# Tricomin

1990s ProCyte copper-peptide hair spray, now an AHK-Cu cosmetic; one unpublished small trial, users shrug.

- Page: https://peprank.xyz/peptides/tricomin
- Category: Skin & hair (Supplement)
- Also known as: Tricomin Clinical; Triamino Copper Complex; alanine/histidine/lysine polypeptide copper HCl; PC1358 (ProCyte development code)
- Routes: Topical
- Safety tier: Strict: Caution · Balanced: Clean · Evidence only: Clean
- Risk axes (0 none to 3 severe): Seen harm 0, Mechanism 1, Data gap 2, Silent harm 0, Product 0
- Positive: 43% of 1 graded reports glowing or positive, shrunk toward the 49% all-report average by 8 reports' weight
- Rank: #16 of 23 supplements
- Graded reports: 1 (Nothing 1)
- Evidence: Small human studies — One 24-week double-blind phase II of ProCyte's copper peptide PC1358 in 36 men (33 evaluable), announced in a 1997 press release and never published: 2.5% raised total hair count over vehicle, hair weight did not change. Animal work on a related compound (PC1031) and one in-vitro study of AHK-Cu, the copper peptide now named on the label.
- Access: Supplement
- Onset: Any change would be judged after 3-6 months of twice-daily use; the trial measured at 24 weeks.
- Lasts: Only while used; leave-in daily spray.
- Cost per month: ≈ €27–63 (researchers' estimate)
- Updated: 2026-10-30

## What users report

Too few reports to judge. Tricomin has been on sale since the late 1990s, but on Reddit it mostly appears in lists of add-ons beside finasteride and minoxidil, from users who had just started it. The only first-hand outcome found is a balding man who used it, among aloe, tea tree, ketoconazole and others, against a burning crown itch, and none of them helped. Older hair-loss forum regulars rank it as possibly mild scalp support, not a regrowth treatment. Felt nothing: 1 of 1 first-hand report; too few to judge.

**Effects:** claimed: higher hair count at 24 weeks (2.5% PC1358 in a 33-person trial, unpublished); scalp conditioning

**Downsides:** did nothing for scalp itch (one report); commercial spray holds less copper peptide than the trial's 2.5% dose; slow; cannot be separated from minoxidil or finasteride

**Risks:** Contact irritation or allergy to the spray (alcohol, menthol, botanicals) or to copper

**Caveat:** Read with AHK-Cu (topical) and GHK-Cu (topical): Tricomin is the finished, preserved, retail way to put AHK-Cu on the scalp, without the DIY-powder contamination issues, but the only human efficacy evidence is an unpublished 33-person trial of a stronger formula from 1997. Topical copper peptides raise VEGF in fibroblast culture; at cosmetic strength on intact scalp that is not a credible harm route.

**Typical use:** Spray onto towel-dried scalp and hair once daily, leave in (manufacturer); the 1997 trial applied 2.5% solution twice daily.

**Getting it:** An over-the-counter cosmetic line (spray, shampoo, conditioner) from ProCyte, later sold under Neova and now Tricomin Clinical; the leave-in spray lists alanine/histidine/lysine polypeptide copper HCl (AHK-Cu), and a newer '1% AHK-Cu Treatment Spray' states its concentration. It was never approved as a hair-loss drug: ProCyte released it as a cosmetic instead of running phase III.

**Stacked with:** Minoxidil (The usual pairing; users and the original forum advice apply them at different times rather than mixed.); Finasteride and ketoconazole shampoo (Tricomin is almost always a fourth or fifth add-on to the established treatments, so its own share is invisible.)

## Risk profile

- **Seen harm 0/3:** Sold over the counter since the late 1990s with no reported serious adverse event; the 1997 phase II reported no serious drug-related adverse events. Users mention nothing worse than an ineffective spray.
- **Mechanism 1/3:** Copper tripeptides raise VEGF and other growth-factor signals in cultured fibroblasts, but this is a leave-in cosmetic on intact scalp with negligible systemic exposure, which the rubric scores 1, not 2.
- **Data gap 2/3:** No formal cosmetic safety assessment found for AHK-Cu, and the only human study is a single 33-evaluable-person, 24-week phase II of PC1358, released by press release and never published; decades of niche retail sale add reassurance but no data.
- **Silent harm 0/3:** The plausible harm is scalp irritation or contact allergy, obvious within days and gone on stopping.
- **Product 0/3:** A finished, preserved over-the-counter cosmetic from a named brand, bought retail and applied to the scalp.
- **Never if:** Known allergy to copper or to any ingredient of the spray (patch-test first); Broken, inflamed or freshly microneedled scalp; Pregnancy or breastfeeding (no human reproductive data, though absorption is expected to be minimal)

## Top reports

- Nothing, skin-hair: “I have tried everything to subdue it including: Aloe vera, tricomin, tea tree oil, ACV, Tgel, nizoral, H&S, many different conditioners, etc. However nothing seems to work.” — [r/tressless](https://www.reddit.com/r/tressless/comments/115on7k/vicious_male_pattern_baldness_tingling_itch/)

## Studies

- [ProCyte 1997 press release: phase II results of PC1358 (Tricomin solution) in male pattern hair loss](https://www.hairlosstalk.com/interact/threads/tricomin-clinical-trial.29559/) (rct, n=36, 1997): Men with early to mid-stage androgenetic alopecia applied 1.25% or 2.5% PC1358 or vehicle twice daily for 24 weeks; 2.5% significantly increased total hair count in a 1 cm² area, with no appreciable change in hair weight and no serious drug-related adverse events. Single centre, press release only.
- [Uno & Kurata 1993: Chemical agents and peptides affect hair growth](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8326148/) (animal, 1993): ProCyte's copper-binding peptide PC1031 enlarged vellus follicles on fuzzy-rat skin, an effect the authors likened to topical minoxidil.
- [Pyo et al. 2007: The effect of tripeptide-copper complex on human hair growth in vitro](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17703734/) (in-vitro, 2007): AHK-Cu, the copper tripeptide named on current Tricomin labels, lengthened human hair follicles ex vivo and stimulated dermal papilla cells.
- [US Patent 6,017,888: Stimulation of hair growth by peptide copper complexes (ProCyte)](https://patents.google.com/patent/US6017888A/en) (animal, 2000): Covers di- and tripeptide copper complexes with histidine in the second position, the family Tricomin draws on, with animal hair-growth examples.

## Sources

- [Tricomin Clinical: 1% AHK-Cu Treatment Spray (full ingredient list)](https://www.tricominclinical.com/products/1-ahk-cu-treatment-spray)
- [BioCentury 1997: Tricomin solution PC1358 copper peptide compound data](https://www.biocentury.com/article/96105/tricomin-solution-pc1358-copper-peptide-compound-data)
- [INCI list of Tricomin Clinical Energy Spray (Triamino Copper Complex = alanine/histidine/lysine polypeptide copper HCl)](https://indecoder.ru/en/product/tricomin-clinical-energy-spray)