A daily mist for the scalp, caffeine and biotin
NuvaGrow
One pass over the scalp each morning. Nothing washes off, nothing needs waiting on.
The texture is watery and near enough weightless. Two minutes and it has dried, leaving behind no film, no tack, no stiffness. Five actives carry the formula: caffeine, He Shou Wu, biotin, aminexil, castor oil. A bottle of 50 ml covers around sixty applications, which comes out at roughly eight weeks of everyday use.
- 50 mlin every bottle
- 60applications or thereabouts
- 1application each morning
- 5actives, nothing padding it out
In brief
What NuvaGrow actually is
The product is a spray that stays put, sold in pump bottles of 50 ml. It goes on at the roots, onto skin rather than along the lengths, and fingertips do the rest. Nothing gets washed out and nothing has to be timed: styling carries on straight afterwards, unchanged.
It was made for anyone, man or woman, who has noticed their hair looking sparser and would rather add one modest habit than overhaul the lot. A cosmetic, then, and not a medicine. It attends to how the scalp feels and how the hair looks. Neither a sensible diet nor an appointment with a dermatologist is replaced by it.
- Five actives, no more, a label you can take in at a single glance
- A water base of almost no weight, adding nothing to the hair fibre and laying down no slick residue
- Nothing washes out, no extra kit, and no sitting about with a timer running
- Damp head or dry head, either is fine. Straight after washing tends to be simplest.
- Its scent is faint and clears within minutes, leaving it free to sit alongside whatever else you wear
- Paraben-free, plant-based, and no animal testing at any stage
- Fine, thick, curly, coily, straight or colour-treated, all the same to it
- A bottle that fits a crowded shelf, or the bottom of a rucksack, without demanding room
What it is for
What the product sets out to do
Thinning seldom announces itself to a mirror. It shows itself on a pillowcase, in the shower drain, or on whichever morning the parting looks wider than it did last spring. The four points below follow from that.
Scalp comfort, first of all
Skin comes before ends. Tightness or itching will nag away at you for hours. A water base puts moisture where it is wanted without sealing the skin over, whilst caffeine supplies the cool sensation you feel as you massage.
An impression of density
Castor oil and biotin act on how the fibre appears, which then handles light differently and falls with a bit more body. Around the parting, and at the temple, is where it tends to register first.
Sixty seconds, morning after morning
Between four and six sprays, a brief massage with the fingertips, finished. Routines are seldom abandoned for underwhelming anyone. They are abandoned because the morning could not spare the time.
Less time spent thinking about it
Particular styles start getting avoided, along with particular rooms and particular occasions. Scalp care is mostly a way of giving the parting rather less room in your head.
The everyday job
Made to slot into an existing routine
Hair changes its habits over the years. The fibre grows finer, the parting widens at a pace too slow to catch, and a haircut that always behaved begins refusing to. None of this is unusual, and every bit of it begins at the same place.
There is no suggestion of undoing any of that overnight. What it does instead is deliver a small daily measure of moisture, plus a little conditioning, to the skin from which hair grows, and keep the whole business brief, so that three months later you are still bothering. Three things, set out plainly.
It moisturises the skin
Aqueous, not oily, at the base. Humectants reach skin that a wash routine usually passes over altogether, and once it has dried there is nothing left for your fingers to detect.
Cosmetic effectIt leaves a cool, brisk finish
Caffeine accounts for the faint tingle noticed whilst massaging. It also makes the minute agreeable, and an agreeable minute is one you will bother with again tomorrow.
Cosmetic effectBetter-looking fibre
Conditioning comes from the castor oil, along with a modest amount of shine, and nothing gets weighed down by it. Hair in better condition simply looks thicker, and often enough that alone does the trick.
Cosmetic effectWhat you have here is cosmetic, worn on the outside of the head. Appearance and comfort are its remit, and it says nothing whatsoever about why hair thins in medical terms. Shedding that starts abruptly, comes away in handfuls or leaves bare patches deserves a GP's time rather than a purchase.
Inside the bottle
All five actives, in full
Five and no more, with nothing further to keep track of. That was decided on purpose: given it rests against skin daily, a brief list is easier to defend than a label crowded with names nobody reads.
Each has one task. All five sit in a light aqueous base, free of parabens, of styling resin, and of the heavier silicones.
Biotin
Vitamin B7The vitamin long linked with hair in the public mind. Included for how the fibre presents itself: smoother, more obedient, quicker to put in place.
Caffeine
Bracing activeResponsible for the brisk sensation as it goes in, and for the daily minute being other than a chore.
Castor oil
From the castor beanA long-standing fixture in hair care, kept at a deliberately low dose so that conditioning and shine arrive without leaving finer hair flat by midday.
Aminexil
Scalp activeA molecule familiar to anyone who formulates for the scalp, present to help hold things steady between washes.
He Shou Wu
Traditional rootLong used in Chinese herbal tradition, this root earns its place through what it does to condition, and through how it leaves the skin feeling.
What is deliberately absent
Worth as much attention as the list above, given that none of it is washed off.
- Parabens: noneNo preservative of that family appears in the formula.
- Left on, without accumulatingOnly a tiny quantity goes on, and nothing accumulates day after day.
- No animal testingNeither at the raw material stage nor on the finished bottle.
- Nothing that sets or stiffensStyling resin is absent, so movement and normal texture survive.
A plant-derived formula, for the outside of the head alone. Every ingredient appears in full on the box the retailer sends out.
The daily minute
Using the spray, step by step
Four movements, a minute in total, done daily. Easiest of all is straight after washing, on a freshly rinsed head still faintly damp, before a brush comes anywhere near it.
