Evidence
The honest product guide: what is worth your money at each stage
We recommend one product on this site, we are paid a commission if you buy it, and we would rather you understood the rules we judge it by than trusted us. Here they are.
Rule one: it has to reach the follicle
The follicle sits a few millimetres below the surface. A shampoo is rinsed off in ninety seconds and never gets there. A supplement has to survive digestion and be delivered by blood to the tissue that needs it. A leave-on serum applied to the scalp is the only route that puts an active where the problem is for hours at a time. If a product is not leave-on and scalp-applied, its ceiling is the hair you already have.
Rule two: it has to address more than one thing
Thinning after children is several problems at once — DHT sensitivity, supply, inflammation, oxidative stress, lost growth signals. A product that does one of these produces a partial result at best. Ask what mechanisms it claims and whether it is honest about the ones it does not touch.
Rule three: the actives have to be real, and dosed
Copper peptides such as GHK-Cu, growth-factor peptides, and a small number of botanicals have follicle-level evidence. Many products list them at trace amounts for the label. Concentration and stability matter more than the ingredient list.
Not sure which one is you?
Take the two-minute hair quiz
Twelve quick questions. We tell you what we think is going on, what to do about it, and we say so if it is something we cannot help with.
Start the quiz →Rule four: twelve weeks, photographed
Hair biology takes twelve weeks to show anything. A product that promises less is describing something other than regrowth. A company that tells you to expect nothing for six weeks and to photograph the parting on day one is more likely to be telling the truth.
Rule five: no rebound
Minoxidil works by forcing blood flow, and stopping it causes a shed that can undo months of progress. A product that restores signalling rather than forcing dilation should not do that. Ask what happens when you stop.
Why we recommend what we recommend
The serum we match women to through the quiz is leave-on, scalp-applied, built from six peptides that between them address all five mechanisms, dosed at active concentrations, honest about the twelve-week timeline, and does not rebound on stopping. It is not the only product in the world that could meet the rules; it is the one we have looked at closely and think does. You will find it named, with the reasoning, at the end of the quiz and at the bottom of each of our pattern articles.
What nothing can do
No product reverses a follicle that has fully miniaturised over many years, restarts alopecia areata, or fixes an iron deficiency. That is why the quiz routes some women to a GP rather than to a product, and why we say so at the top of the site rather than the bottom.
Ready to read your own pattern?
Take the two-minute hair quiz
Twelve questions. We tell you what we think is going on for you, and we say so if it is something a GP should see first.
Start the quiz →
