Hair health becomes an asset and an exception

If female entrepreneurs and startuppers struggle to emerge in a perimeter where skills often weigh less than prejudices, there are projects that manage to make small cracks in the glass ceiling.

This is the case of Epigenhair, a Milanese start-up founded by Francesca Hanania and Chiara Insalaco who, after much brainstorming, decided to build a business on high-quality products to preserve the longevity of hair. And so, on the strength of experience acquired in the field (for Hanania that of finance, which has seen it divide its time between international investment banks and venture capital funds focused on consumer brands, for Insalaco that of medicine and trichological transplants), they set up a company that, a few months after its launch, already boasted encouraging revenues and good public feedback.

"It all started with a search: while exploring the US market, I became aware of an increase in brands that dealt with repigmentation of grey hair from the inside: therefore, not using dyes but stem cell stimulation treatments in the bulbs to restore colour to the locks," explains Hanania. 'I talked with Chiara, who approved the idea of bringing a similar project to Italy, also reflecting on how important it is not to neglect grey hair because it is a precursor of trichological problems that are far more serious than simple ageing'.

But intuition is not enough: we need to focus on quality. "Having created the company, we also involved Dr Umberto Pompili, pharmacist and galenic expert: we entrusted the study and fine-tuning of the formulations to him," Hanania continues. "For me, it was essential to collaborate with a scientific team that was involved across the board: to date, Chiara and I are 48% partners and Umberto 4%, and we work on proprietary formulations with a high dosage of active ingredients, something very few start-ups can count on. We created them, tested them, changed them until we were sure the products would work. In December 2024 Epigenhair was born, in July 2025 we debuted on the market, and in September sales doubled that of August: we are doing very well".

Rather than in beauty, they prefer to be part of the consumer healthcare (personal well-being, ed.): in a short time, the brand, all made in Italy from the packaging to the ingredients of the anti-grey line on sale in some pharmacies and online (shampoo, conditioner, lotion and supplements), has conquered a target of men and women from 30 to 50 years.