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NEW YORK – Luxury, salon-inspired hair care is gaining the same popularity that makeup artistry enjoyed in the early Nineties.
Sales of professional hair care products have reach $200 million annually in specialty shops and department stores, according to Lori Perella, president of Select Brand Equities, a beauty industry consulting firm. That is double the volume done two years ago. Perella attributed the jump to retailers like Sephora and Nordstrom, getting behind the category with space and inventory allocations.
Industry analyst and management consultant Allan Mottus attributes the niche hair care boom to shifts in preference, not only by consumers but also by retailers. Stores like Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Sephora are turning to the category because “they have to replace the volume lost by fragrances and the Big Three,” he said, referring to Clinique, Estée Lauder and Lancôme. It also is an opportunity for specialty stores to differentiate themselves from the Macy’s group as department stores move toward mass and class retailers become classier.
Meanwhile, consumers are looking for expert help. “There’s a crying need at the high end to identify a product with a person,” Mottus added, “and the customer doesn’t want a celebrity. They want an expert. What is critical is that the product works.”
Mottus maintains that this is a golden opportunity for salon celebrities to market their own brands. The professional houses at companies like L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Wella and Zotos can’t directly ship salon products to retail stores without risking a severe backlash from their salon customers, he noted. And the consumer interest in sophisticated hair care and treatment products has made hairstylists the latest heirs to the retail dynamic that propelled makeup artistry into dominance in the Nineties.
A spate of sophisticated new products is now coming to the market, giving retailers further license to build what was once a niche phenomenon into a viable, broadly based new business. Next year’s most promising prospects are from some of the industry’s most well-established hairstylists, setting the stage for a new paradigm of at-home hair care.
Here are profiles of some of the most significant efforts now coming out of the salons.
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A Brave New Shampoo
While many hairstylists are culling their tried-and-true salon concoctions into eponymous products for retail, the owners of the Pierre Michel Salon, a 57th Street mainstay here for the well-heeled, are hawking a scientific revelation by a Manhattan antiaging firm – and then marketing the resultant products under the salon’s name.
RepHair by Pierre Michel with AC-11 promises to restore damaged DNA so that hair can regain its luster and even its thickness and strength. It’s a technology Pierre Ouaknine and Michel Obadia were introduced to by a chemist friend at Optigenex Inc., the maker of Activar AC-11, a supplement the hair care line is modeled after. The two then sampled the products, which Optigenex’s Web site describes as “perhaps the single most proactive means of promoting the body’s own natural DNA care mechanisms.”
The two were game. And, after about a month, much more energized, to boot. Soon the chemist proposed a liquid version of AC-11, and several conversations – and formulas – later, a shampoo line was in the works.
RepHair includes Hair Maintenance Capsules, Scalp Treatment, Daily Shampoo, Daily Conditioner, Deep Conditioning Masque, Volumizer and Leave-In Conditioner. Prices range from $24 for the Leave-In Conditioner to $39 for the supplements, and the products are sold exclusively at Pierre Michel, at least for now.
For those who want to leave hair washing to the pros, Pierre Michel has created an in-salon treatment using the products. There’s the $100 Deep Conditioning procedure, which includes a 30-minute Deep Conditioning Masque treatment, a scalp massage and steam. For big spenders with time on their hands, the 60-minute treatment costs $250 and includes a 30-minute RepHair Deep Conditioning with scalp treatment, a Japanese scalp massage, a masque and steam.
Skeptics – of which there are bound to be plenty – need only ask Obadia to reveal his “before” picture. Aside from losing several pounds since the photo was snapped, he says his hair, which he admits is thin to begin with, looks a bit fuller.
Simplicity Yields Innovation
Out with the old, in with the new. That’s the mantra Paul Labrecque is following by ringing in 2006 with an entirely new hair care line, one that has been designed to be more user-friendly and easier to identify on shelves than his previous line.
“You can walk up to a shelf now and know nothing about hair and you can find something for yourself,” said the hairstylist, who operates two salons in Manhattan. Labrecque added that his existing line has been discontinued.
The new line has 24 stockkeeping units (with bath and body products, 28) and targets six hair types: normal, straight, fine, damaged, color-treated and curly. Each range offers a shampoo, a conditioner, a styling item and a finishing product, and boldly colored containers help define one line from another.
Some ranges offer items not currently on the market. The Color range, for example, offers Finish Polish & Seal Droplets, an alcohol-free, silicone-based serum designed to keep hair from drying out. It retails for $24. Within the Volume range, a standout is the All Day Holding Mist, which is made with silk proteins and vitamin B. It retails for $18. The Repair range offers a salon-like treatment for use at home with Lemongrass Hair & Scalp Treatment, a conditioning formula infused with macadamia nut and palm oil, as well as jojoba and coconut oil. Nine ampoules of the serum retail for $60.
Scents have been upgraded to combine the unexpected, and in some cases, to simply feature straightforward, clean aromas. The Daily range blends vanilla spice, grapefruit and sandalwood, while Repair fuses egg and milk flavors for a sweet eggnog aroma. Then there’s the Color line, which features an apricot scent; the Curly range, which smells like cucumber, and the Straight range, which has a pear scent.
