No one ever says she is having a bad nail day or a bad feet day, but the term “bad hair day” is well-known to most of us—usually because we’ve experienced, and remember, them.
This is because hair is such a part of how we define ourselves. “Male or female, young or old, we all want shiny, manageable, healthy-looking hair,” said Scott Cecil, president, Save Your World.
Not only do consumers want to be defined as having nice hair, they want their products to be natural. Educated consumers are becoming more aware of the health issues associated with conventional personal care products, including those designed for hair. “Consumers of natural hair care products are the same as consumers of all natural beauty: They don’t want to sacrifice advanced benefits just because they insist on safe formulations,” said Emma Froelich, vice president of personal care, Hain Celestial. “Rather, they demand gorgeous results from natural ingredients.”
Simply put, consumers want natural products that are safe and work. “[Consumers] want therapeutic quality and salon performance, including intensive moisture, volumizing and frizz reduction, without using harmful chemicals,” said Autumn Blum, CEO, founder and formulator, Organix-South. “Natural alternatives do exist, and it is the job of the natural product chemist to discover and utilize them.”
Consumers want all this and, as Cecilia Salcie, marketing manager, Apptec PharmaChem Inc., points out, at a price similar to conventional products. At current prices, overall natural hair care sales are up 4.5 percent, according to SPINS (52 weeks ending April 18, 2009).
While shoppers are willing to fork out dough for natural hair care products, many marketers are worried what consumers are buying are not actually “natural.” Eileen Sheets, managing director, Bioforce USA, said, “We have noticed a profusion of products featuring all manner of nutraceutical and botanical ingredients that pander to the ‘natural’ consumer. Many of these, however, have infinitesimal amounts mixed in with the lauryl sulfates.”
Lewis Goldstein, vice president of marketing, Kiss My Face, agreed. “As consumer interest in natural has grown in leaps and bounds, the huge conventional personal care companies have rushed to get a piece of the action. Often, this means the addition of a miniscule amount, a ‘fairy dusting,’ of one or two herbal extracts are added to a totally conventional product. Then, the communication on those products focuses on those minute amounts of natural ingredients.”
To help combat this greenwashing, the Natural Products Association (NPA) created a certification program in May 2008 for natural skin and hair care products. To merit the NPA seal, a product must meet strict guidelines: made of at least 95 percent truly natural ingredients, not contain ingredients with any potential suspected human health risks, not use processes that significantly or adversely alter purity or effect of the natural ingredients, use ingredients that come from a renewable/plentiful source, and only use non-natural ingredients when viable natural alternatives are unavailable.
Many companies are already on the bandwagon of using all-natural ingredients in their formulations. “In general, we stay away from synthetics, ingredients that are harsh or strip the hair of color, synthetic preservatives, etc. as much as we can,” said Kim Wells, personal care brand manager, NOW Health Group. “There are too many synthetic ingredients to name that are on our ‘Not Allowed’ list.”