Work

Metabolomic and lipidomic atlas of human hair across its length

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The stable structure and growth cycle of human hair enables the accumulation of both endogenous and exogenous compounds, making hair an ideal matrix for long-term profiling. However, its exact molecular composition, shaped by root-to-tip variations, remains poorly understood. Here, we present a metabolome and lipidome atlas of human hair originating from a healthy cohort. The Human Hair Atlas maps over 1200 unique molecular species and highlights compounds prone to significant longitudinal variations. Metabolite and lipid levels vary by up to 50% along the length of the hair, underscoring the importance of accounting for segmental differences. We categorized 122 molecules as exposome-related compounds, primarily from personal care products, facilitating biological interpretation. The Human Hair Atlas is publicly accessible ( https://metabolomics.cloud/hair/ ), providing a resource to stimulate research in hair metabolomics, lipidomics, and exposomics, and to explore the potential of hair as a complementary matrix in clinical studies. The Human Hair Atlas maps over 1,200 metabolites and lipids in healthy hair, revealing segmental variation and offering an open-access webpage for biomarker discovery, exposome research, and clinical applications.

Source: Communications Biology

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-09069-6