The internet is filled with many products claiming to make your hair grow faster – but do they actually work? From ginger-infused hair loss shampoos and $200 head massages claiming to stimulate hair growth… to weird laser combs, it’s hard to know what’s effective and what’s just a marketing gimmick.
Our Favourites
⭐ Best For Female Thinning Hair: The Purest Co Pomegranate Hair Vitality
Best For Capsule Supplement: Nutrafol Women Hair Growth Nutraceutical
Best For Scalp Care: Vegamour GRO Serum
Best For Hair Follicle Care: THE ORDINARY Multi Peptide Serum for Hair Density
Best For Clogged Hair & Scalp: Dr. ForHair Folligen Tonic
First of all, you must understand that women tend to experience hair growth and loss differently from men. However, many products are catered towards males. So you may not see the results you’d like – or worse, it damages your hair and scalp.
Next, be wary of fake customer reviews, even on established sites like Amazon, iHerb and Shopee. Many brands pay or incentivize reviewers, and so what you see may not be authentic.
So where do you start?
A good rule of thumb is to understand what’s causing slow hair growth in the first place.
What’s Slowing Down My Hair?
As you can see below, some causes of hair thinning or slow hair growth are specific to women. Hence, we recommend choosing hair growth products catered to females, rather than generic products that are usually made for men.
 | Hair Bleaching The chemicals in bleach can damage keratin, weaken hair follicles, and cause scalp irritation. These can cause hair to become brittle, grow slower, and thin out.
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 | Postpartum & Midlife Hormone Changes 2-4 months after pregnancy, the sudden fall in hormones can cause hair shedding. Similarly, decreases in oestrogen as we age may cause hair growth to slow down. |
 | Sickness When you fall ill, your immune system may become overactive. This may lead to inflammation, which can weaken hair follicles. |
 | Surgery During and after a surgical procedure, you may experience higher stress levels than normal. This can inhibit keratin production, cause inflammation and affect blood flow to the scalp. All of these can slow down hair growth. |
 | Thyroid Issues Women tend to experience low thyroid hormones as they age, which can affect blood flow and nutrient supply to the hair follicles, leading to hair thinning. |
 | Stress Similar to surgery, high stress can impact blood flow to the scalp, inhibit keratin production, and trigger inflammation. |
Is It Possible To Make Hair Grow Faster With Natural Products?
Most of us are familiar with the mainstream hair treatments – like minoxidil. These are formulated with synthetic chemicals, and have many clinical studies backing up their efficacy. However, users of minoxidil often complain that once they stop, their hair starts to fall again.
Fortunately, there are plenty of safe, effective and natural-focused solutions entering the market now.
This is especially important for women who plan to get pregnant or want to breastfeed, as certain chemicals can lead to birth defects. A natural answer can help put minds at ease.
Which Is Better: Topical Products or Supplements?
Should you take a hair vitamin or buy a hair loss shampoo?
The answer is, well, it depends.
If your hair loss is localised to your scalp (i.e. it is just a scalp/hair follicle issue only) then a topical solution might be helpful. Examples of solutions that target the scalp specifically are hair serums, massages, laser treatments and shampoos.
However, as you can see in the section ‘What’s Slowing Down My Hair?’, hair loss is usually a whole-body problem. Such as inflammation, stress, hormones or changes in your immune system. Hair loss is just one symptom. Unless you eliminate the issue in the body, it will keep coming back.
In that case, a supplement might be best, as it targets the whole body – including your hair and scalp.
