It’s the sad truth. Whether you started with thick voluminous hair or have always had a thinner mane, at some point, your hair is going to start to go thin. It’ll be a little more in the comb every morning, a little more down the drain.
By the time you can visibly see the difference, it can feel like the battle has been lost.
But you don’t have to give up. Shampoos designed specifically for men with thinning hair can help reverse the problem. Along with other treatments, you can improve the appearance and health of your hair significantly.
You need to know that you’re getting a product that will do what it says it will. So we’re not only going to go over some of the better anti-thinning shampoos for men, but we’ll also discuss some of the key ingredients and how and why each of those ingredients works.
| Budget |
|---|
 |
| American Crew Hair Recovery and Thickening Shampoo |
| 4.4/5.0 |
| Hair Type: All Hair Types |
| Key Ingredients: Biotin, hops extract, tea tree extract, keratin |
| Works to cleanse and moisturize your hair, immediately thickens the hair strands. |
| Check Amazon |
| Best Value |
|---|
 |
| Rocky Mountain Barber Company Men’s Shampoo |
| 4.7/5.0 |
| Hair Type: All Hair Types |
| Key Ingredients: Peppermint, tea tree oil, hemp oil, keratin protein |
| High proportion of botanicals, and promotes healthy hair growth. |
| Check Amazon |
| Top Pick |
|---|
 |
| BOTANIC HEARTH Biotin Shampoo and Conditioner Set |
| 4.8/5.0 |
| Hair Type: All Hair Types |
| Key Ingredients: Ginger, turmeric, argan oil, and glycerin |
| Contains keratin for hair strength, good for both greasy and dry hair types, works to balance scalp. |
| Check Amazon |
Things to Consider
If you want to know that you have a good product for thinning hair, you need to know what makes a good product for thinning hair.
There are a few basic things you can look for. None of these are make it or break it details. But the more good points a shampoo has, and the fewer negatives, the more likely it is to work for your hair.
We’ve mentioned earlier that there are a few things that shampoo should do to address thinning hair. Any good shampoo needs to cleanse your hair and scalp. Specifically, it should lift away excess oil and dirt and debris, as well as dry skin.
It also needs to stimulate your scalp. Bringing additional circulation can boost your hair follicle’s growth rate. That means that they’ll stay in the active growth phase longer.
Good thinning hair shampoos will also add nutrients to your hair and scalp. Proteins, in particular, are useful to hair that’s already thinning. But you should also look for shampoos that include vitamins and other essential nutrients in their formula.
The rest of your body won’t benefit from these nutrients being included in your shampoo, but your hair and scalp almost certainly will.
Let’s talk about some ingredients that have these kinds of benefits.
Saw Palmetto
Saw Palmetto is an herb that is commonly used as a supplementary treatment for your prostate. But, when applied to your hair and scalp, it serves to help regulate the amount of DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that gets to your hair follicles.
DHT shrinks the follicles in your scalp over time until they can no longer grow hair. If you catch this kind of damage early enough, it’s reversible. But if you wait too long, the hair follicles atrophy and can’t recover.
Saw Palmetto counteracts the effects of DHT by reducing the concentration of the hormone. That lets your follicles heal.
Keratin, Silk Proteins, Wheat Protein, Amino Acids
All of these ingredients serve the same purpose, although some may be more effective for you than others.
Keratin is the most common of the proteins included in shampoos. That’s because Keratin is the main protein in your hair. It’s one of the basic building blocks your hair and hair follicles need to be healthy.
While it can’t be absorbed and used directly, it can strengthen your hair when applied in a shampoo.
Silk protein is another good option. This ingredient is found mostly in the higher end anti-thinning shampoos and conditioners. It greatly increases the strength of your existing hair, while also smoothing the hair cuticle and reducing frizz.
Proteins aren’t just good for thickening your hair and improving its overall health, they also make it easier to control and style.
Biotin and Other B Vitamins
Biotin is a vitamin helps with circulation but applied topically to your hair and scalp, it becomes a building block for important proteins and components in your skin and hair.
Other B vitamins play a slightly different role. But having them in your shampoo is a good way to make sure your skin has access to the nutrition it requires.
Ketoconazole
This ingredient is one that you usually won’t find advertised on the front of the bottle. You’ll need to look in the ingredients list to find it.
That said, Ketoconazole can be an important ingredient for men with skin conditions, sensitive skin, and dandruff. It works to attack the microbe imbalances that can develop on your scalp and in your hair.
It also works as an anti-inflammatory, which helps promote healthy circulation.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a stimulant, and it works on your skin and hair follicles just like it works in your coffee. Quickly becoming a popular additive in shampoos and conditioners, caffeine encourages growth and more active skin cells. That means more collagen, more keratin, and other important hair building blocks.
