The Root Co. Hair Vitamin Review: Does It Work?

Dr. Yehoshua Maor, PhD

Harvard-Trained Pharmacologist · US Patent #11,160,750 Published 6:14 am EST · 187,422 reads

Most hair supplements pick one lever and pull it. The Root Co. Hair Vitamin is built on a different premise: that thinning usually has more than one driver, so a formula should work on more than one at a time. The interesting part is that this claim is not just marketing. The formula has been measured in an independent nine-month study, published in peer-reviewed research (under the name Phyllotex, its clinical brand), and compared with the big names in the category.

This review works through what that evidence actually shows, what is inside each capsule and why, how it stacks up against Nutrafol, Viviscal, and minoxidil, and who should and should not bother with it.

Who it is for

The reviews and the trial skew heavily toward one group: adults whose hair has thinned or started shedding more than it used to, from causes that are common and reversible rather than from scarring conditions. In practice that means a few clear cases.

• Postpartum and hormonal shedding. The drop after pregnancy, and the slower thinning that comes with perimenopause and menopause, are two of the most common reasons people reach for it.
• Stress and life-event shedding. The kind of diffuse shedding that shows up a couple of months after a stressful stretch, illness, or crash diet.
• Thinning that survived biotin and topicals. People who tried biotin, keratin, or a serum and want something that works on the causes rather than one nutrient.
• All hair types, women and men. The nine-month study included 22 women and 16 men, and the customer photos span straight, wavy, and tightly textured hair.

It is a supplement, not a drug. If your loss is from a scarring alopecia, or you are looking to reverse advanced male-pattern baldness on its own, this is not the tool for that, and the sections below say so plainly.

What this review looks at

• Whether the clinical numbers hold up when you read the actual study rather than the headline
• What is really in the formula, at what dose, and what each ingredient is doing
• How the measured results compare with Nutrafol, Viviscal, and minoxidil
• How quickly results tend to appear, and what is realistic to expect
• How to take it, what to pair it with, and who should skip it

Does it actually work

This is where The Root Co. separates itself from most supplements, which lean on a single small study or none at all. Here the formula was put through an independent nine-month study, measured with the tools trichologists actually use, and the raw numbers are strong.

The study followed 38 people (22 women aged 25 to 55, and 16 men aged 30 to 50) for nine months, with measurements at the start and at four, six, and nine months. It was run by a large hair-care corporation, analyzed with the TrichoView imaging system, and presented at the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery meeting in 2022. Each person was measured in a visibly thinning spot and a fuller spot, so the data shows how the formula performs in the areas that matter most.

Hair Mass Index is the single most telling measure here, because it combines how many hairs there are with how thick each one is. In the thinning areas it climbed from 15.9 to 50.2 over nine months, more than tripling. In the fuller areas it went from 18.7 to 78.8. Every person who was measured responded on this metric by month nine.

Count tells a similar story. By month four the thinning areas had roughly doubled their starting hair count, and by month nine both the thinning and fuller areas sat at about 2.6 times baseline. The gains were still climbing at nine months rather than plateauing, which is unusual.

Thickness moved too. In the thinning areas the average hair grew to 148 percent of its starting width by month nine, so the regrowth was not only more hairs but sturdier ones. And in line with what most people notice first, the majority reported clearly less shedding by around the two-month mark. The Root Co. reports that 93 percent of users saw reduced shedding within 60 days.

What it can and cannot realistically do

Read closely, the study is a genuine strength with real limits. It is a real, instrument-measured, nine-month dataset, which is more than most competitors can show, and the effect sizes are large. It is also a relatively small sample of 38 people, and it was commissioned rather than run by a university, so it is best read as strong supporting evidence rather than the last word. What it does not claim, and neither will this review, is an overnight fix or regrowth on scar tissue. What it does support is meaningful density and thickness gains over three to nine months of consistent use in the common, reversible kinds of thinning.

What that looks like on real heads

These are customer before-and-after photos from The Root Co., across different hair types and thinning patterns. They are not a substitute for the measured data above, but they line up with it: fuller partings, denser temples, and less scalp showing through.

How it compares to Nutrafol, Viviscal, and minoxidil

A statistician lined up the formula's nine-month study against the published trial results for the three products most people are choosing between. The comparison is drawn across separate studies rather than a single head-to-head trial, so treat the exact figures as directional. Even with that caveat, the pattern is hard to ignore.

Competitor figures are from published randomized trials; The Root Co. figures are from its independent 2022 study. Because these come from separate studies, the comparison is indicative rather than a controlled head-to-head.

The short read: on the density measurement that all four report, the formula showed the largest effect, well ahead of Nutrafol, while costing 30 to 40 dollars a month less and asking for half the pills. Viviscal is cheaper and holds up reasonably on density, but it is not vegan and did not track scalp coverage the way this study did. Minoxidil works differently, as a topical you apply daily, and only reported density, where it landed in the middle of the pack.

Why it works: the four causes, and the science underneath

Hair loss research has been moving away from single-target thinking for a decade. The formula is built around four drivers that show up across the dermatology literature, and it puts a specific ingredient against each one.

There is a mechanism study behind this, not just a theory. In peer-reviewed lab work published in the journal Heliyon, the formula pushed the cells at the base of the follicle to multiply, quieted TGF-beta1 (a signal that tells follicles to shrink) without interfering with DHT production elsewhere in the body, and protected cells from oxidative stress. In plain terms, it acts on several of the pathways behind thinning at once, which is exactly what the four-cause design is meant to do.

What is inside each capsule

The label is refreshingly readable: eight active ingredients, no biotin, no keratin, and no proprietary mystery blend hiding the botanical amounts. Here is what each one is for, and the dose per capsule (you take two a day).

Two things worth calling out. The botanical portion is a genuine patented blend (US Patent #11,160,750), not a marketing label, and the whole thing is deliberately biotin-free. That last point is a real advantage rather than an omission: high-dose biotin can throw off common lab tests, including some heart-attack blood work, which is why several dermatologists now steer patients away from it.

How to take it, and what to expect month by month

The routine is about as simple as supplements get: one capsule in the morning with breakfast, one in the evening with dinner. Splitting the dose keeps the water-soluble nutrients topped up through the day rather than in a single spike. There is nothing to apply, rinse, or time around your styling.

A realistic timeline, based on the trial and the review patterns, looks like this. Less shedding tends to show up first, around weeks four to eight. Visible new density and baby hairs at the hairline usually follow in months three to four. The bigger coverage and thickness gains build through months six to nine, and the study data was still climbing at the nine-month mark, so it rewards staying with it.

You can layer it with a topical like minoxidil or a scalp serum if you already use one, since it works from the inside and they work on the surface. If you take other medications or are pregnant or nursing, run the ingredient list past your doctor first. It is drug-free, but that is the responsible order of operations.

Where it wins, and where it does not

The Root Co. Hair Vitamin

$49.90/mo $59.90

60 capsules, a 30-day supply. Two a day. Vegan, biotin-free, US patent-protected, backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee.

Start with The Root Co.

The verdict

Common questions