GLP-1 Users Are Losing Hair. The Beauty Category Is Finding Another Tailwind.

Branneisha Cooper started taking Mounjaro in late 2022 and lost weight. About a year in, her hair began coming out in clumps, CNBC reported on May 2, 2026 in a piece on the growing hair-treatment market emerging around GLP-1 medications. Cooper, 29, is one of a growing population of GLP-1 users dealing with temporary hair shedding as a side effect of rapid weight loss. The drug labels acknowledge it. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro list hair loss among common side effects, as do Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.

The category response is well underway. Larissa Jensen, Circana’s beauty industry advisor, told CNBC that hair loss solutions continue to be a standout growth segment in hair care, with GLP-1 medication usage emerging as an incremental tailwind. Circana data in the piece puts GLP-1 household spending on beauty products at roughly 30% above non-GLP-1 households. Redken, owned by L’Oreal, built a hair treatment line called the Acidic Grow Full System tested on GLP-1 users. Nutrafol told CNBC it is seeing increased demand it attributes partly to greater awareness around hair health. Scalp-health company KeraFactor told CNBC its direct-to-consumer business has grown 100% year-over-year, driven by GLP-1 user interest. Ulta CEO Kecia Steelman told Yahoo Finance, per CNBC, that the chain is seeing more shoppers buying hair treatment products as part of the GLP-1 trend.

Audrey Depraeter-Montacel, Accenture’s global beauty industry lead, told CNBC the size of the GLP-1 market is unprecedented, and that consumers entering the hair-treatment category tend to be loyal because results take months to appear.

The category math sits on top of a fast-growing population

The numbers in the CNBC reporting describe a consumer base large enough to support sustained category investment. Gallup data cited in the piece shows GLP-1 use has more than doubled since early 2024. The KFF Health Tracking Poll puts current US adult GLP-1 use at roughly 13%. JPMorgan estimates 25 million Americans will be on a GLP-1 by 2030, up from 5 million in 2023.

Drug accessibility is moving in the same direction. Novo Nordisk announced on October 3, 2025 that Costco members would be able to purchase Wegovy and Ozempic through NovoCare Pharmacy at $499 a month for cash payers, an arrangement NBC News revisited in a January 2, 2026 retrospective on the program’s first months. Walmart has a separate arrangement with Eli Lilly that gives customers access to LillyDirect cash-pay pricing on Zepbound vials at Walmart pharmacies, at a discount Walmart and Lilly have described as 50% or greater off the list price of comparable GLP-1 obesity medications, according to MobiHealthNews. Sam’s Club began offering Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy pill the week of January 12, 2026 at a starting-dose price of $149 per month, per a Sam’s Club announcement on January 7.

What was a small, premium-priced treatment population two years ago is becoming a mainstream one, and the hair-treatment category response is being calibrated to that scale.

Walmart has already organized around the GLP-1 customer journey

The retail integration around GLP-1s is most visible at Walmart, which has been building dedicated infrastructure for this customer through 2026. The retailer launched its Better Care Services platform on January 8, 2026, calling it a one-stop digital destination paired with rollbacks on more than 1,000 wellness items. Walmart’s own announcement noted that nearly 60% of Walmart shoppers say saving money is a top priority. The platform was expanded on April 16, 2026 to add weight-management offerings for customers on or considering GLP-1s, with third-party providers including Aaptiv, Berry Street, Curai Health, MyCare by Twin Health, and Wheel handling care while Walmart’s nearly 4,600 pharmacies handle fulfillment. Walmart told Axios it is making a play to own what it calls the “last mile” of the GLP-1 boom, with Kevin Host, the retailer’s senior vice president of pharmacy, describing the platform as integrating prescription fulfillment with virtual care and nutrition guidance.

The platform connects to a redesigned GLP-1 digital destination on walmart.com, which Walmart says advertises GLP-1 medications alongside other products the retailer sells, including vitamins and supplements. Customers also have access to a Nutrition Hub powered by Walmart Everyday Health Signals, which surfaces personalized food and recipe choices.

The hair-treatment shelf is where that organization becomes visible

Nutrafol is sold across walmart.com with separate SKUs for women, men, and men 50 and older, with brand pages organized around the routine concept Nutrafol uses elsewhere. Sitting on the same digital shelf is Equate Women’s Hair Growth Support, Walmart’s private-label supplement, with a product description that reads “compare to dietary ingredients in Nutrafol Women’s.” Customer reviews on the Equate listing repeatedly identify the product as a Nutrafol alternative. One review describes it as a generic for Nutrifol [sic]; another says “I bought these as a cheaper dupe for nutrafol.”

Walmart is dispensing the GLP-1 through its pharmacy, operating the digital platform that connects patients to providers, surfacing nutrition guidance through a proprietary tool, stocking the premium branded remedy for the hair-loss side effect, and selling a private-label version of that remedy positioned explicitly against it. The consumer who walks the full GLP-1 journey can do it through Walmart’s ecosystem at every step.

What the broader story leaves at the edges

The CNBC piece anchors on Cooper’s personal experience and on the brands and category leaders responding to it. Two things sit just outside that frame and matter for retail readers.

The first is that the loyalty Accenture’s Depraeter-Montacel cited cuts both ways at retail. Hair-treatment customers stay in the category because results require months of consistent use. That same dynamic rewards retailers who get the customer into a routine first. Walmart’s Better Care Services platform, by integrating the GLP-1 prescription with adjacent care and nutrition guidance, is positioned to do that earlier in the customer’s journey than a beauty-only retailer can.

The second is that the side effect itself is temporary. Cooper, three years into her GLP-1 use, told CNBC her hair has been returning. Dr. Heather Woolery-Lloyd, the dermatologist quoted in the piece, said the hair loss is a known consequence of rapid weight change rather than a unique pharmacological effect of the drugs. The category response will need to account for an installed base whose acute need eases as their weight stabilizes. Whether the routines built during the acute phase persist as maintenance behavior is a question the data will answer over the next several years.

Cooper’s closing observation in the CNBC piece is the one that will travel furthest. The hair comes back, she said, and that was what let her have peace with it. For the brands building category strategy on this consumer, that arc is the one to plan against.

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