As domestic beauty and hair care brands transition from scale expansion to value deepening, research and development capabilities are becoming the core metric that differentiates brand tiers.
On May 28th, the scientific hair care brand Jifang, a subsidiary of CHICMAX (SEHK: 02145) dedicated to hair follicle anti-hair loss research, made an appearance at the 14th World Congress for Hair Research (WCHR 2026). It globally unveiled significant research findings, completed in collaboration with Capital Medical University, titled "Adenosine + L-Carnitine Tartrate Jointly Regulates Hair Follicle Cell Cycle and Activates Hair Follicle Activity," bringing Chinese anti-hair loss technology into the international academic spotlight.
This also demonstrates CHICMAX's precise insight into industry pain points. Using the Jifang brand as a fulcrum, it is transforming its over two decades of accumulated innovative technology into verifiable and achievable product standards, propelling the anti-hair loss care sector towards a "technology-driven" future.
Addressing Industry Challenges: Jifang Targets the Root Cause Anti-Hair Loss Segment
Driven by both consumption upgrades and growing health awareness, the anti-hair loss hair care market is experiencing explosive growth. According to a research report, the domestic functional hair care market has seen rapid expansion in recent years.
However, behind this market prosperity lies a contradiction: consumers' higher demand for "effective anti-hair loss" solutions versus the homogenization of industry technology. Most brands still operate on the superficial logic of "scalp care," with few scientific achievements genuinely addressing hair loss from the root cause—the hair follicle. This creates an urgent market demand for root-cause, scientific, and evidence-based anti-hair loss products.
The hair follicle, as the core of hair growth, has a cycle that directly determines hair health. The essence of anti-hair loss is the full-cycle management of the hair follicle. However, hair follicle research involves interdisciplinary fields like cell biology, dermatology, and active ingredient development, presenting high technical barriers, long R&D cycles, and significant investment costs, making it an industry-wide challenge.
Therefore, possessing hair follicle anti-hair loss technology that is co-developed with medical institutions, protected by core patents, and proven effective becomes the key to leveraging the market and reshaping the industry landscape.
As the core vehicle for CHICMAX's expansion into the hair care sector, Jifang established its product positioning as "hair follicle anti-hair loss" from its inception. Adhering to the philosophy of "science as the foundation, specialized research as the path, and excellence as the standard," it has dedicated nine years to this field, achieving a full-chain closed loop from ingredient R&D to technological systems, and from laboratory breakthroughs to product commercialization.
The EDS Hair Follicle Revitalization Technology, unveiled at the World Congress for Hair Research, is the culmination of its years of scientific research.
Reportedly, the core breakthrough of the EDS technology lies in moving beyond the limitations of traditional single-pathway approaches, establishing a 3.0 hair follicle anti-hair loss system based on "dual-component synergy and dual-pathway collaboration." While traditional anti-hair loss products mostly rely on single ingredients acting on the scalp, the EDS technology focuses on the entire hair follicle growth cycle.
Through the synergistic action of three core components—adenosine, carnitine tartrate, and plant-derived caffeine—it forms a scientific three-step anti-hair loss process of "awakening, activating, and sustaining," precisely achieving full-cycle hair follicle health management.
Specifically, adenosine upregulates the expression of VEGF and EGF-7, promoting blood circulation and nutrient supply to hair follicles, thereby extending their growth phase. Carnitine tartrate focuses on providing energy supply to hair follicles, fundamentally stabilizing their regression phase. Plant-derived caffeine acts as an awakening factor, combating DHT-induced follicle miniaturization to awaken dormant follicles and accelerate their entry into the growth phase. Together, these three form a complete anti-hair loss chain from awakening and energizing to stabilizing.
Additionally, Jifang incorporates a specialized "Density Amplifier" with core ingredients including copper peptide, vitamin B3 derivatives, and arborvitae leaf extract. Experiments prove the amplifier can synergize with "EDS" to empower hair follicles, thereby constructing a positive hair follicle cycle.
Behind this technological breakthrough is the strong support of Jifang's top-tier R&D team and a robust scientific ecosystem. Benefiting from CHICMAX's global R&D layout and the support of its Scientific Committee, Jifang has built an integrated "industry-academia-research-medicine" scientific system.
In terms of academic collaboration, it partners with prestigious institutions like Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China Pharmaceutical University, and Chongqing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It also collaborates with authoritative bodies such as Princeton University's SIGNUM Laboratory, the Dermatology Research Institute of Chongqing Hospital of TCM, and SGS, establishing an independent R&D ecosystem to ensure the cutting-edge and professional nature of its technological development.
Ultimately, R&D capability is measured by patents and realized achievements. To date, CHICMAX, behind Jifang, has accumulated nearly 200 patents and published over 50 scientific research papers in global core journals.