No waiting, nothing to wash away, no towel required. It stays where it lands, and the hairdryer simply works above it as usual.
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Open a parting
Move the hair to one side until skin shows. What receives the product is the scalp, never the lengths. Aim matters more than anything else at this stage.
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Between four and six sprays
Apply along the open line, giving a bit more to whichever areas look sparsest. Shift the parting across two or three centimetres and go again if you wish.
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Massage for a minute or two
Small circles with the fingertips, spreading the formula right across the head. Most people end up rather enjoying this bit.
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Then again tomorrow
Once dry, style however you normally would. Regularity counts for far more than quantity: a modest amount each morning will always beat a heavy dose every seventh day.
Cautions worth reading first
Two minutes of reading, before the cap comes off.
Scalp only; no other part of the body. Should any of it reach an eye, rinse at length under clean running water. Broken, sore or sunburnt skin is best left alone, as is a tender head in the days following a colour appointment. Where a cosmetic has caused trouble before, try a coin-sized patch behind one ear and let a full day pass before treating everything. Any redness, any itch, any discomfort that lingers: stop, and raise it with your pharmacist. Psoriasis, eczema, stubborn dandruff and other complaints affecting the skin beneath the hair deserve a dermatologist's opinion first. Anyone expecting a baby, or feeding one, should ask their GP. Children should not use it. Screw the cap back on, keep the bottle out of warmth and sunlight, and put it somewhere small hands cannot get to. Hair coming away fast, in quantity, or leaving bare patches is a matter for a doctor rather than a bottle.
Our position
Where this one parts company
The hair shelf in any chemist is thick with promises: masks you are meant to leave sitting for a full hour, lotions that weld everything flat, twelve-week programmes given up somewhere in the second week. This product was drawn up in opposition to the lot.
A brief list rather than a catalogue
Five actives, each named, rather than fifteen ornamental extracts there to pad out a carton. For something worn against the skin daily, restraint counts as a virtue and not an omission.
It asks for almost nothing
There is no waiting, no washing off and no shampoo afterwards. It fastens onto whatever routine is already in place, rather than demanding the bathroom shelf be rearranged.
A texture that suits fine hair
An aqueous base rather than an oily one, which is precisely what allows it to be used on a working weekday before leaving the house, even where a conventional oil would leave fine hair flattened.
Claims kept modest
A cosmetic addresses appearance and comfort, and nothing at all beyond that. Saying so plainly seems better than leaving a vagueness that ends up disappointing people.
- Free from parabens
- No animal testing
- Formulated from plants
From buyers
What buyers tell us
Three subjects recur in the messages we receive: the texture, the minute it takes, and the fact that the habit held.
The water here is hard and my scalp would feel tight by the afternoon. That has settled down. Four sprays before I do anything else, and I still leave the house on time.
Fiona M.Sheffield, 9 months of use
I was sceptical, frankly. What won me round is that it interferes with nothing: no residue on the comb, no marks on a shirt collar, and the smell has gone before I finish my coffee.
Nigel R.Harrogate, 5 months of use
I swim three mornings a week and chlorine was leaving my scalp irritable. Using this after the pool shower, the itching has more or less stopped. Took a good two months before I noticed, mind.
Aisha K.Cardiff, 7 months of use
Cycling helmet, squashed hair, an unhappy scalp underneath. It goes on when I get in, dries in the time it takes to make a brew, and there is no greasiness left behind whatsoever.
Gareth P.Newcastle upon Tyne, 4 months of use
I have my hair coloured every six weeks and was wary of adding anything on top. No reaction at all, no fading that I can see, and the parting reads less obviously than it did last winter.
Helen B.Norwich, 11 months of use
I keep it beside the shaving things so as not to forget. Three months on, nothing dramatic to report, which I rather take as a good sign. The habit has stuck.
Stuart D.Perth, 3 months of use
Common queries
Questions we get asked
What is the correct way to apply it?
Open a parting until skin shows, apply between four and six sprays directly onto the scalp, rather more wherever things look sparsest, then spend a minute or two massaging with the fingertips. Nothing needs washing off and nothing needs timing: styling follows immediately.
How frequently should it be used?
Daily, following a wash, when the head is clean. A second application come evening adds nothing at all. What tells over time is keeping it up without gaps for months, not the quantity used on any given day.
Damp head or dry head?
Both are fine. It spreads a touch more readily on a scalp still faintly damp from the shower, though a dry head is perfectly workable too, watching television of an evening for instance.
How far does a single bottle go?
One bottle of 50 ml holds around sixty applications: roughly eight weeks if used every morning, at between four and six sprays each time. How far yours goes depends on the area covered and how heavy-handed you are.
How soon might a difference be visible?
Hair is judged over months rather than days. Growth is slow, and appearance follows it slowly. Allow a good ten or twelve weeks of unbroken use before forming a view, and remember that outcomes differ from one person to another.
Does it leave any greasiness or tack?
No. Water carries it, oil does not, and very little is left behind. Drying takes two minutes or so, leaving behind neither film nor stiffness nor white marks, whether hair happens to be fine or freshly coloured.
Is there a fragrance?
Barely any. You catch it whilst massaging, and within minutes it has cleared. There is no competing with perfume worn later on, and nothing is left behind on a pillowcase overnight.
Which people is this intended for?
Grown-ups of either sex who wish to look after the skin under their hair, along with the appearance of what grows from it. Children are not the intended users, and none of this replaces a GP where hair is coming away abruptly, in quantity or in defined patches.
A minute each morning, no more
A single 50 ml bottle, between four and six sprays, sixty seconds of massage. There is not much scope for a shorter hair routine than that, and the brevity is precisely why it survives contact with a weekday.
Buy NuvaGrow