Collagen for Hair, Skin & Nails: There’s More to the Story Than Beauty

When I formulated Specialized Collagen Peptides, I wasn't trying to make a beauty supplement.

I was thinking about joints.

After more than 30 years as a trainer and coach, I've seen how often joints, tendons and other connective tissues become the limiting factor for people who still want to train. Your muscles may be willing to keep going, but your elbows, knees, shoulders and tendons sometimes have other ideas.

That's why I wanted to build something beyond ordinary collagen. I wanted specialized collagen peptides and other ingredients selected around specific connective tissues and specific functions.

But there's something interesting about the human body:

It doesn't organize itself according to the categories in the supplement aisle.

“Joint health” may be in one section.

“Hair, skin and nails” may be in another.

Biology isn't quite so tidy.

Skin is connective tissue. Collagen is one of its major structural proteins. Hyaluronic acid plays an important role in its extracellular matrix and hydration. And one of the specialized collagen peptides I deliberately put into this formula—VERISOL®—has research involving skin, nails and even hair.

So although I built this product around joints, there was another story sitting inside the formula from the beginning.

Let's Start With Skin

When people hear “collagen for skin,” it's easy to make the explanation overly simple:

You eat collagen. It goes to your skin. You get more collagen.

That's not really how I think about it.

Hydrolyzed collagen has already been broken down into smaller peptides. And as I've discussed elsewhere in this series, different manufacturing processes can produce different peptide profiles. Certain specialized collagen peptides have been developed and studied because particular peptide combinations may produce particular biological effects.

VERISOL® is one of those specialized collagen-peptide ingredients.

Specialized Collagen Peptides contains 2.5 grams of VERISOL per serving, the same daily amount used in several of its human studies.

In one randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study involving women ages 45–65, researchers reported a statistically significant reduction in eye-wrinkle volume after eight weeks compared with placebo. Researchers also examined components of the skin's extracellular matrix and reported increases in procollagen type I and elastin in a subgroup.

Other VERISOL research has examined skin elasticity and related measures.

That's considerably more meaningful to me than simply saying:

“Collagen is good for your skin.”

The ingredient matters.

The dose matters.

And what was actually studied matters.

And Don't Forget Vitamin C

There's also 60 mg of vitamin C from calcium ascorbate in the formula, and it isn't there simply because vitamin C looks good next to collagen on a label.

The body actually requires vitamin C for normal collagen formation.

That was part of my thinking when I formulated the product. If I'm providing specialized collagen peptides intended to support connective tissues, it makes sense to also provide an essential nutrient the body needs as part of its own collagen-building process.

I don't think we need to make this more complicated than it is.

Collagen formation requires vitamin C. So I put vitamin C in the formula.

Women Seem to Understand Something About Skin That A Lot of Men Don't

This next part is purely my observation.

After decades of talking with people about their bodies, health, nutrition and training, I've noticed something.

Talk to women about skin and moisture comes up pretty quickly.

Moisturizers. Dry skin. Hydration. How their skin feels.

Talk to a lot of men about their skin, and I'm not sure moisturizing ever crosses their minds.

Maybe women have simply spent more time being marketed skin-care products. Maybe they pay more attention to changes in their skin. There could be all kinds of reasons for it.

Whatever the explanation, there's some pretty good biology behind the intuition:

Properly hydrated skin generally functions better than chronically dry skin.

And that's where another component of my collagen formula becomes interesting.

Hyaluronic Acid Isn't Just for Joints

Specialized Collagen Peptides contains 80 mg of Mobilee®, a patented matrix from Bioiberica containing a high concentration of hyaluronic acid along with polysaccharides and collagen.

I included Mobilee primarily because of its research and application in joint health.

Hyaluronic acid is an important component of synovial fluid, and Mobilee's research has focused primarily on areas such as joint comfort, synovial HA and muscular function.

But HA doesn't exist only in your knees.

It's also an important part of skin.

Hyaluronic acid is a major water-binding molecule within the skin's extracellular matrix. Its relationship with water is one reason HA has become such a familiar ingredient in skin-care products.

There's also human research on oral hyaluronic acid. Randomized studies using oral HA preparations have reported improvements in measures including skin hydration, barrier function, elasticity and visible signs of aging.

But there's an important distinction here.

Those studies don't allow me to say:

“Mobilee has been clinically proven to improve skin.”

It hasn't.

Bioiberica has a separate rooster-comb-derived HA matrix called Dermial® that has specifically been researched for skin applications. Mobilee's clinical dossier is primarily centered around joints and muscles.

The underlying biology is still interesting. Mobilee provides an HA-rich matrix; HA plays an important role in skin hydration; and oral HA more broadly has human research related to skin.

That's interesting evidence. It isn't permission to exaggerate it.

