- B vitamins are not made by the body, are water soluble (meaning they are not stored in the body) and must be eaten in the form of food or supplement every day. B vitamins help the body handle stress and stress can cause hair to fall out or stop growing. Long stretches of intense stress can cause alopecia areata, a symptom that causes white blood cells to damage the hair follicle which effectively stops the hair from growing or to fall out. The best way to take a B supplement is to use a B-complex vitamin that includes all the B vitamins including folate, inositol and biotin.
- Beta carotene and retinol are the two forms of Vitamin A found in food and supplements. These sources are ingested and then converted to Vitamin A in the body. Vitamin A helps form and maintain healthy hair growth. Since vitamin A is a fat-stored vitamin, taking a vitamin A supplement is only necessary if a person is not ingesting enough on a daily basis through diet. Sources of Vitamin A include broccoli, asparagus, carrots, eggs, mustard greens, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, watermelon, fresh apricots and cantaloupe.
- A deficiency of Vitamin C can cause the hair to become brittle and dry which enables splitting to occur. Dry, splitting and brittle hair needs to be cut more often to remove the frizz that builds up over time. Vitamin C is not fat soluble and cannot be stored in the body for later use and, therefore, should be consumed in the diet every day. Medline Plus, a medical dictionary provided by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. National Library of Medicine, describes the daily dose required by an adult male over 19 as 90 milligrams a day and for a female 19 and older at 75 milligrams a day.