By Dr Rachel Osei · Consultant trichologist, MSc Trichology
A Trichologist Warns: Your Hair Vitamins Are Treating a Problem You Don't Have
Laura B., before and 20 weeks after starting Formula No5. Individual results vary.
After years of sitting with women whose hair is thinning, one thing keeps coming up.
And I can't keep quiet about it any longer.
Because these women are blaming themselves for something they didn't cause.
They think they're not eating well enough.
Washing it too often.
Colouring it for too many years.
Letting themselves go.
So they try harder.
Biotin with breakfast. Collagen in the morning tea. Gummies by the kettle. A thickening shampoo.
Then a bit of root powder before going out. And "just take it up a bit" at the hairdresser.
When none of it works, they arrive at the only explanation left.
"It's my age, isn't it."
Usually their GP has said much the same. Bloods normal. Nothing to worry about.
But these women didn't suddenly forget how to look after themselves.
And their hair didn't simply get old.
So I started asking every woman to bring two things to her appointment.
Her blood results. And the tubs from her cupboard.
The bloods were nearly always fine. Ferritin in the green. Thyroid normal. Vitamin D fine.
And the tubs were full of exactly what their labels promised.
Nothing in them was faulty.
They were doing exactly what they were made to do: feeding blood that was already full.
That was the problem.
When women stopped buying supplies and started sending the follicle a signal instead, the first thing they mentioned was the brush.
Then the bobble going round one time fewer.
Then, months later, short new hairs along the parting.
To understand what changed, we have to start with what I see under the camera.
Why Vitamins and Minoxidil Changed So Little for My Patients
In clinic I look at the scalp through a magnifying camera.
In women over sixty who are thinning on top, I see the same picture nearly every time.
The follicles are still there.
Most of them are still growing a hair.
But each new hair comes through a little finer and shorter than the one before.
You aren't losing more hair. You're growing finer hair.
That's why your brush looks normal but your parting doesn't.
It's why the bobble goes round one more time, and why you can't name the month it started.
Now picture every hair on top coming through just a fifth finer.
Not one hair has gone missing. But the top of your head has lost a fifth of its cover.
That's what shows under the bathroom light.
So why don't vitamins help?
Because if this were a shortage, your blood would usually show it. Yours didn't.
Every tub you bought went into blood that already had plenty.
That wasn't daft. If this had been a supply problem, it would have been exactly right.
You were solving it properly. For a problem you didn't have.
Here's what's actually happening.
Starting the next hair needs a signal.
For most of your life, oestrogen held back a hormone called DHT at the follicle. Around the menopause, oestrogen falls and that brake comes off.
With the brake off, the signal weakens a little each cycle. Each new hair grows finer, and stops sooner.
Minoxidil, the active in Regaine, is a proper medicine and right for some women.
But it does one job: blood flow to the follicle. And the shedding tends to come back when you stop.
Neither one touches the signal.
You don't have to take my word for any of this. You can see it on your own head.
Lift the hair at the back of your neck.
The hair low at the nape has held on far better than the hair on top.
Same blood. Same age. Same head.
Those low follicles barely respond to DHT. So the only real difference is what each follicle has been told.
Try this tonight: the two-hair test
- Take one hair from the nape of your neck.
- Take one from your parting.
- Lay them side by side on white paper, in good light.
Most women are surprised how much finer the one from the parting is. That difference is the signal, not your age.
I hope that's reassuring.
Because a follicle that's gone quiet isn't gone. It's waiting to be told.
I'll be honest about the other side too. Some follicles do finish their last cycle, and those don't come back at any age.
That's the only real reason not to wait another year.
If Your Serum Only Reaches the Hair, It Misses the Follicle Completely
Hair is dead. Nothing in it can take an instruction.
The follicle sits in the skin, about a centimetre below.
A thickening shampoo is on your scalp for about ninety seconds before you rinse it away.
Oils and dropper serums mostly land on the lengths, your fingers and the pillow.
So before you spend another penny, I'd ask anything you try next to pass four tests.
- 1It goes on the scalp, not the hair.
- 2It stays there for hours, not seconds.
- 3It carries a signal, not supplies.
- 4It tells you how much of each active is in it. These actives are expensive, which is why cheaper bottles print the names and leave the amounts off.
The serum I work with, Formula No5, passes all four. It goes on at night and stays on while you sleep.
Its first job is to restart the next hair.
At the base of every follicle are the cells that start each new hair. In a quiet follicle, they've stopped being asked.
Redensyl is there to wake those cells. Baicapil is there to get more follicles growing at the same time.
