Tom Branna, Editorial Director05.02.16
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 educate 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 hairdressers, 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 replenish hair while achieving maximum results.
“Most people who color their hair want their hair to feel healthy and natural looking,” he told Happi. “I have been able to remove dangerous chemicals and provide everyone with hair colors that are actually great for the hair and leaves it in better condition than when they started.”
That’s because when he formulated color CHI Ionic and Shine Shades, he started with a hair treatment containing silk, oil and moisturizers, before adding the required dyes.
“This way, the results are healthy beautiful strong shiny hair,” he said. “Our CHI Crème Color was created for artistic application while our Shine Shades is ideal for a quick application for busy color artists.”
According to Shami, Farouk Systems’ goal is to continue to provide the industry with the safest and latest advancements in hair color. With that in mind, in the near future, the company will unveil a new color conditioner line called CHI Color Illuminate Conditioners.
Color for All
Healthy hair is always on-trend, but Dahl also noted that bright, vibrant hues are so popular that it’s not uncommon to see women ages 60 and over buying shades that bear little resemblance to your traditional, basic browns and blacks. Dahl should know. Industry consultant Cyrus Bulsara contends that Ulta and Beauty Brands are the two mega salon stores in the US professional hair care market.
“They are major hair care retailers especially for exclusive brands, just as Sally is for open-line brands,” Bulsara told Happi.
But while Sally’s stores hair care brands had sales gains of 1% in 2015, BSG/Cosmoprof and L’Oréal Salon-centric each grew more that 4%. More impressive, Ulta had overall growth of around 20%, said Bulsara, president, Professional Consultants & Resources LLC, Plano, TX.
Obviously, the graying of America continues paying dividends to hair color suppliers, formulators, salon owners and, of course, stylists; all of them are doing their best to encourage creative colors at every opportunity. In fact, Bulsara calls coloring the “anchor salon service around which salons survive.”
And thrive, which was the case in 2015. Professional hair color sales rose 3.9% last year to $845 million, according to Bulsara. Coming on strong is the men’s hair color business, which Bulsara estimates grew 6-8% last year.
Both sexes rely on hair color to cover gray, especially aging boomers. But the ladies category also got a lift due to the growing trend for “fashion-color” among younger women. The most popular color services are highlights, balayage, ombré/sombre, blonding and whole-head color, Bulsara maintained.
“Boomer clients need gray coverage/blending and young adults need fashion color,” he explained.
What are the trends impacting color for old and young hair color enthusiasts?
“Balayage is definitely here to stay,” insisted Irene Seferian, director of marketing, Pravana. “Effortless blondes that are a mixture of darker blonde shades with pops of really light beige blondes, with a higher contrast as it gets closer to the root is still highly sought after and desired especially as the days get warmer.”
Shami agrees that the balayage technique has staying power.
“Foilyage was popular last year but still has a place depending on the results a stylist is trying to achieve,” explained Shami. With the right hair color both techniques can provide an excellent result. Of course, the pastels are still popular as well as variations of ombre.”
The ombré is done; now it is on to the sombré! So says Mary Pergoda, national promotional director, JF Lazartigue. The sombre technique is a softer, gentler variant on the ombre; dark roots are less harsh and color variants are more seamless.
“You can see the look on celebrities such as Rihanna and Drew Barrymore,” explained Pergoda.
What happens in Hollywood never remains in Hollywood, so whatever the celebs are wearing in LA, you can bet that, sooner or later, the look will show up in IA, too. Right now, for example, “rainbow” bangs are being worn by the likes of Keke Palmer and other starlets, advised Pergoda. It won’t be too long then, before rainbows start cropping up in Corn City.
“Rainbow bangs are it for Spring,” insisted Pergoda. “They’re easy to do and bangs grow out quickly.”
Seferian told Happi that Vivids colors in the bangs allow the adventurer to stick their toe in the Vivids pool but not fully dive-in quite yet.
“As bangs accentuate the face, the Vivids color chosen for the bangs really adds some life and fun to any hair color and haircut,” she added.
At the same time, demand for babylights continues to grow. These delicate highlights are designed to mimic the subtle, dimensional hair color seen on children’s hair. And because the color is so subtle, as hair grows out, there is no heavy line of demarcation, making for a low-maintenance look.
