This sustainable, wood-based hair conditioner may be pitch black and smell like peat, but its creators claim it could be the future of haircare after tests suggest it may work just as well as commercial products. 听

鈥淲e are using the power of nature,鈥� says at Stockholm University in Sweden. 鈥淲e combine a high level of science with old traditions鈥� [to] get something really cool: simple, useful and quite effective.鈥�

Pylypchuk and his colleagues used lignin, a polymer that is a central component of wood and bark, as the starting point for their bio-based conditioner. When extracted from wood, lignin naturally interacts with water听while also acting as a surfactant, a key component of detergents. It also contains natural antioxidants, which help to preserve the conditioner, and provides UV protection, says Pylypchuk. 鈥淟ignin serves as a multifunctional platform in this context,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t protects against UV, it is moisturising.鈥�

The researchers combined a lignin gel developed in their laboratory with coconut oil and water to make the end product. Team member , also at Stockholm University, claims it works almost as well as commercial conditioners. When used on samples of wetted bleached human hair and then washed out, it reduced the 鈥渄rag鈥� when combing the hair while it was still damp by 13 per cent, compared with the commercial product they tested, which reduced drag by 20 per cent.

One potential downside is that the current formulation of the conditioner is 鈥減itch black鈥� and smells like 鈥渃ooked wood鈥�, similar to peat, says Sipponen. That hasn鈥檛 deterred the researchers from contemplating commercialising it. They tested the formula on hair, towels and pig skin, and say it washes off without leaving stains. Even the smell is quite pleasant, says Pylypchuk. 鈥淚 personally like it very much, and most of the people in our lab 鈥� maybe because they work with lignin 鈥� they liked it.鈥� 听

Pylypchuk and Sipponen for the lignin gel and hope their conditioner can become a consumer product, offering people a more sustainable alternative to current products that rely on ingredients derived from fossil fuels. They say the next step is to see if it causes eye and skin irritation ahead of any trial on living hair.

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But US-based cosmetics researcher听,听formerly at the Textile Research Institute Princeton, New Jersey, has doubts about how well the product would perform compared with commercial rivals. 鈥淚鈥檝e been doing these experiments for 30 years, and a conventional conditioner product will lower the combing forces by 80 per cent, maybe even 90 per cent,鈥� he says. Sipponen thinks variation in the testing methods and condition of the hair under analysis could explain why his team only found a 20 per cent reduction for the commercial conditioner.

The wood-based conditioner鈥檚 appearance and unusual smell may also put consumers off, says Evans. 鈥淭he patent literature is absolutely chock-a-block with potential hair conditioner formulas that never went anywhere,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd the reason is because you don鈥檛 just need efficacy 鈥� for the consumer to buy it, what you really need as well is aesthetics.鈥� 听

So, would a black, wood-smelling, eco-friendly conditioner be a hit with consumers? 鈥淪ounds like a bit of a non-starter,鈥� says Evans.

Wearing foundation while exercising may affect the health of the skin by changing its pore size and the subsequent release of sebum, which plays a role in keeping it healthy.

at Texas A&M University, San Antonio, and his colleagues recruited 43 college students, 20 men and 23 women. The participants first washed their faces with a cleanser. The researchers then measured skin variables on different areas of their faces, including pore size and sebum production.

Next, a single layer of foundation was applied to all the participants鈥� faces, either their foreheads or cheeks, depending on which they preferred.

They then did a moderate 20-minute workout, consisting of running on a treadmill for 5 minutes at 3 miles per hour (mph), for 10 minutes at 4 mph and for 5 minutes at 5 mph.

After the workout, the researchers repeated the various skin measurements, finding that sebum was reduced on the areas with foundation compared with those without make-up.

鈥淭his is a gleaming example of the deleterious effects of make-up use during exercise,鈥� the researchers wrote in their paper. 鈥淚n this study, make-up use clogged the pores, which led to a negative sebum score.鈥� The optimal amount of sebum is unclear, with too much being linked to acne and too little causing skin irritation.

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The size of the participants鈥� pores also significantly increased in the areas without foundation, while there was no meaningful change to those in the made-up areas. This suggests that the foundation may have restricted pores from naturally enlarging during exercise, preventing the release of sebum and sweat, which moisturises and cools skin. The researchers didn鈥檛 assess whether these changes were linked to any skin issues.

Wearing foundation while exercising may not have a big effect on most people who do relatively short workouts, but 鈥渨e don鈥檛 know the impact for endurance-type athletes鈥�, says Lee. The team now hopes to investigate the effects during longer exercise routines.

at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York says that the study鈥檚 split-face design is a good approach, but our skin鈥檚 characteristics vary on different parts of our face, complicating comparison. In addition, skin on the nose and around the mouth and eyes differs in thickness compared with that on the forehead or cheeks, so ideally these areas should have also been studied, she says.

Skincare that includes two types of newly discovered protein fragments could one day repair age-induced damage.

The proteins that form an elastic network in our skin become increasingly damaged with age due to rising inflammation levels in our body and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Over time, the damage causes the skin to lose its elasticity and become wrinkled.

As the proteins degrade, they release small protein fragments called peptides . However, these are usually released at insufficient levels to even somewhat reverse the appearance of skin ageing, says at the University of Manchester, UK.

Previously, some researchers have made cosmetic products containing high levels of such peptides, but few of these peptides have been shown to repair skin damage in people.

In research presented at the American Academy of Dermatology conference in Louisiana on 18 March, Sherratt and his colleagues used an artificial intelligence to predict what peptides are produced when proteins are broken down in our skin. From this, they identified two peptides that they think occur naturally in our skin as a result of damage.

The researchers then applied these peptides to an area of skin on the forearms of eight Caucasian people, aged between 71 and 84. The treated areas were covered with a polymer patch that is known to improve the penetration of peptides into skin.

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After the participants had worn the patch for 12 days, the researchers collected a 3-millimetre-wide biopsy from the area where the peptides had been applied, as well as from other areas that had not been exposed to these peptides.

They found that the peptides substantially increased the levels of key protein structures called fibrillin-rich microfibrils, which are known to make skin more elastic, in the treated skin compared with other, untreated areas. The participants experienced no adverse effects from the treatment.

The researchers didn鈥檛 record whether this increase in protein levels correlated with a more youthful skin appearance, such as fewer wrinkles.

But according to at Walgreens Boots Alliance 鈥� a healthcare company that funded the study 鈥� in Nottingham, UK, the fibrillin-rich microfibrils rose to similar levels as those that occur naturally in people several years younger than the participants.

The researchers plan to test whether these increased protein levels reduce the appearance of wrinkles in upcoming trials that will include a larger number of participants of diverse ethnic backgrounds, says Bell.

Although the study supports the idea that skin peptides can repair some damage, further work is needed to assess how long the effects last, says at Integrative Skin Science and Research, a clinical trials unit in Sacramento, California.

Further work should also look into whether the apparent anti-ageing effects seen in forearm skin translate to facial skin, he says.

If made into a skincare product, such as with the Boots鈥� brand No7, you would probably need to apply the peptides every day to maintain any anti-ageing effect, says Bell.