In recent years the hair product market has become one of the fastest moving and trends driven sectors in the personal care industry. The ancient Egyptians started it all with their use of hair creams to replenish moisture lost due to the dry, hot, desert climate. Today there are a vast array of hair products on the market from cheap and simple shampoos to cleanse and rinse away daily grime to complex styling mousses which can enhance hold, prevent frizz and allow hair to be restyled over a 48 hour period. Product innovation can be driven by various factors for example whether short or long hair is in fashion, matt versus shine, gels versus waxes, curls versus straight etc. Dramatically different styles and looks can be conjured up in a matter of minutes completely transforming the user from prim and proper workplace to out all night party animal.
For many years there has been talk of haircare blindly allowing trends to trickle down from skincare, often taking skincare concepts and diluting them down to the point where they became almost meaningless to the consumer. Times have changed and haircare has now grabbed hold of skincare and truly embraced its concepts, formats and even language, as we shall see below. Uber beauty blogger and author of www.thehairdryerdiaries.com ReallyRee1 @ReallyRee, shared with us her exclusive thoughts and insights on what to watch out for and how she sees the sector developing:
“I think that looking at haircare in the same way as skincare is a continuing theme. It has been a long time since any beauty junkies have used soap on their faces and in the same way, we are moving away from shampoos with foaming agents and looking to cleansing conditioners or even cleansing balms and oils for hair. I think that a focus on the scalp as the soil from which hair grows will increase and scalp care will become big. The scalp has been rather ignored in terms of skincare until now and I feel there will be more scalp beauty treatments and masks. There will be more of a skin care approach to the skin on the head, rather than the perception that your skin just stops at the hair line. I think consumers will start to appreciate more that scalp health influences hair health.
In terms of styling, I think texture will still be big, but rather than just matte finishes, maybe also a hybrid between matte and glossy - a soft sheen. Also, there have been lots of wet looks on the runways, so I think gel could be making a comeback!”
There are currently ten emerging trends in the hair sector and below we take a look at five of these, giving a taster of how haircare products are stepping up to the mark, meeting new consumer needs and demanding consumer attention.
1. 10 in 1 Products
Just at the time that the skincare brands were pushing the alphabet game (think “BB”, “CC” etc) the numbers game came to life in haircare, but this seems now to have thankfully peaked at ten. These are “do all” multifunctional products ideal for time short consumers and fitting perfectly with the “convenience” trend which has emerged in the skincare market with products such as the Nivea “In-Shower” moisturiser2 and Vaseline “Spray and Go” body moisturiser3. The products have ten claims associated with them usually based around repair, frizz control, heat protection, colour protection, smoothness, ease of brushing, detangling, volumising, shine and styling. They offer a one stop single solution to achieve healthy and flawless hair. The products borrow lots of dialect from their skincare cousins with “BB” and “CC” variants on the market and talk of them being used as a primer under other products. Examples include Uniq One Hair Treatment4, Pantene Ultimate 10 BB Crème 10 in 1 Hair Perfector5 and Alterna Caviar 10-in-1 Complete Correction CC Cream for Hair6.
2. Regimes Return
Moving on from times of old when it was viewed to be too time consuming to take two products into the shower we are seeing the resurgence of regime products for hair. These tend to be three step regimes so shampoo, condition and then a further product, usually with intensive repair or protection benefits. Almost the exact opposite of 10 in 1’s these products are all about taking your time and enjoying the experience, potentially as part of the “Spathroom” phenomenon of turning the humble home bathroom into an area to soak away the stress of the day and enjoy some pampering. Premium haircare brand Phylia de M. offers a three step system to “Clean, Condition and Connect”7, combining traditional organic ingredients with cutting edge science the products remove toxins, moisturise dry hair and boost hair growth. For the more budget conscious consumer Tresemme offers its “Split Remedy” range containing products to cleanse, condition and repair, claiming an up to 80% reduction in split ends after just three uses8.
3. Mature Hair
As we age our hair becomes drier, less manageable, brittle, rough and, most noticeable of all, grey. There is also an increasing focus in the personal care market on the fifty plus consumer group, identifying them as being cash rich and also very product savvy. Having used cosmetic products for many years they buy in to the advanced technologies products offer and understand how to combine products to get the optimum results.
