Do Sugar Bear Hair Vitamin Gummies Cause Acne?

If you’ve ever dealt with hair loss you might have come across Sugar Bear Hair vitamins. These are chewable gummy vitamins that were made popular by social media in around 2015-16.

After they became popular thanks to a feud between influencers, Tati Westbrook and James Charles, some users started to notice an increase in their acne.

In this blog post I’ll discuss the best ingredients for hair health, and whether the ingredients in sugarbearhair gummies might cause acne in some users.

Do hair supplements actually work?

Do Sugar Bear Hair Vitamin Gummies Cause Acne?

Biotin supplements are often marketed as solutions for hair loss, and biotin is often the main ingredient in hair growth supplements like Sugar Bear Hair.

If you look at nearly any popular hair, skin and nails supplements brand, you’ll almost always find biotin is listed.

In Sugarbearhair vitamins there is 1000% of the recommended daily intake of biotin – but is there actually any evidence that biotin can support hair growth?

There have been many studies that have shown no strong correlation between biotin assisting with stronger hair, hair fall (alopecia) or brittle hair.

The only exceptions were in the cases of patients with an underlying condition or biotin deficiency, such as Trichothiodystrophy.

To date, there’s no real convincing evidence that biotin supplements will do much for the hair of normal, healthy people.

Can a balanced diet increase hair growth?

One argument for the use of a hair supplement is that it might increase the user’s intake of a blend of vitamins, mimicking that of a balanced diet.

Lots of people regularly substitute real, whole foods for vitamin tablets if they’re unable to consume a mix of vitamins in their diet alone.

Since there is evidence to suggest that nutritional deficiencies may impact hair growth and hair fall, you could argue that hair growth vitamins simply alleviate these deficiencies.

In other words, the same vitamins could be eaten in your diet and the same result achieved.

The use of vitamin B-12 in sugar bear hair gummy bears

To evaluate ‘does sugar bear hair cause acne’ we need to know if there are any associations between acne and certain vitamins.

Personally, I had to visit a dermatologist after supplementing with B vitamins for just a few days.

Before my appointment I did my own research, to find research showing a link between acne induction and worsening after consuming a significant amount of vitamin B12.

“Our findings suggest a new bacterial pathogenesis pathway in acne and provide one molecular explanation for the long-standing clinical observation that vitamin B12 supplementation leads to acne development in a subset of individuals”.

Essentially, rough 1 in 10 people can develop acne out of nowhere after consuming high amounts of B12. This can happen after oral supplementation, or with the B12 injection.

Unfortunately for me, my skin was the clearest it had ever been before I took just a few days worth of these vitamins! It took weeks to clear.

Sugar Bear Hair vitamins include 1000% of the recommended daily intake of B12, so it’s definitely possible you could get breakouts from consuming these.

But what about if you’ve supplemented with B12 before and had no issue? Not everybody experiences this, so it might be something else in the product.

Next I’ll discuss other potential acne causing ingredients in even the best hair growth vitamins.

Does biotin in hair growth vitamins cause acne?

If you missed my blog post on does Celsius cause acne, I’ll do a quick recap here. In it, I mentioned how B12 can impact acne negatively for a select number of people.

Anecdotally there is evidence to suggest biotin can cause breakouts, too, but the evidence is not as substantiated as it is for B12.

What I do think is important to acknowledge is the view social media has taken on supplement and vitamin intake.

I am nearly 30, but in my late teens and early twenties I was pretty much obsessed with the idea of taking any and all supplements.

hair skin nails supplements acne — Source

I felt surely ‘more is more’. But I learned the hard way that, when it comes to the most important vitamins, it’s not usually beneficial to intake a lot more than the recommended daily intake.

In fact, you can get some pretty nasty (and expensive – I had to visit a derm several times) side effects by doing this.

Always speak to your doctor about which supplements you might want to take to see if they’d be suitable for you. Also – just don’t waste your money uneccessarily!

The relationship between vitamin D and acne

There is 100% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin D in Sugar Bear Hair gummies.

I can imagine that, having read the rest of this post so far, you might be concerned about what horrors research have revealed about it.

Luckily, there seems to be a loose but positive correlation between the two.

Some studies have showed that people with acne tend to be vitamin D deficient, or at least have lower levels of vitamin D, than others.

The good news here is that this might mean, by supplementing with vitamin D or a hair growth vitamin, you might notice an improvement in your skin.

That is.. so long as the B12 or biotin doesn’t impact your skin negatively.

