Copper Gluconate for Hair as a Vital Element in Divi's Scalp Serum

Whether you are struggling with hair loss or want to improve your scalp health, using the right ingredients on your hair and scalp is essential. Copper gluconate is an effective ingredient that can benefit your hair, including growth.

But if you're like many people, the words "copper gluconate" probably don't ring any bells. What is this ingredient, and how does it work within the body? Why did we include copper gluconate as one of the essential ingredients in Divi's Scalp Serum formula?

Read on to learn everything you need to know about the benefits of copper gluconate for your scalp and hair as a critical element of Divi's nourishing Scalp Serum – backed by science and rooted in clean ingredients.

What Is Copper Gluconate?

Copper gluconate is a copper salt of D-gluconic acid, an organic compound that is the oxidized product of glucose. Gluconic acid occurs naturally in plants and is abundant in honey and wine. Commercial producers manufacture it through a fungal fermentation process for use in food products, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals as buffer salts.

In its raw form, copper gluconate is a powder with a blue-green hue. This ingredient is popular in skincare and hair care products, as it helps deliver copper to the skin when applied topically. Using topical products with copper gluconate can enhance your body's ability to absorb copper, allowing you to experience more benefits from this mineral.

The combination of copper and gluconic acid increases the bioavailability of the trace element copper in the body. Copper's bioavailability refers to the substance's easy absorption into the body so it can begin producing benefits.

Copper is a mineral we need to stay healthy. Our bodies use copper for various functions, such as our immune systems, nervous systems, blood vessels, connective tissues and energy production. Copper can also provide many health benefits for the skin, hair and scalp.

What Does Copper Gluconate Do in the Body?

Our bodies use copper in numerous ways. First, copper has potent biocidal properties capable of destroying harmful organisms. Secondly, copper contributes to numerous physiological and metabolic functions that keep almost all tissues in the human body functioning. It also plays a role in forming new blood vessels (angiogenesis).

In the skin, copper helps synthesize and stabilize proteins such as collagen in the extracellular matrix (ECM), a network of proteins and molecules that supports the cells and bodily tissue. One of the most significant effects of copper on hair and skin health is its role in forming collagen, one of the major structural components of the extracellular matrix.

In the skin and scalp, copper does the following:

Stimulates the proliferation of dermal fibroblasts: cells in the skin's dermis layer that generate connective tissue and enable the skin to recover from injury
Regulates the fibroblasts' production of collagen and elastin fiber components
Stimulates heat shock protein 47 (hsp-47), a chaperone protein for collagen formation
Stabilizes the skin's extracellular matrix by increasing crosslinking of collagen and elastin
Serves as a cofactor of superoxide dismutase, an antioxidant enzyme in the skin
Inhibits cellular oxidative effects such as membrane damage and lipid peroxidation
Serves as a cofactor of tyrosinase, a melanin enzyme responsible for skin and hair pigmentation

Copper gluconate is a type of copper salt, which can produce several effects within the body, including assisting the formation of peptide bonds. Copper peptides are involved in several processes promoting hair and scalp health. For example, Divi's Scalp Serum also contains the ingredient copper tripeptide-1 to promote scalp health. Research suggests that using products with copper gluconate can help these peptides bond.

Copper, an antimicrobial agent, is an important element for wound-healing, hydration, antioxidant, and serving as a building block for hyaluronic acid and collagen. Medical scientists also use copper gluconate in clinical trials as potential therapy to treat cancers such as glioblastoma (a brain cancer), multiple myeloma and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Transdermal Absorption Through the Scalp

When you apply serums to your scalp, the ingredients in those serums enter your body through transdermal absorption, which is absorption across the skin.

Once your skin absorbs a product, it enters your bloodstream, which can be carried to other body parts and begin producing benefits. Studies show that hair follicles provide an effective pathway for localized drug delivery. This research suggests that applying a serum to your scalp may increase its absorption into the body

Applying copper gluconate and other effective ingredients for hair health directly to the scalp is the most effective means of absorbing them into the body.

The Benefits of Copper Gluconate for Your Hair and Scalp

Copper gluconate helps improve the bioavailability of copper in your body, giving your body access to more copper. Copper gluconate and the mineral form of copper can produce several benefits for your hair and scalp.

Stimulating Hair Growth

One of copper's most significant benefits is its ability to stimulate hair growth. Copper is a trace element, and research shows how trace element deficiencies can cause several problems for your skin and hair. Hair loss and pigmentary changes are both examples of clinical manifestations of trace element deficiencies.

