When people talk about amino acids, they're typically discussing topics like muscle building, digestive health, and immune health – but we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about your scalp and hair. The amino acid glycine does a lot for the body, aiding hair growth and loss prevention.
Divi's Scalp Serum, Shampoo & Conditioner all contain glycine for hair and scalp health. In this article, Divi’s expert team explains what glycine is and how it aids in the growth of thicker, healthier hair.
What Is an Amino Acid?
Amino acids, commonly referred to as the building blocks of life itself, are molecules that combine to form peptides and proteins. The human body needs amino acids and the chains they create to perform many vital functions. The body uses three types of amino acids:
- Essential – The body cannot create the nine essential amino acids. Instead, we must consume them in our regular diet. The word "essential" can be a bit of a misnomer, as the body needs all amino acids to function properly.
- Nonessential – The body gets nonessential amino acids through diet and by producing them itself. Glycine is a nonessential amino acid because the body produces it naturally.
- Conditional – The body struggles to produce certain amino acids when dealing with an illness or heightened stress. These amino acids become conditionally essential during this time, which means the person must get them externally.
Divi's Scalp Serum formula contains many amino acids, including the conditional amino acid glycine, all contributing to scalp health and hair loss prevention.
What Is Glycine?
Glycine makes up 11.5% of the body's amino acids and plays a vital role in many functions. These include but are not limited to:
- Protein synthesis
- Collagen formation
- Enzyme function
- Immune regulation
- Digestive bile production
- Vitamin absorption
- Nerve impulse regulation
- Detoxification
Without glycine, the body loses critical functions necessary for overall growth and development, such as growing strong connective tissues for skin, muscles, ligaments, cartilage and bones. It also wouldn't have the compounds needed to encourage new hair growth with strong, well-anchored follicles.
Benefits of Glycine for the Scalp
An unhealthy scalp contributes to hair breakage, premature hair loss, and conditions like itching, dryness, psoriasis and eczema. Divi's Scalp Serum formula includes glycine to take advantage of many benefits improving these types of conditions for better overall scalp health.
Glutathione Formation
Amino acids bind together in chains called peptides. Glutathione contains three amino acids (cysteine, glycine and glutamate), so it's a tripeptide.
Polypeptides perform many biological functions in the body. Glutathione serves as an antioxidant, binding to free radicals and neutralizing oxidants that harm healthy cells.
When the body experiences oxidative stress and forms too many free radicals, hair follicles shrink, causing hair thinning and hair loss, especially in women. The antioxidant properties of glycine are essential for encouraging optimal scalp health by reducing free radicals.
Collagen Formation
Collagen is a protein (a long amino acid chain) that provides benefits to many parts of the body, including hair follicle stem cells, which activate during hair growth. Collagen levels in the skin and scalp decrease as you age, but increasing levels of certain collagen types in the body can improve hair follicle health and encourage hair follicle regeneration.
Why are we talking about collagen in an article about an amino acid? Well, glycine makes up 33% of the human body's collagen. Without glycine, the body cannot produce the collagen it needs to grow strong and flexible hair fibers, skin fibers, and more. Divi's Scalp Serum has an amino acid mix including glycine in part for these collagen formation benefits.
Inflammation Reduction
Studies have found that glycine produces anti-inflammatory effects in the body. Higher levels of glycine suppress the activation of inflammatory cytokines and free radicals, reducing inflammation throughout the body.
Inflammation of the scalp causes itchiness, sensitivity, and dry, flaky skin. By reducing inflammation, glycine directly contributes to improved overall scalp health.
Benefits of Glycine for Hair
Hair goes through a life cycle comprised of three stages:
- Anagen – Hair grows actively for 2-8 years.
- Catagen – For 2-3 weeks, the scalp retains hair growth.
- Telogen – Hair enters a resting phase for two to three months, then sheds from the scalp.
Hair and scalp growth treatments target the first and last phases of the life cycle, encouraging more growth during the anagen stage and reducing the rate of the telogen stage.
Glycine provides many benefits when it comes to preventing and treating hair loss at both stages.
Reduced Telogen Rate
As a person ages, their hair begins to thin as their overall hair growth slows down. One way to counter this relies on reducing the telogen rate. Studies show how hair growth treatments featuring glycine can reduce the telogen rate and promote increased hair growth.
One study investigated the effects of a hair growth foam on 62 men. The test subjects used either the test foam containing glycine and other ingredients for six months or a control foam with no active ingredients. This study found a significant decrease in telogen rate and an improvement in hair density.
Keratin Production
Hair is made mostly of a structural protein called keratin. You've undoubtedly seen this word on many shampoos and conditioners promising healthier hair, or maybe you've had a keratin treatment at your local salon. Keratin is the single most important building block for strong, healthy hair because it provides the structural integrity and elasticity needed to twist, turn, and fold without breaking.
The fibrous keratin protein consists of several amino acids, including glycine. The body needs keratin to grow strong, healthy hair follicles, but it can't produce enough protein chains without adequate glycine.
Reduced Stress Levels
Stress can wreak all kinds of havoc on the body, including temporary or permanent hair loss. Luckily, glycine can tackle this problem at the source by stimulating serotonin production. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter affecting many aspects of body function, including but not limited to:
- Sleep – The body uses serotonin to produce melatonin, the hormone that tells your body when to sleep and when to be awake. It also improves the quality of sleep when combined with dopamine, another critical neurotransmitter.
