Pantene’s newest launch is more than a decade in the making, in development since 2013. The brand published two clinical studies along the way and has now brought its Abundant & Strong Collection to market, in December 2025. The launch is supported by a 360-degree campaign, “Stop The Shedding,” which includes a film and partnerships with mega-influencers including Alix Earle and Abbey Yung. It worked with the Grey agency on the creative component of the campaign and Omnicom on its creator partnerships.
The Abundant & Strong Collection is designed to address hair shedding, based on Pantene’s research linking oxidative stress to the issue. Because oxidative stress affects nearly everyone — similar to why antioxidants are widely recommended in skin care — antioxidant-rich hair care may benefit consumers even if they do not perceive themselves to have scalp concerns. “The thing that you don’t necessarily see or feel that’s impacting your scalp condition is basically free radicals, from UV, from pollution and just from the environment,” said Jeni Thomas, Ph.D., global principal scientist for Pantene.
To counteract that inevitability, the collection combines Pantene’s signature pro-vitamin B5 with niacinamide and piroctone olamine, an antioxidant said to help reduce free radicals on the scalp’s surface. The lineup includes a shampoo, a conditioner and a serum priced at $17.69, $17.69 and $23.99, respectively, on Target.com. In clinical studies, hair appeared visibly thicker after one use; after four weeks, 77% of participants experienced less hair loss; after six weeks, more than 85% noticed increased hair density; and after eight weeks, participants retained an average of 6,000 more strands at the root.
Though Pantene’s new collection has been a long time in the making, innovation in hair loss and shedding has accelerated over the past year. Brands including Neutrogena, Verb and Maelove have all introduced collections aimed at addressing similar concerns in recent months. Interest in hair loss has surged since Covid and amid the growing use of GLP-1 medications, both of which have been associated with shedding.
According to a brand representative, Abundant & Strong represents Pantene’s biggest innovation in years. As such, the company built a campaign to match the scale of the investment — and to reflect the emotional reality of shedding, which is both common and deeply personal. It found that two out of three women have concerns about hair loss and shedding.
“Whether you’re daily seeing it on your brush or on the pillow when you wake up, or that hair that gets stuck to the shower, … it sometimes feels like you’re in an endless horror movie that never ends,” said Robert Reiss, Pantene’s vp of North America for hair and disruptive innovation. So, the brand leaned into the tropes of a horror film, creating a campaign centered on “suspense,” according to Reiss.
To introduce the campaign, Pantene launched a secondary Instagram account, @theshedding_, roughly a month ahead of the product reveal. Early posts featured ominous captions, such as “The fall is coming from inside the house. #TheSheddingFilm 1.5.26” and “Only the strongest will survive. #TheSheddingFilm 1.5.26.” The tease content culminated with the release of a short film, which the brand debuted a week ago, as it revealed the Abundant & Strong Collection — positioning shedding as a problem with a solution.
“It has a happy ending. You can hear in ‘The Shedding’ how the tone of the music changes and the attitude of the consumer changes toward the end. Because there is a solution now, and it’s one that is affordable without the luxury price tag,” Reiss said.
While the “Stop The Shedding” campaign is now live on social media, Reiss said it represents only the first phase of a broader rollout. The campaign film will also run alongside previews in movie theaters and imagery is already appearing in out-of-home placements across New York City, Austin and Los Angeles. Pantene plans to further support the launch with podcast advertising and television commercials. In addition, as part of the brand’s partnership with Earle, consumers can purchase a Pantene x Alix kit for $49.99 that includes the full three-piece collection.
Dedicated influencer partnerships are being rolled out in phases. Pantene intentionally launched with Yung and Earle, Reiss said, and additional collaborations are planned. The two creators play distinct roles in introducing the collection and reaching different audiences.
“Abbey Yung is a tricologist,” Reiss said. “When we approached her about Abundant & Strong, she said, ‘I need to study this.’ She went deep into the clinicals, and she sat multiple times with our scientist, Jeni Thomas, [at Pantene’s labs in Cincinnati] to really understand the science-based approach. So, Abbey [is helping us] get the science story out.”
Earle’s campaign content, meanwhile, “literally starts in the shower,” Reiss said, adding, “It’s fun. So, we’ve been leaning into [her] popularity [to] announce to the world that Pantene Abundant & Strong is here.” Earle has 5.4 million Instagram followers and 8.2 million TikTok followers. Earle has posted the campaign content on her own social media, and the content appears across Pantene’s channels.
For Yung, going in cautiously was paramount. “There’s a lot of gimmicky stuff out there, and there are a lot of brands making claims that are unsubstantiated,” she said. Yung has 1 million Instagram followers, 2.5 million TikTok followers and 782,000 YouTube subscribers, many of whom trust her detailed recommendations and swear by The Abbey Yung Method, which is Yung’s trademarked approach to a hair-care routine. “I’ve just been really careful with what I do and don’t recommend in this space. It’s really important to me to actually understand the technology and these kinds of products that do help to address these concerns,” she said. “So, once I got a sneak peek into [research that went into this] collection, I really was just blown away by the level of rigor that was put into it.”
Though drugstore hair care can still carry a stigma, Yung said that perception does not reflect the level of scientific investment behind the category. “If people saw the level of science that’s going on here, it would be a very different conversation,” she said. “A lot of brands don’t publish information like Pantene has for this collection. We’re not seeing these clinical trials that have been completed with over 300 participants, and for 24 weeks; we don’t see things like this from most high-end or drugstore brands.”
Pantene parent company P&G does not break out its earnings by brand, but in its 2026 Q1 earnings, it reported that its beauty category, which includes hair care, had increased by 6% year over year, with hair care increasing in the “low single digits.”