Labrecque made several items, such as the Volume Bodifying Hair Wash, vacuum-sealed for purity and to eliminate contamination and waste.
Labrecque is aiming to sell his hair products in “high-end, luxurious spaces, including salons, spas, specialty boutiques and luxury department stores.” He currently has an amenity program in Manhattan’s Hotel Rivington, and he’s looking to expand that business, too. The line is projected to generate between $2 million and $3 million in first-year sales, Labrecque said.
While the new line looks and smells completely different from the old one, another change in the new shampoo formulas is the use of sodium laureth sulfate, a lathering agent Labrecque left out of his old line. “The American market just adores it,” he said.
Blandi on Trend
Oscar Blandi wants everyone to know that he’s not out to fix all hair problems with a simple line of products. His passion, he said, lies in raising the bar to create hair care that’s meant to keep hair looking healthy. In 2006 he plans to add as many as 15 products to his current portfolio of 12 shampoo, conditioner and treatment items, with several of them slated for spring. And with the help of Select Brand Equities’ Perella, also a former Frédéric Fekkai executive, Blandi expects his products to be what consumers reach for on crowded hair care shelves.
Several of the new items keep Blandi ahead of the pack, such as his at-home color conditioning system, designed to both prep hair for color and then to deposit pigment. Ancora Colore, as the kit is called, includes a pre-treatment, Prima, and Colore, a leave-in formula for three shades: golden blond, brown and amber. The kit will sell for $31 and will be available in Sephora, Bergdorf Goodman, Jeffrey New York, C.O. Bigelow and the Oscar Blandi salon, which is now housed in the former Peter Coppola space at 746 Madison Avenue here.
Blandi is launching Luce, an at-home gloss that aims to make all hair types their shiniest. Formulated with grape seed extracts to maintain the pH balance of hair, Luce is designed to prolong shine and lock in pigment. Luce will retail for $24.
Added to his already successful – and signature – Jasmine line of hair care is Proteine di Jasmine, a mist created for restyling hair. A blend of wheat starch, soy protein and jasmine flower helps protect hair from heat appliances, while at the same time conditioning it. Proteine di Jasmine will retail for $18. Also within the Jasmine line is a new Smoothing Shampoo, Conditioner and Hair Serum. Made specifically to condition and smooth all hair types, the three products work together to provide luster.
And, to make sure women are getting the same experience at home as they are in the salon, Blandi has created a shower cap that can be used in the traditional way and with Ancora Colore, to seal in the leave-in formula for better results. The cap, Cuffia Per Doccia, is decorated with Italian phrases such as “sophisticated woman” and “flirty girl,” and will retail for $15.
The Style Makers
Warren-Tricomi is all about style. From the look of their New York 57th Street salon – which, despite the hustle and bustle, manages to have a comfortable atmosphere – to the do’s they create for fashion week season after season, Joel Warren and Edward Tricomi are never short on ideas.
The two didn’t disappoint execs at Bed Bath & Beyond when approached to create a hair care line that would offer a professional level of style at home. The duo created 16 items, 12 of them styling products, to meet the needs of consumers looking to get a salon finish at home.
The Hairspray, Finishing Cream and Hot Set Spray don’t break the innovation mold, but other products do. There’s Paste, a dry molding cream designed to provide a matte, locked-in shape; Hair Gum, a pliable paste meant to create spikes and chunks in layered hair, and Spray Wax, a thickening spray to create subtle dimension. And for those who don’t live near a Warren-Tricomi salon, there’s Blue Gel, a setting lotion used as often as a blow-dryer by Warren-Tricomi stylists, commonly referred to as, well, the “blue gel.” The styling line will launch in late February.
Fun in the Sun
It’s obvious from Frédéric Fekkai’s new hair care line that the hairstylist is inspired by where he vacations.
In Palm Beach, Fla., for the holidays, Fekkai took some time out to discuss three products he’s launching in March that were designed to protect hair from the damaging effects of wind, sun and saltwater.
There’s Sun Bandanna, a water-resistant, crème gel formulated with ceramides to condition and strengthen hair; Beach Waves, a spray meant to create a tousled texture, and Wash & Wear, also a spray, designed to remove dirt buildup after brushing.
The Summer Hair Care Collection will be sold in Neiman Marcus, Sephora, Nordstrom, C.O. Bigelow and Frédéric Fekkai salons. Each will retail for $20. The new items bring Fekkai’s overall sku count to almost 100, and they are sold in more than 800 retailers worldwide.
While many stylists are just beginning to enter product retail, Fekkai arguably pioneered the craze. He continues to create products for different hair care categories on a regular basis.
“I love the idea of handling hair; it’s like skin care to me,” Fekkai said of his passion to come up with results-oriented, consumer-friendly items. What’s most important to him is that his customer can re-create a look she receives in the salon.
“They have to know how to do it at home. That’s why I didn’t do a professional line. [With my products] you can instantly see some results, especially with the technology we have at our disposal.”