Skin Health Isn't Just About Collagen

This is another area where I think the supplement industry sometimes makes things too simple.

Healthy skin isn't simply:

More collagen = better skin.

Skin is a living organ.

Its condition is influenced by structural proteins, extracellular matrix, hydration, its lipid barrier, nutrition, age, sun exposure and many other factors.

And that reminds me of something that happened years ago with one of my training clients.

One of the Most Dramatic Dry-Skin Changes I've Seen Had Nothing to Do With Collagen

I was training a man in his late 50s who had extremely dry skin.

He was also diabetic, which is an important detail because diabetes itself can contribute to dry skin and altered skin-barrier function.

His skin was so dry that sometimes after he got off a piece of gym equipment, there would literally be flakes of skin left behind.

We'd have to wipe them off.

I suggested increasing his omega-3 intake using a concentrated fish-oil product. I remember the product specifically—it was the EPA-DHA 720 formula from Metagenics that was being private-labeled through Poliquin Nutrition at the time.

Within roughly a week or so, something happened that was difficult not to notice.

The flaking seemed to stop.

He noticed it.

I noticed it.

And he was very happy about it.

Does that prove the fish oil fixed his dry skin?

No.

It was one person. There was no control group. He was diabetic. There could have been other variables involved.

But I've never forgotten the experience.

And there's biological plausibility behind why fatty acids might matter to skin. Omega-3 fatty acids participate in cell-membrane biology and inflammatory signaling, and research has investigated their potential influence on skin-barrier function.

They aren't moisturizers in a capsule.

But that experience reinforced something I've come to appreciate more over the years:

What you see happening to the skin on the outside can be influenced by what's happening nutritionally on the inside.

It Turns Out Mobilee® Is Keeping Me More on My Toes

Now we get to the slightly funny part.

A sales representative I work with at Bioiberica once mentioned something unexpected he'd noticed while taking Mobilee.

His nails seemed to be growing faster.

I thought it was interesting, but I didn't exactly build a scientific theory around it.

Then I started noticing something myself.

My nail clippers were coming out more often.

Particularly for my toenails.

So apparently Mobilee has been keeping me a little more on my toes than I expected.

But now we have to separate the story from the science.

Does his experience plus mine prove Mobilee makes nails grow faster?

No.

And does faster nail growth automatically mean healthier nails?

Not necessarily.

But here's where this gets genuinely interesting.

Somebody Actually Studied Nail Growth

Remember the 2.5 grams of VERISOL that's also in my formula?

Researchers have actually studied VERISOL in people with brittle nails.

In a clinical study involving women taking 2.5 grams daily for 24 weeks, researchers reported a 12% increase in nail growth rate and a 42% decrease in the frequency of broken nails.

That caught my attention considering what I had independently noticed.

It still doesn't tell me why my nails seem to grow faster.

I'm taking a formula containing VERISOL and Mobilee along with several other ingredients. I can't isolate one ingredient inside my own body and declare it responsible.

But apparently reaching for the nail clippers more frequently isn't such a ridiculous observation after all.

And the distinction about nail quality is important.

Faster-growing nails don't automatically mean better nails.

What makes the VERISOL research more interesting is that researchers didn't report increased growth alone. They also reported fewer broken nails and improvements in brittle-nail symptoms.

That's a considerably more meaningful combination.

And Then There's Hair

Hair is another area where I'm careful about making broad claims.

“Hair, skin and nails” gets thrown around so casually in the supplement industry that the three have almost become a single marketing phrase.

They're not one thing.

So again, I want evidence.

VERISOL has also been investigated in randomized, placebo-controlled research involving healthy women taking 2.5 grams daily. Researchers reported an increase in hair thickness after supplementation compared with placebo.

That doesn't mean collagen is a treatment for hair loss.

It doesn't mean someone experiencing significant hair loss should simply take collagen instead of investigating why it's happening.

And it certainly doesn't establish that every collagen powder produces the same result.

It tells us something narrower—and therefore more useful:

A particular specialized collagen peptide, at a particular dose, has human research suggesting an effect on a measurable characteristic of hair.

That's the type of evidence I look for when evaluating an ingredient.

Not Every Ingredient Has to Do Everything

There's another point worth making because it's central to how I formulated Specialized Collagen Peptides.

I don't believe every ingredient has to magically provide every benefit.

FORTIGEL® was selected around cartilage and joint support.

TENDOFORTE® was selected around tendons and ligaments.

Native Type II collagen provides another specialized approach to cartilage and joint function.

Mobilee® contributes an HA-rich matrix and was selected primarily around joint health.

VERISOL® brings research involving skin, nails and hair.

And vitamin C plays a quieter but fundamental role because the body requires it for normal collagen formation.

Different ingredients.

Different biological targets.

One interconnected connective-tissue system.

