Health · Women's Wellness · Featured
Harvard Pharmacologist:
"Hair Loss Isn't a Hair Problem. It's an Inflammation Diagnosis."
After 20 years studying chronic inflammation, Dr. Yehoshua Maor accidentally discovered why most hair loss treatments fail — and why his patented formula works when nothing else does.
"Most women losing their hair believe they have a hair problem. They don't. After two decades studying chronic inflammation in my lab, I can tell you with certainty: hair loss is an inflammation diagnosis. And it has 4 specific drivers - none of which the supplement aisle is treating."
hair loss is an inflammation diagnosis
This is going to sound strange coming from someone whose patented formula has now helped over 11,000 women regrow their hair: I never set out to do that.
For most of my career, I was focused on something else entirely — chronic, low-grade inflammation. The kind that builds quietly in your body for years before it shows up as fatigue, weight gain, joint pain, brain fog, autoimmune flares. I spent two decades trying to understand it. Then trying to treat it.
Three years ago, the formula my team and I developed for inflammation began producing a side effect we did not expect, did not optimize for, and did not initially even believe.
Women started growing back hair they thought they'd lost forever.
What I'm about to share is the story of how that happened — and what it taught us about why almost every hair loss product on the market fails.
Clinically tested. Backed by research. Trusted by 11,000+ women.
What dermatologists have been getting wrong
Walk into any drugstore, scroll any Instagram ad, and you'll see the same products marketed to women with thinning hair: biotin gummies, keratin tablets, $79 monthly supplements with proprietary blends, $50 minoxidil prescriptions, $4,000 hair clinic protocols.
They have one thing in common.
They all treat one cause of hair loss.
"If your hair loss has 3 causes active and you're treating 1, you're not solving the problem. You're slowing one branch of it."
Biotin addresses a single nutritional deficiency - one that 94% of women losing hair don't actually have. Minoxidil forces blood flow to the scalp but does nothing about the inflammation suffocating the follicle. Nutrafol focuses on stress and nutrients but misses DHT at the follicle entirely. Topical serums work on the scalp surface but can't reach what's happening in your hormones, your gut, your stress response.
The reason none of these have worked for you isn't because hair loss is mysterious. It's because hair loss almost never has just one cause.
The 4 drivers of follicle inflammation
Here's what 20+ years of inflammation research and three years of dedicated hair-follicle lab work have shown my team:
Most hair loss in women is driven by chronic follicular inflammation. The follicle becomes inflamed, miniaturizes cycle by cycle, and eventually goes dormant. The hair that grows from it gets thinner, weaker, and shorter — until it stops growing visible hair at all.
What causes that inflammation? Four distinct, simultaneous drivers:
DHT — the follicle assassin
DHT (dihydrotestosterone) is a hormone derivative that converts directly at the follicle. It triggers an inflammatory cascade that miniaturizes the follicle over time. Family history makes this worse. So does perimenopause, menopause, postpartum hormonal shifts, and any change in birth control or HRT.
Nutritional gaps that drive systemic inflammation
Specific deficiencies — particularly zinc, magnesium, vitamin D3, and vitamin B5 — leave your body in a low-grade inflammatory state that the follicle can't recover from. Most multivitamins use trace amounts that don't reach clinical thresholds. GLP-1 medications, restrictive diets, postpartum depletion, and rapid weight loss accelerate this dramatically.
Direct scalp inflammation
The follicle environment itself becomes inflamed — itchy, oily, sensitive, irritated — which damages the structures that hold the follicle in place. Reduced blood flow. Degraded collagen. Weakened roots.
Cortisol and the stress feedback loop
Chronic stress elevates cortisol. Elevated cortisol drives systemic inflammation. Inflammation pushes follicles prematurely out of growth phase into resting phase. The hair you'd normally keep falls out months early.
Here's the part that almost nobody is treating: these four drivers feed each other. Stress worsens nutritional absorption. Nutritional gaps amplify DHT effects. DHT amplifies inflammation. Inflammation worsens cortisol response. It's a closed loop, and treating any one branch leaves the others intact to undo your progress.
Most women losing hair right now have three or four of these active simultaneously. If you've ever taken a hair vitamin and watched it do nothing for six months, this is why.
How I discovered this, by accident
The formula that became The Root Co. was built to fight chronic inflammation systemically. It started as a research compound built around a Brazilian botanical we were studying for its anti-inflammatory properties — combined with specific minerals and B-vitamin variants we'd seen produce strong effects on inflammatory markers in earlier trials.
