The hair vitamin aisle is chaos. Gummies, capsules, powders, all promising thicker hair, few explaining how. So let’s do what the labels won’t: go ingredient by ingredient and rank what actually earns its place.

Zinc and iron: the quiet heavyweights

Not glamorous, but the evidence here is the strongest of the lot. Low iron and low zinc are among the most common findings in people with unexplained shedding, and correcting a deficiency can visibly slow hair loss. Iron matters especially for anyone with a restricted diet; zinc is involved directly in follicle tissue growth and repair. If your levels are low, no fancy ingredient will out-perform fixing this first.

Vitamin D: the one most of us actually lack

Follicles have vitamin D receptors, and low vitamin D keeps showing up in studies of several types of hair loss. Given how little sun the UK sees for half the year, this is the deficiency you’re statistically most likely to have. Worth covering year-round.

Biotin: famous, and slightly misunderstood

Biotin is the poster child of hair vitamins, and it does play a real role. Hair is made of keratin, and biotin is part of the machinery that builds it. The nuance: it delivers obvious results mainly when you’re low on it. That’s more common than people think, but it means biotin works best as part of a broader formula rather than a lone hero.

Saw palmetto: the natural DHT option

Different category, worth knowing about. Saw palmetto doesn’t feed the hair. It works on the hormonal side, interfering with the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT, the main driver of pattern hair loss. Studies show milder effects than prescription DHT blockers, but for men who want a natural first step against genetic hair loss, it’s the best-supported option there is. We offer it as a standalone 200 mg tablet for exactly that use.

So what should you actually take?

Unless you enjoy juggling five bottles, a well-built multivitamin covering the core group (biotin, zinc, iron, vitamin D and the supporting B vitamins) handles the nutritional side in one go. That’s precisely what our Multivitamin & Mineral tablets are built around: the ingredients with evidence, at sensible doses, minus the fairy dust.

One honest note: vitamins fix the nutrition piece of the puzzle. They work best alongside a proper scalp routine, not instead of one. Feed the hair from the inside, look after it on the outside. That combination is where the results live.