Make-up has been touted as the beauty winner as shoppers worldwide emerge from lockdowns enforced by the Covid-19 pandemic, but other categories seeing a resurgence in consumer popularity are hair styling and male grooming.
Findings by NPD Group reported from April to September, when vaccination programmes were rolled out to more age groups and with more social engagements to go to, sales of women’s hair styling and grooming products saw double-digit growth compared with the same period in 2020.
Compared to a year ago, over the six month period, sales of hair styling products spiked between 13 and 58%.
Speciality stylers, such as wave stylers, saw the greatest increase in popularity with a 58% hike in sales, while curling tongs saw a 43% uplift and sales of hair setters grew 35%.
Flat irons and straighteners were also bolstered 25%.
Meanwhile, male shoppers were concerned with hair removal in a post-lockdown world.
According to NPD, body groomers saw a 43% boost in sales during the six month period.
In the pursuit of leaving no hair untamed, sales of nose and ear trimmers were also up 26%, while pen trimmers grew 13% in popularity.
“The reality is that during the height of the pandemic, our most pressing concern wasn’t how we looked,” said Joe Derochowski, NPD’s Home Industry Advisor.
“Now we have reasons to look good, we’re out more and seeing people more, we’re motivated.
“This motivation is a golden opportunity for manufacturers of personal care products to capture consumers’ renewed interest in how they look.”
