If you’re invested in having stronger, healthier hair, then Beyoncé, Rihanna and Brooke Shields want to help you. Recent product launches by those big-name celebs are the latest sign that hair care is set to be the next big thing in beauty. “It’s one of the fastest growing categories at Sephora, with double-digit growth over the past six years,” says Jane Nugent, SVP merchandising, Sephora Canada. “We’ve definitely seen a greater awareness of hair health, what we call the ‘skinification of hair.’ This really stemmed from a time during lockdown where many people started to pay more attention to their at-home hair-care routine and saw results.”
It’s also no secret that COVID-19′s impact has made hair loss a more widespread experience. “The pandemic, with all the social, medical and psychological implications, certainly increased stress which negatively impacts physiologic reparative and regenerative abilities including hair growth and scalp health,” says Dr. Monica Li, a dermatologist at Vancouver Skin MD and clinical assistant professor, department of dermatology and Skin Science, University of British Columbia. “During and since 2020, I’ve had more patients ask about hair loss or thinning, about a 20- to 30-per-cent increase at my practice. There are also more individuals describing they have a sensitive or itchy scalp.”
To achieve strong, shiny strands many Canadians have been trying to get to the root of the issue by seeking out solutions on social media and digital platforms. “In the past year, interest in ‘healthy hair routine’ has skyrocketed by over 600 per cent, emphasizing a growing interest by users in Canada in self-care regimens that mirror what we’ve seen in the skin-care space,” says Azadeh Attar, beauty industry director at Pinterest. “Additionally, ‘hair oil for hair growth’ searches are up by 90 per cent, reflecting a growing interest in products promoting hair health and vitality.”
Both Attar and Nugent have observed a demand for personalized hair-care solutions underpinned by innovation and diversity. There was a considerable surge in searches for curly-hair products and protective styles over the past year, says Attar. With a heftier focus on finding what works, Canadian spending on hair care is likely undergoing change as well. According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian household spent $89 on hair-care products and $515 on hair-grooming services in 2021.
For a snapshot of how much time and money we’re currently spending on hair, we asked seven people with different hair types, textures and needs to share why they’re making room in their budgets for their mane attractions.
Account executive Farishta Qadirian.
Farishta Qadirian, 29, account executive
How much I spend on my hair:
I get a professional balayage hair colour treatment once a year that costs around $430 with a cut. I love balayage because it’s very low maintenance – when it grows out it doesn’t look bad. On products, I spend about $400 annually. Every four days I alternate prestige shampoos based on my hair’s needs, such as bond repair or clarifying, and I’ve gone back to a drugstore mousse because it works the best for me.
About my hair:
I started colouring my hair in high school. Going through the rebellious phase as teenagers do, I wanted to add a few red streaks and experiment with my individuality. During COVID I got the really deep itch to do balayage. As a hijabi, I can talk about colouring my hair, but no one really gets it because they can’t visualize it. People always ask me: Why do you even get your hair coloured if not everyone can see it? But it’s for myself. At the end of the day, I can still see myself in the mirror at home. It’s definitely a self-care, self-love thing for me.
Afghan women take pride in our hair, caring for it and oiling it. Having long hair is the beauty standard, but my mom’s always broken those. She was the first in our family to chop her hair into a bob. Dyeing your hair in high school wasn’t the norm among my friends, but my mom never discouraged me from trying something different. That was a very unique experience I had in my household.
Kaia Naturals founder Mary Futher.
Mary Futher, 63, founder of Kaia Naturals
How much I spend on my hair:
Short hair is a lot of work and it’s expensive, I spend a few thousand dollars yearly for sure. I pay about $100 to get it cut every three to four weeks. It’s also high maintenance because I choose to colour it. I get it professionally done quarterly but I’ve got sparkling strands coming in, so I do root touch ups at home every three weeks, too. I use dry shampoo to add body to my fine hair, anything pomade-like weighs it down and makes it greasy.
About my hair:
I have an oval face shape and high cheekbones, and my short cut emphasizes that. I make sure that my stylist really crops in and around the ears so that the cut shows off my bone structure, which makes me look younger. I had really long hair back in university, and when I see those pictures now, I think I had the longest face you’ve ever seen. It dragged me down.
