The blog

Professional answers to everyday questions within the hair and beauty industry.

Beauty trends of the future

Every salon and spa owner running a successful business is looking towards the next big thing to delight and retain clients, but with consumer behaviour changing faster than ever, driven by technology, science and cultural factors, recognising emerging trends and treatments that will help your business thrive needs constant attention. 

To help keep you informed of developments across professional beauty treatments we’d like to share research from the Mintel Group on the most significant beauty and personal care trends predicted to happen over the next few years. Looking across a spectrum of science and behavioural studies, we’ve found three trends which we think will have resonance with your business and the relationship you enjoy with your clients.  

1. Panorama of humanity

We’d like to start with a concept that has been present throughout history. Ying and Yang, the principle of inseparable and contradictory opposites. This push-pull concept between nature and science continues to complement the development of beauty products. On one side we have our own instinct and knowledge (nature) and on the other, a growing wealth of data (science) available to us which influences the purchasing decisions we make. 

With such an extensive amount of information available, it’s a struggle to know who and what to trust, which is why it’s so important for businesses to be transparent and insightful in all their communication. Consumers (your client) increasingly respond to the brands and businesses they trust, especially those which tap into their own instincts with the most relevant information available.

2. Authentic beauty

Transparency is a key factor driving the popularity of the clean beauty industry, with a growing body of consumers looking to eco-friendly and ethical brands they know they can trust. Findings from the British Soil Association support the importance of authenticity, ‘

The number of beauty products in Europe certified with Soil Association COSMOS doubled last year to reach more than 10,000 products across 794 brands, pushing the sector into its eighth consecutive year of growth’

Beauty professionals should make good use of the data they collect. This will help to build a valuable customer base. Client’s need to see a benefit and reward from the data you collect, so think about the data that you provide for them. This is all about using data to provide a personalised service for your client.

Beauty technology trends

3. The changing nature of personal interaction

The emergence of 5G in all our lives in the next few years is likely to shape treatments and services across the professional and consumer beauty segment. 5G offers the potential to merge our digital and physical worlds making us more informed and open to a more interactive experience than ever before.

The next big trend to emerge in the beauty industry is to do with our relationship between our offline and online world. We are living in a time where we are better connected digitally but having fewer opportunities to connect offline.

Each generation is spending more time online with some reports suggesting that Gen Z interact more with their friends on social media than in person.

People are starting to look for more ‘real life’ situations to connect with each other. With such a reliance on technology, there is a danger that people are only really meeting with each other at work and home. The so called ‘third space’ where people meet to build communities and socialise is increasingly missing from their lives. 

For a lot of people this third space could be the gym or a social club, but there are also ways that beauty businesses can become involved to encourage people to connect with each other.

Spa owners could run relaxation and experience days, whereas salon owners could offer product testing events or learning days to engage with customers. 

What is also starting to emerge is a disconnect between social media with trends like the body positivity movement. People are starting to step back and question their identity, while also looking at the negative effects of caring too much about what other people think about them.

Collectively we have all started to be more open about discussing mental health issues and acknowledge this pressure. For example, social media sites like Instagram are trialling getting rid of the ‘like’ button to help people to feel less directed by the opinions of others.

Businesses in the beauty industry have a responsibility, as we all do, to ensure that social media sites and forums are not making people feel pressurised and reaching for the unattainable.

Beauty brands can appeal to their customers by focusing on psychographics (opinions, behaviours and attitudes) as well as demographics (location, age gender).  

Personal interaction

Key points:

  • Give clients relevant and helpful data which can be used to support their instinctive decision to support the final purchasing decision
  • Review customers’ buying habits within the eco-friendly space
  • Use data to personalise your client’s experience
  • Consumers are looking to build their ‘real life’ and offline connections
  • People are starting to break free from societal pressures and look for their own ‘identity’
  • Nurture a truly authentic culture, encourage it to permeate and flourish across the whole of your business. Emphasise the importance of face to face interaction
  • Always be passionate about beauty. Share your passion and influence potential customers


The presence of technology will only grow, the counterbalance is to keep people connected to the real word by maintaining the ‘authentic, local everywhere’ ethos. Tomorrow’s successful beauty business has never had so much to offer their clients.

The fields marked with * are required.