The salon hair care market has been greatly impacted by salon closures as well as various restrictions put in place across the world due to COVID-19, but some important trends are continuing and even picking up strength.
Scalp care
Products for thinning hair and scalp care have been trending for several years. Much of the growth is related to the stressful lifestyles of an increasing amount of people. Most likely, the events of 2020 have greatly contributed to stress levels and, hence, thinning hair and scalp issues. As such, product sales and salon services are expected to remain on a positive growth track despite bumpy sales throughout this year. This is reflected in data from Kline PRO US, which showed that during Q2 — the worst period of 2020 — overall service sales were down more than 60% but treatments for thinning hair were still up by over 20%. In the same period, sales of products for thinning hair were not down as steeply as overall salon sell-through.
Color care
Similar to scalp care, color care sales through salons are not as affected as overall sell-through (roughly a 30% decline compared to an almost 50% decline in salon sales in Q2 2020).
This is not surprising, as clients are stretching the time between visits and trying to care for their color at home as much as possible. A strong trend of color-depositing products, which started several years ago, is also continuing.
Multichannel
The most crucial shift in the professional hair care market is the strong migration of sales outside salons into retail, both in terms of online and offline (this shift has been developing over the past few years). Already in 2019, global retail sales of professional hair care brands accounted for 30% and showed growth of more than 12%. With restrictions imposed on salons, marketers are seeking to control the negative impact on their sales, and we expect to see extremely strong growth of e-commerce sales in 2020.
Independent hair stylists
An increasing number of independent hairdressers had been seen across various markets even before the pandemic and salon closures. Our recently published Independent Hair Stylists: Global Market Brief report reveals surges ranging from 4% in countries such as France and Canada to double-digit growth in Brazil and Russia. The year 2020 has brought even bigger boosts to this market segment, and Kline expects to see more robust increases of independent stylists providing services to their clients at various locations. Currently, in the six markets we have studied (the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France, Canada, and Russia), the most common place where independents provide services has been clients’ homes, accounting for over 40% of overall time spent by stylists. This is likely to increase as restrictions on salon capacity remain.
To learn more about the latest key trends and developments that are shaping the professional hair care market, refer to Kline’s Salon Hair Care Global Series, a collection of in-depth reports per country summarizing industry size and growth, product trends, category snapshots, salon services and statistics, distribution channels, and marketing activity, all including market predictions to 2025. New features of the upcoming 2021 edition include brand sales by outlet, COVID-19 impact on the industry and changes for the new normal, and mid-year data updates for select markets.
