Professional Products

In the constantly changing professional beauty market, the Division’s diverse brand portfolio and omnichannel strategy mean it is perfectly equipped to meet the expectations of consumers and hairstylists worldwide. Thanks to its powerful ability to innovate, L’Oréal supports hairdressers and salons as they carry out their digital and sustainable transformations.

How did the Professional Products Division reinvent itself, and what were the year’s main achievements? Omar Hajeri, President, Professional Products, looks back at the Division’s winning strategy in 2022.

Thanks to our profound transformation, our acceleration in emerging countries, our solid innovation plan and our talented teams, we’re ready to continue our growth momentum and are ready for the future.

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2022 Performance

The Professional Products Division recorded strong growth, at +10.1% like-for-like and +18.3% reported. The Division strengthened its position in the professional beauty market, maintaining its growth momentum across all geographic Zones, with outstanding performances in mainland China, India and Brazil. It continued to perform in all distribution channels – in salons, in its SalonCentric network in the United States and in e-commerce – again confirming the success of its omnichannel strategy. As the industry leader, the Division continued to involve all its partner hairstylists in the sustainable transition with the rollout of its “Hairstylists for the Future” programme.

  • +10.1% growth in Division sales, like-for-like
  • +20.9% growth in e-commerce sales
  • 2 billionaire brands: Kérastase and L’Oréal Professionnel
  • 2.5 million partner hairstylists worldwide

Highlights

Omnichannel distribution: a winning strategy for the Professional Products Division

The Professional Products Division pursued its transformation in a fastchanging growth market. Its strategy – underpinned by an omnichannel approach capitalising on the complementarity of online and offline distribution channels – has paid off.

The ecommerce boom

The Professional Products Division’s ecommerce sales have tripled since 2019, largely thanks to premium haircare products like Genesis and Blond Absolu by Kérastase. The Division partners with pure players like Tmall, in China, and Amazon. It also continues to expand distribution in the fragrance channel, with retailers such as Sephora. This provides new touchpoints for the brands, which also leverage the power of stylists’ advocacy and professional expertise to round out their effective omnichannel strategy.

A digital boost for stylists

Professional hairdressing is expanding more and more beyond the walls of traditional salons. Sixty percent of hairdressers in the United States are selfemployed. The same trend is sweeping across the United Kingdom. L’Oréal can count on its powerful, databased digital ecosystem to keep pace with the phenomenon and meet the latest needs of independent hairdressers. The Division has digitalised its training catalogue, which is now available in over a hundred countries via its online academy, L’Oréal Access. Stylists can use it to boost their skills thanks to a wealth of content, including tutorials and teaching modules focused on trends and Division products.

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The Division has also digitalised sales via the B2B ordering platform, L’Oréal Partner Shop. In the United States, Professional Products has innovated with the launch of its first digital marketplace exclusively for beauty professionals. The platform sells products by SalonCentric, a network of brickandmortar stores for professional hairstylists, as well as related products and services. The Division continues to support hairdressers as the market evolves.

A digital boost for consumers

At the same time, hair salons are trying new things to increase their appeal and footfall. New business models, such as shared salons, have started to catch on. Electric Space, in the heart of London’s Soho neighbourhood, is just one example.

The Division is spearheading the industry’s digital transformation with an approach that focuses simultaneously on both professionals and consumers. It now offers distribution services, educational resource platforms, connected tools for salons and virtual tryons, as well as online appointment booking via applications like Booksy, Planity and Wavy. Professional beauty is constantly reinventing itself.

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L’Oréal in the United States

Excellence and innovation in professional products

Premium products lead the way

Premiumisation is a broad beauty market trend that is also growing in professional products. L’Oréal is particularly wellpositioned in this segment, thanks to its powerful portfolio of professional brands and, in particular, its highend brand Kérastase, whose haircare products feature refined textures and fragrances. Its innovative, concentrated formulas draw on more than 110 years of haircare expertise harnessed by Research & Innovation teams. The Chroma Absolu range even goes beyond haircare to capitalise on the Group’s skincare knowledge and expertise. The teams started with a base of acids and active ingredients providing potent healing properties generally used in skincare to develop a haircare product that deeply repairs and nourishes coloured hair.

