Rosemary oil for hair growth? How to spot bad science

Had to reupload, audio issues 😅 Sorry this took so long - it was meant to be a quick video about a single paper while I was wrapping up a big Top Secret project (not that secret, will be announced soon) as well as getting married, but then it turned into a Big Thing. Back to our regular schedule!

The hair tiktokers are going to hate this one.

Abstract: "Our findings indicate that Lab Muffin Beauty Science has very little muffin content. We found 0 mention of muffins throughout a large sample (n=420). The differences with the non-muffin control group were insignificant (p<0.69)."

Honestly, when people only have ONE study, that already raises red flags. For something to be concrete, its results should be able to be replicated in other studies. If there's just the one, and it's from almost a decade ago, I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt.

And thats why 'just do your research' falls flat. Most people, myself included, just dont know how to read scientific papers even if we can get past the paywall. Its a shame.

As a researcher, I'm APPALLED that this was published.

I had my 12 year old son watch this video, not for the hair loss part but for a beginning understanding the world of science. Thank you for this well put together, unbiased, easy to understand presentation of the process of studies.

I have been using rosemary water and oil. I have suffered from thick painful dandruff all of my life and the rosemary from what have found out is really really good for anti-inflammatory and killing bad bacteria. My dandruff is almost 100% gone and takes a long time come back. I used to wash my hair every day because it was so bad but now I can wait a few days before I do. And now that the dandruff is not blocking my hair follicles my hair can now grow and has gotten really really long. So rosemary didn’t grow my hair having a healthy scalp did.

This is CRAZY. I feel like I'm witnessing a turning point in history 🤧 Almost every single rosemary haircare post/video I've seen mentioned this study, and of course I believed it to. Now I'm sure the comments will start to flood with references to this video! Insane 😭 Thank you SO MUCH for your service for us lay(wo)men, WE APPRECIATE YOU AND ALL THE EFFORT THAT GOES INTO EDUCATING US ALL 😭😭👏🏼❤

If I handed in a paper like that to a science teacher in like 10th grade I would have almost certainly been failed 💀 the fact that actual scientists made it and “reviewed” it as good is kinda mind blowing to me 😭😭

This shows that even "experts" are not infallible. Dermatologists are absolutely the best source when it comes to getting information for overall skin health and improving skin function, but that doesn't necessarily mean they know how every active used on skin and hair work, or how they behave in specific formulas. Cosmetic chemists don't have the same extent of knowledge on skin itself, but they're a necessary check and balance for dermatologists, and can give more insight when it comes to actual products and ingredients. I'm not remotely shocked that "skinfluencers" with no credentials didn't look into the Rosemary study, but I'm a bit disappointed at how many social media derms ran with the myth 🥴

And into my curriculum on media literacy this video goes! High school English teacher here.

I’ll repeat my comment: I love how you went through the whole research paper to show how even a layperson like me could identify dodgy science. It was super informative

I want to take a round trip train ride and airdrop this to everyone along the way. Science literacy is much harder than just "do your research" online!!thank you for your careful and clear explanation

Something to also consider is that based on other studies on 2% minoxidil, this study showed WAY less hair growth on 2% minoxidil over 6 months than we normally would expect 2% minoxidil over 6 months to give. This makes the constant comparisons in efficacy of rosemary oil to minoxidil 2% that people make based on this study even more dubious due to minoxidil 2%’s strange underperformance in this study compared to how it normally performs.

My wife is a researcher (and I’m not), and I’ve been struggling to understand author drama. She’s also an editor for a few journals. I think this video did a lot to help me understand what she’s going through when publishing/peer review and tearing her hair out (pun intended).

I love that you reviewed the study in detail. I’m guilty of believing the abstract 😕

O M G. I can't tell you how relieved I am is to see this video. for years now I've been trying to tell everyone how bad this study is, and it's so frustrating to these medical professionals make tiktoks about it. To me it's just so disappointing to see because it just shows that they never even tried to the read the study, and go on to tell their viewers about making it seem more legit. Sometimes I wonder if some of the bigger creators (like doctor youn) actually bother to create their own content, or just read a script from their social media team without fact checking it. Very alarming. On the topic of anecdotal evidence, the only time I've seen rosemary working was for people that had telogen effluvium either from something like stress or childbirth, which eventually resolves on it's own.

also using the depression scale to measure hair loss is WILD!!

The study was done in reaction to reports that hair oiling works, it didnt start the craze. Indian and pretty much all Middle Eastern cultures practice hair and scalp oiling. We oil our hair because of culture, not because of some study that happened in modern times.