China's Online Scalp-Care Sales Rose 44% in the Year to August 2026

China's online sales of scalp care rose 44% like for like in the year to August 2026 across three of China's largest marketplaces, according to Moojing Market Intelligence. The growth was on all three marketplaces and sales came to about CN¥ 2.8 billion, while shampoo, a category about ten times the size, showed no clear change.

About three-fifths of those scalp-care sales came from products whose titles carry the term anti-hair-loss (防脱), which in China is a registered cosmetic category that a product may use only after a human trial, and that share has held at between 58% and 62% for three years. Wigs and hairpieces grew 33%, also with growth on all three marketplaces. Listings titled "hair growth" (生发), the everyday word for a claim that lost its legal basis at the end of 2025, are small next to anti-hair-loss, and in shampoo they had been shrinking for two years.

Key figures

• +44%: like-for-like growth in online scalp-care sales, September 2025 to August 2026, with sales of about CN¥ 2.8 billion
• +42%: growth in scalp care titled anti-hair-loss, with sales of about CN¥ 1.7 billion
• +33%: growth in wigs and hairpieces, with sales of about CN¥ 13.3 billion
• About two-thirds: the share of best-selling anti-hair-loss scalp-care sales from registered special cosmetics, on the two marketplaces whose data carry a registration number; almost all the rest had no number in our data, which may be a data gap

Method and scope: observed online sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, September 2023 to August 2026, from Moojing Market Intelligence. Other marketplaces, pharmacies and physical shops are not included, so no figure here is the size of a Chinese market. Growth rates are like for like; sizes are annual totals.

How fast are scalp-care sales growing in China?#

Online scalp-care sales grew 44% like for like in the latest year, after growth of 48% the year before, and in the latest year the growth was on all three marketplaces, whereas the year before it was uneven across them. Scalp care sold as anti-hair-loss grew 42%, and wigs and hairpieces, a category almost five times the size of scalp care, grew 33%. Shampoo, at about CN¥ 28 billion, showed no clear change at +2%. Our China Personal Care Market Report H1 2025 covers hair and body care as a whole, and the shift in where they are sold.

Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three of China's largest marketplaces, like-for-like growth in sales, September 2025 to August 2026 against a year earlier; sales in the latest year on the right. Anti-hair-loss is measured by product titles (防脱). A light bar marks a category whose sales were uneven across the marketplaces. Not the total market.

We tested each change by pairing every month with the same month a year earlier, and the growth in scalp care, anti-hair-loss scalp care and wigs is statistically clear, while the change in shampoo is not, which is why we describe shampoo as showing no clear change. One marketplace moved its scalp care to a new and larger category tree in May 2026, so our growth rates compare only months on the same tree. When the months of 2026 before that change are also left out, the three growing categories still grow by between 31% and 41%.

Scalp-care sales were higher than a year earlier in every month of the latest year up to the category change. The peaks each autumn, in October and November, come around the November shopping festival.

Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three of China's largest marketplaces, sales by month, September 2023 to August 2026. The shaded months are on one marketplace's new category tree, which holds more products than the old one, so the lighter lines there are on a new basis and are not comparable with the level before. Not the total market.

What share of scalp care is sold as anti-hair-loss?#

Products titled anti-hair-loss made up about 60% of online scalp-care sales in the latest year, against 62% the year before and 58% the year before that, so the anti-hair-loss segment has grown at about the pace of scalp care as a whole. Our earlier article on anti-hair-loss essences looked at the same segment in an earlier period.

Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data across three of China's largest marketplaces, annual sales of scalp care and of scalp care whose titles contain 防脱, September 2023 to August 2026. Totals for the latest year join one marketplace's old and new category trees at the month of the change, which both series share, so the shares are comparable from year to year but the totals behind them are not; growth rates are given in the text. Not the total market.

Anti-hair-loss (防脱发) is one of the five kinds of "special cosmetics" that must be registered with China's drug regulator before sale, and a product may make the claim only if it is backed by a human trial, in which subjects use the product for at least twelve weeks, under the efficacy-claim rules of 2021 and the test methods published that year. The regulator's measures of July 2026 let companies choose their own efficacy test methods for claims other than spot removal and whitening, sunscreen and anti-hair-loss, among others, Xinhua reported.

