Styling agents suffer in European hair care market

The market was valued at $19.63bn (€15.3bn) in 2009 and is expected to grow to $21.63bn by 2014, a compound annual growth rate of 2 per cent, according to Datamonitor figures.

This compares well to the drop in the market that is expected in the US over the same time period but falls short of the compound annual growth rate of 4.5 per cent expected in Asia Pacific.

However, as the European market includes Russia and a number of other developing markets, the growth figures hide a more complicated picture.

“Growth in the Russian market over the time period 2004 – 2014 is expected to be 78 per cent, compared to 4 per cent in France, although this is of course from a low base,”​ explained analyst Mark Whalley.

Styling products suffering​

For the more developed European markets of France, Germany and the UK, growth is slowing and it is styling products in particular that appear to be suffering.

Whalley told CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com that this is likely to be due to the current fashion for a more natural look, rendering products such as hairspray, mousse and gel, less necessary.

Although these products appear to be taking a knock, the analyst said effects such as this are often related to fashion and this class of products may well take off again in the future.

“The nature of this market tends to work in short term, it could be well be the case in five years that everyone goes backs to highly gelled looks,” ​he said.

Looking at areas of potential growth, Whalley highlighted that, as in many other sectors of the personal care and cosmetics market, it was the natural and organic trend that offers the biggest promise.

According to Datamonitor figures the Europe, Asia Pacific and US hair care markets amounted to $40.1bn in 2009, up from $34.37bn in 2004.

The compound annual growth rate for this period which stands at 3.1 per cent is expected to slow to 2.4 per cent for the period 2009 – 2014.