While there may be a tentative date for when hairdressers can reopen in the UK (until April 12th if anyone’s counting), it means our hair is now desperate for professional TLC. It doesn’t help the fact that you need it – and it’s been a while.
Each lockdown has dealt a serious blow to the beauty and salon industry. So customers were naturally looking for ways to keep their hair healthy at home. As a result, Boots reports he has seen a 350% increase in hair care sales compared to this time last year.
Professional hairdressers and stylists whose salons have closed are too happy to fill the gap and stumble on to offer their own salon-quality hair products and at-home treatments. Sales of hair care products alone increased by nearly 300%. George Northwood’s just-launched Undone series has received rave reviews from his beauty insiders around the world (including his Edwina Ings-Chambers, YOU’s beauty director), and so has Mark Hill’s The Hair Lab. It has received rave reviews online as well.
Undamaged Shampoo, £12, boots undone by George Northwood
The Hair Lab by Mark Hill Blow Dry Cream, £9.99, Boots
Also doing well is the new ‘miracle’ product, L’Oréal El Vive Wonder Water. Promising softer, shinier hair in just eight seconds, this is Boots’ best-selling new hair product, and so far in February he’s been selling one every two minutes.
Wonder Water at L’Oreal Elvive Dream Lengths 8 Second Hair Treatment, £9.99, Boots
With many of us using lockdown to spend more time on our hair care routines, established skin care brands are bringing their expertise to the hair care category. Inkey List incorporates powerful skin care ingredients like salicylic acid and vitamin C into a new range of affordable hair care products, and Vichy applies skin care expertise to new formulas for results-driven hair care routines.
The Inkey List Chia Seed Curl Defining Hair Treatment, £7.99, Boots
Vichy Dercos Kera Solutions Restoring 2 Minute Conditioning Mask, £14, Boots
For some people, lockdown is a chance to embrace their natural hair, which is why products that enhance texture are booming. There are 155 products dedicated to waves.
Rhyme & Reason Curl & Quench Conditioner +, £8.99, Boots
Tom Parker, Boots UK’s Senior Hair Care Buyer, said: To recreate that lustrous, salon-perfect look, your daily routine goes beyond traditional shampoos and conditioners.
