Hair Loss Treatment Brand Vegamour Soups Up Its Bestselling Formulas With CBD

Brow, lash and hair growth specialist Vegamour is expanding on its plant-based formulations with beauty’s favorite leafy ingredient CBD.

The brand’s new GRO+ Advanced range contains Brow Serum, Lash Serum, Hair Serum and CBD + Biotin Hair Care Gummies, all made with full-spectrum CBD hemp oil extract. The CBD + Biotin Hair Care Gummies are $58 per bottle, while the Brow Serum and Lash Serum retail for $88 for a two-month supply. The Hair Serum is $68 for a 1-oz. bottle intended to last 30 days. 

“There are lots of reasons why hair loss happens, but [two] of the primary causes [are] poor microcirculation around the hair follicle and excessive inflammation,” says Vegamour CEO Dan Hodgdon, who co-founded the brand with Christina Zeigler in 2017. “That inflammation can be caused by a lot of things. We knew that there were numerous clinical studies out there that clearly demonstrate that, applied topically, CBD was able to boost microcirculation and numerous studies that prove that CBD is an anti-inflammatory.”

With a background in sourcing sustainable plant-driven bioactives, Hodgdon has had his eye on cannabidiol or CBD, a non-psychoactive compound of the hemp plant, for a while. Once the Farm Bill legalized the trade of hemp federally nearly a year ago, he got to work on GRO+ Advanced. Hodgdon says, “I was excited because I knew what it could do in terms of hair growth and protecting against hair loss.”

Maximizing the efficiency of Vegamour’s formulas was paramount to Hodgdon. A big hurdle to efficacy was the size of the CBD molecule. Hodgdon explains, “The size of the molecule is a few thousand nanometers in diameter, and it’s pretty much not able to permeate the upper layer of the dermis.” Harnessing a microencapsulation technique, Vegamour shrank the CBD molecule from 2,000 nanometers to 100 nanometers. “Now, [the CBD] is able to penetrate the upper layer of the dermis and into the hair follicles, where it can do some good,” says Hodgdon.

Vegamour also sets its products apart from the vast sea of CBD beauty by sourcing hemp from its own certified organic farm in South Royalton, Vermont, a former dairy farm owned and operated by Hodgdon’s family. “We grow our own because we wanted to know where it was coming from,” he says. “We wanted to have full transparency into how the product was grown, what strains we’re using, what the terpene profile is. Then, how are we going to extract it with a critical CO2 process that we monitor, and, then, how are we going to take that and microencapsulate it?”

Vegamour has had an exciting two years since its launch. Hodgdon told Beauty Independent last year that the brand generated $8 million in 2017 and was on track to hit $10 million in revenues in 2018. In 2019, Vegamour’s revenues more than doubled, reports Hodgdon. Judging by Vegamour’s current growth rate, he’s projecting sales to spike at least 300% by the end of 2020. Business is going so well that the brand has put a planned capital raise on hold.

“We’re at a place now where we are self-funded and, because of the rate of people coming into the brand on a subscription basis, those subs are making it possible for us to grow independently without seeking seed,” he says, noting, “I think we’re kind of beyond the seed point now.”

Now, rather than funding, Vegamour is pursuing expertise, specifically involving retail distribution. Hodgdon elaborates the brand is hunting for “people that can create an education program for us if we want to go into brick-and-mortar stores. We would need subject matter experts to do that properly. I think it’s very bold of us to assume that we would know how to build relationships with brick-and-mortar stores in the beauty space.”