All the major brands have recently published research into mature hair including Procter and Gamble who conducted one of the largest longitudinal hair studies ever undertaken. They recruited over 500 volunteers with an age range spanning 2 to 88 years and observed them for 8 years to understand how their hair changed. The study concluded that over the age of 45 years significant levels of grey hair are observed with the rate of greying increasing most dramatically after age 50+. More than a third of the volunteers who were aged over 30 reported a decrease in hair volume and thickness during the 8 year study9. This vast amount of data has been used to develop and support the launch of Pantene Expert Collection which will combat the signs of hair aging and repair badly damaged and over processed hair10. Unsurprisingly, L’Oreal11 and Johnson and Johnson12 have also published technical papers on aspects of mature hair.
4. Scalp Health
As mentioned in the introduction above, scalp health is becoming an area of huge interest with the realisation that having a healthy scalp is the key to having healthy looking hair. Certainly this has been a subject the scientific community has engaged with, the number of technical papers mentioning scalp health has risen dramatically from 5 in 1985 to 140 in 201313. This trend is not about the heavily medicated pharmacy type products of the past which used harsh ingredients combined with rather functional formulations, it is now a lot more marketing lead and consumer friendly featuring attractive packaging, cosmetically acceptable formulations and naturally derived ingredients.
As well as ensuring the user has a healthy scalp the products will often focus on soothing and refreshing itchy, flaky scalp and also repairing damage from harsh treatments and straightening irons.
Philip Kingsley has a stimulating scalp mask on the market which contains vitamins, minerals, menthol and peppermint to encourage blood circulation while helping to improve hair texture and condition. The Body Shop have a ginger scalp care shampoo for dry and flaky scalps which soothes, cleanses and refreshes.
5. Cleansing Conditioners
As described by ReallyRee in my introduction, the use of surfactants to clean hair is predicted to be eclipsed by the use of conditioning products which have a very mild and replenishing action on the hair. Products are described as “un-shampoo” or “no-poo” and the technique is described as “co-washing”. The message to consumers is that traditional shampoo products strip out oils from hair leaving the hair dry, brittle and damaged. Cleansing conditioners are used pretty much like a rinse-off conditioner, massage into wet hair, leave for around five minutes and then rinse off well. The pros of using them are that they are good for preventing colour leaching out, there is no need to use other products as you would in eg. a “shampoo, conditioner, mask” type regime and they leave the hair shiny, healthy and fuller without build up. They also have massive appeal for consumers who perceive sulphate containing products to be harmful to both themselves and the environment. The downsides seem to be that some people simply cannot get on with washing their hair without getting a thick foam going on, they can be difficult to disperse through the hair evenly (especially as they are often targeted at long hair) so you use a lot of product and they are obviously more expensive than a simple, traditional shampoo product.
Ojon have a rare blend moisture rich cleansing conditioner which is a classic example. Sulfate and glycerine free, the product eliminates impurities without stripping or weighing hair down. Ojon oil helps to hydrate, protect and repair, and coconut oil softens, detangles and boosts shine.
Grow Gorgeous have (believe it or not!) a 12 in 1 cleansing conditioner which cleanses, conditions, hydrates, adds lustre, adds shine, reduces frizz, makes hair soft, smoothes, styles, protects, adds volume and enhances blonde tones!
The above five trends hopefully serve to illustrate how lively, dynamic and varied the haircare market currently is. To catch up on the remaining five trends appearing in the market please contact the Cornelius Group at www.cornelius.co.uk.
The time has come for haircare to step out of the shadows, stamp its authority on the personal care market and show the skincare sector that it, too, has a vibrant, exciting and fast moving future!
About the Author:
Daniel Whitby studied biology at university and went on to gain a Diploma in Cosmetic Science from the UK Society of Cosmetic Scientists. He has more than 15 years experience in the industry, having worked in skincare and suncare formulation, innovation and claims testing. He has patented several technologies and contributes regularly to websites, magazines and journals. He can be contacted at www.cornelius.co.uk or on Twitter @DanielWhitby.
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