That's very different from taking a large quantity of generic collagen and assuming every peptide within it is doing exactly the same thing everywhere in the body.

Maybe “Hair, Skin & Nails” Isn't Such a Silly Category After All

I've probably been guilty of dismissing that phrase a little.

It sounds like beauty marketing.

And Specialized Collagen Peptides was never conceived as a beauty-first product.

I built it because I wanted a much higher level of connective-tissue support for people whose joints, tendons and ligaments might need more than what ordinary collagen was offering them.

But the more you look at the biology, the more the overlap makes sense.

Collagen isn't exclusive to your knees.

Hyaluronic acid isn't exclusive to synovial fluid.

Vitamin C isn't deciding whether the collagen your body is building belongs in the “joint” aisle or the “beauty” aisle.

The body doesn't know which aisle of the supplement store you're standing in.

That's why this side of the formula has become increasingly interesting to me.

It doesn't change why I originally created the product.

It expands our understanding of what some of these ingredients may be doing.

And perhaps that's the more useful way to think about hair, skin and nails in the first place—not as a beauty category disconnected from the rest of your body, but as tissues whose condition reflects some of the same structural and nutritional systems we're trying to support elsewhere.

And Skin Is About to Become an Even Bigger Conversation

There's another reason I think this subject matters right now.

Millions of people are intentionally losing substantial amounts of body weight, including through the rapidly expanding use of GLP-1 medications.

And something interesting can happen when someone successfully loses a significant amount of weight.

Their health may improve.

Their body may look considerably better.

But sometimes their face suddenly looks older.

Facial volume changes. Skin can appear looser. Wrinkles may become more noticeable. And someone who's thrilled with the number on the scale can find themselves wondering what happened to the face looking back at them in the mirror.

Collagen isn't going to replace lost facial fat.

That's important enough that I want to say it before we even begin that discussion.

But what happens to skin during significant weight loss—and whether nutrition, specialized collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid and other strategies can reasonably support skin quality—is a much more interesting question.

That's the subject of the next article.

Explore Specialized Collagen Peptides →

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Michael Wohltmann, CSCS, ACSM-EP
President, Epoch Nutrition Sciences

Does collagen help skin?

Certain specific collagen peptides have human clinical research showing improvements in skin measures including wrinkles and elasticity. Results shouldn't automatically be generalized to every collagen product because peptide composition, dose and study design can differ.

Does collagen help nails grow?

Research using 2.5 grams daily of VERISOL® reported a 12% increase in nail growth rate and a 42% decrease in the frequency of broken nails in women with brittle nails.

Does collagen help hair?

Research on specific bioactive collagen peptides has reported increased hair thickness in women. This doesn't mean collagen treats hair loss, which can have many different causes.

How long does collagen take to work for skin, hair and nails?

Collagen isn't an overnight intervention. Studies examining skin, hair and nail outcomes have generally measured changes after several weeks or months of consistent supplementation.

Does hyaluronic acid help hydrate skin?

Hyaluronic acid is an important water-binding component of skin. Human studies using certain oral HA preparations have reported improvements in skin hydration and other skin-quality measures. However, results from one HA preparation shouldn't automatically be attributed to every HA ingredient. Your research report supports that distinction particularly well.

Why is vitamin C included with collagen?

Vitamin C is required for normal collagen formation. Specialized Collagen Peptides provides 60 mg of vitamin C from calcium ascorbate along with its specialized collagen peptides.

References & Further Reading

Proksch E, Schunck M, Zague V, Segger D, Degwert J, Oesser S. Oral intake of specific bioactive collagen peptides reduces skin wrinkles and increases dermal matrix synthesis. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. 2014;27(3):113–119.

Proksch E, Segger D, Degwert J, Schunck M, Zague V, Oesser S. Oral supplementation of specific collagen peptides has beneficial effects on human skin physiology: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Skin Pharmacology and Physiology. 2014;27(1):47–55.

Hexsel D, Zague V, Schunck M, Siega C, Camozzato FO, Oesser S. Oral supplementation with specific bioactive collagen peptides improves nail growth and reduces symptoms of brittle nails. Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology. 2017;16(4):520–526.

Bioiberica — Mobilee® research and product information. Mobilee is a patented rooster-comb-derived hyaluronic-acid matrix containing HA, polysaccharides and collagen and studied primarily for joint and muscle applications.

Oral hyaluronic acid and skin research. Human randomized studies using oral HA preparations have reported improvements in skin hydration, barrier function and several visible skin-aging measures, although these studies should not be interpreted as Mobilee-specific clinical evidence.

Bioiberica HA matrix research. Bioiberica's Mobilee and Dermial ingredients originate from related rooster-comb HA-matrix chemistry but have distinct research programs: Mobilee is primarily joint/muscle focused, while Dermial has skin-specific clinical research.