A product title is not evidence of a registration, so we sampled the best-selling scalp-care listings titled anti-hair-loss on the two marketplaces whose data carry a registration number. About two-thirds of their sales came from products registered as special cosmetics (国妆特字 for domestic products or 国妆特进字 for imported ones). Almost all the rest carried no registration number in our data, which may reflect a gap in the data and does not show that a product is unregistered.

What happened to "hair growth" products in China?#

China's cosmetics regulation of 2021 cut the kinds of special cosmetics from nine to five and dropped hair growth (育发) among others, and since the five-year transition ended on 31 December 2025, products still carrying the old approvals may no longer be made, imported or sold, according to China Consumer News, carried by Xinhua and in a later report, and Guangming Online. Anti-hair-loss remains a special cosmetic.

Listings titled "hair growth" (生发), the everyday word for the claim, are small next to anti-hair-loss. Scalp care with the title sold about CN¥ 48 million in the latest year on two of the three marketplaces, the two where we can measure it, and it kept selling in the five months after the deadline, above a year earlier over those five months taken together, before falling from June 2026. Shampoo with the title sold about CN¥ 62 million across the three marketplaces, down from about CN¥ 219 million two years earlier, and it had been shrinking since well before the deadline, though unevenly across the marketplaces.

Source: Moojing Market Intelligence, observed marketplace data, sales of listings whose titles contain 生发, by month, September 2023 to August 2026; scalp care on two of three of China's largest marketplaces, shampoo on all three. The two panels use different scales. Darker bars are the months after the deadline; the shaded months in shampoo are on one marketplace's new category tree. Not the total market.

China Consumer News found in January 2026 that some online shops were still selling hair-growth products on expired approvals. We read the scalp-care figures as a sign that the claim stayed on some listings for a few months after its legal basis ended, and the data cannot show whether the rule caused the fall that followed.

Why are young Chinese buying scalp care?#

Concern about hair loss among young Chinese is well documented. A 2023 report issued jointly by the Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinanews.com found that about 74% of people born in the 1990s and 73% of those born in the 2000s had hair problems, China Daily reported, and experts cited by China Daily list staying up late, stress and a high-calorie diet among the causes of hair loss. Sixth Tone reported in 2024 that young Chinese were driving demand for wigs, and that makers in Xuchang were reporting a surge in orders.

We believe the growth of scalp care rests on that concern and on a move from washing the hair to caring for the scalp as skin, which would explain why scalp care grew by more than two-fifths while shampoo, the everyday product, showed no clear change. Our data measure sales and cannot show why people buy, so this is our reading of the figures.

What this means for hair-care brands#

Scalp care grew on all three marketplaces in the latest year, and most of it is sold under a claim that only a registered product backed by a twelve-week human trial may make, while the looser "hair growth" claim has lost its legal basis. We believe brands entering the category should develop scalp care as a skincare routine and plan for the time and cost of the trials that the anti-hair-loss registration requires. Scalp care sits within a beauty market that our China Beauty Market Report H1 2026 covers in full, and our beauty market data let brands query figures like these for themselves.

FAQ#

Is anti-hair-loss a regulated claim in China?#

Yes. Anti-hair-loss (防脱发) is one of five kinds of special cosmetics that must be registered before sale, and the claim must be backed by a human trial in which subjects use the product for at least twelve weeks.

Can products still be sold as "hair growth" in China?#

Not lawfully. Hair growth (育发) was dropped from the special cosmetics in 2021, and since the five-year transition ended on 31 December 2025, products on the old approvals may no longer be made, imported or sold, although China Consumer News found some online shops still selling them in January 2026.

Is shampoo growing in China?#

Online shampoo sales were about CN¥ 28 billion in the year to August 2026 and showed no clear change, at +2% like for like, so we do not describe the category as growing or falling.

How big is China's online wig market?#

Online sales of wigs and hairpieces across three of China's largest marketplaces were about CN¥ 13.3 billion in the year to August 2026, and they grew 33% like for like, with growth on all three marketplaces.

How does Moojing measure scalp-care sales?#

We use observed sales across three of China's largest marketplaces, monthly, from September 2023 to August 2026. Scalp care is a product category; anti-hair-loss and "hair growth" products are the sales of listings whose titles contain 防脱 or 生发. Growth rates compare only months on the same category tree with the same months a year earlier.