Hair Colour Industry

in India
 By Mekhala Sawant

History
Dyeing of hair has
been an ancient art
which included
chemically treating
hair with various
compounds.
Historically hair dyes
were obtained from
plants. Most widely
used dyes were indigo,
henna, amla, turmeric,
leeks, red ochre etc.
Hair colour trend using
artificial dyes has been existing since 1860. In 1907 Eugène Schueller, the creator of L'Oréal,
is known for creating the first artificial hair dye. In 1947 the German cosmetics firm
Schwarzkopf launched the first home color product, "Poly Color". Hair colouring is currently
a multibillion-dollar industry that includes the use of both plant-based and artificial dyes.
Coloring hair is no more just a replacement for anti-aging; it is now a statement of style,
fashion and health too. The increasing influence between the young and evolving lifestyles is
accelerating the demand for the emerging hair colour sector.
Hair colouring is no more looked upon as an exercise in hiding grey hair. You can choose
from an variety of powders, gels, cremes, colours, in almost every colour, while being
assured of protecting, energizing, enriching benefits simultaneously. Previously colour was
an antidote to old age. Additionally, there wasn’t much choice for customers of colours –
companies in the mostly offered black. The process of combining materials made the exercise
in hair colouring very tedious and the packaging in glass bottles, which looked medicinal and
carried detailed information on mixing and measurement components, was not customer
friendly. The ancient routine of coloring or dyeing hair at home has declined and there has
been a rise in visiting to parlours for coloring hair.
The difference in professional hair color and shop hair color is currently bridging the gap and
to have an extra shine with smoothness and mainly the tiring and time consuming
transmission of coloring your own hair at home has declined. Professional hair colors are the
products that are used only at salons by trained hair technicians who also provide free
consultation to most customers on the type of shade that would suit your appearance and will
also complement your lifestyle. Professional hair colors last longer and have more benefits
other than the retail colors as available in the market.

Market Analysis
India’s overall hair colour segment is estimated to be around Rs. 2,900 crore with new
players in various sectors. This industry in India today is engaging, experimental and
revolutionizing. The prominent players in the professional hair color industry in India are
L’Oréal, Wella and Shwarzkopf with the other category of brands like Matrix, Streax Pro,
Berina. etc, presently dominating the hair
market. In fashion colors mainly semi-
permanent there are Fudge, N’rage and Crazy
Colors, that is also now available, and there is a
rising demand for the same in the Indian
market. Herbal based hair colors and natural
hair colors also seem to enter the parlour
industry however, due to poor marketing
techniques and education, they are unable to
penetrate. 80% professional parlours keep a
range of hair color brands at their salons to suit
their customer needs, whereas the other 20%
professional salons cater to only one particular brand.
Classified by the product type, the sector is primarily divided into
 Temporary Hair Colour
 Semi-and Demi-Permanent Hair Colour
 Permanent Hair Colour
Place of application:
 At home Usage
 Salon Usage

Salon Segmentation
 Highlights
 Bronde
 Ombre
 Sombre
 Balayage
The awareness and use of hair care and colouring has increased since 2018 and is expected to
increase in the coming years as well. 2022, 2023 and 2024 will witness a larger consumption
of hair market share.

Region wise, West and North regions were the top consumers in the past and expected to
grow in consumption of hair colour in the future as well. South India shows the least
consumption in hair colour. East India hair colour consumption is on the rise in the current
years and expected to grow in 2022-2023.

Hair Colour market in urban India

L’Oréal SA has taken over as the largest hair colour marketer in urban India in value
surpassing Godrej Consumer Products, fast selling mass brand Garnier Black Naturals, that is
now the French personal care firm’s highest selling hair colour brand internationally.

L’Oréal had 25.8% market share in the urban hair colour market in value terms last calendar
year as opposed to Godrej’s 24%, experts said, quoting data from market tracker Nielsen. In
2017, Godrej had 26.3% share.

Amit Jain, works at L’Oréal and is the first Indian to be the positioned since the company
entered the India in 1991, said the Indian sector is currently a major unit to its global
business. “India is becoming a hub for reverse innovation into our other high-growth markets
on an experimental and futuristic aspect,” he quoted.

L’Oréal, controls more than 70 percent of the urban parlour segment in India, came up with
indigenous hair colour product five years ago, with a cheaper price tag. The Indian hair
colour industry has estimated to a $3.3-billion, or approximately 23,600-crore, market, with
growth rate of about 10 percent, according to a recent report by Nielsen. New-age sectors are
expanding faster. For example, colorants, that account for 18 percent of the overall hair
sector, have been expanding 15% per annum, it said. While Godrej mainly controls the mass-
end segment, it has been upgrading its profile over the last few years. They were first to
launch a hair-colour crème in a packet at a market disruptive rate, challenging competitors to
try and compete with me-too offerings.

