Sea Kelp Bioferment

Beautiful Nereocystic luetkeana.

People over at the Skincaretalk forum are RAVING about how much it helps with hair growth.  A lot of people are saying that their hairlines filled in soon after starting with this stuff.

Sea Kelp Bioferment!

This keeps coming up in my hair research, so I ordered a few ounces from bulkactives. It smells very subtly briney, and feels and looks like aloe gel.

For the past week, I've been using it to style my son's hair, and as a scalp and hair treatment for myself. So far, I'm LOVING it. My son's hair keeps its style pretty well, and my hair is very very soft and shiny. Also, my hair fall has all but stopped. I'm not sure if that is because of the polysorbate 80 I started using, or this sea kelp stuff. All I can say is, "yay."

How to Use

Use it like hair gel for styling. I put a dime-size splotch on my son's hair, avoiding the roots, and then blow dry it straight (when he wants to look like Macklemore). 


I rub a dime-sized splotch into my scalp and fluff it through the length of my hair (wet or dry) before going out in the morning. There is no buildup whatsoever, and no weight to the hair. My hair is soft and feels absolutely awesome. 

Seriously. I love this stuff. I can definitely see why people are raving about it. It remains to be seen whether it will help with regrowth.

 

What is it?

Sea kelp bioferment is basically Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) that has been fermented with lactobacillus. The fermentation process breaks down the cell walls within the kelp, making the goodies more available to us when it's applied topically. It's used in skin and hair products, primarily.

Here's a description from BulkActives:

Botanical name: Nereocystis Luetkeana

INCI: Lactobacillus/Kelp Ferment Filtrate

Source: Bull kelp
Parts used: Whole Plant

Composition: Mineral Salts, Laminaran, Alginic acid, Tannins, Vitamins, Fucosterol, Fucosan , Mannitol , Fucoidan,-Polyphenols,  Beta-Carotene , Antibiotic substances, Proteins, Amino acids

Solvent of extraction: Water

Preservatives: 0,6 % Phenoxyethanol

Appearance: Colorless to light tan, clear viscous liquid

Odor: Faint characteristic odor

pH-value: 5,0 - 7,0

Density: 1,020 - 1,080 (20° C)

Viscosity: 15,000 - 24,000 cPs

Solubility: In water clear soluble

Suggested percentage: 1 - 100%

Usage: Add to creams, lotions, toners.  Base for shampoo and hair conditioners. Use pure as a mask or shaving gel. Can be mixed with creams or diluted with distilled water.

Storage: Store in cool and dry place. In closed containers at temperature of 10°-25°C, protected from light.
Shelf life: At least 30 months from date of manufacture (if stored correctly)

 

What's in it?

Minerals (including iodine, copper, molybdate, magnesium, and others); Laminaran; Alginic acid; Tannins; Vitamins; Fucosterol; Fucosan; Mannitol; Fucoidan; Polyphenols; Beta-Carotene; Antibiotic substances; Proteins; Amino acids

There are lots of good things that these ingredients can do, but the ingredients that are most relevant to this situation are Fucoidan and Laminaran. Fuciodan has been shown to grow hair by acting on the notch signaling mechanism within the hair follicle. Laminaran stimulates keratinocytes, which are responsible for hair, skin, and nail growth.

Many of the remaining constituents function as antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic.

 

Fucoidan

Fucoidan has been shown to regrow the ear hairs of zebrafish. Hey! It's something!!!This is likely accomplished by promoting the notch signaling within the hair follicles (see below for links to studies and a great article discussing the mechanism).

Fucoidans are sulfated polysaccharides with structures that depend on the plant source and growing conditions. Applied to the skin, fucoidan will increase the density of collagen bundles, decrease activity of proteases (enzymes that break down dermal proteins), increase scavenging of free radicals and increase cell proliferation. These effects would be mediated through increased expression of ß1-integrin and may also help with wound healing. In addition to assisting in collagen synthesis, fucoidan inhibits the replication of many viruses, including herpes, human cytomegalovirus, HIV-1 and others. Fucoidan has been shown to inhibit the binding of the bacteria Helicobacter pylori (involved in human ulcers) to stomach epithelial cells.


Here's one of the studies on the zebrafish. The authors found that fuicoidan promoted hair regeneration after cell death in the auditory canals of zebrafish. They posit that the mechanism involves the Notch signaling pathway.

Moon IS, So JH, Jung YM, Lee WS, Kim EY, Choi JH, Kim CH, Choi JY. 2011. Fucoidan promotes mechanosensory hair cell regeneration following amino glycoside-induced cell death. Hearing Resolution: 282 (1-2): 236-42.

Here's a study supporting the notch signaling associated with hair growth:

Lin V, Golub JS, Nguyen TB, Hume CR, Oesterle EC, Stone JS. 2011. Inhibition of Notch activity promotes nonmitotic regeneration of hair cells in the adult mouse utricles. Journal of Neuroscience 31(43):15329-39.

