Hair-Loss Treatment Spending Surges Among Younger Men

U.S. men are spending more on hair-loss treatment than ever, and clinicians and analysts say the surge is being led by a younger cohort. Prescriptions for finasteride, the leading oral drug for male-pattern baldness, rose about 200% over seven years among men aged 25 and older, according to an Epic Research analysis of electronic health records conducted for NBC News. Over the same period, the telehealth company Hims & Hers Health — built largely on younger men's demand for hair, sexual-health, and skin treatments — reported $1.48 billion in 2024 revenue, up 69% year over year, and 2.2 million subscribers (a 45% annual increase), per its full-year 2024 financial results.

This article is informational and educational. It describes population-level trends and publicly reported spending data; it does not diagnose any condition, recommend any treatment, or constitute medical advice. Decisions about finasteride, minoxidil, or any hair-loss therapy should be made with a licensed clinician.

The headline number: a finasteride prescription jump of about 200% in seven years

The clearest signal of rising demand is prescription volume. The Epic Research dataset, drawn from real-world health records, found that the number of U.S. men with a finasteride prescription climbed roughly 200% over seven years among men aged 25 and older. The analysis counted men 25 and up, but dermatologists interviewed by NBC News said they are seeing patients far younger — including some in their late teens — seeking to slow hair loss before it becomes visible. One NYU Langone dermatologist told NBC News that finasteride is now "like water in my clinic."

The drug itself is not new. Finasteride was first FDA-approved in 1992 as Proscar (5 mg) for an enlarged prostate, and was FDA-approved for male-pattern hair loss in 1997 as Propecia (1 mg daily). What changed over the past decade is access and marketing, not the medication.

Why younger men are the growth engine

Hair loss begins early for many men. A population-based study of 1,005 men found that 47.5% had androgenetic alopecia in the 30-to-35 age group, rising to 58.7% at 36-40 and 73.2% at 41-45; that study was conducted in India and is not specific to any single ethnicity. Separately, the American Hair Loss Association states that about 25% of men with male-pattern baldness begin losing hair before age 21 and that two-thirds of American men experience some noticeable hair loss by age 35, rising to roughly 85% by age 50. Broader epidemiology summaries (e.g., StatPearls) report that androgenetic alopecia affects roughly 50% of Caucasian men by age 50.

The common thread is that most younger men have milder, early-stage loss — precisely the cases where treatment is most often discussed as a way to slow progression. Historically, that early-stage group frequently went untreated. A 2021 Hims men's health survey of about 1,400 U.S. men aged 25 to 45 found that 64% had never used an FDA-approved hair-loss product such as minoxidil or finasteride, and 42% had never spoken to a doctor about their hair loss. Direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms were built to capture exactly that gap.

How telehealth reshaped the spending curve

Direct-to-consumer telehealth companies — Hims, Keeps, and Ro chief among them — are described in the NBC News reporting as the single biggest reason for the prescription surge. Their model removes two major friction points: the in-person dermatology visit and the pharmacy trip. An online questionnaire, an asynchronous clinician review, and home delivery replace both.

Pricing is aimed at younger, price-sensitive buyers. Based on publicly advertised plans:

• Minoxidil plans start as low as roughly $10/month at some platforms.
• Finasteride subscriptions commonly run about $16-$30/month across major platforms.
• That works out to roughly $120-$360 per year per patient for basic regimens.

On the revenue side, Hims & Hers reported monthly online revenue of about $73 per average subscriber in the fourth quarter of 2024 (up from $53 a year earlier) — well above entry pricing, reflecting upsells to combination and personalized products across its categories. Multiplied across millions of subscribers, modest individual spending becomes a billion-dollar category.

A bigger market, with wide estimates

The broader hair-restoration market — which includes drugs, devices, and surgical transplants — is also expanding, though forecasts vary sharply by firm. Estimates of 2024 market value range from roughly $7 billion to over $11 billion, with projected annual growth rates spanning about 6% to 17% depending on scope and methodology (for example, Grand View Research put 2024 at about $7.4 billion with a ~16.6% CAGR). Across these reports the male segment consistently dominates — cited at roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of the market (Future Market Insights put it near 68% in 2024). Major retailers are entering the space too: Amazon's One Medical added men's hair-restoration plans with medication delivery in late 2024.

What it means — and the limitations

The data tells a coherent story: lower friction, aggressive social-media marketing, and early-stage demand have pulled hair-loss treatment forward in men's lives and turned it into a recurring subscription expense. Several caveats are essential for a health topic that affects personal medical and financial decisions.

The growth figure has boundaries. The ~200% increase reflects men aged 25 and older in the Epic dataset; it does not quantify the under-25 cohort, even though clinicians report that group is also growing.

Safety is an open question for some formulations. Oral finasteride's known side effects — including reduced libido and erectile difficulties — occur in a minority of users, and its U.S. label carries a warning about reports of suicidal ideation. More notably, in April 2025 the FDA issued a safety alert on compounded topical finasteride products, citing 32 adverse-event reports between 2019 and 2024, some describing anxiety, depression, erectile dysfunction, and suicidal ideation that reportedly persisted after stopping. Critically, no topical finasteride product is FDA-approved in the U.S.; compounded versions are not evaluated by the FDA for safety or effectiveness, and several are marketed through telehealth. These are reported adverse events, not a measure of how often such effects occur.

Market sizing is not precise. The wide divergence in market forecasts reflects differing definitions and scopes, not a single agreed figure, and these numbers should be read as directional.

The bottom line: spending on hair-loss treatment among younger men is rising fast and is real, but consumers should weigh convenience and price against the strength of efficacy evidence and the FDA's safety guidance — and should make treatment decisions with a licensed clinician rather than on the basis of this article.

Sources

• NBC News, "As finasteride use by younger men soars, some doctors caution about rare side effects" (Epic Research data) — www.nbcnews.com/health/mens-health/finasteride-young-men-hair-loss-concerns-increase-rcna152679
• American Hair Loss Association, "Booming Demand: U.S. Sees 200% Surge in Finasteride Prescriptions Over 7 Years" — www.americanhairloss.org/booming-demand-us-sees-200-surge-in-finasteride-prescriptions-over-7-years
• American Hair Loss Association, "Men's Hair Loss" (age-prevalence figures) — www.americanhairloss.org/mens-hair-loss
• Hims & Hers Health, Inc., "Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results" — investors.hims.com/news/news-details/2025/Hims--Hers-Health-Inc.-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-2024-Financial-Results
• U.S. FDA, "FDA alerts health care providers, compounders and consumers of potential risks associated with compounded topical finasteride products" (April 2025) — www.fda.gov/drugs/human-drug-compounding/fda-alerts-health-care-providers-compounders-and-consumers-potential-risks-associated-compounded
• U.S. FDA, PROPECIA (finasteride) prescribing information — www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2012/020788s020s021s023lbl.pdf
• "Male Androgenetic Alopecia: Population-Based Study in 1,005 Subjects," PMC/NIH — pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2938575
• "Androgenetic Alopecia," StatPearls, NIH/NCBI Bookshelf — www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430924
• Hims, "The Annual Hims 2021 Men's Health Survey" — www.hims.com/blog/2021-mens-health-survey
• Hair-restoration market sizing (ranges): Grand View Research, Mordor Intelligence, Zion Market Research, Future Market Insights, 2024 — www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/hair-restoration-market