Retinol vs Vitamin C for skin & hair
Short answer: For skin & hair, users rate them about the same: 100% report improvement with Retinol (11 reports) and 97% with Vitamin C (29 reports).
Retinol has 138 meta-analyses and 893 randomized trials on PubMed; Vitamin C has 738 and 2,072.
Based on 20 reports about Retinol and 928 about Vitamin C. Not medical advice.
| Retinol Supplement | Vitamin C Supplement | |
|---|---|---|
| Users say it helped | 90%helped10 reports · few reports | 64%helped204 reports · high confidence |
| Verdict | Mostly positive | Mostly positive |
| Research | AResearch: Strong | AResearch: Strong |
| Meta-analyses / RCTs | 138 / 893 | 738 / 2,072 |
| Mainly used for | ||
| Skin & hair % reporting improvement | 100% (11) | 97% (29) |
| Immunity % reporting improvement | — | 90% (40) |
| Energy % reporting improvement | — | 94% (34) |
| Mood % reporting improvement | — | 88% (25) |
| Anxiety % reporting improvement | — | 94% (17) |
| Common side effects | osteoporosis, neurotoxicity | kidney stones, stomach issues, insomnia, bone pain |
| Typical dose reported | — | 2000 mg / daily |
Exercise training represents an anti-inflammatory therapy and metabolism-improving strategy with minimal side effects for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus.
J Sport Health Sci, 2023 ↗“Actually Im already using retinol 0.025% daily which i shouldve mentioned in OP, and I havent had acne for the last 3ish years.”
The failure of vitamin C supplementation to reduce the incidence of colds in the general population indicates that routine vitamin C supplementation is not justified, yet vitamin C may be useful for people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise. Regular supplementation trials have shown that vitamin C reduces the duration of colds, but this was not replicated in the few therapeutic trials that have been carried out. Nevertheless, given the consistent effect of vitamin C on the duration and severity of colds in the regular supplementation studies, and the low cost and safety, it m
Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2013 ↗“I know people say you get enough vitamin C from diet but I feel and look better when I supplement it.”
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Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate