The Best Hair Supplements All Contain This One Ingredient

Do you want to know the secret ingredient that all of the most powerful hair supplements have in common?

What’s crazy is that this ingredient is right under your nose and you probably never realized it. 

The ingredient I’m talking about is silicon and it’s probably the most underappreciated hair regrowth ingredient out there. 

But give me a few minutes and I’ll explain why it’s so powerful and why the best hair supplements always contain it in some form or another.

Silicon: The Hair Regrowth Ingredient You’ve Never Heard Of 

First off, what is silicon? 

It’s the third most abundant trace element found in the human body (1) and the second most abundant element present in the earth’s crust. 

And this is exactly why no one seems to care about it. 

Because humans come into contact with silicon on a daily basis, it’s incredibly rare to experience a deficiency in this mineral. 

But just because you are exposed to it often doesn’t mean you have optimal levels for things like your hair, skin, and nails (2). 

And certain manufacturers of hair supplements have figured this, which is why silicon makes its way into some of the most popular hair regrowth supplements out there. 

I’m talking specifically about Nutrofol and Viviscal. 

If you were to search on Amazon for hair supplements, these would be the top results with thousands of reviews each. 

But what’s crazy is that there’s nothing revolutionary about their formulas, they are just taking advantage of the benefits of silicon. 

Later on, I will explain exactly how they sneak silicon into their supplements without you realizing it, but for now, let’s go back to silicon for a second. 

How Silicon Helps With Hair Growth & Hair Loss

So how does this trace element help your hair?

Well, it turns out we aren’t completely sure, but we do know a few things: 

#1. It’s primarily concentrated in the hair, skin, and nails which suggests that it’s important for the regulation of these tissues. 

Based on this fact alone we can make an educated assumption that when silicon levels are low, these tissues will probably feel the impact. 

And that is exactly what we see in the real world. 

#2. We know that silicon seems to work by helping other nutrients do their job more effectively. 

This is critical because so many different nutrients are required for optimal hair growth including: 

By enhancing the effectiveness of these nutrients, silicon becomes probably the best all-around hair regrowth supplement. 

And that’s because it doesn’t matter what type of hair loss you have, you know that silicon will be helpful. 

And #3. Silicon has been shown to have a direct impact on hair function. 

It’s concentrated in the outer shaft of the hair where it helps reduce hair fall and where it increases shine, luster, and brightness. 

And, by the way, these are just the benefits that silicon has on your hair, but you also have to realize that it also positively impacts your skin and nails as well through similar mechanisms (4).

How Manufacturers Sneak Silicon Into Their Supplements

But let’s go back to the two supplements I mentioned previously, so I can show you exactly what I was talking about. 

Let’s start with Nutrofol: 

Nutrofol is one of the best-selling hair supplements out there and if you looked at its formula it would appear at first glance to be very complex. 

You can see it here: 

Notice a couple of things: 

#1. The serving size is 4 capsules. 

Each capsule usually contains around 500mg to 700mg (depending on the size of the capsule) so 4 capsules means you can fit about 2,000 to 2,800 mg worth of stuff in each serving. 

#2. When you look at the ingredients more closely you see that two proprietary blends make up the bulk of this dosing.

And, by the way, proprietary blends are used by manufacturers to hide the exact ratios of ingredients. 

So we don’t know how much of each ingredient is in these blends, but we do know the total amount equals 1,680mg for the first proprietary blend and 530mg for the second. 

Put together that equals 2,210 mg which is the majority of the entire serving found in the 4 capsules. 

Why is this important?

Because, based on the order of the ingredients, we see that the marine hydrolyzed collagen, the solubilized keratin, and the horsetail extract are among the top ingredients. 

And guess what?

These are naturally occurring sources of silicon. 

We can’t tell exactly how much silicon is in there from natural sources but we can make an educated guess that it’s quite a bit of based on the numbers I mentioned above. 

Okay, maybe you’re not convinced yet so let’s look at example #2: Viviscal. 

Viviscal has a much smaller serving size at just 1 capsule per serving but it contains similar ingredients. 

