You don’t just want a beard. You want a thick and full beard. You want to do away with patchy thin hair. You want to look at home on the set of Game of Thrones or Vikings.
Of course, all the beard oil in the world won’t up your beard growing game if you aren’t fueling your body for great facial hair.
But, when you already have a regular exercise program, a healthy diet, and all the other factors are in place, you may find yourself wondering why you don’t already have the beard of your dreams.
Unfortunately, genetics may have a role to play here, but there is more you can do. You can add beard enhancing vitamins to the mix.
We’ll cover what you should look for in a good vitamin, some key ingredients that will specifically target hair and beard growth, and everything else you need to pick a great beard-boosting product right away.
| Budget |
|---|
 |
| Bastard Beard Co Organic Beard Growth Vitamins for Men |
| 4.6/5.0 |
| How often do you take it?: Once per day, 2 pills per dose |
| No of included vitamins, minerals, and herbs: 18 |
| Provides an energy boost, shows results relatively quickly. |
| Check Amazon |
| Best Value |
|---|
 |
| ALPHA BEARD Beard & Hair Growth Vitamins for Men |
| 4.7/5.0 |
| How often do you take it?: 1-2 times per day, 2 pills per day |
| No of included vitamins, minerals, and herbs: 20 |
| Hormone-free, helps strengthen and stabilize hair strands. |
| Check Amazon |
| Top Pick |
|---|
 |
| Beard Grow XL for Thicker and Fuller Beard |
| 4.8/5.0 |
| How often do you take it?: 3 times daily |
| No of included vitamins, minerals, and herbs: 13+ |
| Non-hormonal supplement, suitable for all hair types and ethnicities. |
| Check Amazon |
How Do Vitamins Work?
Vitamins are, by definition, critical nutrients your body needs, but only in very small amounts. Vitamin deficiencies are rare in most developed countries, but when they occur they can cause significant health problems.
But, even if you don’t have a true deficiency, taking vitamins can help boost your overall health. Why? There are several reasons. For one thing, daily recommended totals are based on the minimum amount of each nutrient needed to avoid deficiency, based on a model of average human needs, metabolism, and other key factors.
Getting more than these minimum recommendations can be helpful in some cases because the minimum isn’t the ideal. Other vitamins require several vitamins or minerals to be available in your body at once for proper processing.
That means taking a multivitamin can improve your overall absorption of vitamins like vitamin D, which requires magnesium to be properly utilized by your body.
How Do They Impact Beard Growth?
Vitamins can make an impact on beard growth in two major ways.
If you have a slight deficiency of a key hair growth vitamin or mineral, for instance, you may not have health consequences other than struggling to grow facial hair. Adding a vitamin that fills that gap will encourage your body to devote the new resources to growing facial hair, resulting in a better beard.
Even without a deficiency, your body will use hair-boosting vitamins to boost hair growth given the opportunity. Your hair, both your beard and the hair on top of your head, is incredibly sensitive to nutrient availability and the overall health of your body.
Increasing nutrient availability, and addressing any nutritional gaps through supplementation, makes it easier for your body to support hair growth, leading to a better-looking beard.
What’s with The Proprietary Herbal Formula? Can Herbs and Supplements Help Beard Growth?
You’ll probably notice one ingredient line on every beard-growing supplement, the proprietary herb blend. This blend is added to many vitamins to boost their effectiveness. But herbs aren’t vitamins. Can the proprietary herb blend make a performance difference?
Well, that depends. Herbal medicine was practiced for thousands of years, and, used effectively, herbs can have medicinal and therapeutic uses.
In this case, the herbs are likely either also adding nutritional support, or are working to address other more complex reasons your beard might be struggling to grow.
For instance, stress is known to slow hair growth, and even cause the hair on top of your head to fall out. So, a proprietary herb blend may include stress-fighting and adaptogen herbs that don’t directly impact hair growth, but which can help reduce stress levels.
Usually, the proprietary herb blend has a very small concentration of herbs, spice, and other botanicals. More significant herbs will usually be listed among the active ingredients. Either type of herb can make a significant difference in the performance of your supplement.
Our advice, pay attention to the active ingredients, including herbs, but don’t worry too much about the proprietary herb blend listed at the end.
Which Vitamins Should You Look For in a Beard Growth Formula?
