Nutrafol Reviews: How effective are Nutrafol hair supplements?

If you've made it to your mid-30s without suffering some hair thinning, you're the lucky exception. According to the American Hair Loss Association, two-thirds of men will experience some degree of noticeable hair loss by the age of 35, and 85% will have significantly thinning hair by age 50.1 But men aren’t alone in this — women make up 40% of American hair loss sufferers.2

With these statistics, it's little wonder that there are so many hair loss products on the market. Minoxidil and finasteride are both effective ingredients targeting male- and female-pattern baldness. However, these drugs can cause side effects in some people, including sexual side effects like decreased libido and even erectile dysfunction.

Several nutritional supplements have emerged to target multiple deficiencies and imbalances that contribute to hair thinning. Do they work? This review evaluates Nutrafol's natural hair supplements and lays out the pros, cons, and details of this whole-body approach to hair loss. Read more to see if Nutrafol may work for you.

Nutrafol offers a range of somewhat expensive products that aim to treat and prevent hair loss. The most prominent of these products — Nutrafol Women and Nutrafol Men — have the best shot at supporting a fight against hair loss, but unless you have a specific deficiency, they likely won’t be enough by themselves to stop hair loss completely. They’re best utilized as components of a multipronged approach. That said, the ability to combine the central supplement with targeted boosters and a selection of supplemental haircare products might create a complex enough approach to be effective for those with mild hair loss.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service we review, including Nutrafol. All told, our team has spent over 195 hours testing and researching the products and services of Nutrafol, and we’ve dedicated thousands of hours to doing the same with products and services from competitors in the hair loss treatment industry.

Our deep research and hands-on testing allow us to convey specific aspects of the customer experience you won’t get elsewhere. These include everything from a product’s efficacy to the way you can expect to interact with company representatives. Our team has consumed more than 200 scholarly articles pertaining to hair loss and the various ingredients found in Nutrafol’s supplements and hair care products. Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions to live healthier lifestyles.

Our testing team kept a handful of important criteria in mind throughout the process. As a result, we were able to compare Nutrafol to its competitors as fairly as possible and give you a good sense of its potential value. We primarily focused on efficacy, and whether these products might work had the biggest impact on our overall value assessments. After that, we considered things like safety, cost, and the customer experience.

Effectiveness

Nutrafol offers a wide range of products containing ingredients that boast a respectable amount of scientific research. Many ingredients have been the subject of numerous studies related to hair loss. Anecdotally, some users (though not all) report improvements in hair thickness while using Nutrafol supplements.

Central to Nutrafol’s efficacy is its inclusion of saw palmetto, which has been shown to inhibit DHT (a primary driver of pattern baldness).3 Studies in which the ingredient has been most effective involve oral use, rather than its topical application.

Nutrafol funded a six-month study of its primary supplement that was published in the Journal of Clinical Aesthetic Dermatology in early 2022.4 The study had some limitations, including:

• A small sample size
• A biased funding source
• Three out of five researchers also employed by Nutrafol’s parent company
• A single-blind rather than double-blind setup

That said, it’s worth examining the results, which indicated some degree of noticeable efficacy for nearly 84% of participants.

It’s also important to keep in mind that Nutrafol’s effectiveness, based on all available research, pales in comparison to that of more established pharmaceutical approaches, including finasteride and minoxidil. In years past, those medications were typically only available orally and topically, respectively. But you can now get topical finasteride, which circumvents the ingredient’s infamous sexual side effects, as well as oral minoxidil, which has been shown to be safer and at least as effective as oral finasteride for many patients.5

It’s also worth noting that some of Nutrafol’s ancillary treatments, like its shampoo and conditioner, are inferior to many competitors’ offerings in terms of ingredients and pricing.

Safety

None of these products are prescription strength, and their side effect profiles are minimal. Some users may experience an upset stomach, but it rarely gets any more serious than that. Participants in studies that looked at these ingredients showed high tolerances and exhibited few to no adverse reactions. Similarly, our testers reported no side effects.