As a result, using an ingredient that aids copper absorption – such as copper gluconate – can potentially reverse these effects and stimulate hair growth. You may see faster hair growth when using a hair product with copper gluconate. If you have experienced hair thinning, reversing your copper deficiency may also revive your hair follicles.

Reduce Graying from Copper Deficiency

Doctors often prescribe copper gluconate as a treatment for copper deficiencies. While many people do not take in enough copper through diet alone, experiencing a true copper deficiency is rare. However, because copper plays a role in melanin formation, low copper levels can cause prematurely graying hair. This link between copper and hair graying suggests that copper gluconate could help in reducing hair graying due to a copper deficiency.

Helping Maintain the Structure of the Hair Shaft

Copper also plays an essential role in maintaining the structure of the hair shaft, which is the visible portion of the hair that extends out of the skin. The overall health and structure of this shaft contribute to the appearance of your hair and its strength against breakage. Research suggests that the presence of copper in the hair follicles may influence the formation of the hair fiber shaft. As a result, using Divi’s Scalp Serum featuring copper gluconate should indirectly promote hair shaft strength and structure.

Synthesizing and Stabilizing Collagen

Copper is involved in synthesizing several skin proteins in the extracellular matrix, including collagen. Collagen can improve your hair in a few different ways. First, collagen gives your body access to the amino acids necessary to build hair. Collagen consists mainly of three amino acids: proline, glycine and hydroxyproline. Proline is one of the main components in keratin, a protein that strengthens hair and enhances its appearance.

Next, collagen can fight damage to your hair follicles caused by free radicals, which are harmful compounds resulting from stress, pollutants, and environmental contaminants. These compounds damage the hair follicles, but research suggests collagen can provide the antioxidants needed to fight free radicals.

Collagen can also reverse age-related hair thinning. Your body tends to produce less collagen as you age, which may be one reason your hair becomes thinner over time. However, supplementing collagen production with copper can prevent hair thinning and reverse these effects.

Synthesizing and Stabilizing Elastin

Elastin is another skin protein in the extracellular matrix. Using Divi’s Scalp Serum with copper gluconate can aid the synthesis of elastin, which produces a few effects on your hair health.

For example, research suggests that hair follicles depend on elastin fibers to function correctly. The hair follicles are in the reticular dermis, a layer near the bottom of the skin surrounded by a net-like structure of elastin and collagen fibers, which support the skin's structure and elasticity.

Elastin deficiencies are also associated with Menkes Syndrome, which causes brittle hair. Increasing elastin synthesis can reverse the symptoms associated with Menkes Syndrome and strengthen the hair.

Increasing Follicle Size

Topical application of copper gluconate to hair follicles stimulates copper peptide bond formation. Copper peptides produce several benefits for scalp and hair health, including follicular enlargement (increasing the size of the hair follicles). A 1993 study found that a copper-binding peptide, PC1031, produced follicular enlargement on the skin of fuzzy rats. Further research in 2007 suggests that a copper peptide can also promote the growth of human hair follicles. Your hair follicle size can impact the fullness and thickness of your hair.

How To Apply Copper Gluconate to Your Scalp Using Divi's Scalp Serum

The best way to apply copper gluconate to the scalp is in combination with other nutrients through Divi's Scalp Serum, which contains an optimal dose of copper gluconate and many other clean ingredients to promote hair growth and scalp health. Once a day, apply 3/4 of a dropper of serum to the entire scalp, then massage the serum into the scalp and leave it. This allows the copper gluconate-infused serum to penetrate the scalp, enhancing transdermal absorption.

Side Effects of Copper Gluconate for Scalp and Hair

You can feel confident in Divi's Scalp Serum containing a scientifically formulated dosage of copper gluconate. The copper gluconate in our dermatologist-tested Scalp Serum provides no risks or side effects.

Try Copper Gluconate as an Element in Divi's Scalp Serum for Healthy Hair Growth

Copper gluconate for scalp and hair health delivers essential copper to your cells, providing numerous benefits for hair, skin and scalp health. Divi's Scalp Serum combines an optimal dose of copper gluconate as part of a suite of science-backed, vegan ingredients to treat and alleviate symptoms associated with hair loss, nourish hair follicles to promote growth, and provide nutrition to the scalp.