It can also help stimulate circulation and restore good blood flow to your hair follicles.
Natural Plant Oils
Oils are a good way to make sure you have enough moisture in every strand of your hair. Plant oils tend to a better job of this than petroleum-derived moisturizers. Oils that are similar to sebum, the oil your skin creates on its own, are the most effective.
Here’s a list of good oils to look for:
Essential Oils
Essential oils are one of the most common ways for shampoo manufacturers to include, and benefit, from botanicals. These oils can do several different things, from stimulating your scalp, controlling DHT, and cleansing your skin.
Good oils to look for:
7 Best Men’s Shampoos for Thinning Hair Comparison Table
If you’re just looking for a good product and don’t have the time to read the whole article, this quick guide is for you. We stand by each of these products, although each one works a little differently.
For more information on how to pick the right shampoo for your hair and scalp read on.
| Product Name | Volume | Hair Type | Key Ingredients | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mokita Naturals Biotin Hair Growth Shampoo | 8.5 fl oz. | All Hair Types | Biotin, vitamin B5, glycerin, many botanical extracts | Check Price |
| BOTANIC HEARTH Biotin Shampoo and Conditioner Set | 16 fl oz. in each bottle | All Hair Types, best for dry or greasy hair types | Ginger, turmeric, argan oil, and glycerin | Check Price |
| Paisel Biotin Shampoo For Hair Growth Shampoo | 8 fl oz | Best for fine/dry hair types | Biotin, coconut oil, saw palmetto, and rosemary oil | Check Price |
| American Crew Hair Recovery and Thickening Shampoo | 8.4 fl oz | All Hair Types | Biotin, hops extract, tea tree extract, keratin | Check Price |
| SACHAJUAN Thickening Shampoo | 8.4 fl oz | Best for normal to greasy hair, straight or curly | Glycerin, rapeseed oil, vitamin c | Check Price |
| Rocky Mountain Barber Company Men’s Shampoo – Tea Tree Oil, Peppermint & Eucalyptus for All Hair Types | 8 fl oz | All Hair Types | Peppermint, tea tree oil, hemp oil, keratin protein | Check Price |
| Brickell Men’s Products Daily Strengthening Shampoo for Men | 8 fl oz | All Hair Types | Silk protein, peppermint, tea tree, aloe, jojoba oil, and rosehip oil | Check Price |
7 Best Men’s Shampoos for Thinning Hair: Detailed Reviews
This section highlights the key features of each shampoo, how they work, and the pros and cons of every option.
1. Mokita Naturals Biotin Hair Growth Shampoo
Editor’s Rating: 4.5/5.0
This shampoo is one that hits most of the boxes for a solid growth shampoo. It includes a wide variety of botanical ingredients, green tea for added caffeine, Biotin and B5, and several other growth-boosting ingredients.
It also contains glycerin for added moisture, along with ingredients designed to provide a thorough but gentle cleanse.
When you have thinning hair, you need a shampoo that delivers on a few different things. It needs to moisturize. It needs to cleanse your scalp and keep it healthy and irritant-free. And it needs to help build up the proteins in your hair to make your existing hair thicker, stronger, and healthier overall.
Mokita naturals hits all these boxes. Soothing calendula and cucumber extracts help to keep your scalp healthy and soothe existing irritations. Green tea stimulates your scalp, improving circulation. Which also means that your skin will benefit more from the added B vitamins.
The one downside is that this is not a sulfate-free shampoo. While sulfates are perfectly safe for most men if you have sensitive skin you may want to consider an alternative.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8.5 fl oz per bottle |
| Includes: Contains sulfates/parabens, vegan-friendly, cruelty-Free |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Range of soothing botanicals |
| Designed to improve scalp circulation |
| Gentle cleansing |
| Added Biotin and B5 for strength and flexibility |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Contains sulfates |
| Relatively small container |
| Doesn’t address DHT problems |
2. BOTANIC HEARTH Biotin Shampoo and Conditioner Set (Top Pick)
Editor’s Rating: 4.8/5.0
For this product, we’re going to recommend two different versions. Botanic Hearth produces two versions of this shampoo, but each has a slightly different botanical blend. We’ve linked to the keratin and ginger formulation in our comparison table, but there is also a peppermint and keratin alternative.
There are a few differences between these shampoos. The first of which is that the menthol in the peppermint will create a gentle cooling sensation, while the capsaicin in the ginger is a warming sensation on your scalp.
Both will gently encourage circulation in your scalp, improving the health and function of your hair follicles. Both mint and ginger have been shown to benefit your hair strands as well as your scalp.
Both formulas also contain keratin, the key protein for hair growth and strength.
