My Black Dermatologist Told Me to Stop Trying to Grow My Hair and Start Blocking the Hormone That's Killing It
Over 22,000 Happy Black Queens
Sun, Nov 12th, 2024
By Katya Sams
I was so focused on trying to make my hair grow. Biotin, collagen, vitamins, oils—everything was about growth, growth, growth.
Then my Black dermatologist Dr. Williams looked at my scalp and said something that changed everything:
Your hair is trying to grow. But there's a hormone strangling it before it can. Until you block that hormone, nothing you take will matter.
I had spent so much money on supplements. Biotin capsules from the pharmacy. Those pretty collagen gummies everyone was raving about. I even bought saw palmetto after reading it blocks DHT.
Nothing worked.
My edges kept thinning. My crown kept widening. Every morning there was more hair in my brush than I wanted to see.
I thought my hair just couldn't grow anymore. That I was one of the unlucky ones where nothing would work.
But Dr. Williams showed me the real problem—and why everything I tried had failed.
The Hormone That's Strangling Your Follicles
Dr. Williams pulled up a diagram on her screen.
After menopause, your body floods with a hormone called DHT. DHT latches onto your hair follicles and chokes them. Literally shrinks them from the inside until they can't produce hair anymore.
She pointed to my scalp. Young women don't have this problem. Their bodies don't produce DHT like mine does after 45. So all those hair vitamins? They're trying to feed and grow hair. But they're not blocking the hormone that's killing it.
You can't grow what's being strangled.
That's when I understood why biotin didn't work. Why collagen didn't work. They were trying to help my hair grow, but they weren't stopping DHT from choking it out before it could.
I told her I'd already tried saw palmetto. I'd read that it blocks DHT. I bought it. I took it every day for months.
She nodded. I know. And it didn't work. Let me show you why.
Why Saw Palmetto Alone Can't Work For You
Dr. Williams pulled up my lab results on her computer.
That saw palmetto you took—it was blocking DHT, she said. But there are two reasons it couldn't work for you.
She pointed to one of the numbers on my labs.
Reason #1: Your Follicles Were Asleep
You're severely vitamin D deficient. Without enough vitamin D, your follicles are dormant. They can't respond to anything—including saw palmetto. The saw palmetto was blocking DHT, but your follicles were asleep, so nothing could grow anyway.
Dr. Williams told me 76% of Black women are severely vitamin D deficient. Not just a little low—severely deficient.
When your follicles are dormant like that, it doesn't matter what you take. They're asleep. They can't respond.
Think about it like this: Saw palmetto was knocking on the door, trying to deliver the DHT-blocking benefits. But my follicles were asleep inside. They couldn't answer the door.
Standard supplements have 10 micrograms of vitamin D. That's not enough for us. Melanin blocks vitamin D absorption. We need three times more—30 micrograms—to actually wake our follicles up.
My follicles were asleep on 10 micrograms. They stayed asleep on 10 micrograms. They needed 30 micrograms to wake up.
Reason #2: It Couldn't Reach My Follicles Through The Damage
Then Dr. Williams looked at my scalp again.
And even if your vitamin D was fine, those saw palmetto capsules you took—the saw palmetto couldn't reach your follicles because you have decades of relaxer damage. You need biotin-silica to penetrate that barrier and carry the saw palmetto's benefits through. Without it, the saw palmetto sits on top of scar tissue and washes away.
She explained that if you've ever relaxed your hair, flat-ironed it regularly, or used heavy styling products for years, you have microscopic scar tissue on your scalp. Most of us do. It's part of our hair story.
Regular biotin can't penetrate that barrier. She showed me the studies: less than 2% absorption through damaged scalp tissue.
That means 98% of the biotin—and the saw palmetto—I was taking was sitting on top of scar tissue and washing away. It never reached my follicles.
It's like trying to water a plant when there's plastic wrap covering the soil. The water just rolls off. Nothing reaches the roots.
That's when I understood. I wasn't taking the wrong ingredient. I was taking the right ingredient in the wrong formula.
