Dr. Joyce Park, perhaps better known by her social media handle @teawithmd, has been creating online skin-care content for more than a decade. She calls herself a “grandmother of dermatologists on social media.”
“I started before I even knew what an influencer was,” she said.
Now, more than 10 years later, Park — who has amassed 507,000 Instagram followers and 776,000 TikTok followers — is launching her own brand. Dermatologist-founded brands are nothing new: Dr. Dennis Gross launched his namesake line 26 years ago, while Dr. Muneeb Shah debuted Remedy Skin in 2024 and Dr. Shereene Idriss launched her brand in 2022.
But while those brands focus on skin care, Park is entering hair care.
The move reflects a broader shift. As consumers become more educated about skin care, they are also paying closer attention to scalp health. Dr. Iris Rubin launched Seen Haircare in 2019, designed for those with sensitive or acne-prone skin. More recently, lingering post-Covid shedding concerns and increasing use of GLP-1 medications, which can lead to nutrient deficiencies linked to hair loss, have pushed doctors to turn their focus to regrowth solutions. In the U.K., for example, London-based dermatologist Dr. Aamna Adel launched Rhute Hair in late 2025, offering a scalp serum, pre-wash oil and at-home microneedling tool.
Park’s brand, Kerativ, was inspired by her patients’ concerns. “The idea for launching something in the hair-care space came up around 2023 and really came out of a need I saw from my patients in the clinic. I’ve seen hundreds of patients with hair loss and hair shedding, coming from all different etiologies — patients who were going through menopause, postpartum, hormonal changes, environmental changes, stress, post-Covid, … I was seeing so much telogen effluvium. It was, like, 10 a day,” she said. Telogen effluvium is a temporary hair-loss condition triggered by stress, lasting about three months after the triggering event.
While she often recommended minoxidil, patients struggled with consistency. “I wanted to create Kerativ because I wanted to create a science-backed, scalp-first hair-care brand that uses these clinically validated ingredients, but put them into a regimen that was super easy and seamless for patients to use without compromising on user experience or efficacy. Those were the things that were really important to me, and I felt like that was something that I wasn’t able to give to my patients.”
Kerativ will debut with a two-product lineup: the $44 Redensify Reset Shampoo and the $65 Treatment Serum, both launching DTC. Dr. Park has been working on these formulas for years, she said.
The brand is entirely self-funded, and Park emphasized the importance of clinical validation. Dr. Park’s first step was to conduct an audience survey, via Google Form, through which she collected 300-400 responses to better understand her followers’ primary concerns — which was key, given that she imagines they will be her target consumer.
To formulate the products, Dr. Park tapped Allen Sha, founder and managing partner of Sha Consulting Group, who has worked with brands including Dr. Idriss, Eadem and Sofie Pavitt Face. The serum includes 1% Kopexil to improve visible hair density and adapinoid, a retinoid, to help revitalize the scalp. It also contains 3% Redensyl, which is said to calm the scalp and support fuller-looking hair, but which, Sha said, “hasn’t really been used in combination with a retinol before, which helps amplify its benefits.”
Prior to committing to the full clinical trial, Park conducted an internal validation study. “Before I invested in a full-blown six-month clinical trial, I really needed to know for myself that it worked. [With the internal validation study], it was a little tricky because I didn’t want to announce to my entire audience that I was launching a brand. I posted only in my broadcast channel, which is a smaller subset of my followers I chat with, and said that I was working on a special project in the hair-care space. I said, ‘If anyone would be interested in learning more, send me an email,'” she said.
She then ran a three-month testing panel with members of her community, as well as family and friends, tracking before-and-after photos and questionnaire data at baseline, six and 12 weeks. “The data from that was convincing enough for me. It was kind of a slam dunk, actually. And so I said, ‘OK, this has legs,'” she said.
At that point, she was ready to kick off a formal six-month clinical study, a significant investment for a startup brand. The trial is currently halfway complete. “[It has found] that there was a statistically significant increase in hair volume and density at 12 weeks, as rated by [the] independent dermatologist,” Park said.
To start, Dr. Park will focus on educating her own sizable audience about the brand across her platforms. But she has also joined ShopMy, where she plans to gift products to creators, with a focus on creators who are also experts, she said, pointing to people who have a “background in chemistry or dermatology or medicine, hairdressers or trichologists.”