That’s why we’ve recommended both. They work in slightly different ways, but both are beneficial. But the ginger may be better for men with sensitive skin. The peppermint may be a better option for more severe hair thinning.
These shampoos get our top pick rating for a few reasons. For one thing, this is a high-end shampoo and conditioner set that’s still highly affordable for most people. Both shampoos also offer a good blend of botanical ingredients that address multiple root causes of thinning hair.
We also appreciated that Botanic Hearth understands that one product formulation doesn’t fit every user and that they created two of their hair growth boosting shampoos instead of a single product.
This shampoo gives you the ability to choose the formula that works best for you, instead of assuming that all men have thinning hair for the same reasons.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 16 fl oz, each |
| Includes: Shampoo and matching conditioner included, cruelty-free, sulfate and paraben-free |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Contains keratin for hair strength |
| Botanicals stimulate and soothe your scalp |
| Contains argan oil |
| Works to balance scalp |
| Good for both greasy and dry hair types |
| Paraben and sulfate-free |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Ginger and peppermint may cause reactions for some men |
| Some men may need a stronger cleanser (shampoo) |
| Conditioner may be too heavy for fine hair types |
3. Paisel Biotin Shampoo For Hair Growth Shampoo
Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0
This shampoo has really dialed in on the most common problems for men with thinning hair. The saw palmetto extract helps to fight the high DHT concentrations that can contribute to male pattern hair loss, while other ingredients fight scalp irritation, thicken and strengthen existing hair strands, and boost circulation and provide key nutrients.
It’s also a color-safe option, for men who give their hair a little color boost.
Rosemary oil helps to stimulate circulation in your scalp. Which makes the saw palmetto more effective at reducing scalp DHT, one of the main causes of hair follicle damage.
Meanwhile, the B vitamin complex included in this shampoo provides some of the basic building blocks your scalp and hair need for healthy growth.
Aloe vera also helps to soothe any existing skin irritations, while boosting the moisturizing effect of the hemp oil. Not to mention the rice protein that thickens your hair strands while adding strength and flexibility for greater volume.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8oz bottle |
| Includes: Sulfate-free, paraben-free, formaldehyde-free, vegan-friendly and cruelty-free |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Vegan and cruelty-free |
| Botanical blend addresses many hair loss causes |
| Color safe |
| Naturally addresses scalp DHT |
| Free of many scalp irritants |
| Made in the USA |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Small bottle |
| Fairly expensive |
4. American Crew Hair Recovery and Thickening Shampoo (Best Budget)
Editor’s Rating: 4.4/5.0
This shampoo is a good option for men who have thinning hair and struggle with product buildup. It’s designed to give you a deeper cleanse, like a clarifying shampoo, but without stripping away the moisture and nutrients thinning hair needs to recover.
This shampoo addresses a few issues that can lead both to thinning hair, and the appearance of thinning hair.
For one thing, the shampoo works to soften and swell individual hair strands. That means that your hair will immediately appear thicker, simply because the strands of your hair take up more space.
At the same time, ingredients like inositol, peppermint oil, and tea tree oil work to stimulate your scalp and promote faster, healthier, hair growth.
Meanwhile, biotin, keratin amino acids, and hops extract all work to add strength and density to your existing hair, while also giving your scalp the nutrients it needs to build healthy hair.
It’s also a relatively affordable option. While that means that there are some ingredients included in this shampoo that can be irritating to sensitive skin, you get a reasonable amount of shampoo for the price.
It’s not just price that matters, however. We also look for shampoos that offer a better than average performance for their price. American Crew has delivered a reasonably effective shampoo for most hair types, that really works to help correct thinning hair.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8.4 fl oz |
| Includes: Contains parabens and sulfates |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Affordable |
| Provides biotin and keratin |
| Works to cleanse and moisturize your hair |
| Immediately thickens the hair strands |
| Stimulates better circulation |
| Thickens the individual hair shaft |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Contains parabens and sulfates |
| Can be irritating for sensitive skin |
5. SACHAJUAN Thickening Shampoo
Editor’s Rating: 4.3/5.0
This thickening shampoo goes a little off the beaten path. Using ocean silk instead of some of the normal protein boosters means that SACHAJUAN’s thickening shampoo can work even for men who have struggled with other thickening shampoos in the past.
It’s also a good option for men who frequently use styling products and heat in their hair. The included UV and heat protectants work to prevent a lot of the routine damage that can get in the way of a thick healthy head of hair.
It’s also a very lightweight option. Instead of being a thick and heavy shampoo, it allows for free movement and lots of volume. Perfect for shorter men’s hairstyles that need volume and body to look good.
