Hair transplants are becoming a part of women's self-consumption.

"I want my hairline to look better," "I want a softer face shape." Nowadays, women's focus on hair transplants is shifting from "filling what is lacking" to "where can it be better." Hair transplants, which were previously firmly framed within a medical logic, are being redefined.

"In the past decade, hair medical solutions in China addressed 'anxiety about hair loss.' In the next decade, we will solve the 'beautification' problem," said Zhang Yu, founder of YONGHE MEDICAL.

Transitioning from treating illness to beautification, the hair economy industry is deeply transforming from early low-frequency medical consumption primarily focused on male functional restoration to a high-frequency service market led by women, centered on aesthetic self-pleasure.

Image source: Visual China

On one hand, changes in external environments such as public perception are occurring; on the other hand, internal refined operational strategies such as optimizing store network layout and upgrading self-developed management systems are continuously advancing. "The first stock of hair transplants," YONGHE MEDICAL, achieved annual profitability in 2025.

The 2025 annual report shows that YONGHE MEDICAL GROUP LIMITED (02279.HK, hereinafter referred to as "YONGHE MEDICAL") achieved a revenue of 1.808 billion yuan for the year; net profit reached 73.6 million yuan.

This is not only YONGHE MEDICAL's first annual profit in nearly three years, but several operational indicators have also seen significant improvements.

The financial report shows that in 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL achieved a gross profit of 1.194 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%; the gross profit margin increased by 5.9 percentage points from 60.1% in 2024 to 66.0%, the highest level in nearly three years; earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) reached 364 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 157.9%; basic earnings per share improved from a loss of 0.45 yuan in 2024 to a profit of 0.15 yuan.

The upgrade of the "medical + beauty" strategy opens up new growth space for YONGHE MEDICAL.

In fact, the growth bottleneck that has long plagued the hair transplant industry is not the size of the market, but the penetration rate. A set of data indicates that in 2020, only 516,000 hair transplant surgeries were completed in China, with a market penetration rate of only 0.21%.

Therefore, the key to improving penetration is to lower the decision-making threshold for consumers, and the method found by YONGHE MEDICAL is "beauty."

The Xiaohongshu report "2026 Women's Hair Aesthetic Trends" pointed out that the search volume for hair-related topics has maintained high growth for three consecutive years, with a growth rate of 65% in 2025. Among them, keywords closely related to "beauty," such as "refined hairline," "hair seam density transplant," and "hair is the source of ambiance," have seen a significant year-on-year increase in search volume In a business context, the female customer group has a higher average transaction value, stronger aesthetic demands, and greater willingness to repurchase and recommend. Promoting a deep layout in the female aesthetic hair transplant market has also become key to YONGHE MEDICAL's future profit resilience and growth flexibility.

As early as 2022, YONGHE MEDICAL launched the female hair transplant brand "YONGHE Hair's Beginning"; now, the female business has been elevated to a core strategic level of the group, completing the transition from supporting services to the second growth curve of hair transplant business.

By 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL will further expand its key cities for female business to 30 nationwide, establishing female departments and dedicated female consultation teams. By the end of 2025, YONGHE Hair's Beginning has completed the transformation and upgrade of female clinics in 12 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, and Hangzhou.

In response to the strong growth in women's beauty demands, YONGHE MEDICAL has also developed an integrated solution covering aesthetic design, hair transplant surgery, in-hospital care, and home maintenance, and has completed a comprehensive upgrade of aesthetic theory, surgical standards, and maintenance systems.

With the systematic upgrade of "Medicine + Beauty," YONGHE MEDICAL has further enhanced its capacity to serve female clients and established differentiated barriers in the female market.

According to Zhang Yu, currently, the proportion of women consulting for hair transplants through YONGHE's online channels has exceeded 60%, and the female visit rate at leading clinics in first-tier cities has surpassed 50%, with the female business accounting for over 30%.

Refined operations and the underlying logic of profit recovery

It is important to note that, in addition to external environmental variables, YONGHE MEDICAL's profit recovery is more derived from the in-depth promotion of internal refined operational strategies.

By 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL will optimize its store network while promoting the transformation of existing clinics into mature clinics. As of December 31, 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL will have 63 hair transplant medical institutions in 61 cities nationwide, and 7 Shiyunxun hair health institutions in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.

