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Caffeine for Hair??
I am in the process of researching additives for hair conditioner/hair tonic. I have heard a lot about caffeine being good for stimulating hair growth.
1) is this true?
2) I have found a caffeine powder, but there are warnings that it is highly toxic in the condensed powder formula (if not used properly). Does this refer to if ingested or topical?
3) I have heard too much caffeine in cosmetic formulas can have an adverse affect on hair growth, so how much is enough, and how much is too much?Thanks!
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8 Replies
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I know that @Belassi has done some testing/research into using coffee in formulation. Not so sure about caffeine.
I would say that it is mostly a marketing ingredient. If you want to add it to your formula, I would just use coffee.
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Don’t use it without carefully calculating the concentration. I would not use it at a higher concentration than that of percolated coffee.
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I’m seeing the caffeine concentration being about .00088?
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1) I just read this today, maybe it helps: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5804833/ It does appear to be funded by the manufacturer of Alpecin Liquid, but I found it interesting that 0.2% caffeine was found to be as effective as 5% minoxidil (rogaine). That doesn’t mean I suggest you use 0.2% caffeine in your shampoo, it’s just to show that it probably can do something.2) As far as I’m aware, the toxicity of caffeine powder is based on ingestion, being lethal in the region of about 10g. Irritation in the above study was reportedly lower than with minoxidil.
3) No idea.
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400mg / kilo of shampoo would be the maximum I would use. Our specialty shampoo is based on actual coffee. That’s not the only active ingredient though.
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@Belassi Also thinking of making a caffeine shampoo, what is your reasoning why you wouldn’t use more than 0.04% in a shampoo?
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Because that’s the amount in coffee. Caffeine is potentially dangerous in large amounts.
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I see, thank you.
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