Need more proof that babylights will be big during beach season? When Joico’s celebrity hair colorist Denis de Souza created how-to-videos for Babylights and Sombré looks created with Joico DuoLights, the spots had more than 300,000 views and adding more every day, according to Guillermo A. Güereque, PR director, Joico.
What shades happen to be the colors of the moment? Pergoda sees lots of Ronze; i.e., a copper red; and metal grays, for those women who want a natural, “Mrs. Robinson” look.
When it comes to hair color, few shades are more special than pink, which is the “it” color of the moment, according to Seferian of Pravana.
In the Pink…and Purple
“Pink is great because it is one of the Vivids colors that lends itself easiest to being customized to be either warmer or cooler, darker or lighter, depending in the skin tone and desired result of the wearer,” she explained.
Other salon industry experts agree that bold, fashion colors have been in vogue for more than a year. According to Jones of Joico, more consumers are playing with these colorful shades, from vibrant to light colors, which in the past you didn’t see much of beyond tweens and teens, like purples, greens, reds, pinks and more.
“The age, gender, and style borders have totally been crossed here, and hairdressers, who’ve been playing around with these colors for years on themselves—or the occasional brave soul, irreverent teenager, or punk band member—are loving it,” she told Happi. “Now they get to play with so many more clients who are embracing these looks, from ‘mermaidians’ to rainbow hair and ‘unicorn’ flair, these bold trends are out not only on social media but in everyday life now.”
Joico’s Color Intensity line is said to give stylists and consumers the freedom to play with these colors, while keeping healthy and strong hair top of mind, as well as color longevity.
But not everyone wants to be bold all the time; so Joico also created InstaTint, which gives women freedom to play with color without the commitment. These spray-on, temporary shimmer color sprays wash out in one shampoo.
“Stylists can use it to touch up some roots, but consumers can play with it themselves when they want to go out or have fun on the weekend, without needing to worry about showing up to work with anything other than their normal hair color,” explained Jones.
Bright, eye-catching shades may be on-trend, but when it comes to timelessness, blonde will always be en vogue.
That’s because many women often fantasize about being a blonde, according to Shami.
“Many will try variations of blonde tones or experiment with highlights,” he added.
Blonde is no longer a one-size-fits-all shade, agreed Kate Reid, director of education, Color.Me by Kevin.Murphy.
“We have seen this trend grow into 50 shades of blonde,” she explained. “From pewter and white blonde to creamy and golden blonde, and even soft rose golds, blondes continue to take center stage in 2016.”
Reds are also a go-to shade as today there are so many differences in the tones, according to Shami.
“From red-reds, red-violets to delicious mocha shades. The color industry has become so sophisticated that the boundaries have been lifted,” he said. “As professional stylists we are given more freedom to create and also have products that will help them achieve some spectacular results.”
Reid noted that application techniques are endless, but three variations are trending: babylights for a subtle, natural look, foilyage for well-placed, seamless color that grows out naturally and bold global application for making a real statement.
But whether we’re talking ombré and sombré, balayage and baby lights, or something else entirely, the top performers in the salon category include Redken, Wella International, Keune and Pravana, all of which posted good gains due to their unique new products and offerings, said Bulsara.
Taking a closer look at the brand leaders, Bulsara explained that exclusive hair color is the major driver of growth with multiple brands from Wella, Matrix, Redken and Schwarzkopf. For example, Ulta is exclusively a Redken salon. But at the same time, Sally Ion hair color expanded in open-line, taking share from Wella, Clairol and L’Oréal.
“The top exclusive lines grew via new brands like Chromatics, Color Fusion, Illumina, Elumen, Colorance Cover Plus and their rollouts. Goldwell Top Chic Reds and Silk Lightener show promise,” said Bulsara. “Smaller lines like Keune, Pravana, BMS Signature, Joico Intensity, and new entries from Kenra, Kevin Murphy and Tigi will expand.”
Standouts, according to Bulsara, include Keune, which he described as a high-quality, safe EU color and Pravana with its Vivids line of specialty colors. Both of them grew at multiples of the market rate.
Mass Extinction?
IRI puts overall hair color sales in food, drug and mass markets at nearly $1.7 billion for the year ended March 20, 2016. With category sales of nearly $1.5 billion, sales of women’s hair coloring continues to dominate the business, but sales dipped about 1.4% for all three category leaders, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble and Revlon. Only Developlus managed a sales gain and that came off a much smaller base.
