Understanding Hair Growth Products | Skin Actives
Posted by Dr. Hannah Sivak and Brendan Leonard on Oct 31st 2019
At Skin Actives Scientific we’re always looking at the products available to the average consumer and thinking about how we can increase their efficiency, decrease their price point and innovate.
When it comes to hair loss, it will come as a surprise to no one that there are only a few actives out there that address this concern directly. These actives are effective for sure, but the way that they work is complicated.
Grow Your Own Hair
Hair is made of protein, and proteins are made of amino acids. You need amino acids, the vitamins we can’t make and must obtain from plants, enzymes and proteins capable of protein synthesis, plus minerals used by those enzymes.
What You Have Probably Seen
Hair loss is a big deal and don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not.
The thickness, the shape of your hair and the way that it frames your face are a big part of how people see you and the impression that you make. People are very protective of their hair, once they start to lose it that is, and so there are a lot of people out there trading big money for the answers.
Minoxidil works by widening blood vessels and opening potassium channels, allowing more oxygen, blood, and nutrients to the scalp.
Finasteride reduces androgen signaling in tissues like the prostate gland and the scalp.
Other hormone modulators, like antiandrogens (Spironolactone and Flutamide) can be used for female-pattern hair loss associated with high production of androgens.
If you are asking yourself why there are so few, keep in mind that both hair growth and loss are complicated. The remedies described above are not directly related to hair growth itself but were found sort of by accident, when drugs developed for other problems such as high blood pressure or enlarged prostate, were found to have a beneficial effect on hair loss.
Why Doesn’t Everyone Just Use These?
The side effects of this handful of pro-hair actives can be strong and they only work for people with specific problems. There are also a huge number of fake cures that are advertised as quick fixes and magic bullets. The people who create and sell these too-good-to-be-true quackeries play with our anxieties and take advantage of the public in general.
Isn’t there something more direct? Yes. The most direct active you could think of is keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) because it has been found to stimulate hair growth. The reason this protein is only now seeing more widespread use is that the processes necessary to create it in large amounts did not exist until recently.
As soon as the processes became available, Skin Actives started producing it, and we managed to achieve this at a cost that was compatible with its use in health and wellness products such as our Double Action Hair Serum.
KGF is a protein, which by its very nature, makes it more fragile than a small molecule like finasteride or minoxidil. KGF has to be formulated carefully and the projected shelf life of the final product is shorter than the many years finasteride can survive sitting on a shelf.
Because of its intrinsic delicacy, a product made with KGF or other proteins is best sold directly to the customer, rather than languishing for months in distribution facility or warehouse. At Skin Actives we have the ability to make our batches small, keep the product refrigerated, and ship to the customer within a week or so.
Double Action Hair Serum
Skin Actives is also the only supplier for all the antioxidant proteins required to protect the cells that make hair and the enzymes that manufacture melanin, the pigment that colors hair. KGF and these antioxidant proteins are formulated in our sea kelp bioferment, the “miracle broth” that provides prebiotics, nutrition plus the valuable polysaccharides and antioxidants present in brown algae.
KGF is the foundation of our Double Action Hair Serum, which also include botanical extracts known to promote hair formation, caffeine to increase blood flow to the follicles, and antioxidants to cope with the oxidants we make plus those coming from the environment. All of these supportive ingredients make up the extensive list you’ll see on both our hair and Brow & Lash Serum.
Although we can’t promise that our hair promoting serums will work for everybody in every situation, many of our clients have benefited from them. SAS products work because they have the science to direct the formulation.
Stop by our shop and pick up some of our Double Action Hair Serum. We are currently stocking both our classic formulation and our Hair Care Serum with ROS BioNet™ and Apocynin! Standard shipping in the United States is always free, check us out today!