What are Biotin and Collagen? Here we will discuss what these two amazing vitamins are and how they can help your body.
What is Biotin?
Biotin is another name for vitamin B7 or Vitamin H. This vitamin’s most important function is that it helps your body convert food into energy, but it also helps with the health of your hair, skin, nails, eyes, and nervous system.
Most people get enough biotin through their daily diet, as it is abundant in common foods such as organ meats, eggs, legumes, nuts, and seeds.
If you’re eating a balanced diet, you most probably don’t need to worry about not getting enough of it. In fact, biotin supplements aren’t targeting people with a biotin deficiency, as there are very few of those.
The theory is that a surplus of biotin in your body is desirable, as it’s speculated that it will help your hair, skin, and nails to be even healthier.
What Does Biotin Do For Hair?
Biotin is the essential building block of keratin, the primary protein in hair. A deficiency of biotin negatively affects hair growth due to the lack of keratin.
There are many supplements that claim to improve hair health, and although biotin is one of them, there doesn’t seem to be enough research about the role of supplementing biotin in hair growth and overall texture.
It can’t be stated that biotin supplements are 100% verified and effective for hair growth unless they are helping remove a biotin deficiency, in which case the supplements will definitely help with hair growth.
In some studies, biotin supplements have even been reported to reverse hair loss, but they have failed to be successfully isolated from other ingredients, so it’s hard to say if it is biotin that had the biggest impact on hair regrowth.
While biotin’s crucial role in keratin seems reason enough for making sure that we have appropriate levels of it in our bodies, we should approach supplements with care.
What is Collagen?
Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. Just like biotin, it plays a crucial role in the functioning of our bodies, as it provides them with structural support.
It might be easier for you to imagine collagen as the springs in a mattress, if your body is the metaphorical mattress, collagen is the internal structure that keeps it in place, firm, and bouncy.
You can find collagen all over your body, but most of it is within your skin, bones, tendons, and cartilages. When we’re younger, we have plenty of collagen reserves that we build through our varied diets.
Some great foods for collagen are fish, chicken, egg whites, citrus fruits, berries, and vegetables such as tomatoes, spinach, kale, etc.
What Does Collagen Do For Hair?
As we grow older, our collagen reserves dwindle, making those springs a little bit less bouncy and the support less sturdy. Think about how older people’s skin starts to sag, that is because, amongst other things, they’re missing collagen.
A shortage of collagen also affects hair, making it sparse, thin, and brittle.
Collagen and keratin are both proteins, and all proteins are made out of smaller building blocks called amino acids. Proline is one of the main amino acids in both collagen and keratin; when your hair is in its growth phase, there is naturally more proline in your scalp. Low collagen means low proline levels, which means impeded hair growth.
What’s the best way to take Biotin and Collagen for hair?
Biotin and Collagen seem to both have the same effect: they help hair growth. By supporting keratin, the primary protein in the structure of hair, they are doing their part in boosting overall hair health.
But when it comes to taking supplements or applying topical treatments for either of these in the form of shampoos or serums, the story becomes a little bit different.
Biotin and collagen supplements work in a similar way. Your body breaks them down into its building blocks. If everything goes according to plan and your body absorbs it properly and directs it towards the area that you would like for it to help with (your scalp), then you’re bound to reap the benefits of your biotin and collagen supplement.
Topical application, however, is different.
Collagen is an easy one to explain: a collagen molecule is simply too big to penetrate the skin (your scalp). So, even if you’ve got the highest quality collagen-boosted shampoo or treatment, chances are that your shower water will wash it right off your hair and into the drain, along with your money.
Unlike collagen, biotin can be successfully absorbed through the skin and scalp, and if applied regularly, it will increase the levels of biotin present in your hair, rehydrating the scalp and unclogging the pores of the dead skin cells. This will help your hair with its natural growth cycle.
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- Great For Hair, Skin, and Nails
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