When it comes to choosing a favorite brand, women like to have choices on mass-market shelves—as long as it’s a L’Oréal product! The world’s biggest pure-play beauty company holds the top three spots and five of the top 10 slots among individual brands; however, among the best-selling mass brands, only Clairol Nice N Easy Root Touch Up and Revlon Colorsilk registered gains during the past year (see chart). In fact, among the top 20 women’s hair color brands, only five posted an increase in sales, led by a 422% increase for Schwarzkopf Color Ultime, up 422% to $19.4 million and Vidal Sassoon Salonist, which increased 393% to $15.7 million.
Combe Is No. 1 and Second to None
While L’Oréal holds a nine-point lead over P&G for the No. 1 spot in women’s mass hair color, Combe Inc. dominates the men’s sector by a ridiculously wide margin. According to IRI, Combe and its Just for Men franchise controls more than 90% of category sales, and with good reason, says Ralph Marburger, regional category director for Combe’s gray care business in North America.
“Unlike other makers of hair color products, we are solely focused on the men’s hair color category,” he explained. “No other company can match our knowledge of and our insights into the male consumer, and our expertise in creating products that meet men’s needs.”
Marburger noted that more men are coloring their hair than ever before. But at the same time, the number of men who are not satisfied with their gray has increased steadily over the years. To meet their demands, Combe has launched new products and shades, which has made the category accessible to more men.
In 2012, Combe launched Just For Men AutoStop, which made it easier than ever for men to get rid of their gray with comb-in applicator, no-mix, peroxide-free formula and a formula that stops automatically for perfect results every time. New shades were launched in 2013 and 2014.
“The growing incidence of facial hair has also grown the category through the Just For Men Mustache&Beard brand,” he added. “We have consistently grown the category through truly innovative products that have increased category penetration.”
Whether competing in the professional or mass-market hair color segments, innovative formulas, like healthy-looking hair, will always find their audience.
“Salon-beautiful, shiny and healthy color is always on trend,” explained Güereque of Joico. “A survey we commissioned in 2015 proved what we already knew—that women will always want to look and feel gorgeous, and good hair is a big factor in that!”
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 educate 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 hairdressers, 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 replenish hair while achieving maximum results.
“Most people who color their hair want their hair to feel healthy and natural looking,” he told Happi. “I have been able to remove dangerous chemicals and provide everyone with hair colors that are actually great for the hair and leaves it in better condition than when they started.”
That’s because when he formulated color CHI Ionic and Shine Shades, he started with a hair treatment containing silk, oil and moisturizers, before adding the required dyes.
“This way, the results are healthy beautiful strong shiny hair,” he said. “Our CHI Crème Color was created for artistic application while our Shine Shades is ideal for a quick application for busy color artists.”
According to Shami, Farouk Systems’ goal is to continue to provide the industry with the safest and latest advancements in hair color. With that in mind, in the near future, the company will unveil a new color conditioner line called CHI Color Illuminate Conditioners.
Color for All
Healthy hair is always on-trend, but Dahl also noted that bright, vibrant hues are so popular that it’s not uncommon to see women ages 60 and over buying shades that bear little resemblance to your traditional, basic browns and blacks. Dahl should know. Industry consultant Cyrus Bulsara contends that Ulta and Beauty Brands are the two mega salon stores in the US professional hair care market.
“They are major hair care retailers especially for exclusive brands, just as Sally is for open-line brands,” Bulsara told Happi.
But while Sally’s stores hair care brands had sales gains of 1% in 2015, BSG/Cosmoprof and L’Oréal Salon-centric each grew more that 4%. More impressive, Ulta had overall growth of around 20%, said Bulsara, president, Professional Consultants & Resources LLC, Plano, TX.
Obviously, the graying of America continues paying dividends to hair color suppliers, formulators, salon owners and, of course, stylists; all of them are doing their best to encourage creative colors at every opportunity. In fact, Bulsara calls coloring the “anchor salon service around which salons survive.”
And thrive, which was the case in 2015. Professional hair color sales rose 3.9% last year to $845 million, according to Bulsara. Coming on strong is the men’s hair color business, which Bulsara estimates grew 6-8% last year.
