Coordination between different cell types that comprise an organ is essential to ensure proper organ growth and remodelling during homeostasis, but how this is achieved is poorly understood. Zhang et al. used mouse skin to study how the growth of the hair follicle is coordinated with the expansion of the underlying dermal adipose tissue — events that accompany each physiological cycle of hair shedding and regrowth in mammals. They revealed that the emergence of new adipocytes is tightly coupled with the establishment of a population of progenitor hair follicle transit-amplifying cells (HF-TACs) that support follicle growth. They further showed that HF-TACs are essential for the concomitant expansion of the adipose tissue, as they directly stimulate — through sonic hedgehog signalling — the proliferation and adipogenic cell fate commitment of adipocyte precursors.