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DIY grooming on the rise in India

by Arun Shirishkar

Despite India entering the Unlock 2.0 phase, there is a set of audience who still prefer DIY self-grooming over visiting their salon and parlour.

Whilst the world has been coping with the fall-out of going into lockdown for many months, we are now finally entering the unlock phase across most countries. During this phase, the growth and boom in self- grooming products and moving towards being DIY home treatments has been huge.

As we all know, ‘looking good from the outside plays an important role in boosting self-confidence’ within a person. But with salons and parlours being shut for around 4 months in India people were struggling to meet even their basic beauty needs. And this was the phase which initiated a surge in demand of DIY self-grooming products, which continues to be witnessed despite salons and parlours receiving a green signal to open from Central and State Governments.  

Industry Speaks
“COVID 19 and the resulting national lockdown saw a paradigm shift in our business as consumption patterns changed. With salons and other professional grooming services shut, consumers started looking for DIY home grooming solutions. Our home grooming products were flying off the shelf on all leading e-commerce platforms which clearly showed the advent of home grooming in India,” says Mr Balaji Purushothaman, Managing Director and Member of Board at Wahl India Grooming Products.

However, experts believed that consumers might go back to salons and parlours over a while, but in the current scenario the consumer sentiments are weak and there is still hesitation for paying visits to the salons and parlours. Says, Mr Waqar Ali, Managing Director at ASBAH Beauty Products, “the concept of contactless grooming is taking up where the consumers are opting for DIY grooming products. There will also be an expansion in the home parlours and services as compared to the salons.”

New launches and e-commerce market
According to e-commerce marketplaces like Flipkart, “there will be a new and interesting trend where we have seen a surge in consumers buying grooming kits online. And as per our statistics, there has been an increase of almost 2.5X in the shopping of trimmers, epilators, body, and nose grooming kits. And major demand is from tier 2 cities like Indore, Ahmadabad, etc”. 

As per Mr Rohit Sood, Business Head – Asia Pacific, Andis, “The DIY home grooming products saw a huge surge as compared to 2019 and 2020 pre-COVID times. This demand is here to stay for a long time and hence we are shortly introducing a new range of consumer products in high and low-price domain soon. Also, a new retail line will be launched by Q4”.

Online Education
Even in these tough business times, the beauty brands have taken the onus of educating and training their end customers with their home grooming products. When contacted Mr Rayed Merchant, Director, IKONIC, said, “we’ve conducted various live sessions on our official Instagram handle with leading experts that keep our clients, customers and followers engaged and educated about the beauty industry, giving them insights and novel tips regarding the latest trends. More than merely sharing product details we also believe in increasing customer awareness about maintaining the products and basic hygiene factors that go behind their maintenance.” 

Recently, Dyson India also partnered with Professional Beauty India’s #PBQuaranLive series as part of their “Dyson Hair At Home” campaign bringing together celebrity hairstylist, Adhuna Bhabani of BBlunt India and the ‘Dyson Airwrap’ to showcase the power of styling from home. 

Conclusion
“The beauty and grooming industry has established its importance and cuts across age, gender, demographics and psychographics. We have not faced a complete shutdown, but things are moving significantly slower owing to the lockdown. But with the shutters finally lifting from salons and grooming parlours we are highly hopeful about seeing the industry bouncing back with the same pizzazz and glam.” Says Mr Rayed. 

As we wait for the glam to bounce back, there is no doubt that a new culture of ‘DIY Beauty and Grooming’ is evolving and likely to stay for the long haul.

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