While your overall health is important for beard growth, you don’t need every vitamin in your beard boosting formula. If you’re going to take supplements for beard growth you should probably also take a multi-vitamin to make sure you’re getting all the nutrients your body needs.
But there are certainly vitamins that are more important for beard and overall hair growth than others.
You should look for these vitamins in any beard growth supplements.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins for overall health, skin health, and hair health. Especially if you live in the northern hemisphere, vitamin D is critical.
Recent studies have shown that it’s incredibly difficult for your body to produce enough vitamin D. Between the indirect angle of the sun (sunlight stimulates vitamin D production) at northern latitudes, our cultural tendency to spend a lot of time inside, and the need for protective clothing that hides key vitamin D producing areas, it’s incredibly easy to become vitamin D deficient.
This vitamin is involved in many key processes, so it impacts your total health. But it’s also involved protein production in your hair and skin. Without it, your hair (and your beard) is likely to be thinner, more fragile, and slower growing.
If there isn’t vitamin D in your beard supplement, you can also consider adding a vitamin D supplement or a hair skin and nails supplement, to make sure you’re getting enough.
Vitamin C
We all know that vitamin C is a cold-fighting machine, but did you know that it’s incredibly important for hair and beard growth as well?
Vitamin C has two important roles to play in hair growth. It’s a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants are important because hair and hair follicles are highly vulnerable to free-radical damage. Free radical damage over time, can shrink your hair follicle, damage individual hair strands, and even stop the follicle growing hair at all.
The other role vitamin C plays is with circulation. Having plenty of vitamin C in your system promotes strong circulation, improving your hair follicles’ access to oxygen and other key nutrients.
Circulation is considered one of the primary factors in hair follicle health. Hair follicles have an extremely small connection to your circulatory system. That thin connection is easy to damage or disrupt, preventing the follicle from functioning normally.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is another key circulatory vitamin.
However, since this vitamin can build up in your system more easily, it will usually have a lower dose concentration than vitamin C.
There is a risk of high blood pressure that comes from too much dietary vitamin E. You should always consult a doctor before adding a new supplement or vitamin to your routine.
Make especially sure to consult with your doctor about adding vitamin E by itself or in a complex supplement if you already experience high blood pressure or have heart disease.
Vitamin B3
Also known as Niacin, vitamin B 3 is another vitamin important for overall circulatory health.
But this vitamin has another role to play. Niacin is critical for maintaining hormonal balance. Hormonal imbalances can quickly cause issues with your hair, from hair loss to slow growth to patchy and uneven beard growth.
Testosterone is traditionally associated with good beard growth, but many other hormones have a say in the quality and speed of beard and hair growth. A supplement with Vitamin B 3 will address more than just your testosterone levels, and can even increase your energy levels and improve your mood.
Biotin
Biotin, vitamin B 7, is another critical vitamin for many of the reasons we’ve listed above. It’s one of the most important B vitamins for hair and skin health. It’s so important that most hair skin and nails formulas include Biotin, vitamin C, and sometimes a couple of other vitamins or herbs.
Like the other B vitamins, Biotin is water-soluble, which means it’s difficult to get too much. Your kidneys will filter out excess biotin every day, so it’s important to include biotin in your diet or through supplements, every day.
Herbs for Beard Growth
We already mentioned that herbs may also have a role to play in beard growth, here are some of the most important herbs you’re likely to see on the active ingredient list:
Saw Palmetto
Saw Palmetto is thought to be helpful in hormonal regulation. Often used to help boost prostate health, saw palmetto can also have a positive influence on your beard.
Cinnamon
Cinnamon can help stimulate hair follicles, and also improves circulation along with some mood and metabolism benefits. This is one spice that may show up as an active ingredient or hide in the proprietary herb non-list.
Regardless of whether you get cinnamon through your beard supplement, you can also add cinnamon to your diet or to your favorite coffee or tea to reap the beard-boosting benefits.
Rosemary
Like Cinnamon, rosemary can help stimulate hair follicles to grow thicker hair strands and to grow them faster.
Rosemary has internal and topical benefits, so feel free to add it to your diet, your beard oil, and look for it in supplements. You’ll reap added benefits no matter where it’s included.