“Godrej Expert Rich Crème exists to consistently deliver steady growth and has achieved the
largest ever market share on an exit basis in the third quarter of FY19,” Mr Gambhir, director
at Godrej Consumer Products, said without speaking on its market share.
Hair colour market in rural India

Godrej Consumer Products Ltd's powder hair-colour (sachet pack) has developed to become
the highest selling brand in the hair-colour rural market, as per to H K Press, president and
executive director. The brand has successfully able to capture 32% share of the rural

India is an expanding market for hair colour market with a CAGR of 19.8 percent for 2018-
22. The non-professional hair colour segment in India is estimated at INR 3200-3500 crore,
while the professional hair colour segment is pegged to be INR 500 crore.
Major players in Hair colour segment in India

As per to an article in StyleCraze (2013), few of the top brands of hair dye in India are
Garnier, Godrej, L’Oréal, Wella Kolestint, Wella, Vasmol, Bigen, Revlon and Streax.
• Revlon- The first International Color Cosmetics brand to be penetrating in India in1995,
Revlon is very popular in the Indian beauty market.
• Garnier- Is one of the most affordable and huge variety of hair dyes, Garnier has gathered a
major consumer base.
• Godrej- Offering the cheapest hair colour products and a variety like crème based and
powder based.
• L’Oréal- It is a French cosmetics that focuses on quality and sells excellence crème hair
colours.
• Wella Kolestint- Being one of the recently launched brands in India and prioritises on
quality and range. Major promotion is due to hair dyes claimimg Ammonia-free.
• Vasmol- Super Vasmol Kesh Kala is a very famous hair colour offered by Vasmol claiming
jet black hair and promising to be Ammonia-free and Peroxide-free.
• Bigen- Being an advertising campaignlike “Origin of Beauty”, Bigen is starting to carve a
niche in the Indian cosmetic segment.
• Streax- Streax manufactures revolutionary high-quality home hair dyes that are easy-to-use
and great such as hair color consisting of Walnut Oil and Kera-Vit Conditioner.
Consumer Buying Behaviour
Following points are the observations of consumer buying behaviour as per few relevant
articles:
1. Tangible and intangible hair colour benefits, persisting: Says that the product is composed
of the materials that do not harm hair. Used to enhance the hair colour to appear more
appealing. Shown to be able to give more attractive look. Has positive experience with the
hair colour. Will have good image in the consumer’s mind. Will have better quality. Worthy
price-to-quality
2. Promotion and availability, persisting: Catchy ads at TV. Catchy advertisement at
published social media. Pushing promotional gift. Brands offering discounts. Brands offer
reasonable prices. Available in various sizes. Available in every beauty-product outlets. The
first 5 seen variables are compared to promotion, because informative as well as persuasive
SPG/boy can be sectioned as personal selling, catchy ads in TV as well as printed social
media can be classified as advertisement, as well as promotional gift .
3. Feasible as well as complete knowledge, persisting: Complete knowledge about the
properties on the packaging. Complete information on advertisement. The particular name is
given as the 3 observed variables grouped to this factor tries to tell regarding the ability of the
consumer to approach the information of the product itself.
4. Popularity, containing: Consumers usually use popular products in hair category as well
about the brand. Recommended by the consumer’s family and friends. Uses the hair colours
that are commonly used by the individuals around the consumer.
5. Solution to grey hair, containing: Perceived to be able to cover grey hair. Used to cover
grey hair. As seen, both of the observed variables grouped to this particular factor talks about
the ability of the hair colour product to be the solution to the user’s grey hair problem.
6. Additional benefit, containing: Full variety of colours. Guaranteed by user’s friends. The
researcher concludes that the complete variety of colours provided by the brand can be said
as a major benefit offered by the hair colour brand. As this benefit is supposed to be
important by the users, then they share the use by recommending the brand to their friends.
7. Lifestyle, containing: Coincides the consumer’s lifestyle. The purpose behind the
researcher shows his name for that particular reason is absolutely clear. It is due to the factor
only comprises of 1 observed variable, that is compared to the aspect of lifestyle.
8. Brand reputation, containing: Famous brand name. Seems to ne that more famous is better
quality. The researcher could absolutely see here that the 2 variables clubbed into this eight
factor associated with the reputation of the brand, in that it is famous within the sector of hair
colour products, the consumer sees that it has higher quality.
 9. Brand association: This name is associated because the only seen variable classified into
this section is related to the brand relation of the hair colour product.
10. Existence, containing: Large stock. Commonly used by the consumers in consumer’s
age. The researcher gives this name as the researcher sees that since the product has large
stock in the shop, then it should have high existence and the consumers gets greater exposure
towards the brand. When the brand is more used by the consumer consisting the ages group
that are almost similar to the consumers, it means the brand has greater existence in the hair
color market as many users arising from a dedicated age section prefer to use it as well as it
becomes a usual trend to use the brand in that particular age section.
11. Psychological stimuli, consisting: Shown to be able to deliver brand ambassador-alike
feel. The name is assigned as the consumers perceives that the capability of the brand to
make consumer perceives that as he/she uses the hair colour he/she will appear similar to the
brand ambassador states that the product will be capable to show the psychological stimuli to
the consumer.
Innovations expected in the future for Hair Colour
We normally get our news about hair colour fashion when companies inform us a sneak peek
at their newest products or top experts tell us their predictions for what's will be trending. But
the latest glimpse into the future drives from science! In the journal Chemical Reviews,
experts examined almost 500 latest scientific articles and patents on the composition of
permanent hair colour, and concluded that we're about to witness booming of new
technologies.

