Hair care is the new skincare: how to tap into the trend with retail

With a rise in skincare-inspired hair care products and clients having more time to dedicate to their hair, home hair care has become more popular than ever before. Here’s how to retail to clients and help your clients invest in their at-home routine. During lockdown, clients have been seeking healthier hair. With less need to style while they have worked from home, many clients have swapped out heat tools in favour of hair care. In fact, research from hair care brand FFØR found that 78% of people have embraced their natural hair, and 77 % have purchased new beauty products during lockdown. With clients having more time on their hands, it has opened up and opportunity for them to invest more time and money into their hair care routines. “With more time on their hands to understand their own hair, they are looking for products that help them maintain conditioner and maintain colour. The rituals are there because the time is afforded,” says Errol Douglas MBE. “When consumers have a facial night – hair is now included – adding overnight masks or conditioners to their hair.” Errol notes that clients are visiting the salon less, so are investing in between visits. “They aren’t particularly price conscious – it’s more that their patterns have changed,” he adds.

How to retail to clients

As appetite grows for a more intensive home hair care routine, there are ways to boost retail in your salon. “Clients who spend a lot of money on their hair in the salon are usually the same clients who also spend money on their homecare,” says Marcello Moccia, creative director of Room 97.  “We have educated them on the importance of using the right shampoo and conditioner and the effect it can have on their hair and their hair colour. “During lockdown, we found many of our clients were worried about the investment they had made on their hair going to waste and wanted to continue spending money on professional, high-quality products,” he says. “As a result, we launched our online shop selling the same products available through the salons – and in our first week we made a profit of £8,000” he says. Here are some of the ways to tap into the rise in home hair care and how to retail to clients.

1. Use social media to provide recommendations

“Throughout lockdown, we felt our role changed overnight to that of hair consultants – our team kept in constant contact with our clients advising them on how to maintain the condition of their hair at home,” says Richard Darby, creative director and managing director at Mark Leeson. “Our social media was very much focused on various styles that could be achieved, how to wear their hair at home, how to take advantage of the no-heat at home policy and to nurture their hair,” he says. “We were able to deliver clients homecare requisites and always suggested a hair mask, which has now become a large percentage of our clients’ ‘must-have’.”

2. Introduce products during the service

When you’re behind the chair, talk about the products you are using and the benefits they offer. “Always talk to your client about what you are using on their hair,” says Marcello. “Give the bottle to them to touch and feel and read. Being tactile really makes a difference.”

3. Be consistent with advice

“Don’t jump around from brand to brand, or try and sell the latest fad. Giving constant, professional and sound advice will elevate you to being an expert and they will respect your advice even more,” says Marcello. “I think people are genuinely looking to get the achieve the best ‘quality’ of their hair – the key is getting the right information on how to receive the desired results,” says hairstylist, Joseph Koniak. “Clients are questioning ingredients and quality of product they are using. It’s so important for them to get the right product for at home use,” he says. “It is time for us to provide the recommendation and understand the values and benefits behind it.”

4. Offer incentives 

Work with your product partner to offer offers such as BOGOF or travel size additions, advises Marcello. “Let's face it, we all love a freebie and this gives the client an opportunity to try a product they might not usually purchase and it can often convert them to buying it at their next visit,” he says.

What products should I recommend?

With clients more willing to invest in expert-recommended products and routines, here are some of the key products to recommend and how to retail to clients.

1. Masks

“Due to the lockdown they have had time to pay far more attention to their hair,” says Joseph. “Where they were quick into the shower for shampoo and condition then whizzing it dry – they are possibly shampooing less, tying their hair back but when it comes to shampoo day, they will leisurely shampoo, condition and possibly add a mask which they will keep in all day or overnight,” he says. “They have had time to nurture their hair as much as they have been nurturing their skin.” This also improves the quality of the hair over time, helping to boost colour services, says Marcello. “During lockdown clients on the whole waited for us to come back before doing anything drastic to their hair. Many had applied masks and deep conditioners so their hair was in good condition ready for a new colour,” he says.

 2. Heat protection

 “People have not been going out so they have not been using heat on their hair – its pyjama work!” says Joseph. “On returning to the salon it has been nice to witness clients’ hair in better condition due to absence of over-processing with heat.” However, for clients who are ready to embrace the heated tools after lockdown, you should recommend a heat protection product to maintain the condition of their hair. “Upon returning to the salon and before we were forced to close, clients were all buying into a heat resistant spray,” says Tristan Eves, creative director of Tristan Eves. “I’ve used it from day one in the salon – so it’s come to be a ritual with them if they want to achieve just-left-the-hair-salon hair.”

3. Scalp care

Lockdown may have left your client’s scalp compromised, so try recommending products in salon that will soothe irritated and flaky scalps. “At last, everyone understands that the scalp is just as sensitive as your face,” says Tristan. “It’s important to look after it and spoil it with in-salon treatments, regular masks and massage.” Offer scalp shampoos, masks or treatments to help cater to the demand.

 4. Oils and anti-frizz products

 For clients that have reduced their hot tool use over lockdown, offer styling products that will help enhance their natural hair texture. “The natural colour and styling trend means heavy styling products are kept to a minimal, but oils are still popular and anti-frizz products always sell well,” says Marcello.

5. SPF care

Ingredients that were once the domain of skincare products are now appearing in a number of hair products, including SPF. “Trending currently is suncare for the hair,” says Tristan. This is a good range to retail if your client in the summer months, or if they’re going away on holiday.

6. Natural and vegan hair care

There is a strong vegan and vegetarian trend towards haircare, says Joseph. “People are becoming so much more aware of what ingredients are used in products,” he says. Tristan has also seen a rise in demand. “We are rather big on offering all the options at Tristan Eves and vegan haircare is becoming increasingly popular, with natural ingredients all the way through.” In a similar vein, environmentally friendly hair care is also in demand, says Richard Darby. “It is important to us at Mark Leeson to offer haircare ranges that are significantly pleasant to the planet,” he says.