4 Best Beard Vitamins Comparison Table
| Product Name | How often do you take it? | No of included vitamins, minerals, and herbs | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beard Grow XL | 3 times daily | 13+ | Check Price |
| Bastard Beard Co Organic Beard Growth Vitamins | Once per day, 2 pills per dose | 18 | Check Price |
| ALPHA BEARD Beard & Hair Growth Vitamins | 1-2 times per day, up to 2 pills per day | 20 | Check Price |
| ViMulti Beard Support for Fast Hair Growth | 2 pills once per day | 24 | Check Price |
Great Beard Supplements: Detailed Reviews
We’ve covered some of the most important vitamins and herbs found in beard supplements, let’s look at some of the most effective supplements themselves.
1. Beard Grow XL (Top Pick)
Editor’s Rating: 4.8/5.0
Beard Grow XL is as much a multivitamin as it is a beard specific supplement. That’s a good thing since it means it’s taking a more complete look at skin and hair health.
This is a non-hormonal beard supplement. Some supplements act to boost testosterone to encourage beard growth. Many are marketed as body-building supplements since muscle growth can be a side effect of hormonal supplements. But, since hormones are incredibly potent substances in your body, we don’t recommend using those supplements without doctor approval and monitoring your overall health.
That said, this vitamin will fill several nutritional niches, from improving your energy levels to boosting fat-burning metabolic processes.
That means you’ll be feeling and looking better, in addition to growing a fantastic beard.
But does it work for beard growth?
For most users, yes. Even men with established, healthy, beards receive some benefits when they add this vitamin to their normal routine. Well-cared-for beards will still get softer, the color will improve, and tangling and other maintenance issues will become less common.
Men who struggle to grow facial hair report noticing increased growth in only a few weeks, and continued improvement for the first several months taking the vitamin.
Since this is a vitamin that is addressing specific nutritional needs for hair growth, and not a treatment stimulating specific hair growth, it’s appropriate for all ethnicities and all hair types and colors.
You may even see some benefits for the hair on top of your head, your skin, and even the strength of your fingernails.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| 1 bottle: Equivalents to 1 month’s supply |
| Dose: 3x daily vitamin |
| Includes: 11 vitamins and minerals for hair, skin, heart, and metabolic health, saw palmetto |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Non-hormonal supplement |
| Focuses on key nutrients like the B vitamins |
| Vegan/vegetarian supplement |
| Made in the USA |
| Suitable for all hair types and ethnicities |
| Full 1-month supply per bottle |
| Horsetail extract |
| The Cons |
|---|
| More expensive than some alternatives |
| Requires taking pills 3x a day |
2. Bastard Beard Co Organic Beard Growth Vitamins for Men (Best Budget)
Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0
Another multi-vitamin designed to benefit your hair and beard growth. Bastard Beard Co is a good bit more affordable than most alternatives. It’s still organic, however, which means high-quality ingredients and sourcing.
This vitamin works well. Users report noticing boosted energy levels right away, followed by texture improvements in their facial hair, clearer skin, and improved hair and beard growth rates.
Like most other vitamins, results are slow, starting a couple of weeks after you begin the vitamin and continuing for several months until you reach maintenance levels. You’ll first notice your skin and beard appearing healthier, but without significant color or texture change. Then the color will begin to improve, your beard will tangle less, and you’ll get thicker, more even, hair growth.
We do want to note that this vitamin is more targeted at very specific aspects of health. It’s a bit more than a B complex vitamin, but most of the included vitamins belong to the B group. That’s a little less variety than the other vitamins on our list.
However, B vitamins are some of the most important for hair and beard growth. So, focusing on B vitamins doesn’t mean you won’t get stellar results. You just may want to include a multivitamin in our routine for more complete health results.
Pumpkin seed, one of the main non-vitamin ingredients in this supplement, has long been known to improve the health of your hair and skin. So, in addition to adding vitamins, you’ll also be getting nutritional support from a hair super food.
Like the other vitamins on our list, Bastard Beard’s organic beard supplement is suitable for all ethnicities and hair types, colors, and textures.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| 1 bottle: Equivalents to 1 month’s supply |
| Dose: 2 pills daily, 1-2 pills at a time |
| Includes: 18 included vitamins, minerals, and herbs |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Affordable |
| Organic ingredients |
| Includes pumpkin seed and other ingredients known to boost hair health |
| Provides an energy boost |
| Shows results relatively quickly |
| Mostly B vitamins |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Less varied vitamin mix |
3. ALPHA BEARD Beard & Hair Growth Vitamins for Men (Best Value)
Editor’s Rating: 4.7/5.0
This beard multivitamin focuses on the b vitamins, but also adds some other vitamins and herbs particularly valuable for hair and skin. This is a good vitamin for men with sensitive facial hair, or facial hair that doesn’t seem to grow consistently.
