Bioscalin

Bioscalin is an Italian hair-care brand owned by Giuliani, a pharmaceutical company based in Milan. It began in 1991 as a food supplement for hair and has since grown into a pharmacy range that pairs tablets taken by mouth with ampoules, shampoos and other products applied to the scalp [9]. The brand is aimed mainly at temporary or seasonal hair weakness and hair loss, and its history is closely tied to a series of patented ingredient complexes developed in Giuliani's own laboratories.

Bioscalin is sold mainly through pharmacies. Beyond Italy it is marketed in Germany and Austria, where the same line was sold under the name TRICOVEL until autumn 2023 [1]. The brand has also drawn regulatory attention: in 2022 Italy's advertising self-regulation body found one of its television commercials misleading, the latest in a series of advertising rulings against its owner [12].

Bioscalin was created in 1991 by Giuliani, which presents it in its corporate timeline as the first food supplement formulated specifically for hair. That "first" is the company's own description and has not been confirmed by an independent source. Giuliani does not credit the brand to a named individual; it attributes the line to its in-house trichological research, the branch of dermatology that deals with hair and scalp.

The idea behind the original product was simple: rather than treating hair only from the outside, it set out to supply nutrients to the hair root through a daily tablet. That "from within" approach remains the core of the brand more than three decades later.

The brand's development has largely followed a sequence of reformulations, each built around a new named complex. According to Giuliani, the decisive moment came in 2003, when Bioscalin was relaunched with a patented active ingredient called Biogenina. The company says sales tripled after the relaunch and that Bioscalin became the market leader for hair-loss prevention in Italy [9].

Further versions followed. In 2009 Giuliani formulated the CronoBiogenina complex together with a topical molecule named P-FULVINE. In 2013 it added the SincroBiogenina complex and R-Plus, a technology designed to release the active ingredients gradually over the day.

The next step moved beyond nutrition. In 2017 the company launched Bioscalin Signal Revolution, a topical treatment built on a patented molecule called S-R. According to Giuliani, its researchers had identified chemosensory receptors in the hair follicle, known as OR2AT4, and the S-R molecule is designed to stimulate them and so send a signal to the hair. The product was presented at Cosmofarma 2017, a pharmacy trade exhibition in Bologna, where it received an industry award.

In autumn 2023 the line sold as TRICOVEL in Germany and Austria was renamed Bioscalin. The Austrian brand site explains that only the name changed, with ingredients and effects unchanged, and gives "production-related reasons" for bringing the brand names into line with Italy.

The most recent turning point came in autumn 2025, when Bioscalin introduced three new anti-hair-loss lines in Italy together with a new visual identity, as reported by the Italian health and beauty site My-personaltrainer.it [13]. The relaunch added the descriptor "Hair Science" and replaced the long-running slogan "Belli, sani, forti" ("Beautiful, healthy, strong") with "Bioscalin. I tuoi capelli, la tua forza" ("Your hair, your strength"). The campaign was created by the agency Robilant & Associati and produced by Indiana Production, under the creative direction of Dario Villa.

Bioscalin belongs to Giuliani (Società Farmaceutica Giuliani), whose registered office is in Milan [8]. Giuliani describes itself as a fully Italian pharmaceutical company, and in 2017 said it had more than 120 years of history [10]. Its portfolio extends well beyond hair care into skin care, sleep and digestive health, and Bioscalin is described in the 2025 coverage as its flagship brand.

In Austria, the Bioscalin website is operated by Pelpharma Handels GmbH, a pharmaceutical wholesaler based in Tulbingerkogel, rather than by Giuliani itself [4].

The relationship between Bioscalin and Tricovel needs some care. The Austrian brand site states plainly that "TRICOVEL is now called Bioscalin" [1]. Giuliani's own website, however, still lists Tricovel as a separate hair-care line alongside Bioscalin [8]. The two accounts are compatible: the rename applies only to the German and Austrian markets, while Tricovel continues to exist as its own line elsewhere. Outside those two countries, the names do not refer to the same product range.

Bioscalin frames hair loss around the hair follicle, one of the few parts of the body that renews itself in cycles throughout life. The brand's material singles out the dermal papilla, a small structure at the base of the hair root, as the "command centre" that determines how thick and long a hair grows and how well it is supplied with nutrients. Bioscalin says its products act at exactly this point.

The common causes the brand names for temporary hair weakness are everyday ones: stress, the period after childbirth, the onset of menopause, an unbalanced diet and the change of seasons. Its recommended routine combines products from the same line, with tablets working "from within" and ampoules and shampoos "from outside".

