Moerie is a personalized hair growth brand. Customers fill out a quiz on the brand’s website and then are assigned “clinically proven treatment” including custom shampoo, conditioner and hair spray.
But is Moerie actually proven in clinical studies to be effective or is this just a marketing claim? Do the hair care products contain research-backed ingredients for hair growth and thickness? Do they contain any unhealthy additive ingredients? And how do real users rate and describe the effects of Moerie?
In this article we’ll answer all of these questions and more as we analyze the ingredients in Moerie’s Ultimate Hair Growth Spray and Mineral Hair Growth Shampoo based on medical studies to give our take on whether the products are likely to be effective or if they’re a waste of money.
We’ll explain if Moerie products are proven in clinical trials to be effective, share our concerns about their quiz and “customized” process and feature real, unsponsored Moerie customer reviews.
Ingredient Analysis
The ingredients in Moerie’s Ultimate Hair Growth Spray are shown above. This is the “customized” formulation from their site and not the public ingredient list on Amazon.
We can’t find research studies proving any of these ingredients cause hair growth, nor does Moerie cite any on their website.
Cocos nucifera (coconut) oil was shown in a clinical trial published in the Journal of Cosmetic Science to prevent hair damage, but we can’t find any evidence that any of these ingredients directly cause hair growth or improve hair thickness.
This formulation also contains several additive ingredients that we consider questionable from a health perspective.
Sodium benzoate and benzyl alcohol are synthetic preservatives, the latter of which was shown to be toxic in a 1991 animal study.
Overall, we do not believe that Moerie’s Ultimate Hair Growth Spray is likely to cause hair growth. But is the shampoo better-formulated? We’ll analyze its ingredients below:
The ingredients in Moerie Mineral Hair Growth Shampoo are shown above.
Betaine was shown to be effective as an oral supplement for hair growth in a 2016 clinical trial, but we can’t find any studies proving its effectiveness when used topically.
Arginine is an amino acid that can prevent hair damage, as we documented in our review of Redken Shampoo.
Caffeine may be effective for hair loss when applied topically. A medical review published in the Skin Pharmacology and Physiology journal analyzed clinical trial data on the compound and concluded the following: “caffeine to alleviate hair loss may provide a much-needed alternative to drug-based approaches.”
Unfortunately, this shampoo has the same synthetic preservatives sodium benzoate and benzyl alcohol as the hair spray did.
We consider Moerie’s shampoo to be potentially effective for hair growth given its inclusion of betaine and caffeine. We don’t recommend it overall due to the preservatives.
Questionable Claims on Moerie Website
There’s a banner on Moerie’s website claiming that the brand has been seen in a number of high-profile media publishers including The New York Times.
However, we can’t find a single reference of the brand in three of the five publishers featured (Cosmopolitan, Healthline, Women’s Health).
We also don’t understand how the brand describes their products as “clinically proven treatment.” We can’t find a single clinical study on Moerie, nor does the brand appear to cite any on their website.
Moerie has a page on their website with the header “Trust Through Transparency.” It features an image of a young woman who’s apparently their “Hair Expert,” shown below:
However, this image actually comes from a stock image. Here’s the link to buy the same image on Adobe Stock. Doesn’t seem particularly transparent, and is a huge red flag about the brand in our opinion.
Is “Personalized” Hair Care Unscientific?
Like many personalized cosmetics brands, Moerie has an intake form that asks health questions and then claims to formulate a custom product based on the answers.
However, the brand doesn’t provide any proof that this process yields better hair outcomes than regular hair brands, and the process seems somewhat unscientific in our opinion.
When we input sample responses into Moerie’s intake form, a graph shown below popped up suggesting our potential results:
How can Moerie claim this specific level of hair growth without any proof? The brand doesn’t appear to have been studied in any clinical trials and this graph is entirely uncited, so we have no idea where they’re pulling this data from.
The results page also included two confusing graphs shown below:
There is no explanation as to how the “damage” is quantified, and while these graphs look pretty, they don’t actually represent anything tangible because again the brand provides no explanation or proof of these suggested results.
We haven’t seen any convincing clinical evidence that personalized hair care is more effective than regular hair products that are mass-produced. As we discussed in our review of another personalized hair care brand called Harklinikken, we consider personalized hair care more of a marketing strategy than a strategy founded on strong science.
What’s even more concerning about Moerie’s site is that the results appear to be the same for everyone, suggesting this is just a marketing play with fake numbers. Input the following address into an incognito window and you’ll see the exact same results that we were shown: https://spray.moerie.com/results
Whether or not a hair care product will be effective depends on its ingredients, not whether or not it’s personalized. If it contains ingredients proven in clinical trials to cause hair growth, then it’s likely to be effective. If it doesn’t, it’s likely not.
Real, Unsponsored Moerie User Reviews
A YouTube creator named Marisa Doserro has one of the few unsponsored Moerie reviews that we could find:
A TikTok user named “My Rapunzel Hair Journey” has a before-and-after image using some Moerie hair products:
@myrapunzelhairjourney Honest Moerie results after one use without any styling or other product. #moerie#moeriebeauty#moeriehair#moeriehairgrowth#hairgrowth#hairgrowthjourney#hairhealth#growmyhair#siliconefree#shampooandconditioner#rapunzel#hairtok#growmyhairlong#growmyhair#manifestinglonghair#manifesthairgrowth#harecare#moerieresults#moeriebeforeandafter#beforeandafterhair#longhair#fyp#blondehair#bleachedhair#hairwashday#longhealthyhair 💛 Moerie can you pretty please make me a #moeriepartner ♬ Sunny Day - Ted Fresco
Real Customers Rate Moerie
Moerie is sold on Amazon, which is a more objective resource for customer reviews than a brand’s website in our opinion.
The brand’s Hair Growth Spray is their top-selling product with over 900 reviews and an average review rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars.
The top positive review from a verified purchaser comes from a user named “armartinez” who claims the product improved their hair quality:
“I have had growth and I do believe it’s from this because my hair grows super slow in the winter, the hair loss has been less and my hair looks health and shiny.”
The top negative review from a verified purchase is written by a user named “Flymariposa” who claims it smells bad:
“I bought this product to help with my hair growth. I can hardly use it due to the horrible smell. It smells like janitorial cleaning fluid. So I honestly don’t know if the product is working or not. I just can’t stand the smell. So I have not used it completely up.”
Moerie has also received eight complaints on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, and the brand hasn’t responded to a single one trying to resolve the situation, which is a bad sign.
A BBB user named “Nicole P” claims the company overcharged her and won’t resolve the situation:
“These products do not work. The reviews are a scam. This business charges you three times the amount and calls it a subscription. There is no way to resolve this issue because the company does not return emails and they just keep charging you for the product.”
Our Clean Hair Growth Picks
Happy Head Topical is our top hair growth solution.
This formulation uses FDA-approved hair loss ingredients like minoxidil which is clinically shown to increase hair count by 11%.
The brand also publishes the percentage concentration of each active ingredient, which is a sign of quality and transparency.
Interested consumers can check out Happy Head Topical Finasteride & Minoxidil at this link to the product page on the brand's official website.
Nutrafol Hair Serum is our top over-the-counter (OTC) hair growth and hair quality promoter.
This product contains Lactobacillus probiotics which were shown to promote hair growth in a medical review published in the Molecules journal.
Niacinamide is included, and a 2021 clinical trial concluded that "Our data demonstrate that niacinamide could enhance hair growth."
Interested consumers can check out Nutrafol Hair Serum at this link to the product page on the brand's official website.