The results of these individual-ingredient studies carried through in the dedicated Nutrafol study from 2022, which reported no significant or unanticipated side effects outside of stomach upset and one case of diarrhea that resolved on its own.4 Compared to minoxidil’s potential for topical irritation or unwanted hair growth (particularly with the oral route) and finasteride’s uncommon but seriously undesirable sexual side effects (and the fact that it’s not safe at all for women), Nutrafol’s side effects seem much more tolerable.6

One knock on Nutrafol’s safety profile is an issue of transparency. Compare Nutrafol’s supplement facts with those of Happy Head’s similar supplement, and you’ll notice that Nutrafol doesn't provide specific measurements for the ingredients in its Synergen Complex or Nutrafol Blend, whereas Happy Head gives specific doses for everything but its included probiotics.

We always prefer the level of transparency practiced by Happy Head in this case. We have no doubt that there are companies out there acting in good faith and using proprietary blends to protect their intellectual property. But it more often feels as though companies use proprietary blends to bury the fact that some potentially effective ingredients — perhaps more expensive to source than others — appear at suboptimal doses. In Nutrafol's case, specifically, it's hard to know why it uses proprietary blends. But the apparent safety profile of the supplement remains good.

Cost

This is where things get a little less exciting. Yes, Nutafol's products appear to be safe and effective, but you'll have to pay for that quality. A simple combination of a core supplement and one of its boosters will set you back at just under $100/month. It's not a great deal compared to minoxidil, which you can get elsewhere without a prescription for a fifth of that cost.

But the closest thing to Nutrafol on the market — Happy Head’s Oral Supplement — costs about the same as Nutrafol’s core supplement. And, while Happy Head offers some other products like shampoo and conditioner, it doesn’t offer the various targeted boosters you can get from Nutrafol, which give you the option to customize your treatment around things like gut health or hormonal balance.

For anyone on a budget who isn’t averse to trying minoxidil or finasteride, those drugs may be a better place to start. But those seeking non-pharmaceutical interventions who don’t mind paying a little more for them will find a catalog of pricey but useful combinations from Nutrafol.

Customer experience

With average response times for shipping and email responses, our testers were initially neither disappointed nor thrilled by Nutrafol's customer service. There weren't any problems, but nothing stood out as exceptional. Customer reviews online suggest significant problems with subscription cancellation and delays in processing refunds, but this is a common theme with telehealth hair loss companies, including competitors Happy Head and Vegamour.

Something that affects both the men’s and women’s side of the Nutrafol customer experience is its return policy. Despite some vague wording that suggests you could try the product and get a refund if you’re dissatisfied, Nutrafol will only accept returns of unopened products. Not only is this a poor policy, but it needs to be spelled out much more clearly for customers.

We found the company’s chat interface to be helpful, though. In fact, in some cases it was oddly indispensable. In years past, adding up to two boosters to a supplement order on Nutrafol was straightforward. The package even had a name: The Growth Plan. But the company only drives you toward its Growth Duo now, which is a supplement and one booster. Adding a second booster to your subscription is still possible, but you have to set the subscription up first and then contact customer service. This strikes us as an unnecessary burden on the customer.

On the men’s side, a similar problem has cropped up. Nutrafol’s boosters are not intended for men, but the company does have a dedicated DHT blocker supplement you can take alongside its men’s formula. In previous years, you could add this to your cart with ease. But Nutrafol doesn’t even list it on the website any longer. It was through Nutrafol’s helpful chat interface that we discovered it was still available — as a special request through customer service.

Nutrafol needs to either eliminate these product options or make their availability much clearer to consumers. In its current state, the website’s limited product access is a disservice to potential customers.

Founded by Giorgos Tsetis in 2015, Nutrafol is a premium supplement company focused on preventing hair loss and restoring hair growth for both men and women, though women’s products make up the bulk of its catalog. Its central product is a capsule containing a multivitamin and a pair of proprietary blends containing botanicals and amino acids. The company has expanded its offering to include alternative nutritional supplements suitable for vegans, postpartum women, and others.

In addition to nutritional supplements, Nutrafol offers a handful of haircare products that deliver topical versions of many of the ingredients found in its capsules. These include a shampoo and conditioner, hair serum, and a scalp mask.

