The Next Generation Of Scalp Care Brands
Sales continue to climb, investors are backing the category and a new wave of brands is entering the market with dermatologist, trichologist and clinically minded positioning. Market research firm Circana estimates prestige scalp care sales increased 29% last year to $502.3 million on a dollar basis, with unit sales spiking over 20%. In 2025, scalp care notched its third consecutive year of double-digit growth.
Across haircare, treatment is the fastest-growing product segment, up 14% in 2025. Within that, hair serum is up 65% year over year and hair oil is up 12%. Another market research firm, Grand View Research, projects the global hair and scalp care market to expand at a roughly 6% to 7% compound annual rate, reaching $150.4 billion in 2033 from $88.2 billion this year.
Dealmaking is tracking with demand. Founded by dermatologist James Kilgour, scalp care brand KilgourMD announced its series A round last month led by Prelude Growth Partners following a seed round led by Willow Growth Partners last year. The brand has surpassed $40 million in sales, according to reporting by Women’s Wear Daily.
Seen, a brand from dermatologist Iris Rubin, closed a $9 million series A round in 2024. Jupiter and Straand are among other recently funded scalp care brands. In 2022, Unilever purchased hair supplement brand Nutrafol for $1.2 billion.
A clear theme emerging in scalp care is that expertise sells. Whether grounded in dermatology, trichology or clinical research, brands that frame scalp care through a treatment lens rather than purely cosmetic benefits are capturing both consumer attention and investor interest.
As scalp care transforms haircare, we identified six brands to watch, including ones from dermatologists and trichologists.
Béssa Beauty
Launched March 31, Brooklyn-based Béssa Beauty aims to simplify routines while addressing the scalp as the foundation of hair health. It’s starting with two products: the $38 Cooling Scalp Serum and $36 Pre-Wash Conditioner. Cooling Scalp Serum is formulated with niacinamide, panthenol and a copper peptide complex to target buildup and support scalp vitality. Pre-Wash Conditioner is designed to hydrate with ingredients like hydrolyzed silk. Both products are fragrance-free and intended to be applied before showering.
Founder Vanessa Ocando says, “The more you use it, the less product you actually need because your hair is already so full of hydration and plump.”
Béssa Beauty takes a trichologist-led approach. Ocando has been a hairstylist for two decades, and she trained in spa management and worked at luxury properties, including Ritz-Carlton and Plaza Athénée in New York. She developed the brand after years of observing scalp issues firsthand, both personally and professionally. “Hair loss and hair health have always been in my wheelhouse,” she says, pointing to her mother’s alopecia and her experience working with models experiencing breakage, irritation and thinning.
That exposure prompted her to pursue trichology certification, grounding her recommendations in clinical knowledge. “If I’m telling a client how to cleanse their scalp, I want them to know it’s coming from a reliable source,” she explains.
Béssa Beauty is leaning into education as its primary growth driver. The brand plans to offer 10-minute virtual consultations with Ocando and build a stylist affiliate network using QR codes to facilitate sales without inventory or overhead. Longer term, Béssa Beauty is targeting selective retail placements in New York pharmacies, salons and trichology clinics, with ambitions to expand distribution as it enlarges its product line.
MNQA
Kuwait City-based MNQA launched in the United States last month in direct-to-consumer distribution to capture growing interest and engage an audience founder Qout Alturaif says is highly responsive to the brand’s educational content and ingredient transparency. The U.S. is currently among MNQA’s top five markets by website traffic.
Alturaif, a trichologist and salon owner, launched the brand in 2025 after experiencing androgenetic alopecia and postpartum hair loss. The experience pushed her to understand hair on a deeper, clinical level. “After gaining that knowledge and working closely with real cases, I realized there was a gap between clinical expertise and what was actually available to consumers,” she says. “I wanted to create products that were not only effective, but also grounded in real understanding and credibility.”
Formulated by Alturaif in collaboration with dermatologists, MNQA’s products include Growth+ Tonic, Growth+ Shampoo, Growth+ Conditioner and Detox Shampoo, with prices on its U.S. site ranging from roughly $6 to $60, depending on the item and bundle. The hero product is the $59.99 Growth+ Tonic, part of the brand’s inaugural Growth+ line. Other collections include Butter+, which focuses on hydration, and Scalp+, which prioritizes clarifying care.
Alturaif underscores that customer feedback helps inform product development. She says, “Every product is developed based on real cases, real concerns and real results.”
Rhute
The brainchild of dermatologist Aamna Adel, who’s dealt with postpartum hair loss, London-based Rhute launched in September with a single product, the $75 Density and Repair Scalp Serum. The product has sold out three times, with the first drop disappearing in under an hour.
