Personal care - haircare 2025: Brits willing to spend big on haircare

Long hair, don’t care. So went the hippie mantra that spoke to a seriously laid-back attitude to both life and haircare.

Today, though, a long mane is more often the subject of a strict multistep regime.

And as Brits go ever further in their pursuit of lustrous locks, haircare sales in shampoos, conditioners and styling products are gaining volume, up 1.3%, 1.9% and 2.3% respectively.

In conditioners, top 10 brands Garnier, OGX, Herbal Essences and Pantene are even enjoying double-digit value growth.

As the owner of the latter two, P&G has been innovating hard to keep up with trends. In summer, it unveiled Pantene Repair & Protect Conditioner, designed to moisturise hair without weighing it down.

“Only half of consumers are conditioning at every single wash. Why? Because the traditional dilemma is a view that conditioner weighs down hair,” says Ian Morley, vice president of sales for P&G Northern Europe.

Pantene’s solution has enjoyed “a fantastic market response”, he says. The brand has grown values more than 18% in the past year.

Another player to benefit from a focus on haircare is Hairburst. Its Advanced+ Shampoo and Leave-In Treatment Mask (see Top Launch, below) work to “repair broken hair bonds and rebuild internal strength”, according to the brand.

That’s a powerful selling point, given the nation’s fears about hair breakage. In July, haircare brand Philip Kingsley asked whether Britain was “a nation obsessed with hair loss”. Its research found fears weren’t related to age: about half of women reporting noticeable hair loss were under 35. As such, growth in haircare has primarily been driven by “scalp first and hair growth products, such as those that tackle hair density and loss”, says brand president Anabel Kingsley.

Benefits such as these are an increasingly important point of difference as own label gains ground. Its value sales are up nearly 10% in hair styling, meaning brands need to offer “styling with care benefits”, says NIQ analytics executive Grace Eain.

The new mantra: fail to care, lose consumers with long hair.