It worked beautifully for what we'd designed it for. Volunteers reported less joint pain, calmer digestion, more steady energy, better skin clarity.
And then about four months in, the emails started...
"I think your formula is doing something to my hair."
Ready to address all 4 causes at once?
Most women have 3–4 drivers active - which is why single-ingredient solutions fail.
What we found
What we found is that the formula was acting on all 4 drivers of follicular inflammation simultaneously.
Not one. Not two. All four.
Pau D'Arco and Olive Leaf
were inhibiting the enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT — the same target as finasteride, but without the prescription or the systemic side effects.
Zinc Picolinate, Vitamin D3, B5, and Magnesium Citrate
were filling exactly the deficiencies that drive systemic inflammation — at clinically dosed levels, not the trace amounts in standard supplements.
Açai Berry Extract and Green Coffee Bean Extract
were reducing inflammatory markers at the follicle. Olive Leaf was delivering oleuropein, one of the most potent natural anti-inflammatories ever isolated.
Magnesium Citrate
plus the synergistic effects of the full plant complex, were regulating cortisol response and keeping follicles in growth phase even under stress.
In November 2021, the United States Patent Office granted us US Patent #11,160,750 for the formula.
In 2024, our findings were peer-reviewed and published in the journal Heliyon.
Published Research | Maor Y. et al.:
"Anti-inflammatory mechanisms in follicular regeneration: a multi-pathway approach to hair loss."
Heliyon, peer-reviewed, 2024. US Patent #11,160,750 issued November 2021.
The independent clinical trial
I knew that in-house data wouldn't be enough. So we commissioned an independent 38-participant clinical trial — 12 months, every strand counted by hand and trichoscopy, no self-reports, no sponsored data. The results were presented to the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgeons.
Independent 38-participant trial · 12 months · Trichoscopy-verified · ISHRS-presented
For context: in pharmaceutical hair loss trials, a 50% response rate is considered exceptional. In supplement trials, most products never publish data because their response rate is so low. Our trial nearly doubled the pharmaceutical benchmark — without prescriptions, without side effects, without dependency.
What real women experienced
I receive notes from women on this protocol almost daily. Three of those notes have stayed with me — not because they're the most dramatic, but because they represent who this formula was built for.
"I suffer from Alopecia. Instead of going a drastic route that cost me literally $4,000 at the Hair Club, I tested every brand of biotin I could find, then keratin — which made it worse. Then I found this product. That was, indeed, a great decision. After three months I noticed real density returning. After six months, even my dermatologist commented on it."
Linda's story is the one I think about when someone asks me whether the formula works on the hardest cases. She had been told by multiple specialists that her hair loss was permanent. It wasn't. It was inflammatory.
"As a woman in my late 40s and after having a child at age 43, my hair has never been the same. After trying The Root Co. for 6 months, I noticed a huge difference in the thickness and length of my hair. I finally have more confidence to style my hair the way I want to and feel good about myself."
"Going through pandemic stress, along with other family issues, I found myself actually seeing my hair fall out — in the drain after washing, in the comb and brush, on our white floors. It was depressing and embarrassing. The Root Co. helped tremendously. The shedding stopped first. The growth came after."
Linda had alopecia. Daniela had postpartum compounded by perimenopause. Diane had stress-driven shedding. Three completely different presentations, three different combinations of the 4 causes — and the same formula worked for all of them. Because the underlying mechanism is the same.
The same patented formula used in clinical testing is now available.
Why I stake my reputation on this
I'm a scientist. I don't make claims I can't back up. So when we launched The Root Co., I insisted on one thing: every customer would have the right to test the formula at our risk, not theirs.
If the protocol doesn't visibly slow your shedding within 60 days, you send back the empty bottles and we refund you. Every cent. No forms. No questions. No "proof of use" requirements. Less than 4% of customers ever ask for their money back — because the formula works for women whose hair loss is inflammation-driven, which is most women losing hair right now.
The Stop The Shedding Guarantee
Take the protocol for 60 days. If your shedding hasn't visibly slowed, send back the empty bottles. We refund you. No forms. No questions. No "proof of use" requirements. I can offer this because I've watched the formula work for over 11,000 women. Less than 4% have ever asked for their money back.— Dr. Yehoshua Maor, PhD
- Dr. Yehoshua Maor, PhD
STOP THE SHEDDING AT THE ROOT
A patented formula designed to target all 4 causes of hair loss — not just one.
Clinically tested. Backed by research. Trusted by 11,000+ women.