Keralight: cut hair transformed into keratin-based hydrogel

Waste that, when incinerated, releases toxic substances and CO2, becomes, thanks to a project at Sapienza University, a valuable material for pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

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Keralight hydrogel based on scaled keratin

The hair cut every day by hairdressers and barbers represents waste that is potentially quite harmful to the environment. It should go in the bins. ofundifferentiated, but in several cases they end up in incinerators and thus release toxic substances and CO2.

Hair, instead of becoming garbage, even harmful, can however reveal itself to be a precious source of a raw material, keratin-based hydrogel, which can be used in various sectors, from pharmaceuticals to cosmetics. 

The transformation, according to a classic circular economy process, was developed by a team of nine students from La Sapienza University of Rome (Emilia Nappi, Aurora Cascioli, Marina Teodori, Francesco Parca, Vittorio Blasoni, Ester Russo, Ginevra Solano, Anna Pace, and Marianna Bonito), led by Professor Francesco Ricotta and Doctor Francesca Celio, with a project entitled Keralight. 

In practice, through a network of hairdressers and barbers, it is possible to collect cut hair destined for disposal as waste, and then transform it into keratin-based hydrogel. Hydrogel is a material consisting of a three-dimensional polymer network which has the ability to absorb large amounts of water or biological fluids, without dissolving in them. This makes it soft, flexible and similar to biological tissue. The keratininstead, it is one fibrous protein very resistant, naturally produced by our body: a structural component of hair, and also of nails and body hair.

The raw material that comes from the recovery of cut hair, based on the project Keraliht, it can have different applications, and in very different sectors from each other. In the pharmaceutical field, keratin-based hydrogel can be used to produce medicines to relieve burning and to regenerate certain tissues, or even for bandages for the reconstruction of ocular tissue. In the cosmetics sector, however, it is a raw material for moisturizing masks and even hair care products. Finally, in agriculture, hydrogel is used sustainably, as it can retain water and thus reduce both consumption and waste. 

If the Sapienza students' project will have further developments On a large scale, one can imagine the involvement of thousands of hairdressers and barbers, throughout Italy, to recover cut hair and transform it into keratin-based hydrogel. 

The project is a candidate for the 2025 Non Sprecare Award, in the "Companies" section. To submit your projects, follow the instructions provided. here.

The projects competing for the 2025 edition of the Don't Waste Award:

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