Aussie Hair Folli pushing for China expansion as economy sees quick bounce-back from COVID-19

Based in Australia, the company was founded by Trung Vien, an entrepreneur with a finance background that also owns businesses in food and beverage, fitness and property sectors.

It manufactures Hair Folli, a hair growth product which contains native Kakadu plum, a ‘superfood’ ingredient that contains potent amounts of vitamin C and antioxidants.

In addition to Kakadu plum, the spray-type product also contains other botanicals such as licorice root and panax ginseng root extract to stimulate hair growth by improving blood flow to the hair follicles. 

According to clinical studies, Hair Folli was able to improve hair growth in seven to ten days.

Compared to the control formula, Hair Folli proved to be 214% more effective and was also observed to be 94% more effective than minoxidil.

Hair Folli was launched in March this year after COVID-19-related complications pushed its launch date back from January.

While the brand is only a few months old, Vien told CosmeticsDesign-Asia​ that the company has already received a lot of interest from the Chinese market.

“We’ve already got media attention in China because the market is very receptive to natural, Australian-made products.”​

Trung believes this is the right time to launch Hair Folli in China. “The three biggest markets are China, America and Europe. But America and Europe are still fighting with COVID-19 and the economies won’t recover so quickly. China is already seeing recovery so quickly, that’s why we are planning to launch there soon.”​

The firm is in talks with B-Buy, an e-commerce company which has experience launching Australian brands on Alibaba platforms.

Hair Folli has already filed its trademark in China and plans to launch in the market once it finds a third-party logistics partner.

“It’s all happening so quickly but we want to take our time, the first step is to ensure we get the trademark,”​ said Trung.

Asia expansion

After China, the company plans to target Singapore, Japan and Korea as potential markets.

Trung said the product was catered for people in the developed nations where people live hectic lives with high-stress careers and care a lot about their physical appearance.

He added that he created this product as a way to help people cope with stress.

“The biggest problem with hair loss is stress. Looking around at people in their early thirties dealing with corporate stress or family stress. They don’t go to the gym as much, they don’t eat right or sleep well… all this can affect hair loss.”​

For the first year, the company will be donating 100% of its profits to non-profit organisations working to address issues associated with mental health such as Beyond Blue and R U OK?

“Eventually, I want to help organise programmes to address mental health issue. I think it’s a very important thing. It’s the reason why I designed this product. The best way to give back is through these charitable organisations.”​

The company plans to launch a dermaroller to work alongside the Hair Folli treatment.

The dermaroller, which is made from 540 titanium microneedles less than 0.5mm in size, works similarly to other dermarollers meant for skin care.

“In skin care, dermarollers prick the skin with microneedles to promote collagen growth. Applying the formula helps the hair grow, but with an additional dermaroller step, it will be the game changer.”​