New York City in grips of Rogaine shortage

There’s hell toupee!

New York City has found itself in the grips of a hair-losing Rogaine shortage, with untold numbers of balding men finding themselves confronted by empty shelves at chain drug stores like Duane Reade and Walgreens.

A review of more than a dozen chain drug stores by The Post found all but one were completely out of Men’s Rogaine.

Some store employees said they expected shipments to come “in the next few days,” but others said shelves had been bare for weeks and order requests were not being filled.

“We continue to experience increased consumer-driven demand with certain products and markets. We are taking all possible measures to ensure product availability,” said a spokeswoman for Johnson & Johnson, which makes the product.

One aggrieved 28-year-old Rogaine user confirmed it had become impossible to find on shelves in the city and said he was forced to order off Amazon — and it still took three days to arrive.

“The s—t works unfortunately,” he said. “The problem is if you stop using it you lose all the hair. So it gets you into the vicious cycle.”

Rogaine, and its active ingredient Minoxidil, were approved to treat hair loss in men by the Food and Drug Administration in 1988. A women’s version came in 1992. The company promises hair growth after three months of use, and is used by millions of people worldwide.

Rogaine regularly retails for more than $50 a box, is generally kept behind lock and key and requires a store attendant to access.

Experts are pulling their hair out trying to come up with a cause of the shortage, which has been around for at least two weeks.

“It’s most likely to be related to a supply chain issue,” Salvatore Stile, founder of the shipping and logistics company, Alba Wheels Up International, said. “Maybe some of the components to make this product or the packaging material, something isn’t coming in somewhere.”

Additional reporting by Irie Sentner and Maddie Panzer