Curls in the limelight

The curl segment is ripe for major innovations, and Professional Products brands are capitalising on the advances and discoveries made by Research & Innovation to launch dedicated products and meet all beauty aspirations in an inclusive, universal way. For example, Kérastase has expanded its offering with the Curl Manifesto range, devoted to curly, very curly and coily hair, featuring premium ingredients like Manuka honey. As for L’Oréal Professionnel, the brand brought together a team of international experts to codevelop its hydrating Curl Expression range, which provides exceptional protection and control for curly and coily hair. Stylistapproved tests have proved its effectiveness. Matrix is also spearheading solutions for curls with Coil Color, an ammoniafree, vegan hair dye enriched with coconut oil to protect curls during the colouring process.

Disruptive innovations raising the bar

The brands always aim to do better in order to meet the expectations of both consumers and professionals.

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For those who want faster hair colour, Redken Color Gel Lacquers 10 Minute is a revolutionary liquid hair dye that provides optimal coverage for grey hair in just 10 minutes. Men who want to slow hair loss can count on Genesis Homme by Kérastase, which treats hair loss and instantly thickens hair for all men, strengthening the hair fibre over time, thanks to thickening agents and active ingredients like ginger root, creatine and aminexil. To best serve both consumers and professionals, innovation is the key to designing increasingly highperformance products.

Innovating for sustainable development

As part of L’Oréal for the Future, the Division launched the international Hairstylists for the Future programme to involve the whole hairdressing community in the green transition. L’Oréal supports salons as they strive to reduce water use, increase recycling and transition to renewable energy. For example, the Group has rolled out the use of the L’Oréal Water Saver showerhead to reduce water use in salons by up to 69%. This revolutionary innovation features patented water fragmentation technology to deliver smaller water droplets at higher speeds for optimal rinse performance.

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Research to boost inclusiveness

Social commerce: a boost for salons

Professional Products distributes via salons, pure players, the brands’ online stores and social commerce, whose popularity continues to climb. This omnichannel strategy has enabled the Division to continuously expand its reach. In India, the L’Oréal Salon Shop platform has been incredibly successful with hairdressers by providing them with digital tools for selling on social networks, such as a catalogue for distribution on WhatsApp and a dedicated social commerce site. By sharing their expertise and recommendations on how to use products via social media, hairstylists are becoming influencers in their own right. They are by far the best brand advocates for the Division.

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SalonCentric: the preferred partner for independent hairdressers in the US

SalonCentric is a powerful partner for hairstylists in the United States. Originally known for its brick-and-mortar stores and sales teams dedicated to reaching beauty professionals, SalonCentric launched its online sales platform and application SalonCentric Marketplace in 2022, providing digital access to a vast catalogue of products and services. Hairdressers receive support every step of the way on the path to purchase, learning about the brands, special offers, and events. The platform also includes a feature that allows them to create lists and manage their stock, leaving them more time to spend with clients and connect to their community. SalonCentric is a one-stop-shop for inspiration, education and innovation in both digital and physical formats.

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Responsible brands committed to social causes

As part of L’Oréal for the Future, each brand has committed to a particular social or environmental cause. Redken supports Hairdressers United: Stand Together Against Bullying, to make salons a welcoming environment for all, and particularly for the LGBTQIA+ community. Redken has partnered with It Gets Better to provide training opportunities and online campaigns in which hairdressers share their own personal stories to make the industry an inclusive place. Kérastase also announced its own cause, Power Talks, which aims to support mentoring programmes for women, to help young women develop self-confidence and reach their full potential.

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Our brands

  • L’Oréal Professionnel - Logo
  • Kérastase - Logo
  • Redken - Logo
  • Matrix - Logo
  • Biolage - Logo
  • Pureology - Logo
  • Pulp Riot - Logo
  • Shu Uemura Art of Hair - Logo
  • Mizani - Logo

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