How Biotin Works for Hair Growth, The Science Behind It

Biotin (also known as Vitamin B7) is one of the most important vitamins for hair growth because it helps with your body’s natural production of keratin. And keratin is the protein that smooths out the cells that form the strands of your hair while helping to protect these strands from breaking. 

Biotin’s role in keratin production is that it helps your body break down the amino acids used to create keratin proteins, and this applies to your nails too.  When your hair breaks more often but looks and feels healthy, a potential cause could be a biotin deficiency. 

Biotin deficiency is associated with hair loss both because not having enough biotin negatively affects your body’s natural keratin production resulting in more breakage and less growth.  And not getting enough biotin can result in more inflammation, which unchecked can result in scarring alopecia.  If you think you have a biotin deficiency you’ll likely see skin rashes, have brittle nails, and possible hair loss.  But the hair loss might not be directly related to the biotin deficiency. 

If your scalp has inflammation then you may be more likely to scratch it when it gets itchy.  Because biotin deficiencies make your hair more prone to breakage, your hair will be more prone to breakage, you may not have the right amount of keratin to protect the strands.  The added scratching can pull and break your hair causing unnatural shedding.  Although the biotin deficiency did not lead to hair loss, the deficiency did lead to you scratching hairs off your head giving the appearance of it.  But don’t worry, there are easily solutions to get back to good levels of biotin!

It’s easy to get enough Biotin in your diet. Supplements are widely available and have nearly 100% bioavailability which means the amount you take gets used by your system in full.  That makes biotin one of the more reliable supplements you can take.

The recommended daily amount of biotin changes by age and your biological gender. The table below comes directly from the NIH website, and we’ve copied it here for you to use as an easy guide. If you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, add another 5–10 mcg per day. 

Now that you know how much biotin you need for healthy hair growth, here’s some of the top foods that contain biotin and the amount to take (also from the NIH website). And incorporating these into your daily routine is simple. 

Try having an egg at breakfast and salmon for dinner.  Hamburgers are a perfect cheat day meal, and roasted almonds or sunflower seeds are a perfect power boost mid-day. 

Fun fact, hamburgers are good for your hair.  Here’s why.

And now you know how biotin helps with hair growth, what to look for if your hair loss is related to a biotin deficiency, and how you can increase your biotin intake to help with proper keratin production.  For more hair health and nutrition tips like these, subscribe to the TELETIMES blog below.