Aging and hair follicle disorders, such as telogen effluvium or androgenetic alopecia, lead to premature catagen induction and decreased hair density. Hair loss is an aesthetic problem that may cause major psychological distress in affected individuals. While severe types of hair loss are targeted by the pharmaceutical industry, with drugs exhibiting unwanted side effects, the cosmetic industry is looking for milder, and natural treatment options. Bearing this in mind, we focused on an extract of Leontopodium alpinum (Edelweiss) and investigated its effects on hair growth ex vivo. We treated microdissected anagen VI scalp hair follicles (HFs) from three individuals (two female, one male) with 0.001% edelweiss extract and evaluated hair growth-associated parameters. After 5 days of treatment, we observed significantly more HFs remaining in anagen, and increased hair matrix keratinocyte proliferation. On a molecular level, higher activity of alkaline phosphatase, and up-regulated expression of versican was observed in the dermal papilla of female treated HFs, suggesting improvement of dermal papilla inductivity. In addition, the expression of hair growth-associated growth factors, i.e. IGF-1 or FGF7, was found to be up-regulated in the outer root sheath, and/or dermal papilla of female hair follicles. Our ex vivo results provide preliminary evidence for a beneficial effect of the Leontopodium alpinum extract in limiting hair shedding in vivo.