Hair Restoration Shampoos: What Works?

So you're losing your hair and now you are reading countless reviews on Amazon looking for a “miracle grow in a bottle” to cause hair growth. So what actually works?

 

Long story short, hair shampoo is the least important factor in hair growth and hair loss. A clean scalp with less oil is thought to have perhaps less hair loss but there is not a study which can demonstrate a winner here.

 

But if you are looking for a shampoo to help supplement your hair growth, here is the ingredient to be on the lookout for when you are doing your research.

 

Ketoconazole

 

Ketoconazole is the one ingredient that seems to work for hair loss. The theory is that the antifungal properties allow for an antiinflammatory milieu to occur allowing for hair growth to occur. The most common shampoo with ketoconazole is Nizoral. Dr. Shah uses it as his shampoo. While ketoconazole MIGHT work, it is not as effective as minoxidil, finasteride, or other hair vitamins such as nutrafol. Our recommendation is to consider the use of ketoconazole twice a week in your hair to help remove sebum from your scalp but don’t use it as your only go to product.

 

What’s Not Going to Work For Growing Hair

 

Biotin, Hemp Oil, Jubjub Oil, Argan Oil, and Caffeine. These are buzzwords used in the world of hair restoring shampoos.

 

While these products sound great in theory, there is very limited evidence to support the use of these products in preventing hair loss. Biotin is often mistakenly thought of as the hair loss vitamin of choice (hint, it’s not) and many other ingredients might smell good or feel good but if the end goal is hair growth, probably are not going to help.

 

A quick note here is that Revitalash Shampoo and Hair Thickening Foam are great products perhaps our favorite in the thickening category. The main concept here is that prostaglandins work to help optimize each hair shaft and help with some of the wispy hairs to gain the thickness to benefit overall hair coverage. Revitalash will not grow hair but will make your hair look thicker.

 

So for extra credit (or in this case, extra thickness) consider use of Revitalash with your ketoconazole product.