Major current products are made on techniques that's been around for 150 years: P-
phenylenediamine, a chemical that modifies colour when reacted to air. It's extremely
effective however, it could be messy and difficult to control, as any beginner with a box of
hair colour will say. Soon, though, we may be able to apply nano-sized colorants to our hair.
Instead of chemically changing our shade, these miniscule particles would penetrate each hair
shaft and remain trapped inside. Not only would you get a much wider range of hair color
possibilities, you'd probably get truer shade and it would last longer. Scientists are also
developing substances that will stimulate your genes to produce the melanin pigment that
colors hair—a hair dye pill. This could permanently eliminate grays and pesky roots that need
touch ups. Now, this is the kind of progress I can get behind.

Graphene according to Phys.org which is: a two-dimensional material made of a single layer
of carbon particle which is allotrope for carbon that was invented in 2004. Allotrope is a term
used to explain the multiple physical forms an atom can appear in. So, different allotropes of
carbon which you may regularly come across are graphite (pencil lead) and diamond (in
almost from jewellery to the mini diamonds embedded in high-end cutting blades). Due to its
atomic composition, it's considered to be one of the strongest metals in the universe. It's
almost 300 times stronger than steel.
Graphene

For individual with a casual graphene interest, it maybe a astonishing discovery. Graphene, in
2016, were estimated at price $100/gram. And initial announcements about the potential uses
of graphene was in greater high-tech or weapons based.

For example, graphene may become a go-to material for bulletproof body armor, bionic
devices used in surgeries, and because of its ability to conduct electricity, has several
potential applications in computing and cell phones.

Then, why hair dye?

Health And Cost

In spite of the love of hair dying, scientists can't absolutely confirm that the chemicals in hair
colour don't possess health risks. Recent studies conducted on the health of the hair stylists
and colourists who have been exposed to it have been, in general, nonconclusive.
There have been a few studies that show an rising risk of bladder cancer for the ones with
regular exposure, however researchers are continuing to observe and explore those
interactions.

One source- a hair colour industry, so mini particles of salt-claimed that minimum seventy-
five percent of American women dye their hair.

The graphene used by Dr Jiaxing Huang and his members was in an oxidized derivative that
is much more cost-effective as compared to pure graphene. It was also formulated with
Vitamin A and made carbon black (even if there are alternatives they made that were closer
to brown than black).

It was applied onto the persons blonde hair, then combed in, and then dried. The hair colour
lasts approximately one month. And primarily for individuals who dye their hair, these initial
tests displayed that there were absolutely no damage or development to the subject's hair
particles or head.

The graphene hair colour may have noticeable anti-static elements and also start a path
toward further innovations in wearable technology.

Slow Down!

While this does all sound amazing, one major thing to understand is that there's a lot people
don't know regarding graphene, and how it functions as a nanoparticle such as the ones
needed to develop a spray-on hair colour.

There is still the potential for lung disease in a spray version. We also are not aware about the
environmental effects of graphene in that version and what happens when some of it goes
into the water supply.

While the discovery is still developing and might be able to assist p with greater than the
billion dollar US industry of hair dye - it is not a quickly developed, magical way for any of
the pollution or health side effects of how individuals presently colour their hair.
Conclusion
To conclude as the demand for hair dye is showing different trends in urban and rural sectors
depending on the lifestyle and spending pattern of the individual, the companies are
expanding their offerings to connect the demands of consumers. The hair dye sector in rural
areas is fully driven towards cheaper sachets or packets of powder-based hair colour, over the
oil-based dyes. additionally, it has been seen that consumers still use henna compared to
artificial colors in rural areas, and urban markets use expensive hair colour. Therefore, the
players are changing their product profile in as per the needs of individual. Also, efforts of
numerous players expanding the colour range from black to other colours like gold, brown, g
burgundy, etc. have more encouraged the development in the hair colour sector.
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