KeraNew is an oral supplement used to promote healthy hair, sold by a brand called Kintsugi. The brand claims that their supplement can cause hair that “looks fuller, healthier and more youthful.”
But does KeraNew contain research-backed ingredients for hair quality or are these just marketing claims? Does the supplement contain any unhealthy additives? And how do real users rate and describe its effects?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we analyze the ingredients in KeraNew based on medical studies to give our take on whether the supplement is likely to be effective for improving hair quality, or if it’s a waste of money.
We’ll also feature real customer reviews of the brand and share our concerns about some of the health claims on the KeraNew website.
Ingredient Analysis
The first section of active ingredients in KeraNew is a vitamin and mineral blend, as shown above.
We haven’t come across any medical evidence that taking large doses of vitamins and minerals without a deficiency in those vitamins or minerals has any health benefits, or optimizes hair quality.
We find it highly concerning that KeraNew contains such a high dose of vitamin D (5,000 IU or 1,250% of the Daily Value) given that this is a fat-soluble vitamin.
A medical review published in the Frontiers in Endocrinology journal documented that daily vitamin D doses over 4,000 IU per day can cause chronic toxicity, and KeraNew is just one of many potential sources of vitamin D in an American consumer’s diet (which may include other supplements like multivitamins and fortified foods).
The remaining active ingredients which are mostly botanicals, are shown below:
Keratin was shown in a 2014 clinical trial to reduce hair loss, improve hair brightness and improve hair tensile strength at the same dose as is included in KeraNew.
Collagen is clinically shown to support skin health, as we documented in our NeoCell Collagen review article. This suggests that collagen may support scalp health, although we haven’t come across any medical studies suggesting it does at a dose as low as in KeraNew.
The remaining botanical active ingredients are included at very low doses (25 mg), and we can’t find research studies proving any of these ingredients to be effective at that dose.
To give a sense of how low a 25 mg is, consider the ingredient ashwagandha which is included at that dose. According to the USDA, one teaspoon of ashwagandha equals 3,000 mg. This means that the ashwagandha dose in KeraNew is 120 times less than one teaspoon of ashwagandha.
The inactive ingredients in KeraNew are shown below:
The good news about this supplement is that its inactive ingredients are safe and non-toxic.
Overall, we consider KeraNew somewhat likely to improve hair quality and reduce hair loss given its effective dose of keratin.
We do not recommend this supplement overall as we are concerned about the vitamin D dose, and because we only consider one active ingredient in this formulation of 24 active ingredients to be effectively dosed based on our review of clinical studies.
But how do real users rate and describe the effects of KeraNew? We’ll review in the next section.
Real Customers Review KeraNew
A YouTube creator named Katy Kidder shared her experience using KeraNew for postpartum hair loss:
A YouTube creator named Taylor Demee shared her thoughts after using KeraNew for three months:
Questionable Health Claims on KeraNew Website
There are a number of questionable and uncited health claims on the KeraNew website that we want to highlight.
As shown below, the brand claims that their hair supplement can “quickly give hair a youthful appearance:”
We don’t understand how the brand can make specific health claims when this supplement with a proprietary formula doesn’t appear to be clinically tested. What is this claim based on?
The brand also claims that horsetail powder can improve the appearance of thinning hair:
No citation is given for this claim and we certainly have not come across any medical studies suggesting that horsetail powder at the very low dose of 3 mg has that effect.
The KeraNew website suggests that hyaluronic acid creates the conditions for healthy-looking hair:
Again, no citation or proof is provided for this claim.
A reader may think that all of these claims have citations given the asterisk and cross symbols next to them, but these symbols do not correspond to any citations or proof, but rather to general disclaimers as shown below:
We recommend that consumers be extremely wary of purchasing supplements from brands that make specific health claims without providing any proof to back those claims.
Can You Improve Hair Quality With Food?
A dermatologist and popular YouTube influencer named “Dr Dray” has a video on foods that may support improved hair growth and thickness that has over 300,000 views:
Pros and Cons of KeraNew
Here are the pros and cons of KeraNew in our opinion:
Pros:
- Contains effective keratin dose
- May improve hair quality
- May improve hair thickness
- Non-toxic inactive ingredients
Cons:
- Contains vitamin D dose more than 10x the Daily Value
- Botanical ingredients may be underdosed
- Brand makes questionable and uncited health claims
- Doesn’t appear clinically tested
- Expensive ($78)
