Elite Hair Restoration: the follicle files

A selective interest in hair

For me, “elite” would mean a hair claim that survives close inspection. I award shelf space to actual hair outcomes before entertaining a sweeping description of everything a molecule might do. Even then, the name on the experiment deserves a second look.

Take the copper peptides. The experiment that lengthened isolated human hair follicles tested AHK-Cu, a close relative of GHK-Cu. The human hair-count trial tested a combination of 5-aminolevulinic acid and GHK. The molecule names make a tidy verdict inconvenient.

The complication has left my enthusiasm intact and the broad claim looking shakier. There is enough here to investigate, and enough variation between the experiments to make a sweeping verdict feel premature.

Copper peptides and isolated follicles

A follicle outside the body can still be the subject of a revealing experiment. In the AHK-Cu study, human follicles elongated and cultured dermal papilla cells proliferated. That is unusually close to the thing a hair claim is about, while remaining an experiment on isolated tissue and cells.

The copper-peptide file follows that result, the cell-survival findings around it, and the separate collagen experiment that helps explain GHK-Cu’s appeal.

The hair-count trial

The combination study followed 45 men with androgenetic alopecia for 6 months and reported greater hair-count increases than placebo. I put that result near the front of the cabinet because the investigators counted hair in people. The companion molecule stays on the card.

Open the trial record for the reported changes, the preparation tested and the question of which ingredient deserves the credit.

Delivery into skin

Then there is the unglamorous matter of arrival. A human-skin experiment measured copper passing through skin layers and remaining in a dermal depot. A later formulation review describes poor skin-barrier permeability as a central problem for GHK.

The skin-delivery file is where I give that practical obstacle its due. A promising ingredient and a successful preparation are different achievements; the transport question deserves as much attention as the ingredient name.