Best Peptides for Skin & Hair (2026)

GHK-Cu is the copper(II) complex of the tripeptide glycyl-L-histidyl-L-lysine, a molecule Pickart and Thaler first pulled out of human plasma in 1973. The free peptide (GHK, C14H24N6O4) weighs about 340.4 Da; bind it 1:1 to copper and you get the neutral GHK-Cu complex (C14H22Cu…

AHK-Cu (Ala-His-Lys-Copper) is a copper chelating tripeptide related to but distinct from GHK-Cu (Gly-His-Lys-Copper). Where GHK-Cu is the most-studied copper peptide and naturally occurs in human plasma, AHK-Cu is a synthetic structural analog with enhanced copper-chelating aff…

TB-500 is the name the market and the FDA use for a short synthetic fragment of thymosin beta-4: the seven-amino-acid, N-acetylated actin-binding sequence Ac-LKKTETQ (residues 17 to 23). Thymosin beta-4 itself is a 43-amino-acid peptide (about 4963 Da acetylated) and one of the…

BPC-157 (Body Protection Compound-157) is a synthetic pentadecapeptide consisting of 15 amino acids (Gly-Glu-Pro-Pro-Pro-Gly-Lys-Pro-Ala-Asp-Asp-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val) derived from a partial sequence of human gastric juice protein BPC. It has a molecular weight of 1419.53 Da and a CAS…

Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 (INCI: Acetyl Hexapeptide-3 in older nomenclature, commercially known as Argireline) is a synthetic hexapeptide designed as a competitive inhibitor of the SNARE complex at the neuromuscular junction. Its amino acid sequence (Ac-Glu-Glu-Met-Gln-Arg-Arg-NH2) m…

Snap-8 (INCI: Acetyl Glutamyl Heptapeptide-1) is a synthetic octapeptide designed as an analog of the N-terminal fragment of synaptosomal-associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP-25), which is the molecular target of botulinum toxin A (Botox). Where Botox cleaves SNAP-25 systemically…

PDRN (Polydeoxyribonucleotide) is a biotechnological compound derived from salmon sperm DNA (Oncorhynchus mykiss) through extraction, purification, and fractionation. It consists of polynucleotide chains with molecular weights ranging from 50 to 1500 kDa. PDRN is widely used in…

GHK-Cu + BPC-157 + TB-500 blend for skin and recovery

Melanotan I (afamelanotide) is a linear synthetic analog of alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (α-MSH) with the substitution of norleucine at position 4 and D-phenylalanine at position 7. Unlike Melanotan II (which is cyclic), Melanotan I is a linear peptide that is significan…

This is a duplicate/alias entry. The full, maintained guide for this compound lives at Melanotan II (/compound/melanotan-ii). See that page for mechanism, dosing, evidence, and safety.

RU-58841 (also known as PSK-3841 or HMR-3841, and commonly written simply as RU in hair-loss forums) is a non-steroidal androgen receptor antagonist originally developed by Roussel Uclaf (later absorbed into Sanofi) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The compound was designed as…

Clascoterone (brand name Winlevi; development codes CB-03-01 and, for the alopecia formulation, Breezula) is a first-in-class topical androgen receptor (AR) antagonist approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2020 for the treatment of acne vulgaris in patients…

Finasteride is an orally-active selective type II 5α-reductase inhibitor that blocks the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the primary androgenic driver of both benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and androgenetic alopecia (male-pattern hair loss). Develope…

Minoxidil is an FDA-approved treatment for pattern hair loss. Originally an oral blood-pressure drug, its hair-growth side effect led to the topical products (Rogaine) at 2% and 5%. It is a potassium-channel-opening vasodilator and a prodrug -- activated in the scalp by sulfotra…

Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) is a small palm native to the southeastern United States whose berries have been used medicinally for over a century for urogenital conditions. Historical use in traditional American Indian medicine and 19th-century eclectic medicine was for prostat…

Pygeum (Prunus africana, formerly classified as Pygeum africanum) is a lipophilic bark extract derived from the African cherry tree — a large, slow-growing evergreen hardwood species native to the mountainous forests of sub-Saharan Africa, from Cameroon and Kenya through Uganda,…

Biotin (vitamin B7, also called vitamin H from the German Haut for "skin" and historically named coenzyme R, factor W, factor R, factor X, vitamin Bw, or Bios II in various discovery-era nomenclatures) is a water-soluble vitamin that serves as the covalently-attached prosthetic…

Collagen peptides — also sold as hydrolyzed collagen, collagen hydrolysate, or simply "collagen powder" — are low-molecular-weight protein fragments (typically 2-10 kilodaltons, averaging around 3-6 kDa for most commercial products) produced by enzymatic hydrolysis of animal col…

Hesperidin is the signature flavanone glycoside of citrus fruit — specifically the 7-O-rutinoside of hesperetin — and it is the single most abundant flavonoid in the white pith and peel of sweet oranges, lemons, tangerines, and grapefruit. The compound accumulates at notable con…