# Huge If True: Can We Actually Regrow Hair?

> For thirty years, hair-loss medicine had two big names. Now three different approaches are in large human trials, and the first results in women are in. What works today, what's new, what's still only in mice, and when women get a turn.

- Published: 2026-10-24
- Section: Well Woman
- Canonical: https://pinkpopcornworld.com/blog/can-we-regrow-hair-2026
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW41wYZjKmk
- Publisher: Pink Popcorn (https://pinkpopcornworld.com/)

For about thirty years, if your hair was thinning, approved medicine had two big names on the menu, and for women the menu was even shorter. This October, in the space of one week, two companies hit major milestones in hair-regrowth trials. Right now, three different approaches are being tested in large human trials. One tries to block the signal that shrinks hair. One tries to make an old hair drug work better. And one tries something that couldn't seriously be tested before: waking up the cells that make hair in the first place. So we asked two questions. Can we actually regrow hair yet? And will any of this work for women?

## How hair actually grows

Every hair grows out of a follicle. Think of it as a tiny factory under your skin, working in shifts: a long growing shift that can last years, a short wind-down, a rest, then it sheds the old hair and starts again.

In the most common kind of hair loss, pattern hair loss, the factory usually doesn't disappear. With each cycle the growing shift gets shorter, and the hair it makes gets finer and thinner. In men that usually shows up as a receding hairline or a bald spot. In women it looks different: the hairline usually stays, the part gets wider, and the hair on top thins all over.

It's common. A British study of 377 women who came to a skin clinic for other reasons found female pattern hair loss in 6% of women under 50 and 38% of women aged 70 and over [1].

## Why the menu was so short

**Minoxidil** was found by accident. It started life as a blood pressure pill; patients noticed they were growing hair. It became a liquid and foam you put on your scalp (Rogaine), and there are versions approved for women.

**Finasteride** is a pill that lowers a hormone called DHT, which is linked to pattern hair loss. It is approved for men, not for women's hair loss, and it must be avoided in pregnancy [2].

Dermatologists have other options too, but many are used off-label, and none works for everyone. Three new ideas are trying to change that. Think of them as three doors.

## Door one: stop the signal (clascoterone)

Picture DHT as a key. On the hair follicle there's a lock it fits into, the androgen receptor. When the key turns, the follicle starts to shrink. Finasteride works by making fewer keys. Clascoterone tries to block the lock. Because it's put directly on the scalp, researchers hope to limit its effects on the rest of the body.

You may have met it already: a 1% cream version is sold for acne as Winlevi, approved in 2020. For hair, Cosmo Pharmaceuticals ran two Phase 3 trials, Scalp 1 and Scalp 2, with 1,465 men [3].

One headline number was **539%**. That sounds like a whole new head of hair. It isn't. It compares how much hair counts changed with the drug against how much they changed with a dummy treatment, in relative terms. It does not mean anyone grew five times as much hair. In the second trial the same comparison came out at 168%. Both trials were positive. After a year, the company says the benefit held and side effects looked similar to the dummy treatment, and it plans to apply for approval early in 2027 [4].

Those large trials were in men. A separate trial in women started in Germany in 2019 [5]. We couldn't find its results published, so we can't tell you how it went.

## Door two: help the factory (a minoxidil pill)

For years, some dermatologists have prescribed minoxidil off-label as a tiny daily pill, far below the blood pressure dose. In a small trial from Brazil, 52 women with pattern hair loss took either a 1 mg pill or used the 5% liquid for six months. Hair density rose about 12% with the pill and about 7% with the liquid. Both groups improved, but the trial was small and open-label (everyone knew which treatment they were on), and the difference wasn't big enough to say one was better. About a quarter of the women on the pill noticed extra hair growing where they didn't want it, such as the face [6].

Now Veradermics has built a slow-release minoxidil pill designed for hair, called VDPHL01, at a much bigger dose: 8.5 mg in its main trial in men. On 19 October 2026 it reported results from that trial, 536 men, randomised and placebo-controlled [7]:

| After six months | Dummy pill | Once daily | Twice daily |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extra hairs per cm² (measured scalp patch) | 6.6 | 28.6 | 36.4 |
| Said their coverage looked improved | 15% | 55.7% | 68.7% |
| Ankle swelling | 0.6% | 2.8% | 4.5% |
| Extra hair on the body or face | 0% | 2.2% | 9.0% |

No treatment-related serious or heart-related problems were reported in those six months, but six months can't tell us about long-term safety.

### What about women?

Most headlines missed this part. In July, Veradermics reported an earlier, smaller study that included 28 women, who took a lower dose (4.5 mg) for six months. Hair counts rose by about 23 hairs per cm², and about 9 in 10 said their coverage looked better [8].

The honest part: that study was small and had no dummy group, so it can't be compared directly with the men's results and it isn't proof. It is a real signal, in women. And the proper test is already running: 556 women, placebo-controlled, for a full year, with results expected in the first half of 2027 [9].

One important thing: minoxidil pills are still blood pressure medicine. This is a conversation with a doctor, not something to order online.

