Kecia Steelman has been running Ulta Beauty for less than a year, and she’s already identified a force that could reshape the entire beauty retail business. It isn’t a new social media platform or a celebrity brand launch. It’s a class of diabetes and weight-loss drugs that tens of millions of Americans are now injecting weekly.
GLP-1 receptor agonists — sold under brand names like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound — have become the most talked-about pharmaceuticals since Viagra. And their side effects, both desired and unwanted, are spilling far beyond the doctor’s office. They’re showing up in Ulta’s sales data.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Steelman laid out what she sees as a significant commercial opportunity tied directly to GLP-1 usage. Patients on these medications frequently report hair thinning, sagging skin, and accelerated facial aging — a constellation of complaints that beauty insiders have started calling “Ozempic face” and “Ozempic hair.” Steelman wants Ulta to be where those patients turn for solutions.
“We are seeing that the consumer who is on GLP-1 is shopping us more frequently,” Steelman told Business Insider. She described these customers as actively seeking out products that address the specific dermatological and cosmetic consequences of rapid weight loss. Haircare, skincare, supplements. The demand is real, she said, and it’s growing.
This is not idle speculation from a CEO trying to attach her company to a buzzy trend. The numbers behind GLP-1 adoption are staggering. According to research from IQVIA, a healthcare analytics firm, more than 40 million GLP-1 prescriptions were filled in the United States in 2024 alone. Morgan Stanley has projected that the number of Americans on these drugs could reach 30 million by 2035. That’s roughly the population of Texas.
The medical community has documented the cosmetic fallout extensively. Rapid weight loss — sometimes 15% to 20% of body weight in under a year — can cause the skin to lose elasticity faster than it can adapt. Collagen production, already declining with age, can’t keep pace. The result: hollowed cheeks, loose skin around the jawline, and a gaunt appearance that patients often find distressing even as they celebrate dropping dress sizes. Hair loss, while less universally reported, appears in clinical data and patient forums with enough regularity to concern dermatologists.
Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, a celebrity dermatologist in New York, coined the term “Ozempic face” in 2023 and has since described a surge in patients seeking treatments ranging from dermal fillers to PRP therapy. But not everyone losing weight on semaglutide or tirzepatide can afford — or wants — injectable cosmetic procedures. Many of them are heading to beauty retailers instead.
That’s precisely where Steelman is positioning Ulta.
The company has more than 1,400 stores across the United States and a growing e-commerce operation. It sells prestige and mass-market brands side by side, which gives it an unusual ability to capture spending across income levels. Steelman told Business Insider that Ulta is working with brand partners to develop and promote products specifically formulated for GLP-1-related concerns. Think volumizing shampoos, scalp treatments, collagen-boosting serums, firming creams, and ingestible beauty supplements.
She didn’t name specific brands. But the market is already responding. Nutrafol, the hair growth supplement company acquired by Unilever in 2022, has seen demand spike among GLP-1 users. Augustinus Bader, the luxury skincare line, has marketed its Rich Cream as a solution for post-weight-loss skin laxity. And newer entrants are launching products that explicitly target this demographic — a consumer segment that barely existed five years ago.
Wall Street is paying attention. Ulta’s stock, which tumbled roughly 25% in 2024 amid concerns about slowing prestige beauty growth and increased competition from Sephora’s expansion inside Kohl’s stores, has stabilized in early 2025. Analysts at Piper Sandler noted in a recent report that Ulta’s haircare category, in particular, could benefit from what they called “medically adjacent beauty demand.” The firm maintained an overweight rating.
But the GLP-1 beauty thesis isn’t without complications.
For one, there’s the question of duration. If patients stop taking GLP-1 medications — and many do, whether because of cost, side effects, or supply issues — the weight often returns. So do the cosmetic concerns, but in reverse. The cyclical nature of this demand could make it volatile and hard to plan around from a merchandising standpoint.
There’s also a credibility issue. The beauty industry has a long history of making claims that outrun the science. Consumers searching for solutions to GLP-1-related hair loss or skin sagging are vulnerable to marketing that promises more than any topical product can deliver. Steelman acknowledged this implicitly, telling Business Insider that Ulta wants to be a “trusted resource” and not just a place to buy products. The company has been investing in its in-store consultation services and digital content to educate consumers about what works and what doesn’t.
