Clinically Proven. Personally Life Changing.
Women everywhere are regaining confidence by growing stronger, thicker, healthier, and––best of all––more hair. We have the data to prove it. Learn more about our clinical trials.
What is a clinical trial?
Clinical trials are research studies conducted over a designated period of time by a team of qualified professionals (in our case, scientists) to determine an effect or outcome. For our purposes, clinical trials are essential to understanding and promoting concrete data about the effectiveness of our products.
What’s the difference between a clinical trial and a consumer perception study?
Many brands, us included, run consumer perception studies to gather insight. This basically tells us that X amount of people believe a product did or didn’t do something. With Virtue® Healing Oil, for example, we asked 50 people to use the product and answer a series of questions about its perceived effect on their hair: immediately, after 8 hours, after 3 days, and then after 1 week. This rendered results such as: “100% of women said their hair was immediately shinier” and “After 8 hours, 98% of women said their hair was polished, nourished, silkier, healthier, and protected from environmental stressors.” You’ve seen claims like this splashed across the marketing materials of a million beauty products because it’s an easy and legitimate way to gather data.
But when it comes to making claims about hair growth, that’s a whole different ball game. Clinical trials are rooted in scientific process, not perception.
Why are clinicals trials vital for hair growth products?
We take our position as one the most prominent and innovative leaders in hair growth incredibly seriously, which is why we conduct unbiased, independent, third-party clinical trials. We know we have something incredible on our hands––but we’d never claim that without being able to prove it to you.
The bioscientists that run our trials are not affiliated with our brand in any way, so they have no allegiance to a particular outcome. They simply test what needs to be tested and deliver the results. Thing is, outside of major beauty corporations, most brands don’t invest in clinical trials because they’re expensive and time consuming.
So what did we do?
Part 2
Six Month Growth Clinical Study*
*On 65 women ages 35–59 who were experiencing excessive shedding, thinning, and/or receding hairline, with a score of I-III for hair loss (women), and/or thinning hair was determined by an expert grader. The panelists visited the testing center at baseline, four months, and six months.
What did this study examine?
We compared the hair regrowth effectiveness of our two regimens. We wondered how our drug-free, botanical-based Density Booster regimen compared to the Minoxidil-based regimen in promoting growth and density. Our hope? That the Density Booster regimen would perform just as well as the Minoxidil regimen (spoiler: it did), and that we could make Minoxidil a better experience for consumers (and we did!).
Why does it matter?
Until now, Minoxidil has been the only single-ingredient drug approved by the FDA to regrow hair. It often comes in 2% or 5% doses, in foam form, and it’s the same no matter which brand is selling it. But it’s not right for everyone. It can’t be used during pregnancy or while breastfeeding, it requires daily hair cleansing, and can be irritating on the scalp. This is why we took advantage of our protein to develop our groundbreaking Density Booster: We wanted to know if it was as effective as Minoxidil. If so, we’d have something truly revolutionary on our hands. (Spoiler alert: It worked.)
How was it measured?
- Phototrichogram hair assessments conducted at baseline, four, and six months
- Digital photography at baseline, four, and six months
- Self-assessment questionnaires completed at baseline, three, four, six, and nine months
Ok sounds good, but what’s a Phototrichogram?
The phototrichogram (PTG) is the gold-standard methodology to measure quantitative improvement of hair density in clinical trials because it is noninvasive and reproducible.
Phototrichogram
Images at baseline, four, and six months for two representative subjects.
Density Booster Regimen Participant
89% had an increase in total # of anagen hairs (new growth)
91% had improvement in the Anagen / Telogen ratio
71% had improvement in total hair density
Minoxidil 5% Foam Regimen Participant
86% had an increase in total # of anagen hairs (new growth)
86% had improvement in the Anagen / Telogen ratio
76% had improvement in total hair density
Phototrichogram
Images at baseline, four, and six months for two representative subjects.
Density Booster Regimen Participant
97% said they saw new hair growth after 3 months
91% saw less fall-out after 4 months
94% saw healthier, fuller, more voluminous hair after 6 months
Minoxidil 5% Foam Regimen Participant
100% said they saw new hair growth after 3 months
96% saw healthier, fuller. more voluminous hair after 4 months
100% saw less fall-out after 6 months