Giuliani positions the range as science-led. The company states that all Bioscalin products are formulated with patented technologies and unique active ingredients, and have undergone laboratory testing and clinical studies under dermatological supervision. The 2025 brand image was intended to express the values Giuliani associates with itself: scientific research, innovation and quality. Its brand manifesto speaks of hair as a form of self-expression and connection with others.

Giuliani has repeatedly described Bioscalin as the leading anti-hair-loss brand in Italy [10]. That claim should be read alongside the 2022 advertising ruling described below, which found a "number one" claim in one commercial misleading because it referred to different Bioscalin products from the one being advertised.

The core of the range is the Bioscalin tablet, built on the Biogenina complex. The brand highlights spermidine, folic acid, methionine and biotin as ingredients that support the growth of hair cells, alongside zinc, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and an extract of Galeopsis, a flowering plant. The matching ampoules use what the brand calls its patented Physiogenina technology, designed to carry the active complex down to the hair root, while a technology called Triactive3 releases the ingredients gradually. A Physiogenina shampoo, made with panthenol, biotin and wheat protein, completes the basic line and is described as paraben-free.

Around this core the brand has built lines for specific groups:

- TricoAGE+ is aimed at women from the first signs of menopause. It includes tablets with a complex called AlfaBiomeria (omega 6, rutin and soy isoflavones), TricoAGE45+ ampoules and a TricoAGE45+ shampoo. The ampoules and shampoo use BioEquolo, based on fermented soy protein and an extract of the bugle plant Ajuga reptans, and a hair-barrier complex of ceramides and lipids. The tablets are labelled vegan, gluten-free and lactose-free. - ENERGY MEN is designed for men and combines tablets, ampoules and a shampoo. The brand credits a patented ATP-3 technology and an AJB complex; in the ampoules, ATP-3 combines arginine, carnitine and caffeine. The tablets are gluten-free and lactose-free. - Signal Revolution, launched in 2017, is the topical treatment built on the S-R molecule.

The 2025 relaunch in Italy reorganised the offer into three new lines: Total Care, for weakened hair and temporary shedding, with a supplement, a hair activator, shampoo, conditioner and mask; Menopausa, for hair changes linked to menopause; and Pro-density Uomo, for men with thinning hair, which adds a gel and a wax to the usual supplements, ampoules and shampoo.

The brand supports its claims with a set of clinical studies [2]. These include a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of the tablets in 60 adults aged 18 to 60 with hair loss, published in the journal Nutrafoods in 2003 by researchers from a Milan dermatology clinic together with a Giuliani author. A separate double-blind, placebo-controlled study tested the ENERGY tablets in 100 men, and an open multicentre study of the Physiogenina ampoules involved 40 men and women with telogen effluvium, a common form of temporary hair shedding.

The products are made in Italy. No third-party certifications are documented, and the Austrian brand site notes that Bioscalin is not an organic product under EU organic regulations.

In May 2017 Bioscalin Signal Revolution won the Innovation & Research Award in the dermocosmetics and trichology category at Cosmofarma. The award was accepted on behalf of the brand by Giammaria Giuliani, head of research and development and a member of the company's board.

Bioscalin's advertising has been the subject of several rulings in Italy. In March 2022 a television commercial for the supplement Bioscalin Nova Genina, broadcast on the national RAI channels, was found manifestly misleading by the Control Committee of the Istituto dell'Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria (IAP), the Italian advertising industry's self-regulation body, in injunction no. 8/22 [12]. The committee objected to two claims. The figure "80% volume and shine" suggested the degree of improvement users could expect, when it was in fact the share of participants in a self-assessment study who reported any improvement. The "no. 1 anti-hair-loss" claim referred, in barely legible small print, to Bioscalin ampoules and lotions rather than to the advertised supplement.

Giuliani responded with a correction request published by Il Fatto Alimentare. The company called the press headlines misleading and damaging, said the product rests on clinical studies, and noted that the committee had accepted two of the efficacy results it questioned. It also maintained that Bioscalin is the leading anti-hair-loss brand by volume and value in its market segment.

The same report recalls earlier cases [12]. Giuliani had been censured twice before, in 2009 and 2011. Italy's Antitrust Authority ordered the company to pay a fine of 100,000 euros over a year-long campaign for Bioscalin CronoBiogenina that promised reduced hair loss or regrowth, and the report puts the total spend on that campaign at 1.5 million euros. Giuliani had already been fined 150,000 euros in 2009 for similar reasons. In its response, the company described these earlier cases as more than ten years old.

Bioscalin is an active brand. Its most recent visible activity is the autumn 2025 relaunch in Italy, with three new product lines, a new brand image and a new slogan. The range is sold mainly through pharmacies and, in Austria, also through selected doctors. Its Austrian website, run by the distributor Pelpharma, continues to carry the full line under the Bioscalin name following the 2023 rename.