We see that their AminoMar marine complex contains 475mg of shark cartilage and oyster extract. 

And, just like the first example, shark cartilage is a naturally occurring source of silicon. 

When you consider that each capsule of Viviscal contains 500 to 700mg of total ingredients, and that 475mg of that total contains a naturally occurring source of silicon, it’s easy to make the case that silicon is doing the heavy lifting here. 

We don’t have the exact numbers for either, but I think we can confidently say that silicon makes up the majority of the ingredient by volume based on what we can see. 

And, there’s a reason for that: 

Silicon works! 

If it didn’t, these supplements wouldn’t be used by hundreds of thousands of people each and every day. 

How To Get More Silicon

Does this mean you should get these supplements as soon as possible?

Not exactly, the question you should really be asking yourself is how can I get more silicon into my body and what are the best sources of silicon?

And that’s where things get a little bit tricky. 

Here’s why: 

In order to get silicon into your body you have to solve the absorption problem. 

This absorption problem stems from something called polymerization. 

Polymerization is a process in which small molecules chemically combine with one another to form a chainlike network. 

When compounds polymerize, they aren’t absorbed, and they just exist right out in your stool. 

And this problem is really difficult to deal with because you can’t just take more to solve the problem. 

The more you take, the more likely it is to polymerize, and the less that gets absorbed. 

And that’s exactly why the absorption rate of silicon ranges anywhere from 1 to 50%, depending on the source and form.

This is probably the main reason why you don’t really see silicon listed as a top ingredient in most supplements. 

It’s not that silicon doesn’t work or that they don’t want to include it, 

it’s just that it comes hidden in other ingredients because the absorption of silicon in that ingredient is better than the absorption of just taking silicon by itself. 

Make sense?

And we actually have a list of different forms and sources of silicon to see which are best. 

And, naturally, I’m going to share that with you right now (5):

• The #1 most highly absorbed form of silicon is known as MMST or monomethylsilanetriol which clocks in with an absorption rate of 64%. 
• The second is green beans at 44% absorption. 
• The third is orthosilicic acid at 43%. 
• The fourth is choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid at 17%. 
• And finally, bananas at 4%. 

So if you wanted to take advantage of the crazy benefits that silicon can provide for your hair, skin, and nails, you need to make sure that you are taking the right form!

And you don’t need to use a relatively obscure or rare form of silicon like marine collagen to do that. 

You can if you want, but remember: silicon can be found in all sorts of other sources including foods and in supplements. 

My recommendation would be to find a supplement that contains MMST, the most highly absorbable form (6) because that almost entirely eliminates the issue of absorption. 

Silicon Dosing: How Much To Take

But how much should you take?

Well, that’s another topic that is up for debate but most people agree that you should be getting anywhere from 10 to 25mg of silicon each day. 

This is really just the bare minimum, though, because we know people who take up to 25 mg per day (and sometimes even higher) see even more benefits than at lower doses (7). 

How much you need will also depend on your diet. 

The primary food sources of silicon are pretty much all plant-based which is great if you consume a lot of plants but not so great if you are on a low-carb, keto, or carnivore diet. 

If that’s the case, then you may want to take more silicon and there are some reports of people eating low-carb diets taking doses as high as 40 mg per day. 

Final Thoughts

If you’re suffering from hair loss and looking for a potential solution then it would be worth looking into silicon. 

You can get silicon naturally from foods or from supplements or a combination of both. 

If you want to get it from foods then your best bet is to increase your consumption of green beans. 

If you want to get it from supplements then I would recommend looking into MMST as this is the most absorbable form. 

And if you’re already taking a hair regrowth supplement then make sure to check the ingredient profile to see if it includes silicon!

You may find that it’s there, hidden in another ingredient, without you realizing it. 

If it’s not, then it may be time to try a new supplement!

And, by the way, if you’re suffering from hair loss, then I would also recommend checking out your thyroid function as this is definitely one of the top causes of hair loss that most people miss. 

Now I want to hear from you:

Were you aware of silicon and its impact on hair growth before reading this?

Are you planning on getting some silicon to see if it will help your hair loss?

Leave your questions or comments below!