## Door three: restart the factory (PP405)

In 2017, scientists at UCLA found that the stem cells that restart a hair follicle need to change how they burn fuel, making more of a substance called lactate. In mice, blocking that switch kept follicles asleep; nudging it sped the hair cycle up [10].

That research led to a company called Pelage and a gel called PP405, designed to switch sleeping stem cells back on rather than fight hormones. In an early trial, 78 men and women used it once a day for just four weeks. Among the men with more hair loss, 31% saw hair density rise by more than 20%, measured at week eight; on the dummy gel, none did [11]. The company also reported new visible hair in areas that looked bald. That's intriguing, but a bald-looking patch can still hold tiny follicles making hairs too fine to see, so it doesn't prove the gel can bring back follicles that are truly gone.

On 14 October 2026 the first patient was dosed in its next trial, AWAKEN: a Phase 2/3 study of about 600 men over a year. The company says a trial in women is planned before the end of 2026 [12]. It's early. Four weeks of treatment is not a cure. But it's a genuinely new way of attacking the problem.

## Further out: the mouse stage

A sugar gel tested by teams in Sheffield and at COMSATS University in Pakistan regrew hair in male mice about as well as minoxidil [13]. Scientists in Japan grew hair follicles in the lab that went on to grow and shed hair, in mice [14]. Both are fascinating, and both are a long way from your bathroom shelf. Most mouse results never make it to people.

## And rosemary oil?

Almost every rosemary-oil video points back to one study from 2015. A hundred men used rosemary oil or 2% minoxidil for six months; both groups had more hair at the end, and the rosemary group itched less [15]. But there was no placebo group, it was only men, and it used the weaker strength of minoxidil. Rosemary is worth studying, but one small trial without a placebo group can't tell us how well it works.

## So, can we regrow hair?

For some people, we already can. Minoxidil works for some women today, as a liquid or foam, or with a doctor, as a pill. And if your hair suddenly starts shedding, it's worth asking a doctor to look for other causes too.

What's different now is that three ideas are in human trials at once: blocking the signal that makes follicles shrink, making an old hair drug work better, and waking up the cells that make hair. Women aren't only waiting on the sidelines; early results in women are already in, and a much larger trial is underway. Will these drugs work for everyone? No. Will they be available next year? We don't know, and trials can still fail. But after decades of a very short menu, that's huge.

## Worth knowing

- A big percentage in a headline is often a relative comparison with a dummy treatment. Look for the actual numbers: hairs per cm², and how many people said they saw a difference.
- "Open-label" means everyone knew which treatment they had. "Placebo-controlled" means some people got a dummy, which makes the result much easier to trust.
- Results in mice are a reason to keep watching, not a reason to buy.
- This is information, not medical advice. Minoxidil pills are prescription medicine.

## Watch the video

Every door, every number and the rosemary study are in the full film: [Huge If True: Can We Actually Regrow Hair?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW41wYZjKmk) The quick versions: [results in women](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gmLexqbMrQY), [539% more hair? Not quite](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EgnbXM_bnR0) and [the rosemary oil study everyone cites](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ny8C4D5lNgs).

## Sources

1. Birch MP, Messenger JF, Messenger AG. Hair density, hair diameter and the prevalence of female pattern hair loss. British Journal of Dermatology, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2133.2001.04018.x
2. Healthline, Hair loss: the best treatments and medications in 2026, January 2026 (finasteride labelling)
3. Fox News, New hair loss treatment shows significant improvement over placebo, 9 December 2025 (Cosmo Pharmaceuticals, Scalp 1 and Scalp 2)
4. GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), Cosmo Pharma eyes 2027 NDA for baldness candidate after positive Phase III 12-month data, 21 April 2026
5. Practical Dermatology, Cassiopea enrolls first patient in Phase II trial of clascoterone solution for androgenetic alopecia in females, 13 November 2019
6. Ramos PM, Sinclair RD, Kasprzak M, Miot HA. Minoxidil 1 mg oral versus minoxidil 5% topical solution for the treatment of female-pattern hair loss: a randomized clinical trial. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2019.08.060
7. Veradermics, Study 304 Phase 3 results in male pattern hair loss, press release, 19 October 2026
8. Veradermics, Study 207 Phase 2 results in female pattern hair loss, press release, 15 July 2026
9. Veradermics, second-quarter 2026 results (Study 306 enrolment complete), 11 August 2026
10. Flores A et al. Lactate dehydrogenase activity drives hair follicle stem cell activation. Nature Cell Biology, 2017 (UCLA)
11. Pelage Pharmaceuticals, positive Phase 2a results for PP405, press release, June 2025
12. Pelage Pharmaceuticals, first patient dosed in Phase 2/3 AWAKEN trial of PP405, press release, 14 October 2026
13. Anjum MA, MacNeil S et al. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 2024 (2-deoxy-D-ribose gel in mice), as reported by ScienceAlert
14. Toyoshima K, Tsuji T et al. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2026 (lab-grown hair follicles in mice), as reported by ZME Science
15. Panahi Y, Taghizadeh M, Marzony ET, Sahebkar A. Rosemary oil vs minoxidil 2% for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia: a randomized comparative trial. SKINmed, 2015 (PMID 25842469)