Nailed It!

by Eric Munson | March 1, 2025

Hair, skin and nail health is a marker for overall health.

According to Liz Smith, RN, owner of Natural Path Silver Wings (Nashville, TN), cosmetic products that contain repair and restoration ingredients are a top request with consumers.

“There is an ever-growing market for youth-retaining cosmetic skin products and especially all-natural formulas without harmful chemical ingredients,” Smith said. “The skin care market has always been quite saturated with each label promising optimistic results, but specifically an exploding interest for 100 percent clean ingredients continues to grow and expand into a now-wider age range.”

Smith added products such as antiseptic creams with synthetic compounds are becoming a secondary, backup option to various news and improved natural formulas, stating “back to basics as nature intended is forever more the buzz.”

Kelly Andrade, new business development manager at Maximum Living (St. Peters, MO) agreed with Smith that customers are “migrating back to basics.”

“Common vitamins and minerals have always been a great way to supplement even a healthy diet to obtain nutrients that their diet or compromised digestive system just might not be delivering,” Andrade said.

The ZITT Effect and COVID-19

Richard Passwater, medical education director at Belgium-based Bio Minerals NV (doing business as Biosil) noted the public is growing more aware of how their outward appearance can reflect their overall health.

“We entered the hair, skin and nail supplement space 30 years ago and I like to think segment grows year-after-year because the public continually is becoming more aware that the outward appearance of their hair, skin and nails is really a window reflecting their overall health,” Passwater said. “And as they better understand this, they are more open to prioritize oral products that support their collagen and elastin structures throughout their body as opposed to just topically spot treating specific areas.”

Passwater also said aesthetics-related products and procedures including hair, skin and nail supplements, benefited significantly from the rapid rise of video conferencing systems, which forced people to watch themselves on screens. This was especially prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic when everybody was using Zoom and other teleconferencing programs.

“I recently was at an aesthetic dermatology conference where a speaker referred to it as the ‘ZITT effect,’ with ZITT standing for Zoom, Instagram and TikTok. He felt the ZITT effect was the biggest growth igniter the aesthetics community has ever experienced,” Passwater explained.

Passwater also said hair problems are becoming more common and more serious even reaching “epidemic levels” as the COVID-19 era continues and the variety of modern-day factors causing stress and sleeplessness continues to increase.

“As an example, hair loss is now the most common long-term side effect from COVID and has also been linked to COVID vaccines,” Passwater said. “Fortunately, hair loss associated with COVID and vaccines seem to generally be a stress response transitioning an abnormally high percentage of hair follicles into their telogen ‘resting’—which is generally reversable—as opposed to the permanent destruction of the hair formation sites.”

Toward Natural Products

Retailer Lauren Gaffney, co-owner of Mastel’s Health Foods in St. Paul, MN, noted that collagen continues to dominate the category.

Retailer Rosanne Reinartz, general manager and co-owner of Wayne and Mary’s Nutrition Centers in Sioux Falls, SD, agreed that collagen remains strong. However, she added topical skin care is becoming popular with her customers.

“Our vanity for young, healthy skin is endless. In the sea of skin care products found in both stores and online, those with effectively proven natural ingredients blended into a single formula bottle delivers an all-in-one convenience advantage that customers are looking for,” Smith said.

Andrade also noted that there is a growing preference for natural and organic ingredients. This provides increased opportunities for product differentiation and market expansion.

“As awareness of the potential harms of synthetic chemicals increases, consumers are leaning toward products made from natural and organic sources,” Andrade said.

Beauty and GLP-1 Agonists

One of the many emerging trends is the relationship between outward beauty and use of GLP-1 agonist prescriptions.

According to Passwater, the aesthetics market is being impacted by the scores of people rapidly losing weight from using glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist drugs or natural alternatives to GLP-1 function. The weight loss from these protocols benefits overall health, but the rapid fat loss also occurs in the fatty subcutaneous skin layer.

“This leaves the dieter with much thinner skin and because it is occurring so quickly, the skin doesn’t have time to adjust or recover,” Passwater said. “As a result, these rapid weight loss dieters are often left with thinner and less elastic skin than more dieters losing weight more gradually experienced.”