Before12 weeks
Look at the crown. Before, the scalp showed straight through.
At twelve weeks, the hair closes over it.
"I'd stopped wearing it up because you could see the scalp at the back. My daughter noticed the difference before I did."
The Hair That Stops Short Doesn't Need a Trim. It Needs a Longer Growing Phase.
If your hair reaches a certain length and seems to stop, that's not your imagination.
Each hair has a growing phase. When the signal weakens, that phase gets shorter.
So each hair stops sooner, and finer, however often you trim the ends.
AnaGain is there to lengthen that growing phase. In its maker's three-month study, more hairs moved from resting back into growing.
That's the maker's study of the active, not a study of this bottle. I'd rather you knew which is which.
Before16 weeks
Margaret T., before and after 16 weeks. Individual results vary.
The Brake That Came Off at the Menopause Can Be Put Back at the Root
This is the part nothing in your cupboard was doing.
Remember the brake oestrogen used to hold on DHT?
Capixyl and Procapil work against DHT at the follicle itself. They also support the collagen that anchors each hair, so it holds on longer.
Five actives. Each one matched to a link in the chain. Each one with its strength on the label.
Before16 weeks
Look at the parting. The same hair colour, the same angle.
The difference is how much of the skin you can still see.
"My parting was the first thing I checked in every photo. Now I forget to look."
Together, those five became Formula No5.
Check Availability — Save £30 →£60 until 31 October · 150 days to decide
The Part Most Serums Get Wrong: Getting It There
Here's the thing almost nobody checks.
Most scalp serums come with a dropper.
On anything longer than a short bob, a dropper puts most of each dose on your hair, not your scalp.
And everything I've told you depends on the serum reaching the skin.
Formula No5 comes with its own applicator. It's the reason I'd choose it even if the formulas were level.
Fill it from the dropper, then draw it along the parting.
- The cap. Lift it off and fill it straight from the dropper.
- A 10ml reservoir. One night's dose, held behind the teeth instead of running down your hair.
- Six chrome flow tips. They lay the serum on the scalp like a pen on paper.
- A wide parting head. It opens a path through longer hair, so you can work across the scalp in rows.
Ten seconds along the parting. Ten across the crown. No glasses, and nothing on your fingers.
It isn't sold on its own anywhere. It comes in the box.
The First Change Isn't in the Mirror. It's in the Brush.
I want you to know what to expect, so you don't stop at the worst moment.
Month 1
Nothing you'll notice. The follicle works in cycles, and the first one takes time. This is where most women stop. It's the worst place to stop.
Week 11
BeforeWeek 11
Less in the brush, then the bobble needing a turn fewer. The root powder stays in the drawer more often.
Week 16
BeforeWeek 16
Short new hairs along the parting and the hairline. Under the camera, I can see them coming.
Month 5
Decide. You'll have used five bottles, and you'll know from your own brush, bobble and parting whether it's working for you.
The brush changes first.
The bobble changes next.
The parting changes last.
Different women at different points. Individual results vary.
Check Availability — Save £30 →£60 until 31 October · 150 days to decide
It Isn't Only Me Saying This
I'm not the only one who sees this every week. I asked three people who look at women's hair and health for a living what they tell women your age.
"A normal blood test rules things out. It doesn't explain the thinning. When the bloods are fine, something that works at the scalp makes more sense to me than another supplement."
"I'm asked about hair vitamins every week. If her bloods are normal, I'd rather she spent that money on something that actually reaches the follicle."
"I see the tops of women's heads all day. With the ones using No5, the first thing I notice is less hair in the basin after a wash. The parting comes later."
Five Months of Formula No5, With the Applicator, for £60
Five bottles: pay for two, get three free. A follicle works in cycles, and two months can't tell you anything. Five can.
If you're not seeing a difference by day 150, email them and they'll refund you in full. You don't send the bottles back.
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Your Routine Barely Changes
It goes on at night, at the sink, in about twenty seconds.
Nothing to swallow. Nothing to remember at breakfast.
It's a light serum, not an oil, so it dries in minutes and won't leave your roots greasy.
In the morning, wash, set or colour as you always have.
Before you decide anything, do the two-hair test tonight.
If the hair from your nape is thicker, it isn't your age. It's the signal.
Then it's your choice. Start tonight, or once you've looked for yourself.
And if you'd rather leave it another year, that's entirely your call.
I'd only ask you to remember: the follicles that finish don't come back. The quiet ones are waiting to be told.
Dr Rachel Osei
Consultant trichologist (BSc Hons, MSc Trichology). She sees women with thinning hair every week, and works with Anagen Lab on Formula No5.
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