'I've actually used it': the secret behind hair-loss care's new ad models

The shampoo ad, once the exclusive domain of "big-name models," is changing. Celebrities and product developers alike are stepping into the spotlight, as the market comes to favor faces who have actually struggled with hair loss or scalp trouble.

Functional hair-loss brands have long marketed themselves on ingredients and technology. The reasoning: when results are hard to see with the naked eye, consumers weigh the ingredient label more heavily than the ad model. Competition centered on raw materials, formulations and clinical data.

Consumer interest has not waned. According to CJ Olive Young's tally in June, searches for "hair loss" rose 145 percent, "hair loss shampoo" 152 percent, and "hair loss ampoule" 241 percent. Hair care sales grew more than 70 percent annually on average over the past three years and jumped 200 percent last year from a year earlier. The number of brands carried also grew 50 percent compared with 2022.

As the market expands, the grammar of advertising is shifting. With the functional hair care market growing, ingredients alone no longer set brands apart. Companies now first ask whether a prospective model has actually experienced hair loss or scalp problems. It has become more common for brands to build rapport by having a candidate post product-experience reviews on YouTube even before signing a contract.

Aekyung Industrial is a case in point. Its hair-loss care brand Blackforet signed comedian Kim Won-hoon as a model in July. Kim has openly discussed his own hair troubles on broadcast and YouTube. On one variety show, when fellow cast members brought up hair transplants, he corrected them, saying, "Not 1,000 grafts — 4,000," a remark that went viral. At a Blackforet pop-up event in Seongsu-dong, Seoul, on Friday, Kim interacted directly with customers.

Bytelab's Lilyeve turned to actor Chae Jung-an. Chae had used the brand's Growturn ampoule before becoming its model and had already introduced the product on her personal YouTube channel, "Chae Jung-an TV." "Because she used the product herself for a long time, we felt she could deliver the brand's message effectively," the brand said. LG H&H's Ryeo Rootgen followed a similar path, replacing its model with actor Lee Min-jung in October 2025 after she posted her own product-experience review on YouTube.

Developers themselves are also stepping in as models. Take Gravity, a functional hair care brand from Polyphenol Factory, a company founded by KAIST faculty. The brand's packaging features the faces of the researchers behind the product, including Lee Hae-shin, a KAIST chemistry chair professor. In city bus ads, the developers appear wearing work clothes bearing the KAIST logo. The company says the developers put their own names behind the product to signal they are willing to take responsibility for it.

Shifting consumer behavior is driving the change. Buyers of functional shampoos read ingredient labels and compare clinical claims — so-called "studying consumers" who try multiple products before settling on one. For them, a model's fame carries little weight; a simple "I've actually used it" carries far more.

"As ingredient competition levels the playing field, the point of differentiation is shifting to who vouches for the product," an industry official said. "The core of the recent model-casting strategy — hiring people who have gone through hair loss themselves or tried the product first, whether celebrities or developers — is credibility."