Hair loss affects more than 30 million women in the United States, yet most over-the-counter serums have consistently failed to deliver measurable hair growth in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Marketed with flashy claims or a dermatologist-produced formulation, these formulas typically rely on unproven botanical extracts, low-dose, or poorly researched off-the-shelf ingredients. Most often, these formulas rely on the exact same ingredients and dermatologists will take advantage of people's trust in them to sell their own brands. One recent example is KilgourMD. Our team took a deep dive into their formulas, only to find the same age-old ingredients that have been circulating for decades.

During our initial investigation, our team came across a preprint that described a new philosophy - instead of repackaging the same mediocre ingredients, a team of top researchers trained at Caltech, Princeton, Harvard, and Northwestern asked: can modern biotechnology be leveraged to discover new ingredients that tackle multiple failure modes in hair thinning? The result of their research was NOVOGRO™, which is the technology behind the new brand RE:YOU. Let's dig in.

KilgourMD: The Business Boom and Scientific Gap

KilgourMD represents the latest in a long line of “dermatologist-formulated” hair loss serums that rely on the same low-evidence ingredients seen across the category for years. Despite heavy marketing around scalp health and menopausal hair thinning, a closer examination of the brand's timeline, clinical data, funding, and ingredient choices reveals a pattern more consistent with consumer beauty branding than rigorous therapeutic development.

The company launched its products in late 2023 but only released its first clinical evidence in February 2026 - more than two years after going to market. This gap is interesting. Moreover, their clinical study involved only 43 menopausal women with androgenetic alopecia and evaluated the brand's Prevention and Treatment Serums without a head-to-head comparison against an established hair loss treatment such as minoxidil. Without this crucial comparison, and without a placebo arm, it is impossible to determine how effective their formulas actually are.

After consulting our clinical trial experts, a small Phase II study of this scale likely cost under $200,000 to conduct. Meanwhile, the company has raised tens of millions of dollars across seed and Series A rounds. This sequence - commercial launch first, limited clinical data later - signals corporate priorities centered around speed to market and consumer acquisition rather than foundational scientific evidence.

Moreover, KilgourMD's investor base consists primarily of consumer-focused funds that back beauty, wellness, and lifestyle brands rather than biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies with deep clinical development expertise. Lead investors such as Prelude Growth Partners, Willow Growth, Joyance Partners, and Able Partners have portfolios heavy in direct-to-consumer personal care. This funding profile aligns with brands optimized for marketing and retail velocity, not long-term consumer benefit.

What the evidence actually shows

KilgourMD’s core serum relies on three widely used cosmetic ingredients: Redensyl, Capixyl, and Procapil. These ingredients have limited independent clinical support and are readily available to any formulator in the category. All three ingredients are more than a decade old and derive the bulk of their published data from manufacturer-sponsored studies. Importantly, these trials typically rely on subjective endpoints such as photographic assessments or investigator global scores rather than objective, machine-graded hair counts, phototrichograms, or blinded histological measures. Even when positive signals appear, results often lack the rigor of truly double-blind, vehicle-controlled designs against standard-of-care comparators.

Independent dermatologists frequently describe the evidence base for these active ingredients as weak; many view them as low-risk “cosmeceutical” options precisely because they demonstrate minimal biological impact on the hair cycle or follicle miniaturization. These ingredients are commodity raw materials in the hair serum space. For example, a formulation combining Redensyl, Capixyl, and Procapil at typical use concentrations can be manufactured for well under $3 per bottle (compared to $89 for KilgourMD), according to formulation specialists. The high retail price of premium-branded serums therefore reflects marketing, packaging, and positioning far more than unique or costly active development. Marketing claims for KilgourMD have leaned heavily on manufacturer-provided data for these three ingredients. No large-scale, truly double-blind studies isolate or confirm synergistic efficacy beyond what the raw material suppliers themselves have published.

Kilgour’s 43-person clinical trial - conducted without a placebo or minoxidil arm, in a female population, and relying partly on self-reported outcomes - reads more like a vehicle for marketing claims than a rigorous attempt to establish true serum efficacy. This is a circular evidence pattern common in the cosmeceutical hair loss industry: brands commission small, under-powered studies designed just well enough to generate headline numbers, then use those numbers to lend scientific legitimacy to claims the data can't fully support.

