HAPPI - May 2016

Salon sales outpace mass-market results in the highly competitive, highly fashionable and yes, highly-colorful hair color category.

Boxed Out?

OUTSIDE-THE-BOX thinking is great—unless you’re a maker of mass-market hair color products. Four of the top five manufacturers of mass-market women’s hair color suffered sales declines in food, drug and mass, according to recent Infoscan data from IRI. Benefitting from the move away from store-bought color is the professional hair color sector. In salons, women can pick and choose from an array of hair coloring techniques that are applied with care by trained professionals.

“We’ve seen a shift in the mind-set of consumers–not only is she more interested in coloring her hair, but she desires for that hair color to be good for her hair, too,” said Sarah Dahl, national salon educator at Ulta Beauty.

Color with care is the reason behind the growing demand for Olaplex and related products, noted Agnieszka Saintmarie, project manager, Kline Group.

“We have the category showing over 6% growth in 2015
which is exceptional! People are daring to lighten up their hair
and try bright colors as they are not afraid of hair damage as
much as they were in the past.”
Olaplex is a salon-applied hair treatment that enables color
enthusiasts to try bright, bold colors without fear of damaging
hair. That’s because as chemical processes break down the bonds
that are essential for healthy hair, Olaplex steps in to repair them
before any damage is done.

“We find that consumers have more and more tools to edu-
cate themselves on hair color and have learned that box color
is not the best option to maintain the integrity,” added Dahl.“At
Ulta Beauty, we believe in the power of the professional to deliver
her best look.”
Other professional hair color brand executives concur.

Joico, for instance, has introduced several new products since January, including the LumiShine color line that just got voted the favorite new color by pros for the Stylist Choice Awards.

“Consumers and professionals want amazing results, but don’t want to sacrifice healthy hair. That’s where LumiShine came in,” explained Sara Jones, senior VP and GM, Joico.“We wanted to create an easy-to-use color for stylists and provide them with the shiniest, healthiest hair-color results they could give their clients.”

Farouk Shami was so convinced that women want their color-treated hair to maintain its shine, health and integrity that he founded Farouk Systems with the first ammonia-free hair color to not only preserve the health and safety of his fellow hairdress-ers, but to also protect the clients and their hair from dangerous chemicals. Farouk Systems recently launched CHI Shine Shades, an ammonia-free, liquid color system made up of 59 shades, five additives and one clear formula. The formulas promise to

Tom Branna • Editorial Director

LEADERS ARE AT A LOSS IN MASS HAIR COLOR

Four of the top five players in mass suffered a decline in sales. Results are for the 52 weeks ended March 20, 2016 for supermarkets, drugstores, mass market
retailers, military commissaries and select club and dollar retail chains, according to Information Resources, Inc.