About Us

The short story:

reneva originated in Geneva, Switzerland in 1889. Geneva (French: Genève) is the second largest city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the largest city of Romandy (the French-speaking part of Switzerland).

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reneva was then further refined in Australia 100 years later in the 1980s where several small-scale clinical trials were conducted before being perfected in 2006 in the USA.

reneva FRS shampoo is a secret blend of pure botanical ingredients and natural essential oils designed to stimulate hair follicles, generating new hair growth and nurture existing hair for extra body and shine.

The not-so-short story:

While experimenting with a concoction for the treatment of cholera, Gregoire Zurbriggen noticed an interesting correlation between certain essential oils and hair growth. This discovery in his Geneva, Switzerland lab in 1889 marked the birth of reneva.

Zurbriggen studied medicine at the University of Basel, Switzerland's oldest university. Founded in 1460, the university was attended by many physicians, alchemists, scientists and other scholars of world renown such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Paracelsus, Daniel Bernoulli, Jacob Burckhardt, Leonhard Euler, Friedrich Nietzsche, Eugen Huber, Carl Gustav Jung, Karl Barth and Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Zurbriggen's work to find a cure for cholera during the sixth pandemic of the disease led to several interesting discoveries, including the base formula still in use today in reneva. He became fascinated with exotic plant and animal materials brought back from Australia by a British ship delivering supplies to the Henty Brothers in Portland Bay (Australia) in the mid 1800s. These included oils traditionally used by the Gunditjmara Aborigine tribes of the Portland Bay area such as Eucalyptus marginata, Dromaius novaehollandiae (emu) oil, Varanus gouldii (goanna) oil, Melaleuca spp. (tea tree) sap, Callistemon spp. (bottlebrush) oil, Myrtaceae (myrtle family) and Xanthorrhoea australis (black boy).

The specimens were originally donated to the British Museum in London but eventually landed in Zurbriggen's lap when a young apothecary working on a new balm for D.R. Harris - one of London's oldest pharmacies and still in operation today - visited the University of Basel to conduct research on the link between lead oxide and muscle paralysis.

Zurbrigen discovered that when properly blended, diluted and administered orally at an elevated temperature, oil of Xanthorrhoea killed the bacterium Vibrio cholerae (Kommabacillus) within seconds.

Although never rightfully credited for it, Zurbriggen also discovered the link between the bacteria streptomycedes, typically found in arid climates like that of Australia and the resulting tetracycline. Tetracycline is still used today for the treatment of many gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and some protozoa. Like some other antibiotics, it is also used today in the treatment of acne, and forms the basis for some of the formulations the unnamed young apothecary took back to London with him in 1892.

The Australian connection

reneva’s development came full circle a full century later in the 1980’s when the formula was refined and standardized in Melbourne, Australia by one of Zurbriggen’s great great grandsons Ueli (Joe) Camenzind, a pioneer of nano technology. Several successful, small-scale clinical trials were also conducted in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s before funds ran out and the formula was shelved yet again.

Circumnavigating the globe

Many years later, and halfway around the world, reneva’s development started again in earnest. The formula had now twice traveled around the world, landing in the USA and culminating in the reneva FRS shampoo you see here.

Today, we observe the same time-honored principles of apothecary and botany practiced by our founder Gregoire Zurbriggen. We use only the purest ingredients and highest potency essential oils, and combine nano technology with a high-temperature, high-pressure process that takes a full three weeks to create our top-secret blend we call reneva FRS shampoo.

More than a century in the making. There is nothing quite like our reneva products!