Natural Hair Growth Supplements (and preventing hair loss)

Feel Hair Support is clinically proven to reduce hair loss in 90 days. It’s also good to promote thicker hair, and is vegan and sold in plastic-free packaging.

Made with Keranat™ (from millet seeds, not just for budgies!), this ingredient can enter the hair bulb to stimulate hair growth, and strengthen hair from root to tip. 91% of women taking this supplement noticed a difference, compared to a placebo group. The outstanding results have been validated by 6 years of research, and 2 human clinical trials.

Use code partner20 for 20% discount (not bundles or subscriptions). If you do subscribe, sign up for an account to earn discount rewards.

Before taking supplements, check with GP if pregnant/nursing or on medication. Some hair supplements must be avoided for people at risk of oestrogen cancers (due to mimicking hormones), so read the labels.

Keep supplements away from young children and pets, and recycle unused supplements at pharmacies. 

The supplement also contains biotin (vitamin B7), known for helping healthy hair. Thinning hair in women is often associated with lack of this vitamin.

After 12 weeks of consuming this supplement, 85% of users noticed a decrease in hair loss and better hair growth, and 78% also noticed benefits to nails (also made from keratin).

Dr.Vegan Hair Saviour Supplement

Dr.Vegan Hair Saviour is sold in a metal tin, just order refills in pouches after that (subscribe online for big savings). With results in 90 days, this helps hair growth, along with thinning or brittle hair, with 14 14 clinically-proven nutrients including AnaGain™ & Biotin. Many people also find improvements in eyelashes, eyebrows and nails.

In 1 month, you should find hair loss and thinning reduced by up to a third, and in the second month you should find new baby hair growth with full results in 3 months (including thicker stronger nails). Some hair salons report being amazed by results.

Know that when taking hair supplements, you may find things get worse before they get better. This is because we lose hair every day, so your ‘old hair’ will fall out, and then you wait for the new hair to form, which of course takes a while. So don’t be discouraged and give the supplements a full three months to start showing results.

Formulated by experts, the results of this supplement are due to a combination of hair-nutrients including ones that also support pigmentation (so may even in some cases help to restore hair colour).

Raw Beauty Lab Vegan Collagen Superfood

Raw Beauty Lab vegan collagen superfood is easy to use, just scoop into your favourite drink, to benefit hair, skin and nails. Made with antioxidants and 100% of daily Vitamin C recommendations. Also sold in a pregnancy-safe version.

Hairburst vegan hair gummies (sold on the high street)

Hairburst vegan hair gummies are sold in many chemists (be careful to check, as the brand also sell ones made with gelatine). They are packed in a plastic pot, but you can recycle this at any Boots store.  It contains hair-friendly nutrients of biotin, zinc and selenium, to also help prevent breakage and thinning.

Awake Organics (natural hair growth shampoo)

Awake Organics Caffeine Shampoo is a water-activated powder that contains ingredients, proven to reduce hair loss. Many customers use this after finishing chemotherapy. Sold in a metal bottle.

Avoid caffeine and essential oils shampoos and hair oils if pregnant/nursing (both absorb into the bloodstream). Also avoid rosemary oil if epileptic. Check medication as contains guarana seed. For adults only. 

This shampoo has natural DHT blockers, which help to prevent hair loss. See results in 12 weeks (one bottle gives the same amount as 3 bottles of liquid shampoo).

To use, just shake the bottle to loosen the contents over a folded tea towel. Shake a small amount into your wet palm, and rub hands together to form a paste. Lather into the roots of wet hair for 1 to 2 minutes, rinse and condition as usual.

Awake Organics offers conditioners and hair oils (massaged into the scalp and left for at least 45 minutes) before shampooing out.

Due to essential oils, don’t leave hair oils on overnight, if pets sleep on your bed (cats can’t break down aromatherapy oils in their livers).

What causes hair loss?

We all lose 50 to 100 hairs each day (different hairs are dormant, growing or shedding). Over 15 million people in the UK have some kind of hair loss, whether that’s due to male pattern baldness, stress, nutritional deficiencies, pregnancy or drugs (like chemotherapy).

Male pattern baldness has affected around 80% of men by age 70, due to DHT (a chemical produced by testosterone). It nearly always affects the temple and crown of the head. There is no cure, so don’t worry – we love you as you are!

Female pattern baldness affects around 30% of women by age 70, and usually hormone-related (after menopause or due to stress).  It tends to affect the top of the head.

Alopecia is a rare auto-immune condition where people lose all their hair (including eyebrows, eyelashes and body hair). People affected (Gail Porter and Louis Theroux) have made it ‘okay to talk about’, if you don’t want to spend your life in wigs.

It can be genetics, but sometimes to do with thyroid conditions or lupus. Again it’s nearly always incurable.

Post-partum hair loss is common (nutrients needed for your baby are directed there, rather than for your hair). It’s nothing to worry about, and hair grows back soon after.

Common sense tips for healthy hair growth

Often slow hair growth or falling hair is due to lack of certain nutrients (it’s not true that being vegan is always the cause – more than anyone living on refined foods will suffer, vegans included). Sort out your diet first for healthy hair, before trying supplements:

Ensure you eat plenty of plant-based proteins (lentils, pulses, nuts, seeds etc). Iron is also important as it carries oxygen to hair follicles (dark leafy greens are good – check medication for contraindications, again pulses are a great source, as are dried organic apricots). Vitamin C aids absorption if iron, so eat plenty of fresh produce (and again don’t smoke, as it reduces absorption).

• Don’t scrape hair into tight ponytails (this causes tension alopecia, common in ballet and ballroom dancers, as too much stress is placed at the hair line (people with African-African hair can also suffer, due to trends for tight braids and dreadlocks).
• Leave hair loose or make loose ponytails with plastic-free hair ties.
• Relax! Stress can ‘push hair follicles’ into the resting phase, where they stay before falling out. If ‘growing hairs’ slow down, you could lose up to 300 hairs a day (compared to the average 100).
• Smoking cigarettes can double chances of early-onset alopecia (as can alcohol) due to increasing free radicals, and depriving hair follicles of vitamins and minerals. Read our posts on how to give up smoking and help for alcohol addiction.
• Choose natural shampoos and conditioners. There is some evidence that modern foaming agents (like sodium lauryl sulphate found in most shampoos – used as engine degreaser for industry) is too harsh, and could cause hair loss or slow hair growth.
• Also choose natural hair dyes for the same reason.

Cut your hair off! If your hair is very damaged from over-processing or too many hair dyes, often the damage travels up to the roots. In some cases, your best bet is to just bite the bullet, and chop your hair off short, and start again. Your hair will likely grow quicker!

Little Princess Trust (donate hair to make children’s wigs)

You can imagine it’s stressful for an adult to go through alopecia. But for a child it can be devastating, or of course some children lose hair temporarily if going through chemotherapy treatment.

Little Princess Trust is a charity that makes quality wigs for children, from donated ponytails, if people are having long hair cut off. Rather than just be swept away and binned, this hair can be used to make child-specific wigs, so they can feel a bit better and fit in with their friends.

The site has full info on how how to ask your hairdresser to keep the hair, and a few rules. Like no pink or grey hair!

Quality wigs for adults with alopecia

Amber Jean makes ethical (very expensive) wigs from hair that is donated in rituals in Asia (as opposed to some brands that literally chop off the hair of passing women, against their will). Gail Porter is an ambassador for the brand.