After announcing our all-new hair collection last month, we thought we’d circle back to let everyone know how the new line is doing and to highlight some of the features we didn’t get a chance to discuss in the run-up to the launch.

Our Main Takeaway from the Hair Collection Launch

Now that enough time has passed for our customers to put the products to the test, we’re confident in handing down a verdict: the hair collection has been a resounding success! We’ve been delighted by accounts of positive outcomes not just in the area of hair and scalp health, but also in styling, strength and manageability! 

That being said, the success of the new collection comes with some not-so-good news: the early-adopter sale price is ending soon. As much as we’d like to continue it indefinitely, this week is the last opportunity to order it with a hefty launch discount. 

For those still considering whether to give the new collection a try, we’re dedicating this blog to what makes it a compelling lineup in the first place. In particular, we’re focusing on keratin, one of the key new ingredients that makes these products so effective.

What’s the Big Picture on Keratin?

Keratin can be found all over the natural world. In fact, its presence is so widespread that it can sometimes be difficult to reckon with its many applications in living things. 

We asked our founder, Dr. Hannah Sivak, PhD, to provide us with some context. She writes on her blog, “[T]hey are among the toughest biological materials, serving various interesting functions, like scales to armor the body, horns to combat aggressors, hagfish slime as a defense against predators, nails, and claws to increase prehension, hair and fur to protect against the environment.” 

It may be hard to imagine that a material found in scales and horns could also be found in the human body, but that is the flexibility of keratin in a nutshell. Keratin is nature’s go-to choice for a tough, durable protein, so when mammals needed a flexible and dependable material to keep them warm, dry and safe, nature knew just where to look.

Benefits of Keratin for the Hair

As one of the toughest proteins the body makes, keratin is responsible for the structure of hair. This durability enables our hair to survive repeated exposure to water and to provide a beneficial dose of UV protection. Since it serves such a foundational role in the hair, keratin defines many of its characteristics, including:

• Strength (flexible or brittle)
• Elasticity (styleable or unmanageable)
• Texture (straighter or curlier)
• Moisture retention (dry or lustrous)

In essence, without keratin, human hair wouldn’t exist as we know it. 

Benefits of Keratin for the Skin 

As we’ve established, keratin can be found in many other places beyond the hair, including the skin. So how does keratin work in the skin?

As Dr. Sivak writes, “The primary function of the keratin intermediate filament cytoskeleton is to provide cells with structural resilience against mechanical trauma.” In other words, keratin plays an important role in making our skin strong enough to withstand the bumps and scraps of everyday life! 

The value of keratin in the skin is not a new discovery for Skin Actives. For years, we’ve been using Keratinocyte Growth Factor as a key ingredient in our Double Action Hair Serum and Brow and Lash Serum. Since we first found a way to isolate the protein, KGF has been a useful tool for giving Skin Actives products their rejuvenative effects.

Why Keratin Works in our New Hair Collection

At Skin Actives, we’ve always maintained that to understand hair health, we must understand skin health. After all, the skin is where the hair begins! By supplying the skin with the nourishment it needs to perform best, we can motivate improvements in the hair. 

When we went back to the drawing board for our new hair collection, we dug deep into ingredients that would serve both the needs of the hair and the skin. Realizing that adding keratin directly in our recipes would do wonders for both, we worked out a way to include hydrolyzed keratin in three of our successful new releases. Here are the highlights:

Leave-In Revitalizing Conditioner - With a few easy spritzes, Leave-In Revitalizing Conditioner refreshes and nourishes the hair, conferring significant gains in strength and thickness. The lightweight texture makes hair more manageable for styling, while keratin invigorates the hair’s structure and ability to retain moisture, leading to a dazzling shine.

Nourishing Hair Mask - For a hair care experience with powerful nourishing and soothing properties, we crafted a sumptuous mask including tremella (a powerful moisturizer) and kefir bioferment (a dense source of antioxidants). With a more direct-to-skin approach, Nourishing Hair Mask delivers keratin straight to the follicles, encouraging the growth of hair fibers that are softer, more elastic and less prone to tangling. 

Brow and Lash Conditioner - Not to forget the hairs beyond the scalp, we formulated a special conditioner to bring the benefits of our other hair care products to the brows and lashes. Also featuring keratin and kefir bioferment, our new Brow and Lash Conditioner strengthens thin or damaged brow and lash hairs without clumpy mascara or chemical gels. 

These new products serve as complements to long-time favorites Double Action Hair Serum and Brow and Lash Serum with ROS BioNet and Apocynin, which provide their own array of nourishing and restoring actives. Unlike many options on the market that either strip the hair or rely on stressful chemicals, every product in this article is a fantastic choice for invigorating the hair in a way that is healthy, balanced and positive. 

Not only will your hair be healthier and easier to style, the skin beneath it will be flourishing as well. Just don’t forget: while our new hair collection is here to stay, the introductory discount is not! Act fast to explore the new collection before early-adopter pricing runs out.