Life Hair IO Genix - VERISOL Collagen for Hair and Nails

What is IO Genix Life Hair?

IO Genix Life Hair is a capsule supplement aimed at hair, skin and nails. A four-capsule serving delivers 2,500 mg of VERISOL collagen, combined with vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B2, vitamin B3, biotin, zinc, selenium and a saw palmetto extract. The 120-capsule box covers 30 days.

The mention VERISOL denotes a collagen hydrolysed into bioactive peptides, produced by a specialist German manufacturer. Hydrolysis consists of cutting the collagen protein into much shorter fragments, which makes it soluble and absorbable. It is the standard process behind every collagen sold as a food supplement.

What sets this product apart from a plain collagen is the assembly: eight ingredients accompany the collagen, several of them nutrients with a precise regulatory framework. The rest of the Spanish range can be found in our IO Genix section, and the other forms of collagen in our collagen section.

What does a serving of Life Hair contain?

This table has a lot of blank cells, and that is the main reservation to raise about this product. Only the collagen carries a figure: 2,500 mg per serving, a value consistent with what is expected of a collagen in capsule form. The other eight ingredients are named but their dosages are not published by the manufacturer, who refers you to the labelling. We are not going to invent them.

That absence is not trivial, because it bears precisely on the most tightly regulated ingredients in the formula. Zinc, selenium and biotin all three have claims authorised in Europe relating to the maintenance of normal hair, and vitamin C to normal collagen formation. But those claims can only be made above a threshold of 15% of the nutrient reference value per daily serving. Without the dosages, we cannot verify that this threshold is reached, and we will therefore not be taking on any of those claims ourselves. The label on the box you receive carries them if they apply: that is what to read.

For the collagen itself, the situation is simpler: no health claim is authorised in Europe for collagen, in any form whatsoever. Not for skin, not for hair, not for nails, not for joints. Collagen is indeed the main structural protein of those tissues — that is a fact of biology — but the effect of oral supplementation has no validated dossier at European level.

Finally, the saw palmetto extract deserves a mention. It is a plant traditionally associated with men's health, and its presence partly explains the product's positioning. No claim is authorised for it either, and its dosage is not published.

Ingredients list

VERISOL collagen, coating agent (GELATINE), dry saw palmetto extract (Serenoa repens), bulking agent (microcrystalline cellulose), vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid), zinc picolinate, anti-caking agent (silicon dioxide), vitamin B3 (nicotinamide), vitamin A (retinyl acetate), vitamin B2 (riboflavin), D-biotin, sodium selenite.

May contain traces of GLUTEN, EGGS, MILK, FISH and SOYA.

How do you take Life Hair?

Serving: 4 capsules a day. Liquid: a glass of water with each serving. Timing: 2 capsules at breakfast, 2 capsules at lunch. Frequency: two servings a day. Duration: a course of 30 days minimum, repeatable.

Splitting it into two servings is not an affectation. Four capsules at once is a lot for a stomach, and spreading them across two meals makes the course markedly easier to keep up over thirty days. It is also the split the manufacturer settles on.

Taking it with a meal has a concrete justification: the formula contains vitamin A, which needs fat to be properly absorbed. A breakfast and a lunch containing a minimum of fat are more than enough.

Thirty days is the minimum, and that is exactly what one box covers. On hair and nails, one simple biological reality has to be borne in mind: a nail takes several months to renew itself completely, and hair grows about one centimetre a month. No supplement can therefore produce a visible effect in two weeks, whatever its composition. It is a course to be judged over several months, or not at all.

The product combines without redundancy with an omega 3 or a B vitamin complex. Do check your other supplements before stacking, though: zinc and biotin already feature in most multivitamins, and the addition easily goes unnoticed.

Who is Life Hair for, and who is it not for?

It is aimed at an adult who wants to support a hair or skin routine with a nutritional intake, over a course of several weeks. It is a support product, not a treatment product, and that distinction changes everything about the expectations.