I personally take a vitamin D supplement every day because there is evidence to show that it’s particularly helpful for people with PCOS, like myself.

What else is in Sugar Bear Hair gummies?

Acne causing ingredients in sugar bear hair

There are a couple of other added vitamins in Sugar Bear Hair vitamins, including:

Vitamin E (27% of recommended daily intake)
Vitamin B-6 (118% recommended daily intake)
Folate (folic acid or vitamin B-9)

With regards to vitamin E, some studies have shown a correlation between patients with acne and lower vitamin E levels. Not only acne, but other skin conditions like vitiligo and psoriasis, too.

Generally speaking this could mean that vitamin E might help your skin in some way, especially if you are vitamin deficient.

Acne supplements make acne worse — Source

When it comes to vitamin B-6, there is some evidence to suggest it can have a similar effect as B-12. This is not to say that everyone who takes a B-6 supplement will develop acne.

Instead, like B-12 studies show, reactions vary from person to person – but it’s certainly something to bear in mind.

Is the sugar in Sugar Bear Hair vitamins causing breakouts?

There is only a dash of sugar, one single gram to be precise, so it’s pretty unlikely that this little sugar is causing you breakouts.

The much more likely culprits are the B vitamins and/or biotin.

The relationship between zinc and acne

The sugarbear pills also include 20% of your recommended daily intake of zinc, specifically zinc citrate.

Research has shown a correlation between acne patients and low zinc levels, with a few studies showing acne improvement after supplementing with zinc for several weeks.

Personally I like to supplement with zinc piccolinate daily, I definitely notice less pimples – though I also make many other “acne prevention” lifestyle and diet changes.

Remember to check with your doctor before adding any random supplements in.

The relationship between vitamin A and acne

Two key ingredients in Sugar Bear Hair gummies that should definitely get a mention are vitamin A and pantothenic acid.

Many people swear by pantothenic acid (vitamin B-5) to reduce their acne, and some studies have shown quite drastic improvement after 12 weeks of daily consumption.

I’m unable to see the amount of pantothenic acid or exact supplement taken, unfortunately, but I would like to make a disclaimer: if you are reading this and thinking ‘ok I will just take a bunch of pantothenic acid’ – don’t.

Learn from my own mistakes! Going go-hung on random supplements is never a good idea, always speak to your doctor first.

Just because something has positives doesn’t mean there are no negative side effects.

When it comes to vitamin A, it is well known to improve acne. Retinoids such as retinol, tretinoin and oral isotretinoin are all forms of vitamin A – topical and oral.

In Sugar Bear Hair vitamins there is a very small, undeclared amount, so it is difficult to work out whether that will really benefit you much.

How to get more vitamin A from your diet

You can also benefit from vitamin A by getting it in your diet from the following foods:

Nearly any kind of leafy greens such as spinach, kale or broccoli
Tomatoes
Carrots

Realistically, a healthy diet of lots of vegetables, fibre, protein, healthy fats can never really do you wrong when it comes to skin health.

Should you avoid B vitamin supplements if you have acne?

As someone who is acne prone and has been burned in the past by B vitamin complex supplements, I personally choose to avoid them all.

I am aware that doctors often recommend them if you are:

Vegan
Experience daily fatigue
Deficient for any reason

They also recommend the vitamin B12 injection sometimes, which are also linked to acne breakouts and worsening.

Obviously if you are vitamin deficient and showing symptoms of that, it makes sense to supplement if your doctor advises to.

However for otherwise healthy people it doesn’t really make sense to take supplements you show no signs of actually needing – just my two cents!

So, does Sugar Bear Hair cause acne?

All in all, even if sugar bear hair does get you closer to your hair goals, it may cause worsening acne in some users.

I think the best scenario is always to be aware of the risks, so that if you do try it you can be watchful for new potential side effects.

When you look at the full list of ingredients in the vitamins, you can also see that there is a hidden amount of their ‘proprietary blend’ of ingredients targeted towards healthy hair growth.

Proprietary might sound fancy, but it’s really a known way to be devious in the supplement industry.

What they’re doing is essentially just not declaring what’s in their blend, because it is ‘proprietary’. For all we know, it could be (and probably is) kinda rubbish. Those are just my honest thoughts.

Even though the popular sugarbearhair supplements are well known, doesn’t necessarily make them evidence-based. Generally speaking if you see a celebrity like Kylie Jenner promoting a supplement brand, it is not a great sign.

This isn’t to say that they are total BS, but be wary!