Both sexes rely on hair color to cover gray, especially aging boomers. But the ladies category also got a lift due to the growing trend for “fashion-color” among younger women. The most popular color services are highlights, balayage, ombré/sombre, blonding and whole-head color, Bulsara maintained.
“Boomer clients need gray coverage/blending and young adults need fashion color,” he explained.
What are the trends impacting color for old and young hair color enthusiasts?
“Balayage is definitely here to stay,” insisted Irene Seferian, director of marketing, Pravana. “Effortless blondes that are a mixture of darker blonde shades with pops of really light beige blondes, with a higher contrast as it gets closer to the root is still highly sought after and desired especially as the days get warmer.”
Shami agrees that the balayage technique has staying power.
“Foilyage was popular last year but still has a place depending on the results a stylist is trying to achieve,” explained Shami. With the right hair color both techniques can provide an excellent result. Of course, the pastels are still popular as well as variations of ombre.”
The ombré is done; now it is on to the sombré! So says Mary Pergoda, national promotional director, JF Lazartigue. The sombre technique is a softer, gentler variant on the ombre; dark roots are less harsh and color variants are more seamless.
“You can see the look on celebrities such as Rihanna and Drew Barrymore,” explained Pergoda.
What happens in Hollywood never remains in Hollywood, so whatever the celebs are wearing in LA, you can bet that, sooner or later, the look will show up in IA, too. Right now, for example, “rainbow” bangs are being worn by the likes of Keke Palmer and other starlets, advised Pergoda. It won’t be too long then, before rainbows start cropping up in Corn City.
“Rainbow bangs are it for Spring,” insisted Pergoda. “They’re easy to do and bangs grow out quickly.”
Seferian told Happi that Vivids colors in the bangs allow the adventurer to stick their toe in the Vivids pool but not fully dive-in quite yet.
“As bangs accentuate the face, the Vivids color chosen for the bangs really adds some life and fun to any hair color and haircut,” she added.
At the same time, demand for babylights continues to grow. These delicate highlights are designed to mimic the subtle, dimensional hair color seen on children’s hair. And because the color is so subtle, as hair grows out, there is no heavy line of demarcation, making for a low-maintenance look.
Need more proof that babylights will be big during beach season? When Joico’s celebrity hair colorist Denis de Souza created how-to-videos for Babylights and Sombré looks created with Joico DuoLights, the spots had more than 300,000 views and adding more every day, according to Guillermo A. Güereque, PR director, Joico.
What shades happen to be the colors of the moment? Pergoda sees lots of Ronze; i.e., a copper red; and metal grays, for those women who want a natural, “Mrs. Robinson” look.
When it comes to hair color, few shades are more special than pink, which is the “it” color of the moment, according to Seferian of Pravana.
In the Pink…and Purple
“Pink is great because it is one of the Vivids colors that lends itself easiest to being customized to be either warmer or cooler, darker or lighter, depending in the skin tone and desired result of the wearer,” she explained.
Other salon industry experts agree that bold, fashion colors have been in vogue for more than a year. According to Jones of Joico, more consumers are playing with these colorful shades, from vibrant to light colors, which in the past you didn’t see much of beyond tweens and teens, like purples, greens, reds, pinks and more.
“The age, gender, and style borders have totally been crossed here, and hairdressers, who’ve been playing around with these colors for years on themselves—or the occasional brave soul, irreverent teenager, or punk band member—are loving it,” she told Happi. “Now they get to play with so many more clients who are embracing these looks, from ‘mermaidians’ to rainbow hair and ‘unicorn’ flair, these bold trends are out not only on social media but in everyday life now.”
Joico’s Color Intensity line is said to give stylists and consumers the freedom to play with these colors, while keeping healthy and strong hair top of mind, as well as color longevity.
But not everyone wants to be bold all the time; so Joico also created InstaTint, which gives women freedom to play with color without the commitment. These spray-on, temporary shimmer color sprays wash out in one shampoo.
“Stylists can use it to touch up some roots, but consumers can play with it themselves when they want to go out or have fun on the weekend, without needing to worry about showing up to work with anything other than their normal hair color,” explained Jones.
Bright, eye-catching shades may be on-trend, but when it comes to timelessness, blonde will always be en vogue.
That’s because many women often fantasize about being a blonde, according to Shami.
“Many will try variations of blonde tones or experiment with highlights,” he added.
