According to the National Health Commission, more than 250 million people in China suffer from hair loss, with an average of 1 in 6 people losing their hair. Among them, the number of people under 30 accounts for 69.8% of the total, while the proportion of young people between 26 and 30 years old is as high as 41.9%.

From the January to December 2022, the GMV performance of Tiktok Care showed that 88% of the fine categories increase by more than 100%, and shampoo and hair care is a category with high sales and continuous growth. Among them, in 2022, the scalp care market concentration CR10 reached 79%, and the scalp care segmentation function track showed the highest growth rate of monopoly situation.

However, many 90s, 95s baldness professionals said that because of staying up late, irregular work and rest, genetics and other reasons, compared with their parents, their age of hair loss and baldness is getting earlier and earlier, and finding more effective products has always been a daily problem.

This makes scalp care, including anti-stripping and hair growth, a new wealth code. At the same time, there is controversy over various issues such as anti-skid and hair growth market IQ taxes.

  The concept of anti-stripping became popular, and the demand for scalp care is growing, while the supply has not kept up.

Since 2023, the two giants of P&G and Unilever have successively invested in hair care brands: P&G acquired black hair care brands “Mielle Organics”, and Unilever made an initial investment in Australian scalp care brand “Straand”; Ziyuan and Kashi two major Chinese and foreign head care brands launched new products to seize the scalp care market.

However, there is still an unknown market space for effective high-end scalp care. In the domestic high-end scalp care market, foreign brands occupy the mainstream market position, and domestic brands are still rare.

Especially for many offline hair and scalp care brand distributors and channels, choose imported brands of greater profits, domestic scalp care brands are too small, which is difficult to be valued.

Iresearch Consulting recently released the United States hair care online report also pointed out that in the general direction of hair care, consumer demands are paying more and more attention to the development of the whole link and the direction of differentiation, which from scalp, hair roots, to hair tips, hair color care are all important.

Among them, the scale and growth of "scalp care" is particularly prominent, at the same time, consumers for "anti-hair" guard hair demand is also beginning to reflect in the hair care products. For example, it is used in related product segments such as hair dye.

  The IQ tax controversy still needs to be educated in the market.

Although the overall market is starting to accelerate, consumers and the market still need to be fully educated.

The most critical thing is that the voice of hair transplantation is a false proposition, and the voice of anti-shedding and hair growth business is an IQ tax has never stopped.

Under the anxiety of hair loss, some physical hair care stores even appear to rip-off customers. "Secret recipe" scalp massage is a big tool to defraud customers, at every turn charging thousands of yuan at a time, or there are hair care agencies that insist on using a few courses of hair loss can stop.

Jennifer, the founder of the Kliffe brand, said that there has been an IQ tax controversy over washing and care products related to anti-shedding and hair growth. This is because, from a product point of view, anti-stripping and hair growth are actually two categories. Anti-stripping should be more prevention, for people who have baldness, in fact, no longer need to prevent, which need a doctor to prescribe treatment recommendations to induce hair by drug.

Some people in the hair care industry said that for the scalp care market, 2025 may usher in a node where the basic education of consumers will be greatly improved. The development of the industry needs the cooperation and standardized management of the government and other parties, rather than just one or two enterprises.

  Hair implants and hair care are integrated into a new direction

Previously, hair transplants related to scalp care were seen as a once-and-for-all lucrative business. According to Sullivan's statistics, the size of China's hair transplant market in 2021 is 16.9 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 75.6 billion yuan in 2030.

From the point of view of the offline business, at present, the mainstream chain store brands such as "HAIROLOGY", “Shencao Legendary Plant Hair Care and Dyeing House”, Balincani, Bosye, Guoyitang, Hairmeet, Yangfatang, etc. open traditional hair care chain stores as an important channel to reach the consumer end, mainly focusing on herbal maintenance and scalp management products, and the trend of brand chain is more obvious.

The scalp care market is set to become a battleground. According to analysts at Third Bridge, "there will be more mature overseas scalp care brands entering China in the future, but the overall competitive landscape in China has not yet reached a white-hot stage."

From this point of view, the domestic salon format is relatively benign layout. In the future, the opportunity to compete for more offline channels may be a breakthrough for domestic scalp care companies to seize the potential market.