It suits neither vegetarians nor vegans, on two counts: collagen is a protein of animal origin, and the capsule shell is made of gelatine. There is no such thing as plant collagen, whatever some brands' marketing may say — what those are is plant complexes intended to support endogenous synthesis, which is something else.

The manufacturer advises against it for children and pregnant women and asks that it not be used in case of allergy to any of the components. The presence of a saw palmetto extract also justifies medical advice if you are on any treatment, particularly urinary or hormonal.

Additional caution is called for because of the vitamin A: it is a nutrient whose intake should not accumulate unmonitored, particularly in women who are pregnant or considering pregnancy. As the dosage is not published, that caution is all the more justified. The product may contain traces of gluten, eggs, milk, fish and soya.

What you should not expect from it: it is not a treatment for hair loss, and there is no point hoping it will be one. Sudden, diffuse or localised hair loss is a matter for a doctor or a dermatologist, who will look for a cause — iron deficiency, thyroid disorder, stress, ongoing treatment. A supplement diagnoses nothing.

Collagen capsules or collagen powder?

Both exist in our range and they do not serve the same use.

Collagen powder allows far higher doses, typically 10 g a day, against 2,500 mg here. It is simply a matter of volume: it would take sixteen capsules to reach 10 g. If your objective is the collagen itself and the quantity of it, powder is the more rational choice and often cheaper per gram.

The capsule format has other advantages: it travels, it needs neither shaker nor measuring, it has no taste — which counts, since collagen powder has a flavour not everyone appreciates. And above all, this particular product is not a collagen on its own: it is a complex, in which the collagen sits alongside eight other ingredients.

If your priority is vitamin and mineral coverage rather than collagen, a complete and well-dosed multivitamin will be more economical and more transparent about its quantities. And if you are after the intake of one specific nutrient, better to take it on its own: our zinc and vitamin C sections state their dosages in figures.

Frequently asked questions

How much collagen per day?

2,500 mg for the full four-capsule serving. That is a consistent amount for a capsule format, but markedly lower than the 10 g common to collagen powders. The choice of format therefore comes down to convenience as much as to quantity.

Why are the vitamin dosages not stated?

The manufacturer does not publish them in its documentation and refers you to the product labelling. We are not going to invent them. It is the main reservation on this page, because those dosages determine which nutrition claims apply: read the label on the box you receive.

Are these capsules suitable for vegetarians?

No, on two counts: collagen is a protein of animal origin, and the capsule shell is made of gelatine. No true collagen is plant-based, whatever commercial formulations you may come across.

How long before you see anything?

Not in a few weeks. Hair grows about one centimetre a month and a nail takes several months to renew itself completely: it is those rhythms that govern things, not the composition of the product. A thirty-day course is a start, not an assessment.

Why two servings a day?

Because four capsules at one go are hard to swallow and sit heavily on the stomach. The manufacturer therefore splits them into two capsules at breakfast and two at lunch. Taking them with a meal also makes it easier to absorb the vitamin A, which needs fat.

Can it be combined with a multivitamin?

It can, but do the sums. Zinc, selenium, biotin and B vitamins feature in most complete multivitamins, and stacking two sources adds nothing. As this product's dosages are not published, caution rather suggests choosing one or the other.

Does this product treat hair loss?

No, and no claim of that kind is authorised. Unusual hair loss has a cause that needs to be looked for — iron deficiency, thyroid disorder, treatment, significant stress — and that search belongs to a doctor. A food supplement supports, it does not cure.

Where can you buy IO Genix Life Hair?

The 120-capsule box can be ordered from this page, and we ship all over France and Europe. At the Vendargues shop, about ten minutes from Montpellier, this is a product in front of which we systematically temper expectations: when a customer describes recent and significant hair loss, we advise them to see a doctor first, and the box can wait. The rest of the range can be browsed in our sports nutrition section.