Comparisons against minoxidil actually come not from KilgourMD's own studies but from a third-party 2019 study on the underlying Redensyl, Capixyl, Procapil ingredient combination - buried in their science blog rather than featured on their clinical results page, and with good reason: the study was conducted exclusively in men, making it an awkward reference for a product marketed primarily to women.

When our team tested their serum (Treatment Scalp Serum), we observed an extremely high number of particulates in the formula, suggesting that certain ingredients had become insoluble or “crashed out” of formula. This significantly limits their ability to penetrate into the scalp and reach the hair follicles where hair growth starts and stops. Additionally, this brings into question their quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) processes. The lack of rigorous QA and QC across the board in the beauty and haircare category will be the topic of a future article - please stay tuned.

When we consulted dermatologists on products like Kilgour with these types of active ingredients, they consistently noted that such ingredients generally carry a very low risk of adverse effects - making them attractive for consumer brands - but correspondingly modest or minimal effects on clinically meaningful hair regrowth or stabilization in androgenetic alopecia or hair loss. When patients seek measurable outcomes backed by strong, reproducible data, established treatments with decades of large-scale, independent research remain the clinical benchmark.

KilgourMD's approach, while polished and targeted at an underserved menopausal demographic, fits squarely within the pattern of incremental cosmetic innovation rather than a genuine advance in hair loss therapeutics.

NOVOGRO™: A new challenger?

Fortunately, recent advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) are enabling the discovery of entirely new ingredients with more targeted mechanisms of action on the hair follicle.

Back in late June of 2026, our team identified a study in which researchers applied AI to find several new active ingredients, each designed to act on unique pathways involved in the hair growth cycle, from follicle health, to pro-regenerative signalling, to DHT inhibition. The research team conducted comprehensive original preclinical research to establish the safety profile, mechanisms, and dose-response characteristics of their NOVOGRO™ molecules, going well beyond the typical reliance on supplier-provided data. Additionally, they further optimized the new ingredients for presumably topical use through improvements in solubility and formulation stability, addressing common limitations that reduce bioavailability in most cosmetic hair serums like we discussed earlier.

Since then, the brand RE:YOU has been linked to these NOVOGRO™ ingredients. NOVOGRO™ contains the following ingredients. We conduct a deep-dive on each of these in separate articles.

• NV-623/624: boosts dermal papilla cell health. Read more here.
• NV-273: activates a core regenerative pathway to upregulate growth factors, support dermal papilla cell metabolism, and promote microvascular remodeling. Read more here.
• NV-1065: a non-steroidal, non-hormonal molecule that stops DHT-related stress to the extrinsic hair follicle environment. Read more here.

In an impressive experiment, the researchers tested their NOVOGRO™ molecules in a 3D hair follicle model. These hair follicle organoids are lab-grown, miniature versions of human hair follicles that behave similarly to the real ones in our scalps. The researchers made these follicles-in-a-dish by combining two types of human skin cells - the outer skin cells (i.e., keratinocytes) and the deeper follicle tissue cells (i.e., dermal papilla cells) - in a 3D gel environment, where they self-organize into a ball and spontaneously sprout a hair peg-like structure within approximately 10 days. In these experiments, NOVOGRO™ outperformed minoxidil by 30%. When the researchers compared the NOVOGRO™ molecules against commercially available formulas, they saw that NOVOGRO™ outperformed all formulas in inducing peg-like hair growth, including KilgourMD.

To date, the only widely available product incorporating these patented NOVOGRO™ ingredients (NV-623, NV-624, and NV-273) is the new RE:YOU Dual-Path Hair Growth Serum. Independent online reviews and user reports for RE:YOU have been consistently positive, with many users noting visible improvements in hair density and reduced shedding within the expected several month timeframe for effective hair cycle modulation. Importantly, they also mention its lightweight, non-greasy texture.

