Henkel Consumer Brands UK & Ireland (UK&I) has tapped into hair glossing’s rise to drive growth, betting big on the temporary, wash-out colour innovation to help trade-up consumers across its entire colourant portfolio.
The beauty giant broke into the hair gloss category this year via its Schwarzkopf’s Live brand – which is the number two at-home hair colour brand in the UK – creating an in-shower, five-minute temporary colour glossing treatment, Live Go Gloss, which claims to last up to eight washes.
It is a timely move as the hair gloss category has surged 21% this year to a value of £19m in the UK*, reported analyst Circana, driven by consumer demand for lower cost, lower effort and lower risk hair colour solutions.
Henkel Consumer Brands’ goal is to be ahead of the curve before the category matures even further in the region in 2027, providing “over proportional funds” to help cement Schwarzkopf’s Live Go Gloss as the go-to easy option for UK and Ireland shoppers.
“[Hair gloss is] the most dynamic segment within colourants,” says Stefan Pichler, General Manager of Henkel Consumer Brands UK&I.
“When we talk about glosses, [our] segment is around 8% within all colourants, so it is still small [compared with permanent and semi-permanent colours], but it is growing the fastest.
Colourants are an absolute priority category for us, and we are providing over proportional funds to support our brands
“Colourants are growing 5% [overall], while glosses are growing 21%, so they are clearly driving category growth.
“We see that consumers are searching for non-permanent solutions that you can wash out after eight-to-ten times, and can either refresh the colour they have or go for something different, but with something that does not last too long.
“We do not have official data yet, but we are convinced [glosses are] a gateway product to upgrading customers – they can try out a colour and, if they like it, they then might switch to semi-permanent or even permanent.”
The beauty industry’s move away from the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic is another factor in the hair glossing movement, with consumers ditching the very pristine look for more colourful expressions of personality.
As such, hair trends like
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