"I started Mounjaro and I'm going crazy with anxiety because handfuls of hair are falling out." Posts like this have recently been appearing one after another on a diet online cafe with more than 500,000 members. There are complaints from people anxious they may lose hair while trying to slim down, and even posts saying they stopped the drug after seeing signs of hair loss.
As more people rapidly lose weight with GLP-1 class obesity drugs like Mounjaro and Wegovy, hair loss, cited as a side effect, is emerging as a new battleground for the beauty and retail sectors. As scalp-care lineups from devices to shampoos and ampoules pour out, sales metrics are moving in tandem.
According to the industry on the 14th, at CJ Olive Young, as of the end of Aug. this year, sales of hair tonics and ampoules rose 42% from a year earlier. LABO-H's "Scalp Strengthening Clinic Hairline Ampoule," Re:Field's "Hair Recovery Cytokine Booster Pro," and lilyeve's "Growturn Exosome Brush Ampoule" drove sales. An Olive Young official said, "Domestic-brand scalp-care products that are easy to apply in brush or roll-on formats are gaining popularity."
The same trend is appearing in budget channels. At Asung Daiso Co., sales of scalp ampoules and tonics began by jumping about 300% in Jan. this year from a year earlier and then continued to climb for eight consecutive months. In Aug., they were up about 80%. Sales of functional shampoos for alleviating hair-loss symptoms also increased, rising about 240% in Jan. and then 70% to 200% each month through Aug. In scalp ampoules and tonics, Honest Lab's "True Lab Scalp Hair Vinegar" and RGIII's "Red Ginseng Scalp Tonic" ranked among the top sellers, while in functional shampoos, Modamoda's "Blue Biotin Scalp Shampoo" and TS's "Hair Loss Care Shampoo" were top sellers. From high-performance ampoules priced in the 30,000–50,000 won range to uniform-price items under 5,000 won, demand has spread across all price bands.
The number of people in Korea taking obesity drugs is rising quickly. According to data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, monthly prescriptions for Mounjaro surpassed 270,000 in May this year, up from 18,579 in Aug. last year, its first month on the market. More than half were prescribed to people in their 20s and 30s.
In the past two years, studies on the link between GLP-1 drugs and hair loss have followed in succession. In a study by the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) in Jul., an analysis of patients with type 2 diabetes found that GLP-1 users had a 37% to 68% higher risk of hair loss than users of other classes of diabetes drugs. Rapid weight loss is cited as a likely factor.
The industry is responding with technology competition. APR(278470) said a recent study on hair-loss treatment efficacy using radiofrequency microporation (RF Microporation) was published in "Pharmaceutics," a top-10% journal in pharmacology by Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The gist is that when applying minoxidil to the scalp, combining the air-shot mode of its beauty device "Medicube Age-R Booster Pro X2" increased deposition in the epidermis and dermis by up to 2.4 times compared with applying minoxidil alone. The move is seen as targeting the fact that women with hair loss mainly rely on topical minoxidil.
Overseas expansion is also continuing. The scalp-care brand Dr. Groot of LG H&H(051900) has entered 424 Sephora brick-and-mortar stores in the United States. The scalp and hair-care brand Aromatica became the only Korean scalp and hair-care brand to enter 611 stores of Target's "Beauty Studio" in the United States. In the first half of this year, Aromatica's sales volume for related product lines rose 56.2% from a year earlier, and sales value increased 63.1%. During this period, the share of scalp and hair care in total sales climbed to 61.3%. Musinsa Beauty brought Onnuri Pharmacy into its first standalone store, "Musinsa Beauty Hongdae," which opened recently, and set up a separate hair-loss section.
Amorepacific(090430) presented hair care as the next global growth pillar at its Investor Day on the 11th. The goal for 2030 (July 2029–June 2030) is 1 trillion won in hair-care sales and a global sales share of at least 60%. With multi-brands such as Ryo, Mise-en-scène, and LABO-H at the forefront, it plans to expand its business centered on premium hair care and scalp care in the United States, China, Japan, and Brazil.
The domestic hair-loss market, including hair-loss treatments, is estimated at the 4 trillion won level (KB Securities). A retail industry official said, "As the trend of segmenting and caring for the scalp like skin overlaps with the rise in the number of people losing weight, related product lines are growing into a category to rival basic skincare."