“It’s a huge space which affects so many people, but actually treatment’s really hard and really difficult,” she told Beauty Independent last November, adding her personal battle with hair loss “allowed me to understand more from a patient perspective and the desperation that’s associated with that.”
Developed over three years, Density and Repair Scalp Serum is positioned as a treatment addressing shedding, dryness and irritation through ingredients like niacinamide, caffeine, salicylic acid and bioactive peptides. In clinical testing, 79% of users reported visibly fuller hair within eight weeks, and 86% reported improved hydration.
Rhute’s education-driven marketing has fueled growth sans paid content. Adel’s social media audience, which totals more than 2 million followers across TikTok and Instagram, sees her breaking down hair loss conditions, sharing product recommendations, busting beauty myths and discussing her hair loss struggle.
Rhute has been building out its product range beyond the serum, including a dermastamp microneedling tool designed to complement topical treatments by supporting scalp stimulation and product absorption. The brand plans to launch four to five additional products over the next year, with the goal of creating a Rhute routine for people with scalp and hair issues.
Ellà Viè
Founded in Adelaide, Australia, Ellà Viè takes a clinical approach to scalp health. Founder Rafaela Shkambi has a background in nursing, aesthetic medicine and dermal therapy and is a certified trichologist. The brand emerged from hands-on experience treating patients, where simplified, functional solutions often proved more effective than complex routines. Shkambi says, “I kept seeing over-complicated, trend-driven products that weren’t actually helping the scalp.”
The principle “above all, do no harm” informs a tightly edited product lineup centered on long-term scalp integrity. Its hero product, Scalp Elixir, priced at 66 Australian dollars or roughly $47, targets inflammation and supports a balanced scalp environment for hair growth. Formulations are waterless and fragrance-free, and Shkambi emphasizes the brand sticks to essential ingredients. She says, “Everything is guided by what we see work in practice.”
Ellà Viè’s go-to-market strategy mirrors its professional roots. The brand primarily sells direct-to-consumer through its site, supplemented by selective distribution in salons and clinical settings where practitioner endorsement plays a key role in discovery. Marketing is education-led, relying on clear, experience-driven guidance rather than heavy paid acquisition.
Short-term priorities include increasing brand awareness and expanding its network of professional partners. Over time, Ellà Viè aims to establish itself as a trusted authority in scalp health, rooted in trichology and clinical care.
Truth & Hair
After starting the online curly and textured hair marketplace NYNM, which stands for Naturally You And Me, in 2018, Saumya Alagh realized there was a lack of Indian brands addressing the vast spectrum of hair textures. Along with co-founder Shailesh Singh, she decided to fill the gap with Gurugram, India-based Truth & Hair. In January, the brand snapped up a 2.5 crore investment, or about $260,000, in exchange for 25% equity from Varun Alagh on business reality show Shark Tank India.
While scalp science grounds its formulations, Truth & Hair’s hair makeup has taken off, particularly its root touch-up hair mascara, priced at roughly $7 to $9 depending on the shade. The brand also offers curly and wavy hair stylers, a flyaway wand, water serums, a powder-puff dry shampoo and texture-specific cleansing and conditioning ranges, with products generally ranging from about $4 to $18 on its website.
Truth & Hair is pouring the investment won on “Shark Tank India” into its product pipeline, with at least five product launches planned for the year, according to Indian Startup Times. Saumya will also lean into her background as a trichologist and educator through brand content, which Sugar Cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh encouraged on “Shark Tank India.” “That feedback stayed with me,” Saumya told Indian Startup Times. “We’re actively working on building more science-led, educational content around hair and scalp health.”
Enagenbio
Another expert-driven Indian haircare brand is New Delhi-based Enagenbio. Founded by dermatologist Manjot Marwah, it offers personalized products specifically for Indian hair, which the website describes as “diverse as the country itself,” while considering factors such as climate and water quality. The brand says, “We believe that a one-size-fits-all approach simply isn’t enough.”
Enagenbio’s product lineup spans scalp treatments and length-focused care, including shampoos, conditioners, hair oils and targeted serums. Standouts include the Octapep Hair Growth Scalp Serum, formulated with multiple actives to address hair fall, and the recently introduced NanoInfuser dermastamp, a microneedling applicator designed to enhance absorption and efficacy of topical treatments.
The brand also has systems such as its Hair Repair regimen, which combines pre-wash and conditioning steps to improve cuticle health and reduce damage, and its Flexi Clips, which promise zero scalp digging.