How Nutrafol works

Nutrafol addresses hair loss through a whole-body approach to wellness. Its proprietary blends of botanicals and other ingredients target imbalances in the body that contribute to hair loss, including hormones, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. While the lists of these ingredients are compelling, we’d prefer to see exact quantities of each, rather than a single measurement for the entire blend. Other companies, like Happy Head, have similar ingredient lists but include doses for each ingredient, so you know exactly what you’re taking.

While the exact amounts and additional ingredients vary among Nutrafol supplements, their central essence is the Synergen Complex, a blend of botanicals and marine collagen with a fair amount of scientific support regarding hair health.

In addition to the Synergen Complex, Nutrafol contains the company's Nutrafol Blend, a combination of amino acids that’s intended to work in concert with the complex to drive regrowth.

Nutrafol also includes several vitamins and minerals and a healthy dose of biotin. Biotin is one of the most heavily researched hair health ingredients in Nutrafol, but there is still conflicting information out there as to its role in hair health.7

Nutrafol’s company reputation

The Better Business Bureau accredits Nutrafol with a B rating. Its customer reviews here could be better, with just over one out of five potential stars. The company has seen 173 complaints in the last three years, more than 70% of which have come in the last 12 months. Nearly every complaint involves problems canceling automatic shipments or getting refunds for unused products. In the company's terms and conditions, language is somewhat vague regarding how and when refunds will be issued for mid-subscription cancellations or product returns.

The situation on Trustpilot is a little better, where the company has nearly two stars after 59 reviews. However, complaints here are more variegated, including some from customers who failed to see results from the products. Ultimately, it seems as though Nutrafol needs to do a better job communicating the specifics of its return and refund policies. The nature of these products is such that they may not work for everyone, especially considering the potential range of hair loss causes. Based on our research, we believe many of these products can play a useful role in fighting hair loss, so we don’t hold those specific reviews against the company.

Nutrafol could be a smart choice for men and women looking to slow or stop their hair loss and even regrow hair. It’s especially good for those looking to avoid pharmaceutical products, whether prescription solutions like finasteride or over-the-counter therapies like minoxidil. For those who can afford it, Nutrafol can also be a useful facet of a broader treatment approach that also includes more aggressive pharmaceutical treatment.

Many of Nutrafol’s products are suitable for both men and women, but it divides its supplement catalog by assigned sex. There are more options for women than there are for men.

Nutrafol’s products are on the pricey side, so budget-conscious people who are open to pharmaceutical interventions that have been widely studied and are demonstrably effective might do better starting with minoxidil from a company like Keeps. Competitors like Keeps, Hims, and Roman also have some supplemental products akin to Nutrafol’s central supplement. Meanwhile, competitor Happy Head has a complex supplement that contains many of the same ingredients as Nutrafol, and it doesn’t use proprietary blends the way Nutrafol does, so you know exactly how much of each ingredient is present.

Is Nutrafol safe?

It appears as though most Nutrafol products should be safe for most people. A six-month study on Nutrafol’s core supplement formula revealed only occasional minor stomach upset. And the studies we’ve seen on many individual ingredients in Nutrafol products reveal similar safety profiles.

That said, Nutrafol makes a point to say that its products are not for pregnant or nursing people (with the exception of its Postpartum formula for new mothers). The company also states that anyone on blood thinners should talk to their doctors before beginning a Nutrafol regimen.

Nutrafol's primary products are supplements for men, women, and peri- or postmenopausal women. You can purchase any of these through its website at $88 for a one-month supply, but we recommend the subscription option for the most significant savings. With a monthly subscription, you'll save 10% for a price of $79 per bottle. You can also save 15% if you sign up for quarterly billing, or 20% where biannual billing is offered. (This is nearly identical to the pricing you’ll find from competitor Happy Head, though your first subscription order with Happy Head is discounted to $55.)

Not only do subscriptions get you a lower price, but they also unlock free shipping, which costs $6.95 on a one-time purchase. That’s one of the ways Happy Head provides superior service, with free shipping on all orders, regardless of subscription status.

