If beauty brands want to become successful in the future, it’s important for them to understand what their customers need and to use that knowledge to offer better products. For example, when it comes to hair care, many customers are willing to go the extra mile to achieve healthy and beautiful hair. Some are willing to invest in professional treatments at salons while others are willing to invest extra time and research into looking for alternatives to big-name commercial brands.
That said, there’s a great opportunity here for hair care brands to offer customers products they can use in lieu of expensive salon treatments, but that are also refreshingly different from commercial shampoos, conditioners, and hair treatment items. Brands can break out into the hair care niche by formulating salon-professional products that can be used at home, with gentler ingredients that preserve natural hair health. For the latter, it’s possible to tap an experienced natural ingredient supplier to ensure that well-performing and sustainably sourced ingredients are part of the mix.
Hair care brands can also advocate the best hair care practices for their customers, especially those who may lack the time and resources to regularly go to the salon. Below are some professional hair care tips to share with customers, who in turn can try them at home:
Use Gentle Hair Care Products
When buying hair care products like shampoos and conditioners, it’s best to get those with few chemicals as they tend to dry out the hair. Customers should also be wary of products with high amounts of sulfates and parabens, as these could strip away the hair’s natural moisture and leave the individual strands brittle and weak.
Over time, these ingredients could also irritate the scalp and, if a customer is especially sensitive to chemicals like sulfates, they could suffer further from a condition like dermatitis. If you work for a hair care brand, capitalize on your offerings with natural ingredients and mild formulations for gentle, yet effective hair treatment.
Wash Hair for the Right Amount of Time
Regularly washing one’s hair eliminates dirt and excess oil, which are part of keeping the hair healthy and lush. However, washing hair at too seldom or too frequent a rate can result in hair damage.
Brands should enjoin individual customers to find out how frequently they need to wash their hair according to factors like their hair type. Dry hair should be washed less frequently so it won’t get drier. But customers with naturally oily scalps may need to wash their more often—maybe as often as once a day or on alternate days—to get rid of excess oil.
Use Conditioner after Every Wash
Beauty and hair care experts are also quick to advocate using conditioner after shampooing hair. Doing so helps improve the look and feel of a person’s hair, making it closer to the lush locks often associated with salon treatments. Damaged or dry colored hair will improve significantly after conditioner, as it increases the strength and shine of the hair and protects it from harmful UV rays. If there’s one tip you can impart to your customers so that they can achieve salon-worthy hair, it’s to maximize the effects of conditioner.
Use Shampoo and Conditioner Properly
Proper application matters as much as good hair products do. For shampoos, it’s best to concentrate the application of the product on the scalp rather than putting dollops of shampoo over the entire length of the hair. Doing the latter can result in dull and coarse hair and a multitude of flyaway strands.
Conditioners, on the other hand, are best applied on the tips of the hair. Placing conditioner on the scalp can make the hair lose volume once it has dried, giving it a limp appearance.
Lastly, it’s best for customers to rinse their hair with cold water. This will close the hair cuticles, sealing in the nutrients the hair gets from the shampoo and conditioner. Even a simple change like rinsing hair with cold water instead of hot water can result in healthier and better-looking hair that’s comparable to hair treated at the salon or with expensive products.
Apply Hair Oil
Aside from using shampoo and conditioner, encourage customers to make hair oil application part of their hair care routine. Before washing their hair, a hair care customer can apply oil and massage it gently onto their scalp. This helps improve the blood circulation on the scalp, thus improving hair growth. It also nourishes the hair and boosts its shine. Some hair oils that can be safely used by customers include coconut oil, almond oil, and castor oil.
To further improve the shine on one’s locks, hair serum can be applied once the hair has dried. This is a great way to enhance the brilliance of a person’s hair and make it look like it’s been professionally styled.
Avoid Rubbing Hair with a Towel
Hair that’s wet is also at its weakest, and rubbing it with a towel only puts it at greater risk of damage. To steer clear of problems like split ends, customers should avoid drying their hair this way and instead gently squeeze the excess water from their hair using a smooth cloth, like an old cotton T-shirt. The hair should then be allowed to dry naturally.
Avoid Excessive Heat-Styling
While blow-drying hair can give it a beautiful, fresh-from-the-salon look, excessive use of heat-styling tools can also cause permanent damage. That’s because frequently exposing hair to high temperatures can make it dry and brittle. Tell your customers to save the use of the blow-dryer, curling iron, and flat iron for special occasions or days that they need to look extra glam, and encourage them to go the natural glam way with good products and a hair-healthy routine.
The future of hair care is all about achieving more with less and addressing what individuals actually need for their hair profiles. For hair care companies, this looks like giving customers plenty of options, offering viable alternatives to costly hair treatments at salons, and imparting advice that hair care professionals would approve of. Help your customers care for their hair at home with these tips, and get them to look forward to a future full of effortless beauty and confidence.