Since ancient times, beautiful hair has been the pursuit and longing of people. Especially with the continuous progress of technology, means of pursuing hair beauty have become more diverse, and the hair industry has become increasingly popular. This has also given rise to various sub-markets such as hair care, hair treatment, and hair styling.
Recently, Schwarzkopf, a leader in the hair industry, joined forces with Juliangsuanshu (a marketing service provider under Douyin, Chinese version of TikTok) to release a major beauty industry white paper titled “Professional Beauty Creation, Let Beauty Happen: Exploring the Answers to Beautiful Hair.” The white paper takes a professional perspective and combines market phenomena with consumer insights to delve into the trends behind the industry, providing the most accurate compass for this year’s hair care, hair treatment, hair dyeing, and hair styling market.
Hair care enters the spotlight and Schwarzkopf focuses on the hair care oil category
“Your hair is part of your appearance.” It must be acknowledged that in the current era of increasingly mature consumer awareness, the concept of personal care among young people has expanded from skincare to hair care.
According to data from the “Douyin 2023 Paradigm Shift in Healthy Living White Paper,” hair health is gradually becoming a widely recognized concern among the general public, ranking fourth after body health. Furthermore, according to a hair care and styling survey conducted by Juliangsuanshu with over 1,200 consumers last year, 80% of consumers strongly or somewhat agreed that hair care/styling is equally important as facial care.
Schwarzkopf has also noticed that in addition to the demand for hair cleansing and basic care, young people today increasingly embrace the concept of “skincare-inspired hair care.” Subdivided demands such as “hair damage repair,” “scalp revitalization,” and “subtle hair color” have emerged.
The most searched product keywords by users on the aforementioned platform in 2023 reflect the market’s segmentation. They include basic needs such as oil control and dandruff prevention, as well as advanced requirements like hair loss prevention and hair strengthening. Additionally, sensory aspects of hair, such as volume and smoothness, are also factors that consumers consider.
If the changing consumer demands are the visible tip of an iceberg, then the turnover of consumer groups is the massive undercurrent beneath the surface. Therefore, in such a diverse demand landscape, how have consumer groups for hair care changed?
Research conducted by the platform revealed that individuals born in the 1990s and 1995s show the highest enthusiasm for hair care. Regarding income groups, high-income individuals tend to prefer the concept of refined hair care.
The active market and the continuous subdivision of demands have driven ongoing product innovation. Currently, as the hair care industry enters the era of precision, a range of innovative hair care products has emerged, including shampoo salts, shampoo bars, hair care oils, scalp essences, and hair coloring pens.
Among them, hair care oils have become popular hair care products in recent years, catering to the dual demands of internal efficacy and sensory improvement. Schwarzkopf stands as a major player in this category. It is worth noting that Schwarzkopf’s newly launched hair care oil in a unique bottle differs from traditional oils in its non-greasy texture. It utilizes the brand’s patented Satin Blend technology, offering a lightweight, moisturizing, and refreshing scent, which has gained significant market favor.
As a strong player in the hair care oil category, Schwarzkopf has made considerable efforts in market education. It is reported that last year, Schwarzkopf released a short film titled “Born to Be the Leading Lady” on Douyin, launched customized topics, and conducted crowd-testing activities featuring small sample boxes. These initiatives stimulated over 110,000 searches for oil products, with an average of 2.3 searches per person, effectively generating interest and understanding among potential consumers regarding oil products.
Irresistible trend of specialization: highlighting the demand for refined hair care
In the era of digital media with the explosion of live streaming, short videos, and medium videos, consumers have access to increasingly abundant information about professional products. More consumers are willing to spend time actively learning and practicing to become “consumption experts,” and the hair care market is no exception.
According to research of Juliangsuanshu, under the combined influence of continued consumer confidence decline and information overload, over 55% of users are willing to enhance the rationality of their consumption decisions through active learning, rather than relying passively on trial and error experiences. This has led to the emergence of learning-oriented consumers.
However, as consumers deepen their understanding of product knowledge, they become less easily swayed by superficial content, which in turn compels brands to provide higher-quality and more professional content.
Take Schwarzkopf as an example. Throughout its 126-year history, Schwarzkopf has been a leader and innovator in the beauty industry, embodying the concept of “professional beauty creation” by focusing on German technology as its core and continuously researching hairdressing techniques. Its products are highly sought after by numerous salons and hairstylists. In terms of content, Schwarzkopf places emphasis on content seeding and places greater importance on delivering brand expertise in an understandable format to users.
Furthermore, the emergence of learning-oriented consumers has not only raised higher demands for companies’ content marketing capabilities but also influenced new content consumption preferences. In hair-related content such as hair washing, hair care, and hairstyling, knowledge content such as hairstyling techniques, ingredient science, and product evaluations has gained widespread attention from users.
Looking at the entire hair care market, the trend towards high-end products is also evident. Research data shows that users’ preference for attention to hair washing and hair care products is shifting towards the mid-to-high-end segment. Users with hair care needs are the least price-sensitive and are most willing to try high-end hair care products.