That educational angle matters more than it might seem. Dermatologists have been vocal about the limitations of over-the-counter solutions for the kinds of skin and hair changes GLP-1 patients experience. Dr. Shereene Idriss, a board-certified dermatologist with a large social media following, has cautioned that while topical retinoids and peptide-based serums can help with mild skin laxity, significant facial volume loss typically requires medical intervention. No serum, however expensive, can replace lost subcutaneous fat.
Still, the market for “good enough” solutions is enormous. Not every GLP-1 patient has severe cosmetic side effects. Many experience mild thinning of the hair or subtle changes in skin texture that are well within the range of what quality consumer products can address. And the psychological dimension shouldn’t be underestimated — people who’ve undergone dramatic physical transformations often want to invest in their appearance in new ways. They’re primed to spend.
Ulta’s competitors see the same opportunity. Sephora, owned by LVMH, has been quietly expanding its wellness and supplement offerings. Amazon has become a major distribution channel for hair growth products marketed to GLP-1 users. Even Target and Walmart have adjusted their beauty aisles to feature more scalp-care and skin-firming products, categories that have seen double-digit growth according to NielsenIQ data from late 2024.
What distinguishes Ulta’s approach, at least as Steelman describes it, is the integration of services with products. Ulta’s salon business — haircuts, color treatments, skin services — gives it a physical touchpoint that pure e-commerce players lack. A customer who comes in for a consultation about thinning hair can walk out with a treatment plan and a bag of products. That’s a powerful conversion mechanism.
The broader context here is a beauty industry undergoing a fundamental reorientation around health. The line between wellness and cosmetics has been blurring for years, but GLP-1 drugs have accelerated the convergence in ways few predicted. When a pharmaceutical product creates cosmetic side effects at population scale, the beauty industry doesn’t just respond — it reorganizes.
Consider the supply chain implications. Ingredients like biotin, collagen peptides, hyaluronic acid, and minoxidil are seeing increased demand globally. Some manufacturers have reported lead time extensions. Private-label beauty companies are racing to formulate products that can credibly claim to address GLP-1-related concerns without running afoul of FDA regulations on drug claims.
And then there’s the data. Ulta’s loyalty program, which boasts more than 44 million members, gives the company a granular view of purchasing behavior. If a segment of those members starts buying scalp serums and firming moisturizers at higher rates — and cross-referencing that with survey data about medication use — Ulta can adjust its assortment, marketing, and even store layouts with unusual precision. Steelman hinted at this capability without providing specifics.
The investment community has started modeling GLP-1-related beauty spending as a discrete category. Goldman Sachs published a note in March 2025 estimating that the “GLP-1 beauty economy” could represent $3 billion to $5 billion in incremental U.S. consumer spending annually by 2028. That figure includes both products and services — everything from shampoo to body contouring procedures. Even the lower end of that range would represent a meaningful tailwind for specialty beauty retailers.
Steelman, for her part, seems to view this as more than a temporary windfall. She told Business Insider that GLP-1-related demand is part of a longer-term shift toward what she called “solution-oriented beauty” — consumers shopping not just for aesthetic enhancement but for products that address specific physiological concerns. It’s a framing that positions Ulta closer to a health-and-wellness retailer than a traditional cosmetics store.
Whether that positioning holds will depend on execution. Ulta needs to curate credible products, train staff to have informed conversations, and resist the temptation to overpromise. The GLP-1 patient who buys a $48 scalp serum and sees no improvement in three months won’t come back. But the one who gets honest guidance and a product that delivers even modest results? She becomes a loyal customer with a recurring need.
And that’s ultimately what makes this opportunity so compelling for Ulta. GLP-1 medications aren’t a fad. They’re a new category of chronic therapy that millions of Americans will take for years, possibly decades. The cosmetic side effects aren’t going away. If anything, as access expands — Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are both working to increase supply and reduce costs — the addressable market will only grow.
Steelman inherited a company that needed a fresh strategic narrative. The prestige beauty boom that powered Ulta’s growth for a decade had matured. Competition from Sephora, Amazon, and direct-to-consumer brands had intensified. Margins were under pressure. The GLP-1 angle doesn’t solve all of those problems. But it gives Ulta something it hasn’t had in a while: a differentiated growth story that’s grounded in a real, measurable demographic shift.
The beauty industry has always been shaped by forces outside its control — cultural movements, technological changes, economic cycles. Now it’s being shaped by pharmacology. And the CEO of America’s largest specialty beauty retailer is betting that her company can turn a medical side effect into a commercial franchise.
It’s a bold bet. But the data, so far, suggests she might be right.
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