(upbeat music)
- [Narrator] 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 I'm gonna regrow it with Rogaine.
- [Announcer] Propecia.
Helping make hair loss history.
- [Narrator] But over the past few years,
new companies have popped up,
flooding the zone with
marketing campaigns.
- [Announcer] We help you
stay looking like this.
Not like this.
- [Narrator] 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.
- [Narrator] 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.
- [Narrator] 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,
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.
- [Narrator] 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.
So is dating apps.
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.
Part of that is the way you look.
So, it's competitive.
There's a lot of pressure today.
- [Narrator] The men's
personal care industry
was worth around $121 billion in 2016.
By 2022, it's expected
to reach $166 billion.
That's a 37% increase in just six years.
- Psychologically, men were
concerned about looking
like they were too fashion conscious.
That day has passed.
Men are into looking their best.
They are buying all kinds of toiletries.
They are using cosmetics
and pharmaceuticals.
And they're even experiencing
and paying a lot of money
for procedures like Botox.
- [Narrator] 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 think 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.
(bright music)
