By Kimberly Webber

(COSMO) - If you’re like me, you hate seeing clumps of hair at the bottom of the shower drain. For years I watched my beautiful hair get thinner and thinner. Many of us have to experience it as old age finds us. 

But what was once an unstoppable force, thinning hair can be prevented, and even- brace yourself- reversed! From hair regrowth prescriptions to sprays to shampoos, there are a lot of preventative measures you can take. One that I have found works well for many are hair growth shampoos. But how do you know which hair growth shampoos will work?

That’s where we come in. We asked our reviewers plus several top hair stylists to help us build a list of the best hair growth shampoos on the market. Ones that have shown effectiveness, are safe, and affordable. This is what we came up with, the five best hair growth shampoos for thinning hair. Let’s get started!

Effectiveness: 95%

Safety: 100%

Price: $

Overall: A+

This is by far our favorite choice when it comes to a simple hair growth shampoo that can reinvigorate hair follicles by stimulating blood flow to the scalp and while thickening and strengthening your hair. Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo uses a Growth Complex specifically focused on re-growing and strengthening hair. It’s better than any other product on the market today, loaded with essential nutrients to help keep hair healthy, including Mint Essence, Camphor, Coptis Root Extract, and Ginger Root Extract… to name a few! Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo is best for people with curly hair but with weak strands and unhealthy roots. Best of all, it was the only product on our list offering a special 30% off discount code SECRET30, which made it one of the most affordable products on the market. Use once a day to see active regrowth within weeks!

SAVE 30% with code SECRET30

Effectiveness: 90%

Safety: 80%

Price: $

Overall: B+

An effective shampoo with questionable ingredients make this one a tough sell, but one we still would recommend. Using biotin and collagen OGX has made an affordable shampoo that helps repair damaged hair and help thicken it with the use of biotin and collagen. While biotin is a great supplement for healthy hair, it isn’t a regrowth tool, and cannot reactivate roots the way other shampoos may be able to. OGX is highly recommended for thinning hair, but not necessarily hair loss. 

Effectiveness: 89%

Safety: 85%

Price: $$$

Overall: B

Kerastase’s shampoo focuses on density. It helps add weight to your hair, which can seem different that thickness if your hair is naturally thin vs. thinning. I know, it’s confusing. BUT sometimes thinning hair can become more frizzy and less manageable. Kerastase helps build density in the hair so it weighs itself down and looks fuller through order. In terms of hair growth, it’s effective, but not the most effective. Queen is our best recommendation for strong hair growth. 

Effectiveness: 85%

Safety: 85%

Price: $$$

Overall: B

A really strong contender for best hair growth shampoo, Pura D’Or comes highly recommended. Many stylists swear by it and reviewers do the same. With 15 essential ingredients to help thicken and regrow hair, it’s a great product to consider. The reason it didn’t make it to the top of the list was it’s slightly medicinal feel and smell. As much as we want hair growth, we also want our hair to look, feel, and SMELL fresh. Pura D’Or just didn’t do the trick.

Effectiveness: 75%

Safety: 100%

Price: $$$

Overall: B+

If you’re looking for a vegan shampoo that can help stimulate and regrow hair, Vegamour may be your brand. Vegamour uses a 100% vegan silk keratin that helps condition, thicken, and regrow hair. While we felt the added plus of vegan ingredients was safe and healthy, the effectiveness was the lowest of any brand. If you’re willing to compromise effectiveness for a safe, healthier brand, Vegamour is a good choice. However, we also found Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo to be extremely safe and even more effective. …The choice is yours!

While we feel we recommended some great hair growth products to help rebuild hair follicles, activate roots, and strengthen your hair, we believe Queen's product was the top choice. We wanted to talk further with our investigative reporter Stephanie Marianne who helped create the rankings list and how Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo worked for her. Stephanie tells the story.

Personally, I never believed in the effectiveness of hair re-growth, anti-baldness anything. “Time cannot be reversed,” I used to tell my friends. Too many of them have been tricked into buying some wild spray just to find out it’s a waste of money. So I’ve avoided it at all costs.

But then my best friend, who I trust with my life, swore by Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo. She would use it everyday in the shower, and after a few weeks, her hair looked thicker and fuller than ever before. She even had patches at the top of her forehead that seemed to have filled in quite nicely. It was even more impressive when she showed me the before and after images throughout the weeks of using Queen’s Hair Bond. 

I had always been self-conscious about my thinning hair, so I begged her to let me borrow her Hair Bond Shampoo, but instead she gave me a secret 30% off code, SECRET30, and I ordered my own Hair Bond Shampoo immediately. 

I received the package two days later and immediately tried it out when I jumped in the shower. The shampoo has a great feeling in the hand and hair and smells great. I massaged it thoroughly into my hair and rinsed. That’s all you need!

I, of course, was expecting immediate results, but it takes a few weeks to see real results. In the meantime, I started to do my research to find out how Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo works and how it differentiates itself from other hair growth products. 

A combination of essential oils and nutrients help not only strengthen hair but reactivate roots that have stopped growing long ago…

It’s quite simple, just as our bodies can exert less energy when we get older (remember staying up all night in your twenties?), our hair follows a similar pattern. When old hairs fall out, typically a new root is triggered and energy is spent building a new hair follicle. However, the older we get, the less energy is distributed to these roots. That’s when thinning and balding occur. 

The key to a fuller head of hair starts with reactivating your roots, and that’s exactly what Queen's Root Reactivation Shampoo aims to do. With a Growth Bond Complex that’s filled with amazing ingredients that stimulate scalp blood flow while strengthening hair follicles. Some of the essential ingredients include:

GINGER ROOT EXTRACT

Rich in Omega 3 and other nutrients, Mint Essence is essential to maintain overall health of hair and scalp. When used it can help thicken hair while preventing a dry scalp.

MINT ESSENCE 

Helps prevent dryness and flakey skin on the scalp. The menthol in peppermint oil helps improve blood flow, which triggers root reactivation.

COPTIS ROOT EXTRACT

High levels of essential fatty acids and vitamin A help support scalp health and promote stronger hair follicles less prone to falling out. 

CAMPHOR

A strong ingredient to help stimulate blood flow to the scalp and hair follicles to trigger new growth.

So, finally, after 4 weeks, I decided to check if I could see results… and wow! The areas of my hair that were previously patchy began to fill out. Plus my hair felt fuller and stronger. I was simply amazed at how good my hair felt.