also gave me horrible cystic acne.

I eat chicken or a banana now if I am worried about biotin :) seems to give me more than enough :flower:

[r3d]

many years ago, I took Biotin & Biosil; it worked. I stopped because it didn't only affect the hair on my scalp lol.
and as much as I enjoyed the results on my head, I didn't enjoy them elsewhere lol

[lithostoic]

I noticed a big difference. I had suspected I was deficient and I confirmed that with my results. I noticed my leg hair grew back after a week of shaving, like when I was a teenager! I have to cut my nails all the way down to my fingertips once a week because they grow too long and get in the way at my job. Just try it out and if you don't see a difference just hold onto them. You never know.

P.S. I've also got less dandruff!!

[DaughterOfDawn]

Hello! I've been taking 1000 micrograms of biotin every other day for about nine months. I take it simultaneously with a b-complex multivitamin. It is too soon yet to notice a difference in how the new hair on my head grows, but my formerly weak, bendy, and flaky fingernails are now smooth, rigid, and STRONG! I have also noticed a texture change in some of the other hair on my body.. Much more coarse and wirey! The strands themselves do not appear any thicker, or grow any faster, but the texture difference is quite noticeable.
It took a solid four months before I began to notice the difference in my nails, and about six months before I noticed the difference in "certain" areas!
This is my personal experience and YMMV!

[redhed515]

I've been taking biotin for six months and haven't noticed any difference.

[Caraid♫]

For me biotin increased growth but was not worth it at all! I took an insanely high dose (5000 mcg) and after about a month, I started have weird symptoms such as abdominal cramps, lower back cramps, tingly/numb lower back and hips, feeling dehydrated, and sore lower ribs. This went on for a week and at first I didn't think to relate the symptoms to the biotin I was taking, but all the symptoms disappeared within two days of stopping!

I think we really need to be more careful about what we're willing to consume. 800% of the recommended dose of even the most seemingly harmless thing is a very extreme dosage!!

[Mademoiselle]

thank you very much for your help =) so I can understand is not something that works for many of you, and yet to others if it worked, is a clear example that each body is different. I will see how it works in me, I hope my hair is stronger and if I notice an extra growth it will be a pleasant surprise, I usually grow 1,25 / 1,5 cm per month, my hair is quite fragile because of some wicks that I made in April, in addition to every month dyeing the root with 30vol peroxide, I will be watching the next months...

[esfand]

For me, biotin didn't do much. However, prenatals and vitamin d helped a lot. I recommend getting a blood test for nutritional and hormonal levels to see what you actually need, and insurance might even cover your supplements.

[DaughterOfDawn]

Biotin seems to get all the credit, but iron is also very important for hair growth. Since iron builds up in the body and can cause toxicity issues when taken in excess, I recommend talking to your doctor before starting iron supplements! Supplements in the USA are not regulated by the FDA and are often formulated with unnecessarily high concentrations. With water soluble micronutrients like biotin this isn't really a problem, but no one wants heavy metal poisoning! A strawberry and spinach smoothie is a great and tasty to sneak iron into your diet if you need more iron don't want to take pills. The vitamin c from the strawberries also helps the body absorb the iron from the spinach :)

[lillii]

I agree with DaughterofDawn, my hair growth and health change drastically when I started building up my iron. Prior to that, I tried Life-Flo 10,000 MCG Biotin Drops because apparently it is absorbed better in liquid form but I saw no results. Since building up my iron, I definitely advocate for getting your blood work done and working on any deficiencies that you may have. In addition to DaughterofDawn's smoothie and vitamin C recommendation, parsley is really high in iron! I add it to salad and use the stems for sauces, soups, et cetera. Dark chocolate is also high in iron too! :yumm:

[MusicalSpoons]

Biotin seems to get all the credit, but iron is also very important for hair growth. Since iron builds up in the body and can cause toxicity issues when taken in excess, I recommend talking to your doctor before starting iron supplements! Supplements in the USA are not regulated by the FDA and are often formulated with unnecessarily high concentrations. With water soluble micronutrients like biotin this isn't really a problem, but no one wants heavy metal poisoning! A strawberry and spinach smoothie is a great and tasty to sneak iron into your diet if you need more iron don't want to take pills. The vitamin c from the strawberries also helps the body absorb the iron from the spinach :)

Excess water-soluble vitamins/minerals may not cause as much of a problem as heavy metal toxicity, but there is a perception that overdosing on them won't do any harm because you just 'pee out the excess' (pardon my crudeness). It's not that simple, however - the body still has to process it first and filter it out, so excess of a water-soluble nutrient can really tax organs and other biological systems - hence Caraid♫'s experience upthread, and why acne is such a common side-effect of excess biotin.

I do agree with you about the iron, though! It's so important for so much of the body's functioning, with hair being the body's afterthought, almost. To add to your comment, the bottom end of reference ranges for blood tests often show the minimum to prevent deficiency (i.e., the body has so little that it just cannot function properly) so there's often a discrepancy between what the minimum 'normal' range is, and what is an *optimum* level. (The top end of the range is usually not to be ignored, though.) So yes, training to your dr / having blood tests done is a good idea, but always ask for the actual values so you can determine whether a 'normal' result is the bare minimum or actually okay.

A strawberry and spinach smoothie sounds yummy, regardless of iron levels!

[daisy rei]

I've been taking Biotin for a couple of months, after trying it a few years ago and seeing no changes. The first bottle lasted maybe a month and I definitely noticed my nails growing significantly faster and stronger than before (no effect on my hair though) but then when I bought another bottle, similar formula different brand, all of the positive effects seemed to wear off.

I'll probably finish off this bottle and never buy it again.