Moreover, the focus on ingredients has expanded from the beauty and skincare sector to the hair washing and hair care market. Data from Juliangsuanshu shows that ingredients have become significant factors influencing users’ purchasing decisions for various hair products, including cleansing, scalp care, and styling. For scalp care products, ingredients have become the most significant factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions.
So, in the era of refined hair care and increasingly specialized consumers, how should brands seize opportunities? Clearly, the first step is to know who the users are and understand what matters to them.
Research data shows that women remain the most concerned group when it comes to hair cleansing. However, since cleansing is a basic need, there is not much variation in preferences among users in different cities. However, users aged 30 and above show more significant preferences.
In the popular hair care arena in recent years, it is surprising that although women have a higher proportion in the interested audience for hair care, men show higher levels of attention and preference. Specifically, among different age groups, post-2000-born individuals show higher preferences for hair care, making them a potential target audience for hair care products.
In the past year, consumers in the post-2000 age group still accounted for the highest proportion in the hair care sector, while older users showed higher preferences and were more willing to actively try measures such as hair dyeing, perming, and styling. In terms of hair color, the most popular colors in 2023 are still universally appealing brown and tea colors. Colors like gold and pink have also rapidly gained attention compared to previous years.
In terms of hair dyeing, the overall proportion of users is relatively low, with safety and health concerns being the biggest obstacles. The hair dye penetration rate among Chinese consumers is only about 10.8%, much lower than other categories. The main hindrance is the concern for hair health and safety.
Based on in-depth insights into users, Schwarzkopf has built a comprehensive product system to meet diverse market demands. For example, the EXTRACARE series focuses on researching and repairing, protecting scalp and hair health. The ZHIXI dyeing cream brand emphasizes safe hair dyeing. The FELICITY hair dyeing brand contains pH 4.5 balanced color locking and NUTRIPLEX dual technology for strong and lasting color, as well as enhanced hair fiber repair, meeting the demand for trendy hair colors. The professional styling brand OSiS+ is beloved by professional stylists for its hair molding technology.
There have been interesting changes in hairstyle aesthetics as well. Male hairstyles influenced by the celebrity effect, such as textured hairstyles, and a return to simple and fashionable short hair, became the most popular hairstyles among Douyin users in 2023. French perm hairstyles with exotic vibes became the favorite perm styles among users.
Online and offline collaboration: exploring industry
In the past year, in addition to changes in product categories and consumer trends, there have been profound changes in the channels through which consumers obtain information and engage in hair-related consumption.
In the past, consumers relied on fashion magazines to learn about hair trends. Nowadays, with the development of mobile internet, online channels, represented by short videos, have become the primary means for users to acquire knowledge and information about hair care and hairstyling, while offline hair salons still play an important role in providing a sense of trust to users.
As mentioned by Zhong Jingwei, Vice President of Henkel’s Consumer Goods Business Unit, Greater China, in a previous interview with CHAILEEDO, Schwarzkopf, unlike other beauty brands, has a wide coverage of salon channels in addition to online e-commerce and offline retail channels. This provides more opportunities to directly communicate and engage with end consumers, delivering the brand and products directly to them. This is a more meaningful and targeted Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) approach.
Research data also shows that the integration of online and offline has become an important trend, with 44% of users adopting the habit of online purchases and offline experiences. Furthermore, consumers’ focus on offline hair salons has undergone significant changes, with cost-effectiveness ranking fourth with only a 35% share. This may also reflect that consumers now place a higher emphasis on experiential aspects during offline consumption, which surpasses the previously more significant factor of “affordability.”
In the past year, the beauty category on the Douyin platform has also seen rapid development. Among them, as the core category of the beauty sector, hair-related orders account for 40% of the total orders in the beauty category, making it the most in-demand category. In terms of content popularity, based on the playback volume of various beauty category content on the platform last year, the hair category also leads by a large margin in industries related to personal appearance, accounting for a high proportion of 45%.
Interestingly, Schwarzkopf, with its 126-year history, is one of the earliest professional hair care brands to enter hair salons. Over the past century, as people’s understanding and perception of beauty deepened and evolved worldwide, Schwarzkopf’s vision of “beauty” has continued to adapt and cater to the ever-upgrading demand for beauty among the masses. With German technology as its core, Schwarzkopf has been dedicated to hair care technology inheritance, empowering professional hair salons and hairstylists to create cutting-edge hair experiences for consumers.
Through insights into hair-related content on Douyin, Schwarzkopf has observed that users now have a more proactive pursuit of beauty. For the entire beauty industry, these changes present both challenges and opportunities.
In order to better cater to the Chinese market and meet the hair-related aspirations of Chinese consumers, the parent company of Schwarzkopf, Henkel Management Center (Asia-Pacific and Greater China Headquarters), has established its presence in Shanghai. Additionally, they have invested in a brand-new consumer product research and development center in Yangpu, Shanghai, in order to enhance their local research and innovation capabilities in China.
Since its inception, Schwarzkopf has been a pioneer and leader in the hair care category, creating remarkable “firsts.” Looking towards the future, leveraging its profound professional expertise and profound observations of beauty, Schwarzkopf will continue to uphold the brand concept of H.E.A.T (Heritage, Expertise, Assortment, Technology). It will provide the industry with more professional insights and, together with users, contribute to the prosperity of the beauty industry by making hair care happen.
