Statistics from the Hair Industry

We spend billions of dollars a year on hair. In 1998 we spent over $42 billion at the salon. According to the cosmetics industry magazine Drug and emetic Industry, "the hottest categories are hairvolumizing, thickening, and growth stimulating. Nioxin [a company known for its advertisements about increased hair growth] sold an estimated $50 million in products." For hair-care products at both the salon and the drugstore, we spent over $5 billion in the United States to help groom our tresses. How does it add up?

Well, we're laying out $2 billion on shampoo; $1.4 billion on conditioners; $700 million on hairsprays; $600 million on gels and mousses; $2 billion on hair-coloring products; $150 million on men's hair products; and $400 million on permanents and hair straighteners. Add to that the money we spend getting our hair professionally cut and colored (no accurate industry figures are available, but it is estimated to be in the millions) and its obvious we have a lot invested in trying to make our hair look good.

An estimated 50 percent of American women over the age of 25 color their hair. At least 80 percent of the technical work being done in salons concerns changing hair color or concealing gray, while only 20 percent is in the realm of permanent waves. A mere decade ago, those numbers were reversed. (I should note that salons that cater to an African-American clientele consistently perform permanent waves— for straightening hair—for approximately 85 percent of their customers, with a growing number having braiding done.) Why the radical change from permanent waves to hair coloring? In part it reflects the aging of the population. Baby boomers are turning gray, and just as they spend money righting wrinkles, they spend money battling gray hair.

Statistics may not have much to do with your own personal hair-care needs, but they often tell companies how to approach their marketing campaigns, and that affects how you spend money. It can cost millions of dollars to introduce a new product to consumers. How a product is presented determines its success or failure. Because we are coloring our hair more and more frequently, those of us who never had damaged hair are now batding frizzles, split ends, and "growout." Those, in turn, require new products and new guarantees. Many current product innovations are aimed directly at the needs of the newly graying consumer. Aging baby boomers (I'm in this category too) need to believe that the products they are buying will protect their hair, prevent fading, slow growout, and repair the damage the chemical assault has forged.

Another clear example is the fact that approximately 40 percent of women in the United States complain that their hair is too fine, too limp, or too flat. Full, thick hair is the order of the day, and women feel it acutely when their hair won't behave accordingly. Cosmetics companies are very aware of this huge number because it represents such a vast segment of the hair-care buying population. The result? Scads of lines and product types promising thicker, fuller hair.