Mintel Explores Hair Care Trends at in-cosmetics Asia

At the 2013 in-cosmetics Asia exhibition, Mintel presented “Oils, BB, Scalp—What’s Hot and What’s Next in Hair Care,” discussing what beauty companies are developing for hair care products, and how the migration of hair care into other categories is influencing hair care claims and the market overall.

Vivienne Rudd, director of global insight, beauty and personal care for Mintel, shared that hair styling products are an increasingly tough category for brands, as the perception from consumers is that styling products are a little old fashioned, and in fact, data from Mintel shows virtually no growth for the hair styling product market.

In contrast, the hair colorant market is on an uptick. According to Rudd, the U.S. is by far the biggest market at $2 billion. Meanwhile, the powerhouse Chinese market is growing very slowly in hair color, but there is movement in the rising popularity of henna color products there.

Dry shampoos continue to trend around the world, with the U.K. as its biggest market by far, Rudd said. And it’s also helping to spur the innovation of new products such as dry conditioners.

Hair oils are on the rise too—a classic East meets West transition, explained Rudd, as hair oil products are well known in countries such as India but are only now growing in Western markets. However, many of the new hair oil launches are making more modern claims, such as pollution protection, aiming to attract a more cosmopolitan consumer.

Talking about what to expect in new product development in hair care moving into 2014, Rudd noted that hybrid products will be popular. This includes hair care products such as hair perfumes (such as the Chanel Chance Eau Tendre Hair Mist), skin care crossovers that target the scalp (like the exfoliating scalp mask product from Phillip Kingsley), and products with makeup-oriented claims (like Alterna’s Caviar CC Cream 10-in-1 Complete Correction Leave-in Hair Perfector).

Additionally, other emerging hair care trends Rudd projected include hair styling appliances that take tips from skin care devices, such as hot irons working with conditioners to ensure better penetration of conditioners, diagnostic products that show types and levels of hair damage, and even laser therapy used to treat hair loss. She also saw a sort of “inspiration from the cocktail bar” in the form of customization. Rudd noted that, although customization hasn’t been too big in hair care yet, offerings that allow consumers to pick and choose and personalize everything from ingredients to fragrance in their hair care products is on the horizon.

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