- Mood – Serotonin helps elevate mood by improving focus, emotional stability, and levels of calm and happiness. Many people call it the "feel good" neurotransmitter.
- Libido – Serotonin and its good friend dopamine also work together to increase a person's sex drive.
All of these effects result in less stress and less subsequent hair loss through oxidation.
Benefits of Peptides Containing Glycine
When discussing glycine for hair, we must consider the beneficial peptides containing this amino acid. Divi's Scalp Serum contains both glycine and beneficial peptides containing glycine in their amino acid chains.
Acetyl Tetrapeptide-3
This peptide contains four amino acids:
- Glycine
- Lysine
- Histidine
- Acetic acid
Researchers have studied acetyl tetrapeptide-3 and found it to be an effective alternative hair loss treatment. This peptide stimulates hair growth and encourages larger hair follicles with improved anchoring.
This peptide also stimulates fibrous ECM protein production. ECM proteins, such as collagen, provide vital support for other cells. In the case of your hair and scalp, these proteins encourage better anchorage of hair by providing an improved extracellular matrix bed.
Copper Tripeptide-1
Copper tripeptide-1 is another peptide containing the amino acid glycine. The body uses this peptide, also called GHK-Cu, for many regenerative and protective purposes, including:
- Improving skin elasticity and firmness
- Repairing proteins that protect the skin
- Stimulate healing
- Reduce damage caused by free radicals and inflammation
- Improve hair thickness
- Increase hair growth
- Increase the size of hair follicles
With such a wide range of benefits – we didn't even list them all – we had to include this ingredient in Divi’s Scalp Serum, Shampoo & Conditioner.
What Other Benefits Does Glycine Provide to the Body?
Although glycine proves vital for healthy hair, it provides the body with a long list of other benefits, including but not limited to:
- Creatine production – This compound aids in muscle growth, bone health and neurological functioning.
- Improved sleep quality: Studies indicate glycine can improve sleep quality, helping the body fall and stay asleep.
- Reduced liver damage caused by alcohol: Consuming too much alcohol can wreak havoc on your liver, but glycine can help lessen the impact by encouraging alcohol metabolism in the stomach. This study was conducted on rats, so further studying is likely necessary to confirm these effects in humans.
What Other Amino Acids Does Divi's Scalp Serum Formula Contain?
Our Scalp Serum contains many beneficial amino acids to promote stronger, thicker and healthier hair. These include arginine, aspartic acid, histidine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, proline, serine, threonine and valine.
Some of these relate directly to glycine. For example, the body needs serine to produce glycine, which is what makes glycine a conditional amino acid (meaning they are essential only when your body faces stress or illness). Without proper levels of serine, glycine production slows, and it becomes more important to get it by consuming glycine-rich food products.
How Long Do I Have to Use Divi's Scalp Serum Before I See Results?
We recommend continued daily application of the recommended amount (three-quarters of a dropper) for at least three months to notice results. Some users may see results sooner, but this is not the standard.
Users should note that Divi’s products help treat hair loss and scalp irritation but can't cure underlying conditions that may be causing your symptoms. For example, Divi's Scalp Serum may help inhibit DHT's hair loss effects while you use the product, but your hair loss may return if you discontinue use.
What Are the Benefits of Using Divi's Scalp Serum?
Divi’s team understands hair growth and scalp health struggles and created Divi's Scalp Serum to help people take back control of their hair and scalp journeys. Using our Scalp Serum can provide many hair growth benefits, including the following:
- Improved hair growth
- Fewer signs of hair loss
- A fuller-looking hair appearance
- A healthier environment for follicle growth
- Improved blood flow to hair follicles
- Natural cell renewal
Divi’s team conducted a study at the beginning of 2022 to evaluate how consumers feel about our products. We surveyed our study participants after eight weeks of daily use of our Scalp Serum. This is what they said:
- 35 out of 36 participants agreed or strongly agreed that Divi’s Scalp Serum soothes and cools the scalp.
- 34 out of 36 agreed or strongly agreed that their scalps felt moisturized.
- 33 out of 36 agreed or strongly agreed that their scalps felt hydrated.
- All participants agreed or strongly agreed that their scalps felt refreshed after use.
If you struggle with male-pattern baldness, post-menopause hair thinning, or another type of hair loss, consider giving our product a try. It's vegan, cruelty-free, and built around scientifically proven and clean ingredients.
Try Divi's Scalp Serum for Better Scalp and Hair Health
Many people face hair thinning and hair loss as they get older due to hormone changes, diet, stress, poor scalp health and other factors. The Divi team understands the benefits of glycine for hair growth and scalp health, so we included it in Divi's Scalp Serum, Shampoo & Conditioner formulas. If you struggle with hair thinning, a receding hairline, or other hair loss, try Divi's Scalp Serum plus the other science-backed products in our lineup.
Our clinically proven scalp products provide great results with no reported side effects. In testing that included male and female volunteers, most subjects agreed that Divi's Scalp Serum soothes and calms hair roots and leaves the scalp feeling moisturized, hydrated and refreshed. Subjects also reported a soothed itchy scalp thanks to our Scalp Serum.
Give this clean and safe product a try to discover the power of glycine for hair growth and the many benefits provided by the other clean ingredients in Divi's Scalp Serum.
