Will this Hair Serum Replace Rogaine as the New Gold Standard?

For the woman reading every roundup of "the best hair serums for hair thinning" — you'll most certainly recognize the purple packaging of Rogaine before even reading the name. It's kind of a celebrity in the hair industry, and feels like an obvious first step for anyone navigating hair thinning.

But something new is causing a commotion — slowly infiltrating group chats with other stylists and coming up in conversations with clients who have tried it. RE:YOU is a new brand bringing biotech to beauty and their first product, the Dual-Path Hair Revival Serum is gunning for Rogaine's throne as the industry standard.

Will RE:YOU Be the New Rogaine?

What's causing a buzz about RE:YOU is how in their clinical study their serum went head to head with minoxidil, and outperformed it.

Minoxidil, the hero ingredient in Rogaine, has been the backbone of over-the-counter hair regrowth for decades. If a client tells us she has "tried something for thinning", it was very likely minoxidil.

That being said, it's our job to be skeptical and critical of any new product entering the market, so we put Rogaine head to head with RE:YOU ourselves. TLDR for anyone in the industry: you're going to want to get this for your clients ASAP.

RE:YOU Dual-Path Hair Revival Serum

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User Experience: Which Fits Best into Your Daily Routine?

You should always wonder how a new product will fit into your current routine, because not everything is mix and match.

RE:YOU is so easy to recommend to clients because there's usually no need for questions like "is this for me?" or "will this work for my hair?" since it's intentionally designed to work across all types of hair and hair routines.

It's compatible with virtually all products in your hair routine; I tell my clients to add it first and let it absorb before layering other products and treatments. It's an easy fit into any hair routine, and the water-based formula absorbs into the scalp in just seconds.

RE:YOU is once a day, Rogaine is twice. A small difference day-to-day but the truth of the matter is: even once a day can be hard for some people, especially when you have to strategically build your routine around it.

A few things I flag for my clients starting Rogaine:

• Incompatible with some color treatments: The alcohol can remove or change the color of some dyes depending on what brands you are using; you and your stylist should do research beforehand. This is not surprising, as the box even states this and texture change as potential effects.
• Timing matters: Rogaine does not fully absorb until hours after applying, so habits like applying right before bed are generally advised against unless you want dirty pillows. Same reasoning applies to styling appointments — if I have a client on Rogaine I usually ask them to pause use for 24 hours in case it interferes with whatever styling or treatment we are doing for that session.
• Adverse side effects: The common ones include the "dread shed" (initial period of hair loss), scalp irritation, unwanted facial hair growth, toxicity to pets, and elevated heart rate.

How it Works: Active Ingredients and Science Explained

RE:YOU is built around NOVOGRO™, a proprietary group of small molecules developed specifically for hair-follicle biology by their in-house team of PhD scientists. The serum uses three key molecules:

• NOVOGRO™ 623 + 624 for follicle support: These target the dermal papilla cells, which are located at the base of the hair follicle and regulate growth.
• NOVOGRO™ 273 for the scalp environment: This works on the follicle's surrounding environment, restoring the flow of oxygen, nutrients, and regenerative signals to the hair follicle.

The current trend in the hair space is that brands are pulling the same botanicals and "novel" ingredients (peptides, exosomes, etc.) into their formulas with loose testing and evidence around those ingredients. It gets really overwhelming for shoppers when you see so much overlap in ingredient lists. My advice is to just push these to the side — it's mostly just noise and very good marketing.

RE:YOU is different.

Their research team screened roughly 20 million compounds before narrowing down to three and testing them in human follicle cells and 3D mini-follicle models. The research has been published as a preprint, and on top of that they are running a 190-person clinical trial, double-blinded, against minoxidil (90 day results summarized below).

It's a very refreshing approach to product development, and an exciting look into what happens when you combine science with wellness and beauty.

Fun fact: minoxidil was not originally created for hair. It was first developed as an oral blood pressure medication, and hair growth showed up as a side effect. That observation was eventually turned into the topical we know today and it's the main active in Rogaine's formula.

Minoxidil works by widening blood vessels and boosting the flow of nutrients and signals towards hair follicles. It also nudges resting follicles into the growth phase and helps them stay there longer.

Rogaine can turn growth up, but it does not change the root cause of follicle shrinkage. That's why it requires perpetual use — once you stop using it, the hair thinning comes right back.

Clinical Results & Evidence: What Results Should You Expect?

Clients, friends, coworkers — all great places for information and the reason you read publications like ours. But when it comes down to the wire, useful to look at the numbers!

Both RE:YOU and Rogaine are backed by clinical trials; based on the science here's what people can expect from each (results are taken from each brand's respective sites).

RE:YOU

Measured results after 3 months

84%

increase in hair thickness

measured via trichoscopy

66%

decrease in shedding

measured via comb test

18%

increase in hair density

evaluated by clinician

97%

reported less visible shedding

self-reported

Before (left) and after (right) photos taken from RE:YOU website.

Rogaine

Self-reported user results after 8 months

19%

reported moderate regrowth

against 7% placebo

40%

reported minimal regrowth

against 33% placebo

Before (left) and after (right) photos taken from Rogaine website.

Editor's Pick: What am I Telling My Clients?

Rogaine has been the go-to for decades, but hair science has moved on. After putting the two side by side, it's hard to make the case for starting there today.

RE:YOU is once a day instead of twice. It works with color and styling instead of against them. It was built from the ground up for hair, not borrowed from a blood pressure pill. And it went head-to-head with minoxidil in a double-blind clinical trial, with measured results in just 90 days.

Rogaine asks you to plan your routine around it, keep an eye out for side effects, and keep using it indefinitely. RE:YOU asks for about 30 seconds a day.

So, if your clients are asking what to try for thinning, this is the one we're recommending first. With a 90-day money-back guarantee, the only thing they have to lose is the hair in the shower drain.