Start Your Own Empire
Manufacturing Cosmetics, Makeup, HairCare,
Sanitizers & Detergents

Private Label Hair Care ... Start Your Own Business

Private Label Hair Care – from shampoos and conditioners to serums and sprays – is big business.

If you own a hairdressing salon, having your own private label hair care line will give you significant prestige and profits.

If you’re looking for a high profit business, manufacturing private label hair care could make you a fortune.

In this article, I’m going to address the main reasons why, as a hair salon owner, you need to make your own shampoo and conditioner and create your “own label” hair care products.

If you’re not in the hairdressing industry, but you’re interested in discovering how to make shampoo and conditioner to start your own business, these same factors will provide excellent marketing angles to help you sell private label hair care to salon owners.

Click here to discover the trade secret formulations for how to make shampoo and hair care products.

make hair care products

10 Compelling Reasons to Create your Own Brand of Shampoos & Conditioners (or start your own business manufacturing private label hair care for salon owners)

1. Brand Loyalty

Do you really want to recommend and sell products that your clients can buy somewhere else – supermarket shelves, drugstores, discount stores, cosmetic websites, not to mention other hair salons? Wouldn’t you rather offer them an exclusive product they can’t find anywhere but YOUR salon?

After all, what’s wrong with YOUR brand? Your salon has its own unique identity. You have a special relationship with your clients – your name is your most valuable asset. Your clients respect your knowledge – you can be a powerful influence on their buying decisions because they trust your advice. Channel that power into building your own brand and your own valuable brand equity.

Read this article for more valuable advice about the benefit of private label cosmetics, private label skin care and private label hair care.

2. Image & Prestige

If, as a salon owner, you have an established salon name (your own “brand”) which you want to build on (maybe you want to start a chain of salons or create a franchise) making your own line of private label hair care products immediately puts you “out there”.

Or, if you’re in the process of establishing your salon’s name, and want to develop an identity in the market, promoting your own range of private label hair care products is perfect for creating a presence.

If you want to start a business as a private label hair care manufacturer, you’ll find many salon owners will love the prestige of being able to say “I have my own brand“.

 3. Pricing & Profits

Instead of putting even more money into the hands of the global conglomerates, you could be putting the profits into your own pocket. And the profits to be made from private label hair care products are enormous.

If you engage private label hair care manufacturers to do the job for you, you will still be better off, but you won’t be making the maximum possible profits as if you were making your own shampoo and conditioner. It’s so easy to make shampoo and hair care products,  you’ll wonder why you’ve been missing out on making the money yourself. With the AustraLab formulations, you’ll be making top quality, professional products.

Every time you recommend a L’Oreal product (or any other brand) to your clients, you’re providing priceless free advertising for one of the wealthiest manufacturing companies in the world.

And what do they do for you in return?

Major manufacturers usually don’t play fair with hairdressing salons. Sales reps have their “favorites” – they give these salon owners special discounts and deals, which other salon owners never know about. There are different pricing structures, depending on how much you buy and how much your sales rep likes you.

If you don’t believe these companies employ less then ethical tactics, take a look here and here.

All business owners are in business to make money – there’s no reason not to maximize your profits.

4. Independence

When you make your own private label hair care, you have a much greater level of control over your business. Why be dictated to by greedy conglomerates?

5. Control Formulations

Big hair care manufacturers are constantly reinventing their product lines – adding new shampoos, conditioners, styling aids and finishing products, in some cases discontinuing certain items, changing formulations, changing fragrances, packaging, etc. Sometimes they discontinue an entire range and replace with it with something “bigger and better”.

Was there anything wrong with the previous products? Is the new range really “bigger” or “better”? Usually not – the change is really just a marketing gimmick to entice customers to buy something “new”.

But what does that mean for hairdressing salons?

A. You could be stuck with the “old” stock on your shelves. When there’s a new product range coming off the production line, the big cosmetic manufacturing giants will get rid of all the remaining stock of the previous line by giving hairdressers a seemingly “great deal”, enticing them to buy a large quantity of products for a big discount. Of course, they neglect to mention that the new range is arriving next month (along with a huge TV and magazine advertising campaign, to ensure customers will want the new range – not the old stock).

B. As a hair salon owner, you’ve been promoting, recommending and selling particular products which both you and your clients love.

Suddenly, the manufacturer pulls the plug on this range. In marketing terms, it’s become boring – time for something new!

Where does that leave you, the hair salon owner? You and your staff are in the position of having to start all over again, building trust with your clients for a new range of hair care products.

Maybe your clients will like them, maybe they won’t. But the fact remains, you didn’t have any say in it.

When you make your own private label hair care, you and only YOU decide when (or if) to change the formulations of the products you sell.