Before my current hairstyle, I had decided that a severe bob with bangs was going to be my thing. That was my trademark well into the early 2000s until a friend said to me: Enough with the Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction look! So, I thought let’s do the Halle Berry thing, because I loved her. I’ve never looked back since then; I will always have short hair.
Over the years I have adjusted the intensity of the shade, too. If I go too light, I look washed out. If I go too dark, I look hard and old. I just kind of try to find a happy medium now. And I find it interesting that some people perceive short hair to not be feminine. I have heard “men don’t like short hair” so many times. But I don’t give a damn. I’ll just do what I think makes me look better, and I feel good with short hair.
Film writer and director Vanessa Magic.
Vanessa Magic, 40, film writer and director of How to Stay Awake
How much I spend on my hair:
I’ve spent $300 to get braids done at the salon, and I’ve just found a mobile braider, A.J. from Woe Lotta Hair, which is a dream come true. But I usually do them myself because it’s more time efficient. For the hair extensions I like to add into my braids, and a big bottle of my favourite conditioning gel, it costs me $50. It takes me about three hours to braid my hair and I do it every three weeks, then take a break for a week. I’ll also use a rosemary and mint hair oil around my braids every couple of days to moisturize and keep my head from getting itchy.
About my hair:
I have shoulder-length 3C to 4A curly hair and have been braiding it to some extent since I was in my 20s. Knotless braids have been my signature hairstyle for the last few years, and I add some hair extensions because I like the length down to my mid-waist. I do a very simple braiding technique using a crochet needle for the extensions and taught myself from a YouTube tutorial.
Braids work well for my life on set as a filmmaker, and for my mom life and my Muay Thai training, because I need to put my hair into a ponytail. I’ve also been travelling more and braids are easy to care for. There’s no need for a whole suitcase of hair products.
There’s also this idea of a protective style becoming an inner protection, too. When my hair’s pinned back or tied up, I feel safe. No one’s going to say anything weird, hopefully, or try to touch it. But I still encounter microaggressions, like people asking if it’s “my” hair. I grew up using relaxer, but I always hated how long it took at the salon. And then there’s the burning sensation while getting it done. I’d wake up the next morning with blood on my pillowcase because of the scabs, all for a Eurocentric hair texture so I wouldn’t be made fun of at school. I would never in a million years do that now. There’s less stress with braids, and I feel chic and very confident with them in.
Push Media CEO and founder Kyle Verge.
Kyle Verge, 33, founder and CEO of Push Media
How much I spend on my hair:
I style it every day using a hairdryer, styling cream and a hairspray – if I don’t use one with strong hold it just falls apart. That takes about five minutes. I get my hair cut on average twice a month, and it’s roughly $50 each time.
About my hair:
My hair is really thick and grows fast, so I like to keep it short. I get a skin fade on the sides and then keep it a medium length on top. It’s a straightforward, classic men’s cut. Day to day, I’m often in large presentations with clients or at team events and keeping up with grooming is superimportant to the way I look and feel. It could just be a placebo effect, but if I get a haircut before a big pitch then I feel a lot more confident and do a better job presenting.
Minimal maintenance is key for me, I’m superbusy. And I need a style that can last quite a while, which is why I typically go supershort on the sides, because I’ll often be travelling for up to two weeks. Still, I invest more time in the styling process now than I used to. If you’d asked me five years ago, if I was willing to use a hairdryer every single day, I would have said no. Now I enjoy it and appreciate the process.
My stylist, Adrian Carew, had to show me everything – I had no idea what to do. He’s also helped me embrace my grey, which started about 10 years ago. At first, I thought it aged me, which it did, but trying to grow a business in your mid-20s is challenging and I found that having the salt-and-pepper hair lent itself well, professionally. It signalled a bit more maturity than maybe I had in terms of my age.
DJ and music producer Razaq El Toro.
Razaq El Toro, 37, DJ and music producer, member of Afrique Like Me and creator of Caféteca
How much I spend on my hair:
Every two to three months, I get my natural locs retwisted at home by Locs by Ama, a local travelling loctician. That takes an hour and a half to two hours, and costs around $150. When I need a two-strand twist or a deep wash I’ll go to a spot in the Finch neighbourhood. I also go to barber shops to maintain the shaved sides, spending $50 minimum every three weeks to a month, depending on when I have an event.
