Once upon a time, "balding" was only a self-deprecating language for young consumers after the 90s, but almost overnight, focusing on "anti-detachment business" has also become a major theme in the lives of young consumers, and the amount of hair and "hair seams disappearing" have become one of the important criteria for judging the beauty of celebrities on social media for a time, especially during this year's Spring Festival Gala# #Changyuan hair is enviable # is on the hot search, netizens commented: "The year of the tiger wishes is to have the same hair volume as Chang Yuan!" ”
According to the national health commission survey data, the total number of people with hair loss in the mainland exceeds 250 million, with an average of 1 in 6 people, of which about 163 million are men and 88 million are women, and the proportion of hair loss before the age of 30 is as high as 84%.
At the same time, the problem of hair loss is also gradually aging, Frost & Sullivan has done data statistics on China's hair loss population, the current Chinese hair loss population accounted for 69.8% of the population under 30 years old, 31-40 years old hair loss population accounted for 25.4%, the average age of hair loss population 30.1 years old, compared with the previous generation of hair loss age 20 years earlier.
Stimulated by huge consumer demand, the current "hair loss economy" mainly revolves around several major genres of medical maintenance, hair transplantation, drug anti-shedding, diet therapy and wigs. The highest consumption is hair transplant surgery, the current internationally recognized hair transplantation technology is mainly a single hair follicle transplant FUE, including FUE traceless hair transplantation technology and FUE encryption technology.
Yonghe hair transplantation
At the end of last year, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange welcomed a hair transplant company: Yonghe Medical, which closed at HK$16.60 on the first day of opening, with a total market value of HK$8.631 billion. According to the "Investment Community" news, Yonghe Medical landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on the same day, with a subscription of up to 160 times, becoming the hottest new stock at the end of 2021. According to the data previously released by Ai Media Consulting, the market size of the mainland hair transplant industry has exceeded 20 billion yuan in 2020, and in 2016, this data was only 5.7 billion yuan, and the annual growth rate of the industry in the past 5 years was about 30%-40%. However, there are only about 516,000 hair transplant surgeries in China, and the penetration rate is 0.21%, which means that the market demand is far from being met, and the hair transplant industry is indeed a "profitable" market.
So why is it more difficult to treat hair loss than skin problems? Hair loss is persistent, and hair loss problems are caused by a variety of causes, including thyroid secretion, metabolism, air pollution, stress or pregnancy leading to temporary hair loss, and sometimes once the climate or stress environment changes, the hair loss problem will disappear on its own.
Among all types of hair loss, androgenic alopecia (AGA) (also known as seborrheic alopecia) is the most common, according to statistics, 95% of alopecia patients are androgenic alopecia, scientific studies have shown that when the scalp contains a large amount of DHT (dihydrotestosterone), DHT will constantly attack the hair follicles, causing hair follicle atrophy, shortening the growth period of hair, resulting in hair loss.
In the drug treatment mode, the internal administration of finasteride and spironolactone, topical minoxidil are common therapeutic drugs, especially minoxidil spray is widely recognized, with the help of social media science and the convenience of such over-the-counter drug purchase, Mandy and Da Feixin and other anti-fallout drug brands sales growth is strong, Tmall data show that Mandiminodil tincture spray in the first quarter of 2021 Taobao Tmall sales reached nearly 60 million yuan; Zhendong Pharmaceutical released performance announcements show that, In 2018, Da Fei Xin's annual sales were more than 11 million, and in the first half of 2021, it achieved sales revenue of 116 million yuan.
HairMax laser helmet
Secondly, laser treatment is also a more promising treatment for hair loss. In 2007, the U.S. FDA approved a low-energy laser therapy (LLLT) device with a wavelength of 655 nm for the treatment of androgenic alopecia, followed by an LLLT device with wavelengths of 678 nm and 650 nm for the treatment of androgenic alopecia, respectively. Unlike LED lights, lasers have a higher energy density and can stimulate hair follicle growth more intensely and effectively.
The "2020 Hair Loss Treatment White Paper" released by CBNData and Alibaba Health pointed out: "The rapidly expanding young consumer group and consumption upgrade have become the core driving force for the growth of online hair loss treatment drugs, and the post-90s generation is also the main player in online anti-hair loss drug consumption." ”
Due to the expansion of the base of hair loss patients and the development of youthfulness, whether in the care and care market or the "oral anti-shedding" market, brands are fully leveraging the wallets of young people.