What Women Need To Speed Up Hair Growth
So how to grow hair faster? Our research indicates 3 essential elements that must come together to effectively boost female hair growth:
 | Boost Blood Flow To Scalp Our scalp is a living thing. Like our lungs and kidneys, it needs oxygen and nutrients too. Especially to grow long, thick and flowing hair! Healthy blood circulation to the scalp helps deliver much needed oxygen and nutrients, and boost hair growth. Unfortunately, stress and hormone issues may hinder optimal blood flow. |
 | Soothe Inflammation Inflammation due to high stress, hair chemicals or illness may damage hair follicles, and lead to hair fall. By bringing down inflammation, hair follicles can finally recover and start producing hair again. |
 | Boost Keratin Production Keratin is also what hair is made of, and keeps it strong and shiny. However, hair dye and bleaching can damage keratin, and nutrient deficiencies also means many women are not getting enough keratin in their diet. |
Science-backed Hair Nutraceuticals
 | POMEGRANATE EXTRACT Pomegranate is rich in antioxidants, which boosts blood flow to the scalp. This enriches the scalp and hair follicles with oxygen and nutrients needed for healthy growth. Pomegranate is also abundant in ellagic acid, a natural anti-inflammatory and known to treat hair loss. |
 | PROLINE-RICH COLLAGEN Proline is a unique amino acid that the body uses to produce hair keratin. Rich in antioxidants, it combats oxidative stress that leads to inflammation of hair follicles. It is usually found in marine collagen. |
 | POTASSIUM Studies show potassium deficiency can lead to hair loss. This essential mineral helps unblock hair follicles, so that they can absorb vital nutrients to aid in hair growth. |
 | BIOTIN Biotin plays a key role in your body’s keratin production, which is what hair is made of. Women taking biotin supplements notice visible increase in hair thickness and volume. |
1. The Purest Co’s Pomegranate Hair Vitality
Key Benefits: Pomegranate Hair Vitality is our top choice as it addresses the three essential elements needed to speed up hair growth. Their unique 360° formulation includes a patented pomegranate extract called Pomanox®, clinically proven to promote hair growth. It’s also loaded with 1000mg of marine collagen, which is high in proline, as well as potassium and biotin to boost hair production.
As a supplement, this is perfect for women who believe they need to nourish both their body and scalp from the inside.
How To Use: Drink one serving everyday. It comes in individual sachets for ease of consumption. Just tear open and sip, no need to add water.
User Results:
Source: The Purest Co
2. Nutrafol’s Women Hair Growth Nutraceutical
Key Benefits: Nutrafol’s flagship product for women features their patented Synergen Complex, which aims to combat hormones, stress, environmental triggers, metabolism, nutrition and aging. Its key ingredients are marine collagen, Sensoril ashwagandha and saw palmetto. Saw palmetto has been shown to block DHT, a hormone that causes hair loss in women with higher levels of testosterone. E.g. PCOS.
As Synergen Complex is a proprietary formula, we don’t know how much of each ingredient is in every serving. That’s why it has only made our number 2 spot.
How To Use: Swallow four capsules a day. Nutrafol recommends taking their supplement for at least 2-3 months for results.
User Results:
Source: Nutrafol
3. Vegamour’s GRO Hair Serum
Key Benefits: GRO’s star ingredients are Curcumin Stem Cell Extract, Red Clover and Mung Bean. Curcumin, from turmeric root, has been shown to help balance oestrogen changes, as well as reduce inflammation.
Both Red Clover and Curcumin are studied for their natural ability to block DHT, the hair loss hormone that originates from high testosterone levels.
How To Use: Apply drops to the scalp every morning. Some customers comment that their drops run out before 1 month is up.
User Results:
Source: Vegamour
4. THE ORDINARY’s Multi Peptide Serum for Hair Density
Key Benefits: Another serum like Vegamour’s GRO, this product has many positive reviews online. It uses a mix of peptides and botanical extracts said to boost hair growth. We discovered one of their main active ingredients is dihydroquercetin-glucoside (DHQG) which is known to ‘enhance cell division in hair follicle stem cells’ to encourage hair regrowth.
However, we noticed it also contains oleanolic acid and Apigenin, which are ingredients tied to some controversy.
How To Use: Apply drops to clean & dry scalp and massage into head.
User Results:
5. Dr. ForHair’s Folligen Tonic
Key Benefits: Dr.ForHair is one of the top scalp care brands in Korea, and this hair tonic is said to provide essential nutrients to the scalp and hair follicles. Apple Cider Vinegar is used to remove product buildup, which can suffocate hair follicles. So this is great if you use a lot of hair products.
Their target customers seem to be males, which is why they included ingredients that block DHT (a hormone from testosterone that causes hair loss) like Saw Palmetto, Reishi Mushroom and Red Ginseng.
How To Use: Spray evenly on clean (wet or dry) scalp and massage once a day.
User Result:
Source: Naver
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