During the reporting period, YONGHE MEDICAL's sales and service costs decreased by 14.7% year-on-year to 614 million yuan. Among them, amortization and depreciation expenses fell from 286 million yuan in 2024 to 218 million yuan, a decrease of 23.8%, mainly due to the store optimization strategy in 2025 and the end of the depreciation cycle for some store renovations.

At the same time, the number of YONGHE's mature clinics increased from 52 in 2024 to 55, with a continuous increase in proportion, enhancing single-store operational efficiency and business stability.

YONGHE MEDICAL's business is expanding from the past single hair transplant surgery to a comprehensive hair health management covering the entire life cycle, namely the "One Body, Two Wings" strategy. "One Body" refers to the hair transplant medical business, which is also YONGHE's traditional core business; "Two Wings" represent medical-grade maintenance services and hair health products, exemplified by Shiyunxun, which is the second growth curve YONGHE is striving to build, compensating for the low frequency of hair transplant surgeries.

Reflected in the data, by 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL's core hair transplant business continues to lead, achieving revenue of 1.375 billion yuan, accounting for 76.1% of the group's total revenue; the gross profit of hair transplant medical services reached 920 million yuan, with a gross profit margin increasing from 62.2% in 2024 to 67.4% According to YONGHE MEDICAL, in 2026, the company will implement a "1+N" model for its hair transplant business, which consists of 1 surgical center + N small comprehensive clinics. Currently, a 200-square-meter YONGHE clinic is being piloted in Shenzhen; Shiyunxun and Shiyunxun Small Store (50-80 square meters) will explore franchise or management models.

As a second growth line outside of traditional hair transplant business, the medical nurturing business is gradually growing into an independent track. In 2025, YONGHE's medical nurturing business achieved revenue of 409 million yuan, accounting for 22.6% of total revenue; the gross profit margin was 62.5%, an increase of 7.1 percentage points compared to 2024. The repurchase rate for this business also remained at 27.6%, and with the increasing number of female users with high stickiness characteristics, the repurchase rate for nurturing services is expected to further improve.

In 2025, the number of consumers receiving hair transplant surgery from YONGHE MEDICAL was 71,380, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%, setting a historical record; the medical nurturing business also grew steadily, with the number of consumers served reaching 79,492, a year-on-year increase of about 3%. The total number of consumers served throughout the year exceeded 120,000.

Digital Intelligence Foundation: From Experience-Driven to Data Intelligence

At the same time, AI digital transformation is building a long-term core barrier for YONGHE MEDICAL and is key to widening the gap with industry competitors.

In 2025, YONGHE MEDICAL will advance its "digitalization and intelligence" strategy, deeply integrating AI technology into the entire business chain of diagnosis, operation, and marketing, consolidating its leading position in the hair medical track. Among them, YONGHE's self-developed chain medical management system "HeFan" serves as the technical foundation for refined operations.

On the customer acquisition side, relying on big data analysis to dynamically adjust investment weights and implement refined management of the entire operational funnel, YONGHE MEDICAL successfully reduced the cost of patient visits by 12.2% in 2025, significantly improving the return on investment ratio by 22.6%.

On the operational side, YONGHE MEDICAL has established a refined user tagging system, systematically depicting users from multiple dimensions such as channel sources, demand types, consumption preferences, and hair loss levels, and empowering the clinic's reception strategies and service process design, effectively enhancing conversion efficiency and customer satisfaction.

As digitalization and intelligence begin to become core production factors, business operations are shifting from experience-driven to data-driven.

Against the backdrop of the overall consumer medical industry entering stock competition and structural adjustment, YONGHE proves with its profitability that the real growth space lies not in more stores, but in more refined operations and more women pursuing beauty.

For YONGHE MEDICAL, turning a profit in 2025 is just the starting point of its high-quality growth. Currently, the hair health market in China is still in a period of rapid development, with huge unmet market demand. With the continuous improvement of hair health awareness among the Chinese, the younger demographic of hair loss, and the explosion of aesthetic hair transplant demand among women, the industry's growth dividends will continue to be released.

As Zhang Yu said, "Hair loss is just one aspect of the hair market; the hair market also encompasses scalp care, oily hair, dandruff, gray hair, and other fields. In the future, leading companies must create an ecosystem for the hair market, focusing on diagnosis, products, medications, hair transplants, and medical-grade care to build a full-process service." The hair medical industry is the key to industrial upgrading