Here's a great explanation:

Aubin-Houzelstein, Geneviève. 2010. Notch Signaling and the Developing Hair Follicle.In Notch Signaling in Embryology and Cancer edited by Jörg Reichrath and Sandra Reichrath.. Landes Bioscience and Springer Science+Business Media.

Notch function in the hair follicle has been mainly studied by use of transgenic mice carrying either loss or gain of function mutations in various members of the pathway. These studies revealed that whereas embryonic development of the hair follicle can be achieved without Notch, its postnatal development requires an intact Notch signaling in the hair bulb and the outer root sheath. Among the many roles played by Notch in the hair follicle, two can be highlighted: in the bulge, Notch controls a cell fate switch in hair follicle stem cells or their progenitors, preventing them from adopting an epidermal fate. In the hair bulb, Notch controls cell differentiation, ensuring the proper development of every layer of the hair shaft and inner root sheath. Notch function in the hair follicle is both cell autonomous and cell non autonomous and involves intercellular communication between adjacent layers.

 

Laminaran

According to Elicityl:

Laminaran (or laminarin) is a storage polysaccharide of Laminaria sp and other brown algae such as Fucus vesiculosus, Saccharina longicruris and Ascophyllum nodosum. It is a linear polysaccharide made up of β(1-3) glucan with some β(1-6) branch point.

It has been discovered that laminarin, oligosaccharides derived therefrom and compositions containing same have stimulating, regenerating, conditioning and energising effects on human dermis fibroblasts and human epidermis keratinocytes.

Keratinocytes are skin cells residing in the lower epidermis. The proteins found in these cells are keratins, which make up our hair, skin, and nails. 

Here's a great discussion:
Rioux et al.; Phytochemistry, 70 (2009) 1069–1075).

Alginic acid

Lee WR, Park JH, Kim KH, Kim SJ, Park DH, Chae MH, Suh SH, Jeong SW, Park KK. 2009.  The biological effects of topical alginate treatment in an animal model of skin wound healing. Wound Repair Regen. 17(4):505-10.

These data suggest that alginate has significant wound healing promoting activity. The results from the present study indicate that the effect of alginate on wound healing may involve biological mechanisms associated with the expression of transforming growth factor-beta1, fibronectin, vascular endothelial growth factor, and collagen-I.

 

Brachkova MI, Duarte MA, Pinto JF.. 2010. Preservation of viability and antibacterial activity of Lactobacillus spp. in calcium alginate beads. Eur J Pharm Sci. 41(5):589-96. 

This study discusses the improvement in antibacterial qualities when lactobacillus in conjunction with alginate.

Alginate beads in which lactobacilli proliferated to the beads surface (ES and C(ES)) differed significantly from the other types of beads in their physicochemical properties, showing smoother surface morphology, more spherical shape, bigger weight, lower calcium content, density and crushing force. Lactobacilli cultures, at high cell concentrations (10(8)cfu/ml) were active against both Gram-positive and negative multi-resistant bacteria. Beads containing both entrapped and surface lactobacilli (ES) resulted in viability and antibacterial activity most similar to non-processed lactobacilli cultures. The viability and antibacterial activity of the immobilized lactobacilli remained stable after 6 months storage.

Friedman AJ, Phan J, Schairer DO, Champer J, Qin M, Pirouz A, Blecher-Paz K, Oren A, Liu PT, Modlin RL, Kim J. 2013. Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity of chitosan-alginate nanoparticles: a targeted therapy for cutaneous pathogens. J Invest Dermatol. (5):1231-9. doi: 10.1038/jid.2012.399. Epub 2012 Nov 29.

NPs synthesized with chitosan and alginate demonstrated a direct antimicrobial activity in vitro against Propionibacterium acnes, the bacterium linked to the pathogenesis of acne. By electron microscopy (EM) imaging, chitosan-alginate NPs were found to induce the disruption of the P. acnes cell membrane, providing a mechanism for the bactericidal effect. The chitosan-alginate NPs also exhibited anti-inflammatory properties as they inhibited P. acnes-induced inflammatory cytokine production in human monocytes and keratinocytes. Furthermore, benzoyl peroxide (BP), a commonly used antiacne drug, was effectively encapsulated in the chitosan-alginate NPs and demonstrated superior antimicrobial activity against P. acnes compared with BP alone while demonstrating less toxicity to eukaryotic cells. Together, these data suggest the potential utility of topical delivery of chitosan-alginate NP-encapsulated drug therapy for the treatment of dermatologic conditions with infectious and inflammatory components.

 

Polyphenols

Talita Pizza Anunciato MPharm, Pedro Alves da Rocha Filho DPharm. 2012. Carotenoids and polyphenols in nutricosmetics, nutraceuticals, and cosmeceuticals.
Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. Volume 11, Issue 1, pages 51–54.

Miri

read more about hair care for thinning hair.