Nutrafol also offers targeted boosters for stress, hormone support, and more. You used to have to take the company’s hair health quiz, after which Nutrafol would recommend a specific combination of one supplement and one or two boosters. But that system has thankfully loosened up in recent months, allowing potential customers to shop for what they might already know they want and rely on the quiz only if they need it. That said, you still have to buy one of the main supplements to purchase a booster. Boosters are not for sale on their own.

Nutrafol calls these combinations Hair Growth Duos, and considering the contents of many boosters, the price increase to combine one with a main supplement is rather reasonable. For example, the Hairbiotic contains 20 billion CFU of seven probiotic strains, as well as a branded selection of prebiotics. Similar probiotics from companies like Ritual or Thorne can sell for around $50, but the cost increase in the Hair Growth Duo is just $22 on one-time orders and $19 for subscriptions.

We'll dive a little deeper into Nutrafol's product specifics below, but here's a quick breakdown of how Nutrafol’s pricing compares between one-time purchases and subscriptions for its central supplements and Hair Growth Duo offerings:

Subscription plans also grant you access to one-on-one consultations with Nutrafol's team of naturopathic doctors. After six months of treatment, Nutrafol provides a hair mineral analysis that measures your hair's health so you can adjust your regimen if needed. This testing is relatively uncommon in the hair loss space, and it could provide immense value for customers who need clarification on why they're dealing with hair loss. Nutrafol's competitors all offer some form of continued support from consulting physicians, but they lack this testing option.

Nutrafol offers a few stand-alone options you can purchase with or without a supplement. These include the company’s Hair Serum, a solution containing a concentrated ashwagandha exosome that you apply to the scalp like minoxidil.

Nutrafol's products are free of most common allergens and additives, including:

Nutrafol’s capsules are also plant-derived and made of cellulose, so they're vegan-friendly. However, the included marine collagen is derived from fish, so the supplements themselves are not suitable for vegans or vegetarians (except for the vegan formula for women).

Here’s a closer look at the ingredients in Nutrafol’s Synergen Complex:

The Nutrafol Blend contains a combination of botanicals, amino acids, and keratin. Like the Synergen Complex, its ingredients are part of a proprietary blend, so consumers don't know how much of each ingredient is present. Here’s a look at what’s in it:

Both the Synergen Complex and the Nutrafol Blend are present in the male and female formulas, though ingredient quantities differ between the two. In addition to these ingredients, Nutrafol's Core products contain supplementary vitamins and minerals to promote hair growth and repair, including:29

• Vitamin A
• Vitamin C
• Zinc
• Biotin
• Selenium
• Vitamin D
• Vitamin E
• Iodine

There is a small amount of evidence pointing to the overconsumption of selenium as a potential driver of hair loss, but the upper limit for safe consumption is around 400mcg.30 The average American diet provides just over 100mcg, and Nutrafol contains 200mcg, so this quantity should be safe.31

Nutrafol's male supplement ($88, or $79 with a subscription) has a nearly identical profile as the women’s supplement, but it targets DHT with a larger dose of saw palmetto, a natural ingredient that can lower DHT and balance hormones without the sexual side effects of many prescription hair growth products.6 11

Exactly how much higher a dose of saw palmetto is in the men’s formula is unclear, as it’s part of the proprietary blends in either product. However, ingredients in proprietary blends are listed in order of abundance, and saw palmetto is the first ingredient in the men’s formula, whereas it’s the third ingredient in the women’s.

Nutrafol’s other male-focused products

Nutrafol’s lineup for men is noticeably smaller than its lineup for women. There is only one formulation of the core supplement compared to four for women, and there are only two additional products for you to choose from:

The addition of the DHT Inhibitor increases the price by the same amount it would if it were a booster on the women’s side: $22 extra for one-time purchases and $19 on a subscription basis.

The addition of the Hair Serum adds $69 to one-time purchases or $62 to subscriptions. This is a little different from the setup on the women’s side, where the Hair Serum is sold separately.

Acquiring all three products together (Nutrafol Men, the DHT blocker, and the Hair Serum) would require you to contact customer service.

