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10 Best Hair Growth Shampoos for Men
Here are the products that will help revive thinning hair
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After the stress of the past few years, your hair may not be living its best life right now. And spending more time staring at your own face on video calls means you're more likely to notice if it’s not looking as, ahem, lustrous as you’d like.
Or maybe there are a few more strands than usual clogging up the shower drain? Good news: there’s a shampoo for that.
Okay, we can’t promise voluminous curls like Timothee Chalamet or enough hair to pad out a Thor-worthy man-bun, but there are a few products that can minimise breakage and promote growth, leaving you with not only more hair, but healthier lengths too.
We tested the best hair growth shampoos for men (and their corresponding conditioners, if they have them). Here's a glance at our winners, but scroll on for more information on the testing process.
Can Shampoos Really Regrow Hair?
We’ll cut to the chase. No shampoo will be able to give you the same volume you had in your teens, but they can help create a healthy environment to encourage strands to grow as strong as possible.
If you have genetic hair loss, then you need something more heavy-duty than a thickening shampoo. Male pattern baldness is a one-way street and without a hair transplant, the best you can do is hold onto what you've still got. The likes of minoxidil and finasteride have been shown to help there, but they do mess with your testosterone levels and can cause dryness and irritation. The shampoos we've tested here are for more everyday – and reversible – hair loss issues.
How We Test Hair Growth Shampoos
Our panel of 700 testers – all self-diagnosed with mild to extreme hair loss or thinning – tried a range of shampoos for between one and two months. The products aimed to correct at least one of the three main causes of hair loss: breakage, thinning and root or scalp issues.
Testers noted any differences to their hair’s condition and appearance and fed back on how their scalp felt throughout the trial period.
In the lab, our experts tested anti-breakage shampoos by combing through hair switches that had been treated with each product and comparing them to untreated switches. The easier the treated switches were to comb, the lower the risk of breakages and fallout.
For products that claim to thicken and stimulate roots, our lab team used a HairMetrix machine to analyse exactly how much impact each shampoo had on hair thickness and density. For all the shampoos on our list, we’ve stated whether they contain parabens, sulphates and silicones, in case any of those are a dealbreaker.
Note: These products are not designed to treat those with medical or hereditary conditions such as alopecia or male pattern baldness. Please seek a medical professional for advice.
Maria is our Beauty and Grooming Testing Manager, and since joining in mid-2022, she has managed the testing for mutiple categories including scalp scrubs, collagen supplements and retinol serums. In addition to her master's degree in chemical engineering and a diploma in cosmetic science, she recently received her MBA from the London College of Fashion, focusing on case studies within the beauty industry. Prior to joining the company, she worked within the global technical team at the Estee Lauder Companies for over six years, collaborating with the chemists and engineers to launch luxury beauty products at scale and to quality. She has also worked as a formulation scientist within the pharmaceutical industry and takes this evidence based approach into all her product testing.
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