However, this shampoo doesn’t have the advanced blend of botanicals and other growth-boosting ingredients you can get in other shampoos. While it’s an effective option, we recommend this shampoo primarily to men who have mild thinning, not the more severe forms of hair loss.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8.4 oz bottle |
| Includes: Contains sulfates |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Adds volume and movement |
| Protects against UV damage |
| Protects against heat damage |
| Ocean silk adds strength and flexibility to hair |
| Good for fine to coarse hair |
| Immediately thickens fine hair types |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Doesn’t have many benefits on growth |
| Fewer botanical and vitamin ingredients |
6. Rocky Mountain Barber Company Men’s Shampoo – Tea Tree Oil, Peppermint & Eucalyptus for All Hair Types (Best Value)
Editor’s Rating: 4.7/5.0
This little bottle of shampoo is a good option for men who want to encourage thicker, faster, hair growth, but who don’t want a long list of chemicals and additives in their shampoo.
Rocky Mountain Barber Company’s limited list of ingredients, and high concentration of botanicals and plant oils, make it a better natural option.
It works on several levels. It adds protein and strength to your hair. It helps to stimulate your scalp for better circulation. It helps to keep more hair follicles active and growing hair.
Plus, it has no artificial fragrance. The minty, woodsy scent that keeps you smelling masculine and refreshing at the same time? That’s all from essential oils. And all the essential oils serve a practical purpose in addition to lending their scent to your hair.
Since it contains mostly natural botanical ingredients, many of which have been used for hair care across the globe, this shampoo is a truly beneficial option for all hair types.
It’s a combination of the high quality of this shampoo, and its reasonable price, that makes it our best value pick. While a botanical-based shampoo isn’t going to be for everyone, we find that this formulation is a particularly effective option in its price point.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8 fl oz |
| Includes: Contains peppermint, tea tree, eucalyptus, and other botanicals, paraben and sulfate-free |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Limited ingredient list |
| High proportion of botanicals |
| Helps increase circulation |
| Promotes healthy hair growth |
| No artificial scents or other skin irritants |
| Small batch manufacture |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Doesn’t address DHT |
| We wish it came in a bigger bottle! |
7. Brickell Men’s Products Daily Strengthening Shampoo for Men
Editor’s Rating: 4.6/5.0
This is one of the relatively few shampoos that was designed specifically for men. That means it considers the pH differences, and hormonal differences, between men and women’s scalps. That’s important because those different conditions affect hair loss.
Free of sulfates, parabens, and other potentially irritating ingredients, Brickell’s Daily Strengthening Shampoo is good for men with sensitive skin.
It’s a combination of vitamins (B & E), botanical ingredients, and amino acids will have an immediate and a long-term effect on your hair. At the same time, tea tree oil and peppermint oil work to stimulate your scalp for better circulation.
Those same ingredients also work to soothe the skin and prevent skin fungal and bacterial infections of the kind that can cause dandruff and other scalp problems.
For men with dry hair, the jojoba and rosehip oils work to create a more vibrant, moisturized hairstyle.
| Tech Specs |
|---|
| Volume: 8 fl oz |
| Includes: Contains jojoba oil, vitamin e oil, rosehip oil, and other moisturizers, cruelty-free, vegan-friendly, paraben and sulfate-free |
| The Pros |
|---|
| Lots of naturally moisturizing ingredients |
| Vitamins for increased hair health |
| Good for sensitive skin |
| Promotes better circulation |
| Should last about 45 days for most men |
| The Cons |
|---|
| Some men may react to the peppermint or tea tree oils |
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, this article has given you a better idea of what you should look for in a good shampoo for hair thinning. We’ve talked about some of the best options, and some ingredients that work well to combat hair thinning.
You should also avoid some ingredients, like sulfates and parabens, but it’s usually more important to find beneficial additives than getting rid of the bad ones.
Of course, if you have any more questions, or want to learn about other options to address hair loss, you should talk to your dermatologist about the options available to you.
Contents
- Things to Consider
- 7 Best Men’s Shampoos for Thinning Hair Comparison Table
- 7 Best Men’s Shampoos for Thinning Hair: Detailed Reviews
- 1. Mokita Naturals Biotin Hair Growth Shampoo
- 2. BOTANIC HEARTH Biotin Shampoo and Conditioner Set (Top Pick)
- 3. Paisel Biotin Shampoo For Hair Growth Shampoo
- 4. American Crew Hair Recovery and Thickening Shampoo (Best Budget)
- 5. SACHAJUAN Thickening Shampoo
- 6. Rocky Mountain Barber Company Men’s Shampoo – Tea Tree Oil, Peppermint & Eucalyptus for All Hair Types (Best Value)
- 7. Brickell Men’s Products Daily Strengthening Shampoo for Men
