Can Collagen Help Your Hair?

Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body and an important structural component of
your skin. So it’s no surprise that collagen is best known for its skin health benefits. But can
collagen also help your hair?

Hair is mostly made up of keratin, not collagen, so boosting your collagen levels won’t directly
affect your hair. But there are some good reasons why collagen may benefit your hair indirectly.
Here are a few ways that collagen may help your hair:

1. Increases Hair-Building Proteins

Collagen is a great source of amino acids, including some that your body can use to build
keratin. In fact, keratin is predominantly made up of proline — one of the most abundant amino
acids in collagen. So taking collagen can give your body some of the building blocks it needs for
hair production.

2. Supports a Healthy Scalp

A healthy scalp is essential for healthy hair growth. Collagen helps maintain the strength and
elasticity of the scalp, particularly the dermis layer, which contains the hair roots and provides
structural support to the hair follicle bulbs.

Loss of collagen in the scalp as we age is thought to play a role in hair thinning. As a result,
replenishing collagen levels may help maintain a healthy scalp that can support healthy hair
growth.

3. Provides Antioxidant Benefits

Early research shows that marine collagen peptides have significant antioxidant activity that can
help protect against oxidative stress.^{1 , 2 , 3} Why does that matter?

Oxidative stress plays a major role in the aging process, including the graying and thinning of
hair.⁴ In theory, the antioxidant benefits of marine collagen peptides may help protect against
these effects, although this hasn’t yet been tested in humans.

All this suggests that collagen has some significant potential benefits for your hair! Our new
Love is in the Hair Hot Cacao includes 2,000 mg marine collagen peptides, along with MSM,
hydrolyzed keratin peptides, nutrients, and botanicals to help strengthen your hair and promote
hair growth.*

* FDA disclaimer

References

¹ Wang B, Wang YM, et al. Isolation and characterization of collagen and antioxidant collagen peptides
from scales of croceine croaker (Pseudosciaena crocea). Mar Drugs. 2013 Nov 21;11(11):4641-61. doi:
10.3390/md11114641.
² Abedin MZ, Karim AA, et al. Biochemical and radical-scavenging properties of sea cucumber (Stichopus
vastus) collagen hydrolysates. Nat Prod Res. 2014;28(16):1302-5. doi: 10.1080/14786419.2014.900617.
³ Zhang L, Zheng Y, et al. The anti-photoaging effect of antioxidant collagen peptides from silver carp
(Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) skin is preferable to tea polyphenols and casein peptides. Food Funct.
2017 Apr 19;8(4):1698-1707. doi: 10.1039/c6fo01499b.
⁴ Trüeb RM. Oxidative stress in ageing of hair. Int J Trichology. 2009 Jan;1(1):6-14. doi: 10.4103/0974-
7753.51923.