About my hair:
Something changed when I started growing out my locs seven years ago. I became a lot more confident in the sound I was trying to push, which is African, eclectic, electronic dance music with a lot of nostalgic influences from growing up in Lagos, Nigeria. My locs have helped me to be unapologetic about how I want to explore and play music, without wondering if it’ll be accepted. My music ties in with how I wear my hair and how I present myself. It all goes hand in hand.
Previously, I always had a very short buzz cut because my hair is supercoarse, even by Nigerian standards. People would make fun of the texture, calling it o ta ko ko, which means “very rough” in Yoruba. I developed a not-so-pleasant relationship with my hair, so I shaved it as low as possible. When I met my now good friend, the artist Oluseye, he had long locs and I thought his hair was sick. Finally, I had a reference point.
I started to watch a lot of YouTube videos, because I knew nothing about Black hair care, and began free-forming my hair, letting it grow and loc naturally. My hair-care routine is very minimal and in an ideal world I’d use hair oil daily, like I’ve been told. I wash and condition my hair when it feels extra dry. The people with the strongest locs I’ve seen didn’t do a lot to them, and I’ve adopted the mentality that less is more.
Lambo’s Deli partner Justin Leone.
Justin Leon, 34, co-owner of Lambo’s Deli
How much I spend on my hair:
I pay $100 every month and a half for upkeep cuts. Then, primarily, I just condition, condition, condition. I use a hydrating drugstore conditioner every time I shower; sometimes I’ll use a leave-in conditioner if I’m going to an event. I also love hair oils; I tend to use ones with an argan or coconut oil base from indie brands.
About my hair:
Before I started my business, I was in hard rock and metal bands for most of my 20s and had extremely long, very curly hair. People would call out “Weird Al” to me on the street. Having such voluminous curls was a lot of maintenance, but it looked great on stage. As soon as I opened the restaurant four years ago, I had to dial it back because I couldn’t have all that hair when I was working. But I still wanted to have fun with my hair.
My stylist Ali Harcourt, from Escapa Studios, calls this a Euro mullet. It’s characterized by short bangs, but is still a party in the back. As with being in a band, for me, it’s almost a performative aspect of the job of being an Italian deli owner. My hair helps me feel more confident. I adopt a persona, it’s not untrue to who I am, but it helps to express something to the world and to the guests who come in.
My restaurants, which are New York City-inspired bodegas, are an overload for your senses, and I just want people to have a good time when they come in. I’m trying to create that vibe and my hair is definitely a big part of that. And I don’t plan on changing my hairstyle anytime soon.
Performance artist, cultural leader and creator of Higher Hair and Sur-veil Salon Hima Batavia.
Hima Batavia, 40, performance artist and cultural leader, creator of Higher Hair and Sur-veil Salon
How much I spend on my hair:
I used to dye, blow dry and curl my hair, now it’s all natural and I air-dry it mostly. I spend much less time on my hair, but my hair-care routine is expensive. I use a shampoo and conditioner for curly hair, a curl cream and an Ayurvedic hair oil. And I really love using a charcoal scalp mask once a week for 10 to 15 minutes. To buy everything once is about $260, but it feels like a good place to invest in beauty products because I want my hair to be healthy, and I can see a legitimate difference using prestige products.
About my hair:
Growing up South Asian, my hair was trimmed monthly, and it was oiled, massaged and braided every week. I was blessed with beautiful hair that was celebrated for being long, thick and dark. As a teenager, I started dyeing it for fun with highlights. Then I started going gray around 17 years old and it was a huge internal breaking point for myself, and my mom. There was fear and confusion, “what did you do to your hair?!” It was a devastating experience. I felt like I [had done] something to ruin it. For the next 16 years I was in a constant cycle of getting it coloured at the salon, touching up the roots at home and wearing a hat for the weeks in between. My life was all about hiding the grey. Then, in 2017, I thought, “I cannot do this any more.”
Now, it’s so a part of me. And it has become part of my artistic practice, partially inspiring my interactive show at Summerworks that is set in a futuristic salon. There’s so much story that we hold in our hair. In going gray, I’ve reclaimed my feminine nature. My hair has become a place of agency, choice and power, which I think is the best way to embody your own femininity, versus a conditioned or constructed idea of how to exist in the world. I’m allowing it to be itself, to evolve and change as it’s going to.
All interviews have been condensed and edited.