In the words of Dr. Ron Somogyi, a cosmetic surgeon based in Toronto, ON, Canada, “If you’re losing weight fairly slowly without medical intervention, it might take 50 pounds of weight loss for you to see the kind of facial changes that someone on Ozempic will notice after only 20 pounds because that change occurred so quickly.”
Popular Ingredients

According to Smith, aloe vera gel and tea tree oil are widely used ingredients for skin health. Adding 200 ppm of pharmaceutical-grade pure silver for skin is also a strong formula enhancer. Natural Path Silver Wings has this formula in both gel tubes and spray bottles.

Passwater said one of the critical factors driving demand for hair, skin and nail supplements, is a growing understanding of the physiological role of collagen and elastin, and how these proteins are continually remodeled throughout life.

According to Passwater, collagen is a strong flexible, fibrous protein that forms the framework of skin and all connective tissues. A healthy person has about 5 to 7 percent collagen by weight.

“Elastin is also a strong fibrous protein. In that regard as well as the fact it requires glycine, proline and lysine as it’s amino acid building blocks, elastin is very similar to collagen. But in other ways elastin is the opposite because collagen fibers don’t stretch (their tensile strength is stronger than steel) while elastin easily stretches and recoils,” Passwater said. “You can say collagen gives the skin its strength, substance and ‘firm flexibility’ while elastin provides skin’s elasticity and overall flexibility.”

Passwater added historical research believed collagen loss was the primary cause of wrinkling. The idea being that as skin loses collagen, it became thinner and collagen fibers slowly broke apart, turning micro-wrinkles into more noticeable wrinkles in areas where collagen fibers weren’t present. However, research is now shifting to the importance of elastin to hold the collagen network together.

“In a way, collagen in the skin is like cotton in jeans. Both provide thickness and strength. And elastin is like spandex (or lycra or elastane) providing elasticity. One hundred percent cotton jeans loosely fit the body and easy wrinkle while jeans with 5 percent spandex added more tightly fit the body and doesn’t wrinkle as quickly or easily,” Passwater said.

Collagen is still trending and plays a major role in hair, skin and nail health, but consumers should also be aware of the role of minerals in hair health—especially related to premature graying, according to Andrade.

“Health experts suggest that this early graying may be linked to mineral imbalances and deficiencies in zinc, iron, selenium and manganese,” Andrade said. “Addressing these imbalanced through supplementation could potentially restore natural hair color.”

Hair, Skin and Nail Supplements

As an ever-expanding category, there is a wide array of products available for retailers to recommend to customers.

Gaffney said Mastel’s will usually suggest Biosil first “as a way to kick off the customer’s own production of collagen.”

“We talk about how you’ll start to see the benefits usually in your nails first because they grow faster than your hair,” Gaffney said. “We also like to point out that the ‘beauty’ benefits are great but knowing that you are helping to support your joints, ligaments and tendons as well is an added bonus to this supplement.”

Gaffney will also recommend her store’s private label collagen peptides or EuroPharma’s Terry Naturally Hair Renew, which contains millet to improve hair structure.

“We love to encourage collagen as our body’s production declines as we age, and it has so many uses and benefits in the body. It’s hard to get enough through diet, so many customers notice a difference when taking collagen,” Reinartz said.

Reinartz recommended Wayne and Mary’s private label Multi Collagen, Collagen Peptides from Nature’s Plus and Natural Factors’ Total Body Collagen line.

“Our favorites right now for topical products include Wild Carrot’s lineup. Their products are luxurious, and they use pronounceable and recognizable ingredients, which many customers like,” Reinartz said. “For customers looking for thicker, fuller hair, we love the Terry Naturally Hair Renew formula as well as the Andalou Argan Stem Cell hair products.”

In addition to its aloe vera and tea tree oil formula, Natural Path Silver Wings also manufactures its Silver Herbal Ointment, which includes 250 ppm of silver along with 10 skin-enriching organic herbs and natural oils.

“Called the ‘everything ointment,’ it revitalizes the skin and promotes skin replenishment. Silver Herbal ointment moisturizes to protect against and alleviate chapping, cracking and roughness due to dry skin,” Smith said.

Biosil manufactures several products for hair, skin and nail health.

