Hi there! 34 year old male here. So starting in early April, I began taking Vitamins A (5,000 IU) and D3, K2, Magnesium, and more recently E. Ever since puberty, I've ALWAYS had very excessively oily scalp/face, dandruff, dry patches in eyebrows/corners of eye/nose, and hair shedding that goes along with it. Literally on more oily days, my hair sheds more. And I even noticed a handful of times when I was younger, I had random times when for a day or two, my skin ceased all oil production for unknown reasons (Maybe I unknowingly consumed a lot of Vitamin A in foods prepared for me by my parents) and my hair would simultaneously completely stop shedding...only to resume again a few days later when the oil resumed.
So in April 2017, I began supplementing with the above listed things. I started low on Vitamin D3 supps and slowly started increasing it (in the past, I reacted poorly to Vit D3, but I know now it was because I wasn't taking magnesium). So as I slowly increased my Vitamin D3, I started getting some light headaches, BUT I also noticed that my skin's oiliness was majorly decreasing AND my hair shedding was stopping, and the dry patches were going away! Little did I know, my Vitamin D pill ALSO HAD VITAMIN A in it! So even though I thought I was taking only 5,000 IU of A, I was actually taking about 9,000 IU of Vitamin A when all supplements were combined and added up.
I realized the headache was probably from upping my A dose to too much for me to handle. I lowered it...and the oily skin reappeared I decided after a while that I'd try to go higher with my A dose. So now I'm taking 10,000 IU of Vitamin A, and strangely... I tolerate it totally fine, no headaches, but also my oily skin/hair shedding/dandruff are still here. Dry skin patches are here too still.
So my question is -- is it possible that my body got used to that amount of Vitamin A and now I require more in order to experience the positive effects from it? I've been on about 10,000 IU of Vitamin A (retinol) for at least a week now and I'm not noticing the positive effects from before. So I'm considering upping it to 15,000 IU, but frankly, I really don't want to go beyond that if I don't have to. So many things you read about bad effects from Vitamin A, it makes me a bit nervous. But the early positive effects I noticed (minus headache) were really exciting to experience. It cleared up the excessive oiliness and hair shedding for about two weeks initially before I backed down off of the Vitamin A initially.
So in April 2017, I began supplementing with the above listed things. I started low on Vitamin D3 supps and slowly started increasing it (in the past, I reacted poorly to Vit D3, but I know now it was because I wasn't taking magnesium). So as I slowly increased my Vitamin D3, I started getting some light headaches, BUT I also noticed that my skin's oiliness was majorly decreasing AND my hair shedding was stopping, and the dry patches were going away! Little did I know, my Vitamin D pill ALSO HAD VITAMIN A in it! So even though I thought I was taking only 5,000 IU of A, I was actually taking about 9,000 IU of Vitamin A when all supplements were combined and added up.
I realized the headache was probably from upping my A dose to too much for me to handle. I lowered it...and the oily skin reappeared I decided after a while that I'd try to go higher with my A dose. So now I'm taking 10,000 IU of Vitamin A, and strangely... I tolerate it totally fine, no headaches, but also my oily skin/hair shedding/dandruff are still here. Dry skin patches are here too still.
So my question is -- is it possible that my body got used to that amount of Vitamin A and now I require more in order to experience the positive effects from it? I've been on about 10,000 IU of Vitamin A (retinol) for at least a week now and I'm not noticing the positive effects from before. So I'm considering upping it to 15,000 IU, but frankly, I really don't want to go beyond that if I don't have to. So many things you read about bad effects from Vitamin A, it makes me a bit nervous. But the early positive effects I noticed (minus headache) were really exciting to experience. It cleared up the excessive oiliness and hair shedding for about two weeks initially before I backed down off of the Vitamin A initially.
Last edited: