Anti-aging Hair Care Q&A With Kline

In a Kline blog post, Donna Barson, senior associate for Kline’s Consumer Products Practice, delves into questions about trends in anti-aging hair care—a topic explored in Kline's Hair Care Market in United States report.

Why is the anti-aging hair care segment so interesting?

Anti-aging is a global pre-occupation as people want to look good for their age, no matter how old they are. Hair is one of the things that can age people the most. While the anti-aging category mostly refers to the face with wrinkle reduction, skin firming and elimination of hyperpigmentation, new advances in hair care products are able to help make hair look and behave younger.

What are the primary concerns of the consumers who buy anti-aging hair care products? What are their expectations?

The primary concerns of consumers buying anti-aging hair care products are: hair color that changes to slate or grey, loss of volume, dullness, loss of strength and thinning hair. These consumers might have bad hair days every day, and want products that can remedy these issues and help them have more good hair days and feel better about themselves.

In the anti-aging skin care segment, we see an increase in demand for multifunctional product formulations. How about the anti-aging hair care segment?

Yes, there is absolutely an emergence of multifunctional products; most of them offer both conditioning and styling benefits. At one end, there are leave-in oil treatments based on argan and assorted oils, which help with both conditioning and styling. There is also another group of products that claims to offer five, ten or even more benefits in one product.

What are the most significant anti-aging hair products in 2014?

Some of the most significant anti-aging hair products during 2014 include:

  • Alterna’s Caviar CC Cream, a 10-in-1 leave-in hair cream that moisturizes and softens, smooths the cuticle, adds shine, protects from heat damage, helps reduce breakage, keeps color looking bright and guards against UV damage.
  • L’Oréal Paris Advanced Haircare, a line of shampoos, conditioners and treatments that comes in seven versions suitable for all types of hair and concerns: Total Repair Extreme with Lactic Aha, Smooth Intense with Oleo Keratin, Color Vibrancy with Anti-Oxidants, Total Repair 5 with Ceramide, Power Moisture with Hyaluronic, Triple Resist with Arginine, Volume Filler with Filloxane.
  • Pantene Age Defy product line counteracts the signs of hair aging and protects the hair against damage. Pantene also has a special Hair Regrowth and Volume Boost line that revitalizes hair follicles and promotes new growth and an Advanced Keratin Repair that fights against damaged hair.
  • Dove Advanced Hair Series, a range of three products that provide advanced nourishment solutions for women with thin and flat hair, dry and dull hair and aging hair.
  • Redken has Cerafill products for advanced thinning hair.
  • Matrix Biolage Repairinside, a trio of hair care products for severely damaged hair.
  • Aveda Invati, a natural solution for thinning hair.

What are the main innovations that we see in this area, and how does the future look?

The future looks very innovative as more hair care companies borrow ingredients from skin care products and apply them to both scalp and hair care. There is a growing realization that good hair starts at the scalp, and the scalp has to stay healthy for the hair to follow. We will be seeing more nanotechnology, AHAs and glycolic acid, and keratin in hair care products going forward, along with some proprietary cocktails of anti-aging formulae. These ingredients will help fight and lessen the look for aging hair. This will run across all trade channels, and is just as important for mass brands as it is for salon brands.

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