Many factors affect women's hair growth and health, including monthly hormonal fluctuations, pregnancy, stress, nutritional and metabolic changes, and environmental factors. The original Nutrafol Women supplement ($88, or $79 with a subscription) is best for women aged 18-44 and includes slightly less potent quantities of the Synergen Complex, Nutrafol Blend, and supplemental vitamins.

Compared to the men’s formula, Nutrafol’s core supplement for women contains slightly smaller doses of the proprietary blends, with more marine collagen and ashwagandha than saw palmetto, the female Synergen Complex’s third-most abundant ingredient.

Note that Nutrafol advises pregnant and nursing women against using Nutrafol products (other than the postpartum product for nursing mothers).

Nutrafol Women’s Vegan

While the men don’t get a vegan option, Nutrafol has seen fit to build a version of its core supplement that excludes the original’s fish-derived marine collagen. But there are a few other key differences, as well. The original formula does not contain vitamin B12, but vegans and vegetarians can struggle to get enough B12 in their diets. So, Nutrafol added a 5,000% dose to its vegan formula.58

The vegan formula also contains alterations to the original Synergen Complex and Nutrafol Blend. In addition to removing the marine collagen, Nutrafol introduced ingredients like chlorella, Bacillus subtilis, and bamboo. Chlorella has the potential to help with overall wellness, as does the included probiotic.35 And there is some evidence that bamboo has antioxidant properties.36

Nutrafol Women's Balance

With the onset of perimenopause, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone all decline in a woman's body. However, because testosterone declines more slowly, its dominance contributes to biological changes, including hair thinning.37

For women above the age of 44, Nutrafol offers Women's Balance, a supplement focused on the biological changes in menopausal women and their impacts on hair growth and health. This supplement contains 21 ingredients, including Synergen Complex Plus with maca root powder and astaxanthin, in addition to the primary Synergen Complex ingredients. Maca is an adaptogen that supports hormone health before, during, and after menopause.38

Nutrafol Women's Postpartum

This postpartum supplement provides nourishment for hair by nourishing the new mother. Obstetricians developed the formula, and it's breastfeeding-friendly, so you can still feed your baby naturally while you take it.

Postpartum's vitamin profile is significantly larger than the standard core formula. In addition to the vitamins found in the original women's formula, Postpartum adds a vitamin B complex containing vitamins B1, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 12.

The Synergen Recovery Complex is very different from the complex you see in the company's other supplements, as well. It includes the following ingredients that can support hair growth, fight nutrient depletion, and reduce stress:39 40

• Omega 3 algae extract
• Shatavari root
• L-Theanine
• Apple extract
• Nettle root extract

Finally, the Postpartum Hair Blend differs from the Nutrafol Blend by limiting itself to:

• L-Cysteine
• L-Methionine
• Pea extract
• Sea buckthorn powder
• L-Lysine

You may still want to talk to your doctor about other supplemental vitamins or minerals if you’re taking Nutrafol’s Postpartum, as its ingredient profile, while extensive, isn’t as variegated as the average postnatal vitamin. Specifically, it lacks folate and iron, two critical components of prenatal and postnatal vitamins.41 42

Women’s Hair Serum

The Hair serum formula for women is less comprehensive than the one for men. It’s missing ingredients like caffeine and ginseng, neither of which should be male-specific. Its price structure is the same as it is for men, costing $69 on a one-time purchase basis or $62 as part of a subscription. But, unlike the men’s version, the Women’s Hair Serum is listed on its own. The men’s version is only listed as a package deal with the core supplement.

Ultimately, this doesn’t make much of a difference for women, but men can’t get the serum and not the supplement without going through customer service.

Vegamour is a women’s hair health company that sells a potentially superior hair serum for less. It contains some of the ingredients in the men’s formula that are missing from the women’s serum, including caffeine. Additionally, the company has other products like eyebrow and eyelash enhancers, all of which are drug-free and vegan.

In addition to its four women’s hair supplements, Nutrafol offers Targeted Boosters for $19 each with a monthly subscription. Nutrafol has altered its booster lineup in recent years, removing its digestive enzyme and sugar balance boosters and rebranding its Vitamin B Booster and Liver Support boosters to B-Energized and Toxin Cleanse, respectively. It has added Collagen Infusion and Hormone Support to the lineup, as well.