Dr. Williams Recommended Something Different
After showing me why everything failed, Dr. Williams said:
Saw palmetto is the weapon. But the weapon doesn't work if your follicles are asleep and if it can't reach them through the barrier. That's why standalone saw palmetto failed you. That's why those complete vitamins with saw palmetto failed you. They don't address the other two blockers.
She recommended Lumin Hair Growth Gummies.
This is the only formula designed for menopausal Black women where all three work together, she explained.
How All Three Parts Work Together
Saw palmetto blocks DHT—that's the main fight. But it only works if your follicles are awake and if it can reach them.
Triple vitamin D wakes your follicles up so they can respond when DHT is blocked. Standard supplements have 10 micrograms. We need 30 because melanin blocks absorption. Your follicles were asleep on 10. They wake up on 30.
Biotin-silica penetrates relaxer damage so the saw palmetto's DHT-blocking benefits can actually reach your follicles. Regular biotin can't get through—absorption rate less than 2%. Biotin-silica gets through—40 times better absorption.
Dr. Williams said: Saw palmetto is the weapon. But the weapon doesn't work if your follicles are asleep and if it can't reach them through the barrier.
That's why standalone saw palmetto failed me. That's why those complete vitamins with saw palmetto failed me. They didn't address the other two blockers.
I needed all three solved at once.
What Happened When I Started Taking It
I started taking Lumin Hair Growth Gummies based on Dr. Williams' recommendation.
Week 3: My hair stopped falling out as much. The DHT was finally being blocked AND reaching my follicles AND my follicles were awake to respond.
Week 8: New growth at my temples. The follicles that were being strangled by DHT were finally freed. They were producing hair again.
Month 3: My crown filling in. Not just baby hairs—actual density returning.
This is what happens when you stop trying to grow hair and start blocking the hormone that's killing it—while also making sure your follicles are awake and the benefits can actually reach them.
Over 22,000 Sisters switched from saw palmetto that couldn't work to saw palmetto that can.
Most supplements either don't have saw palmetto at all, or they have it in a formula that can't deliver it to dormant, damaged follicles. You're not fighting just DHT. You're fighting DHT plus deficiency plus damage. Saw palmetto alone solves one. You need all three solved.
The Real Cost of Supplements That Don't Address All Three Problems
Most women have tried three, four, five different supplements by now. Biotin. Collagen. Saw palmetto. Complete hair vitamins. Each one cost $30-$50 a month.
None of them worked because none of them solved all three problems at once.
Lumin costs 3x less than those failed solutions. Not because it's cheaper quality—because you're only buying one thing that actually works instead of three things that don't.
You're not spending more. You're spending smarter.
Why Waiting Another Month Is More Dangerous Than You Think
Every month you wait is another month of DHT strangling your follicles.
The longer a follicle stays shrunken, the harder it is to revive. After a certain point, it goes completely dormant—permanently. It stops producing hair forever.
That's why you're seeing more scalp than you used to. That's why your ponytail is thinner. Follicles are shutting down one by one while DHT keeps strangling the ones that are left.
You can't get those months back. But you can stop losing more.
The difference between hair that grows back and hair that's gone forever is often just a matter of months. The follicles that are thinning right now? They can still be saved. But only if you block DHT before they shut down completely.
Meet Your New Everyday Hair Essentials
Blocks DHT: Cause of Shedding
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What Happens Next
Get saw palmetto that actually reaches your follicles.
You'll get the only formula designed for menopausal Black women where all three mechanisms work together: DHT-blocking saw palmetto, triple vitamin D to wake dormant follicles, and biotin-silica that penetrates decades of damage.
Your hair is trying to grow. It's time to stop what's strangling it—and make sure the solution can actually reach it.
Join over 22,000 Sisters who finally found what works.
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At LUMIN, we’re committed to helping women reclaim their confidence by restoring hair health naturally. Our Hair Growth Gummies are formulated with high-quality, plant-powered ingredients and backed by scientific research to support hair thickness, scalp nourishment, and visible growth.
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