Capixyl & Astressin-B: New Hair Regrowth Ingredients Gaining Attention

A Quebec cosmetics company, Unipex, has begun marketing a new hair loss ingredient that, it says, can stimulate new hair growth. The incredient, Capixyl, is a “biomimetic peptide” combined with a red clover extract. Based on the combined and synergistic action of its two ingredients, Capixyl supposedly prevents hair miniaturization, favors a better hair anchoring, and reduces inflammation, an aggravating factor in hair loss.

The company claims that clinical tests demonstrate Capixyl’s effectiveness in increasing the hair density by 46%. This makes Capixyl more effective for hair regrowth than many other products on the market, the company adds, and without causing side effects.

Unipex launches its Capixyl-based products in March. Unipex is a privately held company specializing in the development, production, marketing and distribution of active ingredients and specialty chemicals for world-class producers in the cosmetics, pharmaceutical, specialty chemical and nutrition industries.

More recently, another company, Divine Skin, launched the first product based on the peptide Astressin-B, a “hormone antagonist” that caused a lot of excitement earlier in 2011 when studies showed it regrew hair in stressed out mice. Astressin-B is meant to be used in conjunction with Divine Skins’s Spectral.DNC hair regrowth product and “nanosome” shampoo and conditioner. The first batches sold out within days. (The product will be available at the end of October. You can add your name to a no-obligation waiting list for a 3-month starter pack by clicking here.)

“Astressin-B is a very complex peptide that is difficult to synthesize,” said Divine Skin CEO Daniel Khesin. “So we are especially excited that the resulting product will be reasonably priced as well as cutting-edge, considering the extraordinary development schedule and cost.”

Astressin-B sparked extensive media coverage worldwide and excitement around the biotech industry after a clinical study, conducted by the University of California Los Angeles and the Veterans Administration, was published in February. By applying the peptide (a protein fragment) subcutaneously to mice that had gone bald due to overexpression of stress hormones, scientists showed that astressin-B blocked receptors for corticotropin-releasing factor, involved in the stress response, and led to hair regrowth.

“We think this technology is years ahead of its time,” continued Khesin. “It could provide significant benefits to many of our hair-loss customers. Spectral.F7 is another direct result of our relentless commitment to bring the latest technology to market first and always.”

Spectral.F7, a booster that can be combined with other treatments or used alone, should begin shipping at the end of October. It comes less than two months after Divine Skin introduced Nanoxidil, a new molecule designed to stimulate follicles at the vertex of the scalp and surpass hypertensive remedies for efficacy and tolerability.