Blonde is no longer a one-size-fits-all shade, agreed Kate Reid, director of education, Color.Me by Kevin.Murphy.
“We have seen this trend grow into 50 shades of blonde,” she explained. “From pewter and white blonde to creamy and golden blonde, and even soft rose golds, blondes continue to take center stage in 2016.”
Reds are also a go-to shade as today there are so many differences in the tones, according to Shami.
“From red-reds, red-violets to delicious mocha shades. The color industry has become so sophisticated that the boundaries have been lifted,” he said. “As professional stylists we are given more freedom to create and also have products that will help them achieve some spectacular results.”
Reid noted that application techniques are endless, but three variations are trending: babylights for a subtle, natural look, foilyage for well-placed, seamless color that grows out naturally and bold global application for making a real statement.
But whether we’re talking ombré and sombré, balayage and baby lights, or something else entirely, the top performers in the salon category include Redken, Wella International, Keune and Pravana, all of which posted good gains due to their unique new products and offerings, said Bulsara.
Taking a closer look at the brand leaders, Bulsara explained that exclusive hair color is the major driver of growth with multiple brands from Wella, Matrix, Redken and Schwarzkopf. For example, Ulta is exclusively a Redken salon. But at the same time, Sally Ion hair color expanded in open-line, taking share from Wella, Clairol and L’Oréal.
“The top exclusive lines grew via new brands like Chromatics, Color Fusion, Illumina, Elumen, Colorance Cover Plus and their rollouts. Goldwell Top Chic Reds and Silk Lightener show promise,” said Bulsara. “Smaller lines like Keune, Pravana, BMS Signature, Joico Intensity, and new entries from Kenra, Kevin Murphy and Tigi will expand.”
Standouts, according to Bulsara, include Keune, which he described as a high-quality, safe EU color and Pravana with its Vivids line of specialty colors. Both of them grew at multiples of the market rate.
Mass Extinction?
IRI puts overall hair color sales in food, drug and mass markets at nearly $1.7 billion for the year ended March 20, 2016. With category sales of nearly $1.5 billion, sales of women’s hair coloring continues to dominate the business, but sales dipped about 1.4% for all three category leaders, L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble and Revlon. Only Developlus managed a sales gain and that came off a much smaller base.
When it comes to choosing a favorite brand, women like to have choices on mass-market shelves—as long as it’s a L’Oréal product! The world’s biggest pure-play beauty company holds the top three spots and five of the top 10 slots among individual brands; however, among the best-selling mass brands, only Clairol Nice N Easy Root Touch Up and Revlon Colorsilk registered gains during the past year (see chart). In fact, among the top 20 women’s hair color brands, only five posted an increase in sales, led by a 422% increase for Schwarzkopf Color Ultime, up 422% to $19.4 million and Vidal Sassoon Salonist, which increased 393% to $15.7 million.
Combe Is No. 1 and Second to None
While L’Oréal holds a nine-point lead over P&G for the No. 1 spot in women’s mass hair color, Combe Inc. dominates the men’s sector by a ridiculously wide margin. According to IRI, Combe and its Just for Men franchise controls more than 90% of category sales, and with good reason, says Ralph Marburger, regional category director for Combe’s gray care business in North America.
“Unlike other makers of hair color products, we are solely focused on the men’s hair color category,” he explained. “No other company can match our knowledge of and our insights into the male consumer, and our expertise in creating products that meet men’s needs.”
Marburger noted that more men are coloring their hair than ever before. But at the same time, the number of men who are not satisfied with their gray has increased steadily over the years. To meet their demands, Combe has launched new products and shades, which has made the category accessible to more men.
In 2012, Combe launched Just For Men AutoStop, which made it easier than ever for men to get rid of their gray with comb-in applicator, no-mix, peroxide-free formula and a formula that stops automatically for perfect results every time. New shades were launched in 2013 and 2014.
“The growing incidence of facial hair has also grown the category through the Just For Men Mustache&Beard brand,” he added. “We have consistently grown the category through truly innovative products that have increased category penetration.”
Whether competing in the professional or mass-market hair color segments, innovative formulas, like healthy-looking hair, will always find their audience.
“Salon-beautiful, shiny and healthy color is always on trend,” explained Güereque of Joico. “A survey we commissioned in 2015 proved what we already knew—that women will always want to look and feel gorgeous, and good hair is a big factor in that!”