More People Are Trying DIY Hair Coloring:
Make Them Your Lifetime Customers!
Wholesalers and retailers who sell hair color products are screaming of joy this year. That is because hair color sales have been increasing off the chart. This is important because these “hair coloring DIYers” are a group of new customers who have a high likelihood of becoming lifetime customers.
The high brand loyalty as a characteristic of customers who purchase hair color products. If these stay-put customers were satisfied with DIY hair color, there is a high likelihood that they would not change their purchase patterns. You can warn them of common mistakes to the customers who try hair color products for the first time and recommend the most popular products to increase the success rate. Of course, you should be first equipped with common knowledge about hair dyes and hair coloring.
Identifying Trend by Product Type and Color
Semi-permanent Hair Colors are Popular for Its Low Hair Damage and the Ease of Trying Many Colors.
Hair colors can be categorized into permanent, semi-permanent, and temporary. Among these three types, semi-permanents are dominating the sales. That is because semi-permanents lack the problems often associated with permanents and temporary hair colors while having some of their advantages.
How About This Year’s Color Trend?
The most popular colors among customers have been red and blue lately. These colors also symbolize the American Flag, and they have been the hottest colors for this year. If you know the trend, you can recommend appropriate products to your customers.
The Popularity of Red Hair on the Fashion Industry
The rediscovery of red colors was undeniably the most repeated stories among the fashion themes showcased during the Paris Fashion Week in last October. As if people are trying to prove it, consumers started to look for red colors in different trends in 2020. Hair color market was not an exception.
Crimson, a color in the halfway from red to rose, has stayed popular among consumers due to its appeal for being neither too dark nor too bright. It is still leading the red trend with its continued popularity this year. Crimson is the best selling color among the Tintation product line that has the highest consumer satisfaction. If you recommend this product, your customers will have high satisfaction.
If you want a bolder red, choose Ruby Red from Ebin. You can get a brighter and livelier expression with this product. Although it is a semi-permanent, it lasts comparatively long and is easier to express colors in a desired way. It also has a fresh scent, so consumers will not feel discomfort due to the scent while using this product.
Blue Hair, which makes you feel cool by just looking, is Trending
Since last year, the blue hair trend is continuing throughout this year. Reflecting the popularity, many shades of blue colors are emerging in trend, and customers can hardly resist the attraction of blue.
If you have Crimson for red, Moonlight is here for blue. This color is similarly the easiest color among blue colors and has consistently been popular among the consumers. Kiss’ Tintation products with strong color development show off its prowess when you express bright and blue colors.
Baby Blue, which is close to a pastel blue, offers a way to express blue hair without creating a too serious atmosphere. This is one of 4Ever line of products from Ebin, which also boasts great scent and strong color development.
Vibrant Colors that Are Also Popular
Other than reds and blues, many insiders mentioned purple, pink, orange, and green. As affected by current trends, many younger consumers who favor vibrant colors are trying more and more unique and brighter colors on their hair. In fact, recently hair color trends are shifting in a matter of a month, so by the time of issuance, the trend may have shifted from the time when the relevant surveys were conducted.
Products that Can Be Sold with Hair Color Products.
For customers who are looking for brighter hair colors, bleaching is not an option. To develop colors properly, you need to wash away all dark pigments from your hair. The use of bleach powder and developer is an option that naturally comes along. Typically, bleach powder and developer are used in a mixture, so you should recommend one of each to a customer who asks for your opinion.
Bleach / Developer
KISS Express Color Hair Bleach
KISS’ Express Bleach is among the products with higher consumer satisfaction. It is soft and easily penetrates into hair, and most of all, it is affordable and has a strong bleaching power.
L’Oreal High Performance Quick Blue Powder Bleach 1 Lb
It is known for the strongest lightening power as much as its brand power. It is specially formulated to prevent leakage of shine from hair during bleaching.
L’Oreal Oreor Creme 30 Volume Developer
Depending on the strength of the developer, the bleaching power varies. Typically, higher numbers represent stronger developers. Among others, 10V, 20V, 30V, and 40V respectively represent 3%, 6%, 9%, and 12% developer contents. The most common choices are 20V and 30V. Loreal’s 30V product, shown above, received reviews noting comparatively less side effects for its high strength.
Clairol Pure White Creme Developer 30 Extra Lift
Pure White Crème Developer from Clairol contains protective conditioner and emollients to minimize hair damages. You use this developer before applying a permanent hair color. Use of a brush is highly ideal for its creamy texture.
Products to Use After Hair-Coloring?
Even if you use less-stimulating semi-permanents or temporary hair colors, you cannot expect the same hair texture as before the coloring. You need to apply appropriate ointments to treat the injuries on the hair surface. Hair oils can work like ointments for the hairs.
Customers who look for oils for colored hair want to restore the damaged hair, so you should recommend heavier oils rather than light oils. The good choices are coconut and castor oils.
Okay Coconut Oil for Hair
Rich in Vitamin E, Okay provides ample nutrients and moisturizes the hair and scalp to maintain healthy hair. It soothes and restores hair damages, and natural triglyceride ingredients help generating silky cortex, which makes it highly suitable for colored hair.
SheaMoisture 100% Pure Jamaican Black Castor Oil
Castor oils are rich in omega fatty acids so that it reinvigorates and promotes healthy skin and hair. Produced in Easter Africa, this oil has outstanding properties of maintaining firm skin through anti-oxidation.
How are Other Retailers Doing? Benchmarks for You
Seeing is believing; Dye wigs and display them for customers in the store.
Owner “P” of “A” Beauty Supply in the Southeast has continuously made good sales of hair color products throughout the year and credits the success on the following strategy: he dyes wigs himself and displays those as samples on the sales floor. He analyzed that about 90% of the customers who hesitated to purchase hair colors did so because of the uncertainty as to the color development. To provide some assurance, he applied hair colors on wigs and displayed them in the store.
He said, “When they saw the developed colors on actual hair in person, many stopped doubting, and that led to sales.” He also added, “taking a note of the pros of hair color products you tried is also important.” If the store managers have firsthand experience of products from various manufacturers, they would understand the products better, and as a result, they would easily figure out which product to recommend.
He emphasized that it is of utmost importance to look at the products as consumers would.
Another way is to rotate placements of products on the shelves.
Owner “S” runs “B” Beauty Supply that has branched out multiple times, creating many sister stores, for the past decades. In other words, her store is considered a success story in the industry. She shared her experience that product placement was very important for hair color sales. She once tried various ideas for product placement to reflect opinions from peculiar customers, and she observed that placement by color and by manufacturer rendered the most positive feedback.
Consumers with brand loyalty would stick to the brands they had been using, so she placed products by brand. In turn, customers could find their favorite manufacturers easily, so it worked out well. On the other hand, consumers who are new to hair colors would come to find their favorite colors, so she placed products by color. In turn, customers could easily compare their favorite colors from different brands. This also received positive feedback in her experiment.
Ms. “S” advised that you should first understand your customer base. “If you have extra space, you can try both placement schemes at the same time, but if you do not, you should adapt to your customer base,” she pointed out.
Also, Ms. “S” suggested that business owners might be better off if they focus on the product placement only. In the past, she tried bundling oils, brushes, and bleaches/developers with hair colors, but it went largely unsuccessful.