Most impressively, RE:YOU and NOVOGRO™ were advanced into a rigorous double-blind, randomized clinical study that included both machine-graded hair count analysis (via digital phototrichogram) and expert clinical grading, with a direct head-to-head comparison against 2% topical minoxidil - the current clinical benchmark for non-prescription hair loss treatment. The study demonstrated statistically superior improvements in total hair growth (50% greater), hair density (50% greater), and less hair shedding versus minoxidil (44% improvement), and higher patient-reported outcomes. No adverse events have been reported, and the treatment appears to be well tolerated. A breakdown of the 90-day interim results is here. What's very impressive about this clinical study is that they recruited 190 women - this is by far the largest N we have seen in this category.

Phototrichogram analysis showed that subjects who applied RE:YOU had 50% greater hair counts and 50% greater hair density compared to minoxidil participants:

Additionally, 97% of RE:YOU subjects showed reduced hair loss by comb testing. On average, hair shedding dropped by 56%, which was 44% better than minoxidil.

Pricing for RE:YOU is premium, which is unsurprising given the underlying science. The formulation experts we consulted estimate that the cost of goods for a single bottle - factoring in the proprietary, lab-synthesized molecules that cannot be sourced from low-cost bulk suppliers - can reach up to $100 depending on manufacturing scale. This figure does not include the significant R&D investment typical of genuine biotechnology-driven discovery programs (millions of dollars).

In contrast to the low-cost, off-the-shelf ingredients used by brands like KilgourMD, RE:YOU’s approach exemplifies a higher bar for evidence and innovation in the hair loss category. While the elevated price point may limit accessibility for some people, it aligns more closely with the economics and rigor expected of treatments that aim to deliver measurable, clinically relevant outcomes rather than marginal cosmetic effects.

KilgourMD vs NOVOGRO™: The breakdown

Our editorial team has reached out to the researchers of the NOVOGRO™ study who mentioned that the clinical study is still ongoing and the next 6-month data will be available around the end of the year. We will update this article as new clinical data, and any new developments come in.

Our Verdict

KilgourMD is a product built on an all too familiar foundation - Redensyl, Capixyl, and Procapil are recognizable names in the hair loss category - but they are also ingredients that have been circulating in cosmetic formulations for over a decade, and the evidence behind them reflects a bygone era of hair science. The clinical data KilgourMD points to is real, but it conflates two distinct bodies of evidence in a way that flatters the brand more than the science warrants. Their own clinical trial - 43 women over four months - contains no placebo arm or minoxidil comparison, making it impossible to separate genuine efficacy from natural fluctuations of hair growth over time.

Moreover, without a minoxidil comparison, they cannot make any comparisons to minoxidil. These are not minor caveats. They are the kind of study design decisions that separate genuinely validated products from those that have learned to speak the language of clinical evidence without fully earning it. For consumers who have already tried the category staples and found them wanting, KilgourMD is unlikely to offer a meaningfully different experience. It is, at its core, a refinement of approaches that have existed for years, packaged with strong branding and dermatologist credibility.

NOVOGRO™ starts from a different premise entirely. Rather than selecting from the same shortlist of established cosmetic actives, it targets both the intrinsic hair follicle and its extrinsic environment. The clinical data is still maturing, but the biological rationale is more sophisticated, and the mechanism is more precisely matched to what the science tells us actually goes wrong in hair thinning and hair loss.

References & Further Reading

1. Fernández, D. G., Quinn, C., Alhayek, S., Prasad, A. R., et al. (2026). Efficacy of a dual-serum cosmetic system in women with female pattern hair loss. Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 25(6), 83251s3–83251s10. doi:10.36849/JDD.83251
2. Crunchbase. KilgourMD: company profile and funding rounds.
3. (2019). A comparative study between topical 5% minoxidil and topical “Redensyl, Capixyl, and Procapil” combination in men with androgenetic alopecia. Journal of Cosmetology & Trichology. As cited in KilgourMD. (2024, January 5). KilgourMD is where mother nature meets science.
4. Qu, Z. et al. (2026). AI-enabled discovery of small molecules targeting complementary pathways for hair follicle rejuvenation. bioRxiv.
5. RE:YOU. (2026). One of the most rigorous clinical trials in hair thinning (interim 90-day results). RE:YOU.
6. ClinicalTrials.gov. (2026). Effects of a topical serum solution on hair characteristics (NCT07785869). U.S. National Library of Medicine.