Boosters are only available with a core supplement purchase. Customers are limited to two boosters per subscription, and you can only add one booster during your initial checkout. If you’re interested in multiple boosters, you’ll have to contact customer service after you set up your subscription.

In addition to supplements and serums, Nutrafol has a few more familiar hair care products, like its shampoo and conditioner. It’s best to think of these more like salon products than products designed for hair loss. They all lack the kinds of hair loss-fighting ingredients we’ve seen in competing products from Happy Head, Vegamour, and others. Instead, they rely on ingredients you’re liable to find in any high-end shampoo, condition, or scalp mask.

Here’s a quick look at their prices:

• Shampoo: $44
• Conditioner: $44
• Scalp Mask: $49
• Scalp Essence: $59

None of these products are available on a subscription basis. In one sense, that’s reasonable; your rate of consumption will depend on things like your showering frequency or the length of your hair, so a recurring shipment might not quite fit. But having to go back and reorder can also be an inconvenience. The biggest issue for us is that there are no opportunities to save on products that seem somewhat overpriced, compared to similar offerings like the following:

• Happy Head ($38 for the shampoo and conditioner)
• Vegamour ($49 hair serum)
• Hers ($30 for shampoo and conditioner, plus a $44 scalp mask)
• Hims ($19 shampoo and $22 conditioner)

Shipping from Nutrafol in the U.S. is completely free for subscription orders, but it costs $6.95 for one-time purchases. Orders typically arrive in 5-7 business days. Our testers received products in six days, on average.

Nutrafol accepts all major credit and debit cards, as well as PayPal.

Very few insurance companies take hair loss seriously. Nutrafol does not work directly with any insurer, and they don't accept payment from HSAs or FSAs. You're certainly welcome to try an out-of-network claim with your insurance company. Still, in our research and testing, we've found that companies won't reimburse anything for hair loss, even after chemotherapy.

Nutrafol’s return policy

Nutrafol offers a 30-day return policy on its products, but the wording of that policy is vague and confusing. For example, the beginning of the policy reads, “If you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase, you can return the product and get a full refund.” That makes it sound like you can try the product to see if you like it. But the policy later states that, “Any product you return must be in the same condition you received it and in the original packaging.” That implies that you can’t open the product if you want to return it.

We reached out to customer service for clarity, and they told us that you can only get a refund on products that are unopened. Opened products are eligible for neither a refund nor an exchange. This is pretty disappointing compared to some competitors’ policies. For instance, Happy Head gives you a six-month guarantee (though there are some caveats there, as well).

Nutrafol collects personal and non-personalized information about users on its website. If you register on the site, enter a promotion, or opt-in for email offers, Nutrafol will retain your personal information for future use. The website also connects users through Facebook and other social media, but you control the information that Nutrafol receives through the privacy settings on your social media accounts.

Like many sites, Nutrafol uses cookies and other technology to collect information about users and its "Refer a Friend" programs or reward offers. While Nutrafol may share non-personalized details with third parties, your personal information is protected unless you approve of sharing it.

The company has a dedicated “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” button at the bottom of every page. This is becoming more of a standard, as companies like Happy Head employ similar buttons.

There are a lot of approaches to hair loss out there, some of which require prescriptions, and some of which don't even obtain ingredients the FDA would classify as drugs. Alternatives to Nutrafol are as varied as the entire field of hair loss treatments, which includes nutritional supplements, oral medications, topical solutions, laser treatments, and even surgery.

Let's divide your options into pharmaceutical (drug-based) and non-pharmaceutical categories to give you a quick overview of some alternative options.

Non-pharmaceutical alternatives to Nutrafol

If you want to treat hair loss without reaching for a drug, whether it be prescription or over-the-counter, you still have plenty of options. There are a few companies that offer products comparable to what Nutrafol does, and there are also companies with vastly different non-pharmaceutical approaches.

Pharmaceutical alternatives to Nutrafol

Given the amount of research that has been done on pharmaceutical interventions, you may prefer to go this route for both safety and efficacy reasons. Let’s take a look at two of your best options: