On September 10, 2026, Amorepacific's scalp-care brand Ryo (려) named actress Gong Seung-yeon (공승연) its global ambassador for a relaunched version of its Root:Gen (루트젠) line — joining a run of celebrity beauty tie-ins this year that has also included BTS's Jin fronting Laneige. Eleven days later, Amorepacific published a peer-reviewed study identifying the biological mechanism behind Grow Peptide, the ingredient the relaunched line is built around — an unusually direct line from lab research to celebrity campaign that most K-beauty ambassador announcements don't have. It's a pairing worth unpacking carefully, since the research itself is narrower than the marketing built on top of it.
Who Gong Seung-yeon Is, and Why Ryo Picked Her
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Gong Seung-yeon (공승연); born Yoo Seung-yeon (유승연), February 27, 1993 |
| Background | Former SM Entertainment trainee (2005–2012) before transitioning to acting |
| Notable recognition | Best New Actress, 42nd Blue Dragon Film Awards (2021), for Alone (혼자 사는 사람들); also won Best New Actress at the 41st Korean Association of Film Critics Awards and the Best Actor award in the Korean Competition section of the 22nd Jeonju International Film Festival for the same film |
| Ryo announcement date | September 10, 2026 |
| Product line | Root:Gen — shampoo, treatment, scalp essence, and a volume fixer, targeted at hair thinning and volume loss |
According to Amorepacific's own newsroom, the company selected Gong Seung-yeon because her healthy, glossy hair fit the "clean, premium" image the brand wanted for its scalp and hair-care line. Gong's own career path runs from idol training to arthouse recognition: after leaving SM Entertainment's trainee program without debuting as a performer, she transitioned into acting and spent years building a television career before her 2021 breakout in Alone, a low-budget drama about urban isolation that reoriented how Korean critics discussed her range as an actress. Notably, Gong is also the older sister of TWICE member Jeongyeon — a connection widely reported in Korean entertainment coverage of Gong's own career, including her 2021 Blue Dragon acceptance speech, in which she joked that Jeongyeon had teased her for over-preparing her remarks.
What Actually Changed in Root:Gen
Root:Gen itself isn't new — Ryo launched the line in 2023 specifically targeting hair-parting thinness and volume loss in women, a category Amorepacific has increasingly separated from its general shampoo lineup as a distinct, higher-priced concern. According to a report from Youthdaily, the line's scalp essence had already reached number one across Olive Young's entire online sales category in August of the previous year, before this relaunch. What changed with the September 2026 relaunch, per Amorepacific's release, was the addition of Grow Peptide (그로우 펩타이드) across the shampoo, treatment, and scalp essence, alongside a redesigned scalp-essence applicator shaped like a gua sha massage tool.
The Root:Gen campaign is part of a broader pattern in 2026 of major and independent Korean beauty brands leaning on entertainers rather than traditional beauty influencers to front new product lines — from ENHYPEN's earlier global ambassadorship for the skincare brand mixsoon to newer indie labels like BASEA, which launched this month with actress Hyeri as its first-ever ambassador. What sets the Ryo campaign apart from most of these is that it launched alongside, rather than instead of, a piece of the company's own laboratory research; most ambassador announcements in the category are pure marketing events with no accompanying scientific publication.
The Research Behind the Ingredient Name
Grow Peptide isn't just a marketing name invented for this campaign. According to Amorepacific's own research announcement, the company's R&I Center published findings in the September 2026 issue of the international journal Experimental Dermatology identifying a biological mechanism connected to hair strength: the expression of a gene called COCH (Coagulation Factor C Homology) in the hair follicle is closely tied to the disulfide bonds that hold hair's structural proteins together. Analyzing newly grown hair from healthy adults, the researchers found that people over 50 had at least 21% fewer of these disulfide bonds than people in their 20s to 40s. Grow Peptide is the ingredient Amorepacific developed out of this research, targeting the earliest stage of hair formation rather than hair that has already grown out — and it's the same ingredient now built into Root:Gen's relaunched shampoo, treatment, and scalp essence.
A Caveat Korean Coverage Itself Raised
Not every outlet covering the research let the science and the marketing blur together. A report from The Fair explicitly noted that the study's findings are about the biological relationship between the hair follicle environment and hair strength — and that this needs to be treated as distinct from the actual hair-improvement effects of using the finished product. In other words, Amorepacific's own published research demonstrates a mechanism inside the hair follicle; it does not, by itself, constitute a clinical trial proving that Root:Gen's shampoo or essence reverses hair loss. Amorepacific R&I Center CTO Seo Byung-hwi described the work as a step toward a longer-term "hair longevity solution," framing Grow Peptide as an early piece of ongoing research rather than a finished, proven treatment.
Ryo's Longer History
Ryo positions itself around scalp research Amorepacific says began in 1973, well before the brand itself launched in 2008 — a research-first branding approach that mirrors how other Korean beauty figures, like IU's own skincare routine, get discussed publicly in terms of specific ingredients and regimens rather than just images. Its longtime flagship product, Jayangyunmo Shampoo (자양윤모 샴푸), built a following not just domestically but across Southeast Asia, according to Amorepacific's own brand page — a market the company continues to lean on as it expands Root:Gen's premium positioning under Gong Seung-yeon's campaign. That geographic reach matters for why Amorepacific frames Ryo's newer research, including Grow Peptide, as central to the brand's identity rather than a one-off ingredient story: unlike younger indie K-beauty labels that build a following primarily through social media virality, Ryo's marketing consistently returns to decades of in-house scalp and hair-follicle research as its point of differentiation, positioning the brand closer to a pharmaceutical-adjacent skincare label than a trend-driven cosmetics line.
FAQ
Does the Experimental Dermatology study prove Root:Gen prevents hair loss?
No. The study identifies a biological mechanism — the connection between the COCH gene, disulfide bonds, and hair strength — rather than testing the finished Root:Gen products directly. Korean coverage of the research specifically flagged this distinction rather than treating the study as proof of product efficacy.
Is Gong Seung-yeon related to any K-pop idols?
Yes — her younger sister Jeongyeon is a member of TWICE, a fact Gong has referenced publicly herself, including during her 2021 Blue Dragon Film Awards acceptance speech.
Verified as of September 21, 2026, the same day Amorepacific's Experimental Dermatology research was reported in Korean media. Ambassador campaigns and product line-ups are subject to change; readers should confirm current availability through Ryo's official channels.
Sources
- Amorepacific Stories — "려, 브랜드 글로벌 앰배서더로 배우 공승연 발탁"
- Youthdaily — "아모레퍼시픽 려, 브랜드 글로벌 앰배서더로 배우 공승연 발탁" (September 10, 2026)
- Money Today — "아모레퍼시픽, '모발 강도' 결정 메커니즘 규명…'려' 루트젠에 적용" (September 21, 2026)
- The Fair — "아모레퍼시픽, 모낭 환경·모발 강도 연관성 규명…국제학술지 게재" (September 21, 2026)
- Amorepacific Group — 려(Ryo) 공식 브랜드 페이지
- Xports News — "공승연 '동생 정연, 수상소감 준비 비웃었는데…' 눈물의 신인상 [청룡영화상]" (November 26, 2021)