Simultaneously, Jifang possesses four products with national anti-hair loss special certifications. Consumer tests show its products can effectively alleviate issues like hair loss, oiliness, and scalp tightness, realizing the translation and efficient conversion of its scientific achievements from the laboratory to the consumer end.
From this, it is evident that CHICMAX is continuously propelling Jifang's strategic transformation from an "efficacy-focused brand" to a "research-driven brand." Its appearance at the World Congress for Hair Research serves as an international endorsement of the Jifang brand's stature.
As one of the few domestic hair care brands to appear on the international hair research academic stage, Jifang showcased the technological prowess of Chinese anti-hair loss solutions to the world, effectively enhancing the voice and reputation of Chinese hair care brands in the global market.
Building on Research and Technological Breakthroughs: CHICMAX Leads the New Future for Domestic Brands
In fact, Jifang's technological breakthrough is an inevitable result of CHICMAX's over twenty years of dedication to scientific research, and it serves as a valuable "observation window" into the company's R&D strength.
As a leading domestic beauty enterprise, CHICMAX has consistently focused on the R&D track, adhering to long-term innovation. It has established global R&D centers, gathered top talent, and deployed research across multiple fields including skincare, hair care, and cosmetics.
This builds comprehensive capabilities across the entire industry chain, from basic research and ingredient innovation to technological breakthroughs, product commercialization, and brand operations. This provides solid support for its brand portfolio, including brands like Kans, newpage One Page, and Jifang, and drives domestic beauty and hair care products to lead comprehensively from brand value to industry benchmarks.
Taking Jifang as an example again, CHICMAX accurately anticipated the growth trend of "root-cause anti-hair loss" in the hair care field, decisively entered the hair follicle anti-hair loss segment, incubated its own R&D brand, and empowered Jifang from multiple dimensions including capital, resources, technology, and channels, facilitating its nine years of specialized research and rapid growth in anti-hair loss technology.
Consequently, based on insights into consumer pain points, Jifang chose to tackle the core challenge of hair follicle anti-hair loss, filling the technological gap for domestic hair care brands in the root-cause anti-hair loss field. It is propelling the domestic anti-hair loss care industry from the 2.0 era of scalp maintenance into the 3.0 era of hair follicle revitalization, reshaping the industry landscape.
From this, it is clear that CHICMAX is driving innovation through its "industry-academia-research-medicine" model and evidence-oriented R&D philosophy, providing a replicable development benchmark for the domestic beauty and hair care industry and helping the sector advance towards higher-end, more technological, and more international standards.
It is noteworthy that beyond Jifang, CHICMAX is actively promoting the upgrade of its other major brands into "research-driven brands," setting an industry benchmark of "medical-research co-creation and evidence-based efficacy" and guiding the industry back to the essence of scientific research.
Simultaneously, CHICMAX is constructing a complete chain of trust, from basic research and academic validation to clinical data and third-party testing. This brand-building path of "exchanging trust through research" will demonstrate a differentiated competitive advantage in the current consumption environment that places greater emphasis on quality-to-price ratio.
From a market perspective, Jifang's "voice" at the World Congress for Hair Research is a concentrated display of CHICMAX's R&D strength. It is expected to further reinforce the group's identity as a "research-driven beauty enterprise," enhance its market share and brand premium in the hair care segment.
Concurrently, as the group's high-end hair care brand, Jifang's technological breakthrough will drive overall growth in the hair care business, forming a new profit growth point. This injects momentum into the group's long-term high-quality development and fulfills the social responsibility and mission of a Chinese consumer brand.
Final Thoughts
At the current juncture, the next phase of competition for domestic beauty brands will no longer be confined to channel coverage and traffic acquisition but will return to a deeper contest of R&D capabilities.
Through the Jifang brand, CHICMAX has already demonstrated its ability to participate in international academic dialogue and output original technology standards, with its R&D platform serving as the most critical underlying support for this process.
It can be anticipated that the quality and efficiency improvements brought by R&D will ultimately materialize as a continuous optimization of the company's profitability: core technology leads to product premiumization, driving steady gross margin improvement; combined with smart manufacturing for cost optimization, this promotes better expense efficiency and a continuous improvement in the company's net profit margin.
This contributes to achieving overall high-quality growth—characterized by "profitable revenue and profit with cash flow"—and continuously drives the company's value growth.
Looking ahead, CHICMAX will continue to deepen scientific innovation, refine its product portfolio, and expand brand influence. It will empower beauty and hair care products with robust technology, lead industry progress through innovation, and, while helping more domestic brands go global, write a new blueprint for its own value growth.
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