Sufficiently pure collagenous hydrolysates, suitable for application in skin and hair care cosmetics, have been prepared through biotechnological methods with the use of commercially available enzymatic preparations from short cattle tendons (musculus extensor communis, musculus flexor digitorum, musculus flexor digitorum profundis). These hydrolysates contain neither lipoid nor aminosaccharide components, content of primary amino groups reaches around 1.1 mmol g(-1) and the average molecular weight of the resulting collagenous hydrolysates does not exceed 2000 g mol(-1) (2.0 kDa). Short cattle tendons represent a relatively pure and easily available source of collagens and are, despite their generally known low nutritional value, used only as a feeding mixture component.