6. Control Ingredients & Quality

It’s true that most hair care products comprise about 80% water (now you know why there’s so much profit in those bottles). In most cases, the active ingredients – those additives that can really make a difference in such aspects as shine, conditioning, smoothness, softness, etc – are used in the smallest possible amount, so as to maximize profit margins. The higher the concentration of water (or aqua/acqua/eau – as it is usually printed on labels), the higher the profits.

You can make your own private label shampoo and hair care and, with the addition of just a small percentage more of the active ingredients in the formula, you can create a vastly superior product.

And in most cases, you won’t need to sell your products at higher prices than the competition. Just by increasing the percentage of actives from 1% to 2%, you can create a noticeably improved product without a noticeable increase in manufacturing cost.

You can decide what fragrances, pigments, botanical extracts you want in your products. With a bit of experience under your belt, you’ll even be able to develop and formulate your own, truly unique range of private label hair care products.

7. Control Packaging

Choose private label packaging and labels to suit the image of your salon – classic and elegant, retro or chic, it’s up to you. Every time your client reaches for shampoo under the shower, or styles their hair, they see YOUR salon name on the label.

8. Control Marketing

Promote the image YOU want for your products – not what the manufacturing companies want you to have.

Every recommendation for a product with your name on it, is a recommendation for your business.

 9. Stock products that Sell – in the quantity you require

Why do the big hair care manufacturers make so many different products – so many different shampoos, conditioners, styling aids, etc?

It’s true that consumer’s needs vary – there’s thick hair, fine hair, curly hair, oily scalp, dry scalp, etc.

Different people like different sorts of products. Some consumers want to make their hair more curly, some want to tame their curls.

Some like bubble gum scents, some prefer fragrance-free.

But the main reason the manufacturing companies make so many different products is not for the sake of consumers (as they would like you to believe – sorry, but they’re not that altruistic). The main reason for offering so many products is to make as much money as possible from hair salon owners (and pharmacies, supermarkets, other retailers, etc). Most cosmetic manufacturing companies require that hair salons stock the entire range of a product line – you can’t just buy what you like and what you think will sell.

What this means, is that many salons have stock sitting on their shelves, for which they have little or no market.

Stock on shelves is money on shelves, if it is not turned over.

When you make your own private label hair care, you can make big batches or small batches – whatever you require.

10. Diversification of Income

Diversify – never put all your eggs in one basket – it’s common-sense advice from the experts.

The big manufacturers – such as L’Oreal and P&G – make products under myriad different brands. If one product fails, there’s thousands more to fill the gap. You can read more about that here.

What about you as a hair salon owner?

Have you thought about life beyond hairdressing?

Making private label hair care for your own business not only offers an excellent additional income source, it can easily be developed into a business of its own.

With knowledge of the hairdressing industry, you could easily become a full time private label hair care manufacturer. And you can use the same setup to produce an entire range of cosmetics, makeup, cleaning products and detergents.

Click here to discover how to make shampoo and start a high profit business.

A personal story … How private label hair care made me rich … 

Many years ago, I was approached by a well-known, high-profile celebrity hairdresser. He was fed up with the treatment he received from hair product manufacturers.

For many years he had been a staunch L’Oreal supporter, flying their flag, recommending their products exclusively to his clients. His recommendations sold products by the truckload. He used their products exclusively in his salon – from shampoos, conditioners and treatments to styling gels, sprays and serums. Almost every client took home three or four products.

L’Oreal sales representatives assured him that, although they did sell some products under various brands in supermarkets and pharmacies, they would never sell Elnett hairspray outside of exclusive salons. He sold more Elnett than hundreds of salons combined.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before that promise was broken. Once Elnett became an established brand (thanks primarily to the efforts of hairdressers), L’Oreal turned the tables and offered it for sale in pharmacies. To add insult to injury, they sold it to pharmacies for much less than they sold it to salons – meaning pharmacies discounted the price and took sales away from salons. Hairdressers had done all the hard work (free of charge) making this particular hairspray a market leader, so that L’Oreal could reap maximum benefit for minimum effort. After another year or two, L’Oreal refused to sell this particular hairspray to salons, making it a pharmacy-exclusive product.

Why? Probably because pharmacy chains are big customers, with much more business muscle than hairdressers – they buy many brands of cosmetics, makeup and hair products (all manufactured by L’Oreal, under a variety of different brand names). Pharmacies don’t like competition from hairdressers and have sufficient strength to pressure manufacturers such as L’Oreal to provide them with exclusive supply agreements.

Fact is, L’Oreal and other conglomerates are concerned about one thing – Profits. They don’t care about the “little guys” – the hair salon owners who promote their products and help give them credibility in the marketplace.