Advanced Collagen Generator is clinically proven to thicken and strengthen hair, increase skin elasticity, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, and strengthen nails. Advanced Hair and Nail Care is clinically proven to do the same but also contains biotin to increase nail and hair strength by helping keratin generating cells generate energy, according to Passwater.

“Biosil products contain choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid, a unique complex that helps someone’s body generate collagen, elastin and keratin,” Passwater said. “It helps protect these proteins as well. So Biosil choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid is the ideal product because it helps protect what you have and grow what you need.”

According to Andrade, Maximum Living’s MineralRich has covered the naturally balanced minerals needed for hair health for more than 30 years.

“One great-tasting ounce a day delivers 70-plus macro and trace minerals, such as silica, selenium, manganese and also vitamins, 1,000 mcg B12 and biotin, providing extra support,” Andrade said. “MineralRich has a 30-year track record in the supplement marketplace with testimonials supporting how effective MineralRich can be in hair, skin and nail support.”

Safe Products and New Research

Like many health categories, manufacturers are interested in the latest research so they can create high-quality, safe and effective products for consumers.

Passwater noted that the importance of quality, randomized, controlled clinical trials is returning to the category, stating, “I remember going back 15 years, many potential consumers were skeptical that a dietary supplement could make a meaningful and noticeable difference in their appearance. This skepticism created an opportunity for us to use out gold-standard clinical studies to offer validated proof Biosil use generally results in meaningful benefits. Then I think the category went through a phase where consumers became less skeptical and seemed to try many different products heavily promoted on social media. It seemed celebrity and influencer endorsement became more of motivating factor for many consumers. But I believe those consumers are again skeptical after using the heavily promoted but often poorly designed products and many are again seeking proof from clinical trials and 3rd party endorsement from medical professionals.”

Passwater added there are two big emerging trends in hair health. One is the “skinification” of hair care. Modern hair research is now increasingly focusing on scalp quality. The concept is that hair is only as healthy as the skin it grows from allows it to be. This had to led to introducing a lot of nutrients into hair care that were otherwise only used in skin products, Passwater said.

The other trend is “keratin bond building.” Hair is made of at least 90 percent keratin fibers derived from 17 different kinds of keratin, Passwater said. These fibers need to be held together to keep hair strong and keep ends from splitting. Disulfide bonds and orthosilicic acid bonds help provide the main structural integrity of hair’s keratin network.

Overall, in cosmetics, the goal, according to Smith, is, “Finding a synergy of natural minerals, herbals and natural oils, which can multitask by maintaining or enhancing skin integrity and nourishment without any harsh chemicals or artificial, synthetic ingredients. All this while still landing a relatively competitive price to conventional skin products.”

Andrade added that it is important to research advanced delivery systems, hormonal influences and bioavailability of nutrients to help manufacturers optimize new products in the hair, skin and nail category.

The Best Service For Customers

It is important for manufacturers to work with retailers so they can provide the best service to customers about their products.

“Natural Path Silver Wings provides year-round direct trainings with [Scientific Advisor] Dr. Chris Terrell. The company also provides four promotions annually, complimentary social media services to retail partners, free bottles for staff, consumer literature and a variety of merchandising tools, Smith said.

For Passwater, “We believe the single most important thing we can do is to continue sponsoring clinical trials performed by independent university researchers to instill confidence that Biosil is safe, even during pregnancy and lactation, and effective.”

When customers come into Wayne and Mary’s looking for hair, skin and nail supplements, the staff will discuss their goals and current regimen.

“We talk about the benefits of some of the more popular products for hair, skin, and nails: collagen, hyaluronic acid, biotin and topical products like nutritive oils, squalane, etc,” Reinartz said. “Many customers find the most benefit by focusing on both internal and topical products, and to focus on nourishment. Increasing omega-3 fatty acids, hydration and embracing serums and topical oils can make a big difference!”

Gaffney said she likes to dig deep with customers to see if any deficiencies could be causing hair, skin or nails to be compromised. This conversation can lead to discussion on hormonal fluctuations in both men and women and what vitamins and minerals they could be lacking.

“Stress can be a factor especially in hair growth, even stress in the body due to illness can have a delayed reaction of hair loss. Most importantly, I think reassuring the customer that overnight change is simply not possible in this category, so encouraging them to be patient and know that it might be a few months before they see improvement,” Gaffney said.VR