Gaetan was 18 when he started losing his hair. "It started by receding around the hairline, then thinning at the back," recalled the young man, now 26, who wished to give only his first name. For years, he camouflaged his premature baldness with a hair routine. "Every morning, for 30 minutes, I'd apply a densifying powder to the top of my forehead, and the contours would look great." But as soon as he played sports or went swimming, he feared his efforts would fade in a fraction of a second.

In 1990, 44% of French people who were not bald said they were losing their hair, according to an IFOP survey published in 2015. Twenty-five years later, that figure stood at 76%. Hair loss has gone "from a still minority phenomenon to a societal phenomenon," the study reports. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, particularly men, concern about chronic hair loss is gaining ground.

Sometimes this anxiety turns into an obsession. From the age of 22, 26-year-old Jordan (first name changed) began to lose hair at the top of his head. Every evening, in front of the mirror, he meticulously scanned his hairline, complaining incessantly about his hair loss. "My girlfriend at the time couldn't take it anymore, it was all I could talk about," said Jordan, whose premature baldness really shook his self-confidence.

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