After finally tiring of L’Oreal, this hairdresser then began to stock another brand – Matrix.

Matrix hair care products were introduced to the market as a strictly “salon only” range of products that would “never” be available anywhere but recognized salons, who received professional training in the use of the products. They promised to make a small but effective line of products – no need to stock twelve shampoos, eight rinse-out conditioners, five leave-in conditioners, eleven styling products, four treatments …

Well, a few years later, L’Oreal bought the Matrix brand and … you can probably guess the end of that story.

To cut the story short, L’Oreal’s loss was my gain. I produced a range of private label hair care which saw both this hairdresser and me make a LOT of money.

You can do the same  – click here to discover the secrets of private label hair care.

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11 Responses

  1. Thanks Sam,

    Am a hair dresser and I have been thinking of this idea for a long time, but now that you have given me the encouragement through your article, am going to start in no due time.

    Once again thanks for you article.

    Cheers

    1. Hey Christiana,
      Thanks for reading and taking the time to add your thoughts.
      I think you’ll find that making your own products can be as rewarding in creativity as it is profits – it’s a really enjoyable process being able to choose your own ingredients and fragrances.

  2. Hi Sam – I would be interested in starting a line of shampoos/conditioners/colognes for the pet industry. Ive been a groomer for 10 years and had originally left my previous job because I thought I might want to start a grooming business. Lately though Im thinking of going in a different direction — exactly what you are talking about but for pets. Is there a formula for pets with problem skin? Allergies, itchy skin etc? Thanks, Linda

    1. Hi, The AustraLab manuals provide the formulations to successful make your own professional grade cosmetics, makeup, skin and hair care products.

  3. Dear Sam,

    Thank you so much for this interesting article! I have been thinking about my own shampoo but I just dont know how and where to start.
    How do you produce, where, what do you put in and how do you make it different since there are so many products?!

    Could yiu please give me some advice.

    Many thanks!

    Claudia

    1. Hi Claudia,
      The AustraLab manuals and formulations can help you to get started easily – from manufacturing procedures to making of products. You will also find that it is easy to customize your own products with different ingredients, oils, fragrances, etc – so they stand out from the crowd.

  4. Very happy I came across this site and read your article. I am a hairstylist and have been since 2001 so I know the ends and outs, this s something I’m working on know Thank you

    1. Hi Chermaine,
      Making hair care products is certainly a great career for anyone involved in the hairdressing industry – you’ll find more interesting ideas in the “Making Shampoo & Hair Care” category of this website.

    1. Hi Latanya,
      Making shampoos, conditioners and styling products is a great way to start your own manufacturing business.

Leave a Reply to Linda Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

© 2020  AustraLab

11 Responses

  1. Thanks Sam,

    Am a hair dresser and I have been thinking of this idea for a long time, but now that you have given me the encouragement through your article, am going to start in no due time.

    Once again thanks for you article.

    Cheers

    1. Hey Christiana,
      Thanks for reading and taking the time to add your thoughts.
      I think you’ll find that making your own products can be as rewarding in creativity as it is profits – it’s a really enjoyable process being able to choose your own ingredients and fragrances.

  2. Hi Sam – I would be interested in starting a line of shampoos/conditioners/colognes for the pet industry. Ive been a groomer for 10 years and had originally left my previous job because I thought I might want to start a grooming business. Lately though Im thinking of going in a different direction — exactly what you are talking about but for pets. Is there a formula for pets with problem skin? Allergies, itchy skin etc? Thanks, Linda

    1. Hi, The AustraLab manuals provide the formulations to successful make your own professional grade cosmetics, makeup, skin and hair care products.

  3. Dear Sam,

    Thank you so much for this interesting article! I have been thinking about my own shampoo but I just dont know how and where to start.
    How do you produce, where, what do you put in and how do you make it different since there are so many products?!

    Could yiu please give me some advice.

    Many thanks!

    Claudia

    1. Hi Claudia,
      The AustraLab manuals and formulations can help you to get started easily – from manufacturing procedures to making of products. You will also find that it is easy to customize your own products with different ingredients, oils, fragrances, etc – so they stand out from the crowd.

  4. Very happy I came across this site and read your article. I am a hairstylist and have been since 2001 so I know the ends and outs, this s something I’m working on know Thank you

    1. Hi Chermaine,
      Making hair care products is certainly a great career for anyone involved in the hairdressing industry – you’ll find more interesting ideas in the “Making Shampoo & Hair Care” category of this website.

    1. Hi Latanya,
      Making shampoos, conditioners and styling products is a great way to start your own manufacturing business.

Leave a Reply to Linda Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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