Spartan Shampoo is a men's shampoo product that's used to promote hair growth. The brand claims their product helps users "see the first signs of regrow after only 6-8 weeks."
But does Spartan contain research-backed ingredients for promoting hair growth? Does it contain any unhealthy additives? Is it overpriced? And how do real users rate and describe its effects?
In this article we'll answer all of these questions and more, as we analyze the ingredients in Spartan Root Activator Shampoo to give our take on whether or not it's likely to be effective, and whether or not it's healthy.
We'll also feature unsponsored customer reviews, and share our thoughts about the product's price.
Ingredient Analysis
The active ingredients in Spartan Root Activator Shampoo are shown above.
Some of these active ingredients have clinical backing.
Menthol was shown to cause a 30% increase in hair growth in a clinical trial published in the Pharmaceutics journal.
Sophora flavescens extract has a "hair growth promoting effect" according to a 2002 clinical trial.
Peppermint oil is also clinically shown to promote hair growth, as we documented in our review of Allurium Hair Growth Serum.
Angelica polymorpha sinensis root extract is clinically shown to induce hair regrowth by inhibiting signaling that causes hair cell death.
The inactive ingredients in Spartan Shampoo are shown below:
There are three inactive ingredients we recommend avoiding for health reasons, when used in combination.
Phenoxyethanol and ethylhexylglycerin are synthetic preservatives, the latter of which "enhances the lethal effect" of the former, according to a 2016 clinical trial, meaning it makes it more toxic.
1,2 hexanediol is a skin conditioning agent, and a medical review published in the Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety journal concluded the following:
“it is highly likely that 1,2-hexanediol is toxic to humans.”
Overall, we consider Spartan Shampoo highly likely to promote hair growth, but we don't currently recommend it for health reasons due to the inactive ingredients discussed above.
From an efficacy perspective alone, this is one of the more impressive hair growth shampoo formulations we've reviewed to date on Illuminate Health, and if the brand replaced the three ingredients discussed above, we'd consider recommending it.
Red Flags About Brand
When we were reviewing the Try Spartan website while researching this article, there were a few red flags we noted that we want to share with potential consumers.
First, the brand claims to have over 3,000 reviews with not a single review of 3-stars or less:
This certainly is in stark contrast to the reviews on Google.
It's also worth noting that some of the supposed customer images in the review section are found in many other places on the web, and some of the images existed in other places on the web before Spartan's website was even live, suggesting they're not real customers.
Here's one example:
The brand also claims to use "100% natural ingredients," which simply isn't true:
As we documented in the Ingredient Analysis section of this article, many of the inactive ingredients are not "100% natural" -- they're synthetically-derived.
We recommend that the brand changes this claim to "100% natural active ingredients," which would be more accurate.
Real People Try Spartan
A TikTok creator named "therealpmiz" claims that Spartan Shampoo is effective:
@therealpmiz TIKTOK SHOP SHAMPOO #foryou #works #try #it #fyp #shampoo ♬ original sound - Libra1974
Spartan Root Activator Shampoo currently has an average review rating of 2.2 out of 5 stars on Google.
Is Spartan Overpriced?
Here's how Spartan compares to other popular hair growth shampoos marketed to men:
Adegen: $69.95
Mane: $49.99
Spartan: $39.95
Nioxin: $17.84
Spartan actually seems affordable compared to some of its online-only competitors
Nioxin is available at Walmart.
Our Clean Hair Growth Picks
Happy Head Topical is our top premium hair growth solution.
This formulation uses FDA-approved hair loss ingredients like minoxidil which is clinically shown to increase hair count by 11%.
Momentous Zinc is our top value hair growth solution.
A 2022 medical review on the use of zinc in dermatology concluded that "This review has found evidence to support the use of zinc...in hair loss disorders."
MBG Omega-3 Potency+ is our top hair thickness pick.
Supplementation with omega-3 fats and antioxidants is clinically shown to improve hair density, and MBG's supplement contains both.
All of the products recommended in this section are entirely free of ingredients we consider to be unhealthy.
Spartan Pros and Cons
Here are the pros and cons of Spartan Shampoo in our opinion:
Pros:
- Many research-backed active ingredients
- Affordable given potency
- Positive customer reviews on brand's website
Cons:
- Questionable legitimacy of brand's website reviews
- Low Google customer review score
- Questionable health claim on brand's website
- Questionable customer images on brand's website
- Contains two synthetic preservatives
- Contains 1,2 hexanediol
