Brands celebrate natural, textured hair
The confluence of two trends — products for textured hair and natural formulas — has put a lift in hair care sales. With the exception of styling products and hair colors, all other hair care categories are showing sales that are on the upswing. While some of that positive traction comes from new launches, a great deal is attributed to fresh merchandising and marketing campaigns.
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One of the most visible efforts to show off natural and textured hair products is illustrated at Target. Recently, two very prominent end caps starred natural and condition-specific choices. Under the heading of natural beauty, one end cap pulled together hair care from SheaMoisture, Carol’s Daughter, Miss Jessie’s and Camille Rose.
On the heels of its Love Your Curls efforts, Dove has kicked off #LoveYourHair. The campaign revolves around an 85-second short film, which challenges viewers to defy the conventional norms of hair wisdom by featuring women with a variety of hair textures, colors and styles expressing what they love about the way they choose to wear and style their hair.
The campaign is backed by a Dove Hair study that found that 86% of U.S. women believe that media and society put pressure on women to have hair that looks a certain way.
And of course by now, the industry has been moved by Sundial’s #BreakTheWalls campaign debuted in early April.
The first phase of the campaign includes a 60-second short film, a 30-second spot, various #BreakTheWalls digital and social assets and behind-the-scenes footage that highlight everyday women and beauty vloggers raising their voices to ask one simple question: “Why is our beauty not reflected in the beauty aisle?” With that as the direction, Sundial continues its efforts to bring new merchandising strategies to market.
Another example of the natural movement comes from Garnier’s Whole Blends, which garnered a half-page ad in the most recent CVS circular. The other half of the page happened to be devoted to another innovation — reverse washing. TRESemmé’s new Beauty-Full Volume collection is designed to work in reverse with conditioning as a first step.
There’s no letup in innovation surrounding oils for hair care, and it was a magic ingredient for OGX with its argan oil. OGX hopes to strike gold again, this time with strength and body provided by bamboo fibers.
L’Oréal also has a compelling oil story for dry hair with its Advanced Haircare Extraordinary Oil nourishing shampoo.