Biotin is a water-soluble B vitamin (B7) and it is important in many bodily functions and processes. It is especially important in the synthesis of proteins, metabolism of fats, carbohydrates, cholesterol, amino acids, and other essential substances in the body. It is also known to have benefits on the health of the sweat glands, bone marrow, male gonads, blood cells, nerve tissue, skin, and hair. It is sometimes called as vitamin H, as derived from the German words “haar” and “haut” which mean hair and skin.
As a normal vitamin, it is recommended that every individual have the daily supply of 30 to 100 micrograms of biotin for optimal health. There are a lot of food sources with the said vitamin so if a person eats a well-balanced diet, he most likely gets enough vitamin B7 everyday. However, there are still instances when an individual is found to have biotin deficiency.
The symptoms of this condition are alopecia or hair loss, soborrheic dermatitis, dry skin, rashes, falling hair, and fungal infections. When a person experiences these symptoms and is positively diagnosed with biotin deficiency, the medicated dose to take is 2,500 micrograms a day. However, there are some times when the individual symptoms are treated as forms of biotin deficiency. For instance, a person who is experiencing hair loss is said to lack the vitamin even if he does not have any other symptom of deficiency. So people tend to rely on supplementation from the vitamin to treat the said disorder.
This is what manufacturers and marketers use as leverage for their biotin products, particularly biotin shampoo. There are so many biotin shampoos in the market today, and they are becoming more and more popular because advertisers use the fact that biotin is essential in maintaining the health of the hair as leverage for their products. Although it has been proven in some studies that people who experience alopecia or hair loss even without other symptoms have low levels of biotin, there are no studies which show that biotin can act in reverse, or that supplementing biotin will help cure the disorder. But by word of mouth, a lot of people are saying that they have seen positive effects in using the vitamin.
Biotin shampoo is a cosmetic product that is addressed to individuals who have alopecia or hair loss, or for those who just want to grow more hair. A lot of men and women have used the product and there are mixed feedback. Some say that it is very effective; some say that it does not have any effects; and others say that it has very little effect. Whether it works or not may vary depending on the use, brand, hair type, severity of hair loss, and even amount used, but the fact is that biotin, when used topically, is known to be ineffective.
This is because biotin is not absorbed well by the skin. The vitamin is unable to penetrate the deeper layers of the skin, thus its effects are only seen on the surface. When it comes to shampoo, using it on the scalp might not do much good. But the product has a lot of other ingredients which may contribute to the effectiveness of the product, especially other hair-growing factors and skin-penetrating aids to allow better absorption of the vitamin through the scalp. Nonetheless, topical biotin is not trusted, and even doctors only advise the use of oral supplements and not other products even for hair loss.
If you want to use biotin for your hair, whether you want to grow back hair or you want to grow more hair, it is better to use the oral supplements instead of biotin shampoo. But be careful with the doses because it is a common incident that overdosage of biotin causes acne outbreaks. That having been said, you have the freedom to decide what biotin product to use for your hair loss problems.