At the level of oral supplements, Chinese consumers have a good "anti-shedding reputation" for black foods such as black sesame, black rice and black beans, Chinese medicine believes that "hair is blood", that hair growth is closely related to qi and blood, and the rise and fall of kidney qi and stomach qi are closely related, that hair nourishment and hair loss can be carried out by nourishing the spleen and stomach, supplementing kidney qi, in the view of the homology of medicine and food, black foods such as black sesame, He Shou Wu, black rice can nourish kidney qi and stomach qi, and promote the growth of qi and blood.
The Outbreak Pill jointly launched by The Black Breeder and the Overlord
Aiming at hair loss anxiety, black sesame pills and black sesame drinks launched by various brands have emerged in an endless stream, and sales have been hot, which has aroused widespread concern. CBNData's "2019 "Anti-Hair Loss Family" Consumer Insight Report" shows that the proportion of online anti-hair loss products after 90 and 95 has risen from about 30% to more than 40%. It is worth noting that from 2017 to 2019, the consumption and quantity of oral anti-shedding products increased by nearly 200%. For example, the food brand Wugu Mill cross-border anti-deluge care brand Overlord launched an outbreak pill; the compound juice brand "Yuan research institute" launched a black sesame drink with the main anti-shedding function, and the brand completed seed round and angel round financing continuously within half a year, with a cumulative amount of tens of millions of yuan and a valuation of over 100 million yuan.
Prose launches a customized hair growth supplement "Root Source"
In contrast, in the overseas market, anti-fallout supplements are around the customized model, for example, the customized care brand Prose also launched a customized anti-fallout supplement last year, which can treat hair loss caused by environmental reasons, consumers need to fill in online tests, and the brand customizes exclusive anti-fallout capsules for customers according to the algorithm, and the monthly subscription fee is 44 US dollars. Marie Mignon, vice president of research and development at Prose, said: "These ingredients are screened for different causes of hair loss in each person: such as stress, diet and vitamin imbalances. According to clinical trials, 93% of users experienced improvements in hair growth after 90 days of taking this supplement. Industry insiders expect the brand's retail sales to exceed $100 million in 2021.
Innovative therapies internationally are also steadily advancing, for example, in August 2021, Pfizer announced that its alopecia areata treatment drug Ritlecitinib, had achieved positive top-line results in a Phase 2b/3 ALLEGRO clinical trial for the treatment of alopecia areata. Ritlecitinib is a JAK3/TEC inhibitor that inhibits signaling from IL-15 and CD8 cytokines, which are important factors that drive the immune system to kill hair follicle cells. At present, the therapy has been recognized by the FDA as a breakthrough therapy and has been officially conducted in clinical research in China.
The well-known cloning technology is also gradually being seen as the greatest hope by the hair follicle regeneration industry. In 2019, the British Daily Mail reported that a British company, HairClone, launched a service that claimed that in the future "scalp hair follicles will be deposited into 'banks' like money, can be cloned and used in the future to treat hair loss." "The cells inside these scalp hair follicles will be grown and cloned in the lab, and when one day these customers find themselves beginning to show signs of baldness, the cloned proliferating cells will be injected into their own scalp areas to promote hair growth."
HairClone's cloning treatment options
Bessam Farjo, Chief Medical Officer at HairClone, said: "Hair follicle cell cloning can provide an option beyond direct hair transplant surgery, with a market size expected to reach more than $24 billion by 2023. ”
Also in the near future, hair loss patients once again ushered in the good news of stem cell therapy, the American medical startup dNovo officially announced that it has successfully transplanted human hair stem cells into a mouse. Founder Ernesto Lujan said the company can generate components of hair follicle cells by genetically programming common cells such as blood cells or fat cells; in addition to dNovo, a company called Stemson has raised $22.5 million from funders including drug company AbbVie and is transplanting reprogrammed cells onto the skin of mice and pigs to test the technology.
It is undeniable that the growth of the hair loss population has bred a new consumer market, behind the anxiety of "early baldness", there are unlimited business opportunities, but also hidden a lot of counterfeit and shoddy, false propaganda products, as consumers in the treatment of hair loss and anti-prolapse process must be treated rationally, follow the advice of professional doctors, with scientific research results as the benchmark rational treatment, rational consumption. BINC
Written by: Lucy Geng
Edit: Lee
Image source: Network