Evolution

The evolution of SALON PROFESSIONAL haircare is quite incredible. Once upon a time, many moons ago, salons relied on their product suppliers to provide them with products that were exclusive to the world of hairdressing and barbering. These product ranges had been created for stylists to recommend to their clients as part of the experience whilst they were having their hair cut, coloured and (or) permed.

Of course there has always been a wide range of products available in chemists and supermarkets that consumers could choose if they so wished, but SALON PROFESSIONAL products were always regarded as being the Crème de la crème of hair care.

This was, naturally, long before the days of online shopping, celebrity endorsed brands and celebrity own labels. And before those factors came along and changed the face of salon retailing forever, big companies continued creating products for SALON PROFESSIONAL use and other ranges for mass market shops.

Slowly but surely, celebrity endorsements became the norm, and suddenly salons were faced with clients saying “if *insert random celeb name here, uses this, then I want to use it as well. It was the first potential nail in the proverbial salon retail coffin.

And then the internet became accessible to us all and online shopping became a part of our daily lives. Brands, naturally jumped all over this and started selling their products, including SALON PROFESSIONAL online on their own websites and through mass market beauty web-shops. Another potential nail in the salon retail coffin.

The most recent step for some companies was to put their SALON PROFESSIONAL products into mass market channels where consumers could pick and choose whatever they wanted, without the advice of their SALON PROFESSIONAL EXPERT, their hairdresser or barber. To add fuel to the fire of this move into mass market, the products that salons had, for years, recommended to their clients were now available invariably at a discounted price that salons simply could not match. Yet another potential nail in the salon retail coffin.

It seemed to be a hopeless case, SALON PROFESSIONAL haircare was doomed to be buried, forgotten about forever.

And yet, in the background, bubbling away and slowly growing in strength were a myriad of brands that wanted to truly support salons and their teams. Brands that had been around for a long time that were always just under the radar suddenly started becoming much more noticeable. These TRUE SALON PROFESSIONAL brands began to have their moment. They literally CAPTURED THE ZEITGEIST, recognising the disillusion felt by many salon owners at the betrayal of relationships that had been built over many, many years by the companies they had put their trust in.

And now we see the change taking place, slowly but surely as salon ditch the brands that betrayed them and make the move to companies that are fully supportive of the hairdressing industry. Of course these brands have websites and their products are readily available online, but what they don’t do is neglect the hairdresser, swoon over the buyers of big mass market companies, or sell their wares at cheaper prices online. What they do is give their focus, first and foremost to salons and their teams.

The evolution of SALON PROFESSIONAL haircare is quite incredible, where once is seemed like the coffin was well and truly nailed down and retail was dead, instead we see brands that offer a point of difference to salons, products that are truly SALON PROFESSIONAL that can be recommended with confidence by stylists without the worry of those proverbial nails spoiling the opportunity of successfully recommending and ‘selling’ products to their clients.

As always, I am more than happy to discuss SALON PROFESSIONAL brands that offer unique product ranges that perfectly fit the professional world of hairdressing and haircare.

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