Name: How Balding Became Big Business | WSJ
Uploaded: 2019-11-19T08:24:32.000Z
Duration: 6 min 27 s
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For decades, there were really only two men's hair loss brands.

When my hair gets wet, you can tell I'm losing it.

But over the past few years, new companies have popped up, flooding the zone with marketing campaigns.

These new brands are coming to life in a different world, one with growing acceptance of male personal care and social media putting pressure on men.

Those factors, combined with the expiration of a drug patent, are driving the industry to new heights.

The global market for hair loss treatment was worth over $7 billion in 2015, according to Global Market Insights.

And it's growing so fast that it's projected to pass $11 billion by 2024.

The hair loss market and the explosive growth of that market is exceptionally reflective of what's happening across the men's market, which is that you have a new demographic of men, a younger group of men, who are encouraged to now be well and to be their best selves.

Andrew Dudum is the founder and CEO of Hims, one of the newer brands on the market.

His San Francisco-based company is marketing in a different way than Rogaine and Propecia.

We're going after men in their 20s who are starting to experience while sitting in a college classroom, who are starting to see hair loss while applying for their first job.

Dudum offers a variety of hair loss treatment drugs, including generic versions of Propecia and Rogaine.

Merck created a drug called Propecia a very long time ago.

Today, if you go to a Walgreens or a CVS, that drug could cost you $100 or $200 per month.

We now, at Hims and other players in the space, can offer generic options of finasteride for $20 or $25 per month.

And so, what you see is a huge proportion of the population who is scared of hair loss or experiencing hair loss but unable to afford it for a very long time now be able to move into the market.

Dudum's company is emblematic of a group of hair growth startups that have sprung up in the last couple of years.

Hims, Roman, Keeps and others all demonstrate how a market can shift when a patent for a popular brand-name drug expires.

The combination of Rogaine, which went off patent first, and Propecia, which went off patent in 2014, and Propecia, which went off patent in 2014, together with some other things that are going on in the industry, that's caused a dramatic increase in the availability, in the cost, and in the success of using these products.

Gary Stibel is the CEO of New England Consulting Group.

He does a lot of research in the men's health space.

He says there are only two main drugs on the market that are scientifically proven to help stop hair loss in some men: minoxidil and finasteride.

In 1988, the FDA approved minoxidil under the trade name Rogaine.

Then, in 1997, Merck obtained an FDA-approved patent for finasteride, which they marketed as Propecia.

After both patents expired, new companies started crowding into the space.

Extra-strength minoxidil is expected to see 4.5% growth between 2018 and 2024.

And finasteride may also see market gains in the coming years.

The Propecia patent expired in 2013, an opportune moment for these brands.

Social media is creating a huge behavioral shift.

When you're always on social media, all you see is beautiful things, beautiful people, beautiful places, beautiful food, beautiful fashion.

It creates a desire to be part of that, and you want to be just as pretty, just as handsome, just as good looking.

The men's personal care industry was worth around $121 billion in 2016.

By 2022, it's expected to reach $166 billion.

Psychologically, men were concerned about looking like they were too fashion conscious.

They are using cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

And they're even experiencing and paying a lot of money for procedures like Botox.

The men's hair loss industry is part of this sea change.

Experts say that, as men grow more concerned with their looks, the hair growth industry has an opportunity to expand their market and cash in.

So it's no surprise that companies are looking for the next drug or procedure, one that could stop balding for good.

The forefront of the research has to do with hair transplants, which take hair follicles from a part of the scalp that's still growing and plants them where it's not.

Doctors have performed these for years, but the procedure has some supply and demand problems.

Some men don't have enough healthy follicles to replace all their bald spots.

Scientists in California, funded by Allergan, are trying to solve this problem by using stem cells to create an infinite number of hair follicles, which could theoretically give completely bald men the ability to regrow a full mane.

In June of 2019, the team managed to get hair to grow through the skin of a mouse.

Some experts have described this as a revolutionary achievement for the hair growth industry.

But there's still a final hurdle to overcome before the team can present their findings to the FDA.

They have to find a way to use only human cells to create hair growth, rather than the combination of human and mouse cells they've used so far.

The team thinks they're roughly seven years away from bringing their product to market, but other experts predict it could take a decade or longer.

If and when this does become an option, Hamilton says it could cost tens of thousands of dollars, and consumers may still have to use minoxidil and finasteride to keep the new hair.

They may also have to get additional transplants later in life.

Whether or not researchers come up with a cure for baldness, Stibel and Dudum think this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the explosion of male grooming.

Hair loss is a microcosm of what's going on in male grooming.

I think what's happening in the hair loss market is reflective of what's happening across the men's market, which is a general activation of men to go and be well.