With an impressive 20 different ingredients, from the B vitamins to vitamins C and E, to aloe extracts, these capsules address a wide variety of nutritional health requirements.
It also includes MSM oil. MSM oil has been shown to support long-lasting cellular energy, which is particularly important for hair follicles in their active growth phase. Inactivity, or lack of access to key nutrients and energy, can damage and shrink growing hair. That leads to a lackluster beard and lots of hair breakage.
It also includes ginseng and gingko biloba, both herbs that promote energy, are adaptogens, and can help improve your stress reaction.
This vitamin gets our best value because it addresses a wider range of body health factors than most beard supplements and is still an affordable option.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| 1 bottle: Equivalents to 1 month’s supply |
| Dose: 1 dose per day, 1-2 pills per dose |
| Includes: Contains 20 different active ingredients |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Addresses many different health factors |
| Includes ingredients to improve energy levels |
| Hormone-free |
| Promotes long-term cellular energy |
| Helps strengthen and stabilize hair strands |
| Promotes faster, healthier, hair growth |
| Vegetarian |
| The Cons |
|---|
| No information on ingredient sourcing |
4. ViMulti Beard Support for Fast Hair Growth
Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0
If you’re looking for something that does more than simply address nutritional deficits, this may be the multivitamin for you.
With 24 different active ingredients, this is the most complex supplement on our list. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the best supplement on our list. Since most of the ingredients are herbal, it’s one of the most difficult to evaluate accurately.
While everyone needs similar levels of vitamins, herbs affect people very differently and have different impacts depending on their concentration.
So, while this supplement has the usual suspects, B vitamins, vitamin C, and other hair-boosting minerals, it’s a little less predictable.
That said, you may respond well to their blend of vitamins and herbal supplements. Or the herbs may not have much impact on your hair growth at all.
ViMulti sees good results for most of the men who take this product. Good enough to be extremely confident in the supplement. It’s also made in the USA, which does provide some ingredient safety regulations.
Overall, we think this is a very good supplement, but that your results are more likely to vary with this supplement than alternatives using mostly vitamins. It may be especially worthwhile for men who didn’t respond well to mostly vitamin formulas since the herbs will have a different effect on your body.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| 1 bottle: Equivalents to 1 month’s supply |
| Dose: 2 pills per day |
| Includes: 24 active ingredients |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Lots of ingredients address many causes of poor hair growth |
| Made in the USA |
| High nutrient concentrations |
| Herbal ingredients may improve results for some users |
| Designed for faster results |
| Vegetarian |
| Made in the USA |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Harder to predict your response to the herbal formula |
What You Should Expect
How quickly can you expect to see results? That depends on what you’re taking the vitamin for. Hair growth takes up to 6 months to benefit from nutritional changes and even direct hair growth treatments.
Your full beard benefits will probably take a similarly long time to come in, 1 month will certainly show some improvements. But you won’t see the full benefit until somewhere between 3 and 6 months of taking the supplement regularly.
Two reasons for the delay, with any vitamin. You won’t see full benefits until you are returned to your body’s normal vitamin levels. If you’re deficient in any of these vitamins, it will take time to build up to your maintenance level.
Once you’ve reached your maintenance level in each vitamin, you still have some time for your hair follicles to be able to access these nutrients and heal and restore themselves before you’ll see the full benefit.
Early benefits include:
These are all the result of your skin’s health improving. The natural oils in your skin not only protect your skin, but they also protect and condition your facial hair. As your nutrition and skin health improves, the content of that oil becomes more balanced and effective.
A few weeks after you start to notice those early benefits, you’ll likely notice that your facial hair is beginning to fill in. If you have any patchy or thinning areas, you’ll find new hair growing in those places.
The shape of your beard probably won’t change significantly just from taking a beard vitamin. But the thickness of your beard, it’s texture, it’s luster, and overall color and appearance will improve.
