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Don’t tell the other verticals I said this, but I have a soft-spot for Haircare.
Maybe it’s because, as a hair-having individual, I actually use this vertical’s products (shoutout to my brand of choice TRESemmé—maybe this time a brand will finally send me some swag because of this newsletter). But beyond that, I just think that Haircare consistently brings innovative products and campaigns to the table, along with a nice mix of brand identities and sub-verticals. Plus, there are always a few brands making big moves up the charts.
We’ll have more great haircare coverage.
I want to turn the spotlight on a few of those brands. While some are new to me and some are old favorites, each brand is proving, in its own way, the nuance and resiliency of the Haircare space. So whether you’re a Haircare fanatic or just in the market for a new shampoo, these brands have you covered.
The Beachwaver Co.
If this newsletter is known for anything besides for its shoehorned humor and desperate pleas for merch, it’s probably graphs of unabated YoY growth. Well, I’ve got a surprise for you folks today, and not of the April Fool’s variety: today, we’ve got at least one graph of abated growth. As was the case for our friends at The Beachwaver Co.:
The Beachwaver Co. EMV Performance, 2018 - 2023
Famed for its patented rotating curling irons, The Beachwaver Co. declined from 2018 to 2019, and then 2019 to 2020, before rocketing off and never looking back.
The brand’s figures for 2023 are pretty crazy (with descriptions like that, you can tell that I’m a great writer):
- 155% YoY EMV growth ($44.7M EMV)
- 687% YoY Impressions growth (1.3B Impressions)
- 239% YoY Engagements growth (26.2M Engagements—talk about a marathon)
And yet, for all that growth, The Beachwaver Co.’s Instagram EMV actually declined by 5% YoY, closing out at $10.9M EMV.
Astute readers will note that this represents less than 25% of the brand’s EMV, an incredibly low proportion for Instagram, which typically accounts for 50% of brands’ EMV at minimum. So what’s making up the gap for The Beachwaver Co.? You don’t have to be a particularly astute reader to guess: TikTok contributed $31.2M of that $44.7M EMV—an astonishing 70% share.
Apart from being maybe the single highest TikTok share I’ve ever seen for any brand, this total is particularly impressive because it represents a change for The Beachwaver Co., which didn’t invest as heavily in TikTok in preceding years:
How The Beachwaver Co.'s TikTok Usage Has Changed Between 2021 - 2023
In 2023, The Beachwaver Co. became an absolute fixture on TikTok: as a general hashtag, as a source for discount and giveaways, and in #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt content. With a dedicated partner community and a mastery of thrift-minded TikTok content, the brand is set to continue making waves for a long time to come.
Briogeo
I told you that I’d have some unconventional graphs for you this time around—not the usual uninterrupted growth—so here you go.
Briogeo's EMV Performance 2018-2023
Don’t call it a comeback! I’m not sure why, because it’s clearly a comeback, but I guess it’s not nice to point that out.
After surging from 2018 to 2020, Briogeo entered a slump in 2021 to 2022. That’s okay—we all stumble sometimes. Because Briogeo bounced back from that slump, rising to new heights in 2023.
How did the brand turn things around?
- Giveaways. The perennially popular strategy overindexed for Briogeo, ranking amongst the brand’s top-earning pieces of content throughout 2023. These high-performing posts often stemmed from…
- Brand Partners. You know the Rawitz Rule: if a brand’s top hashtag is partner-related, rather than a generic brand name (or, God forbid, #ad), then that brand is probably experiencing EMV growth. Sure enough, Briogeo’s partners were tireless in 2023, with #BriogeoPartner inspiring $5.8M EMV as the brand’s No. 1 hashtag. In comparison, #Briogeo drove just $3.0M EMV.
- TikTok. While it wasn’t quite as lopsided as the total for The Beachwaver Co., Briogeo still saw a larger-than-average haul from TikTok. The short-form video platform contributed $6.0M of Briogeo’s $36.6M EMV. Though this proved just 16% of the brand’s total, it was a 152% YoY growth, more than double the 71% YoY growth seen for Briogeo’s Instagram total.
These are some of the key factors I’ve seen contributing to brands’ growth not just in haircare, but across all verticals. Briogeo exemplifies these trends, and has come all the way back, cementing itself as a Haircare brand to watch.
Shark Haircare
There’s a new boss in these waters. Shark Haircare is making a name for itself in 2023, and bringing us back to those classic uninterrupted growth graphs. The twist here is that Shark Haircare was only founded in 2021, so the graph is a bit more constrained than usual.
Shark Haircare EMV Performance, 2018 - 2023
Here we have a testament to the power of product loyalty. Shark Haircare’s Flex Style Air Styling and Drying System has seized the conversation in Haircare, powering $12.9M EMV in 2023, or 45% of the brand’s $28.9M EMV total. This is a remarkable total for a single product—again, this is a bit of a ‘trust me, bro’ moment, but you (by which I mean I) almost never see one offering responsible for such a high share of a brand’s hype.
In a wise move, Shark Haircare is already diversifying its offerings, debuting the SmoothStyle companion product to the tune of $1.8M EMV. Both products made such a pronounced impact thanks to—you guessed it—giveaways. Content mentioning ‘giveaway’ accounted for $3.6M EMV, well above even Briogeo’s total.
But before I identify TikTok as the source of Shark Haircare’s growth, let’s go to the data:
Shark Haircare Social Media Channel EMV Breakdown 2023
Sorry, TikTok. That’s some impressive growth, but looks like you can’t claim responsibility for this one. Instagram’s still got a thing or two to say.
Vegamour
Your favorite vegan hair growth brand and mine, Vegamour brings us at last our full, uninterrupted, 2018-to-present EMV growth chart. We’ve been waiting for too long—let’s see it!
Vegamour EMV Performance 2018 - 2023
Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.
Compared to the other brands I’ve mentioned, Vegamour got more play from hair routines, rather than giveaways. But in other respects, the brand hewed fairly close to the familiar growth formula. It’s hashtag game was extremely strong: #VegamourPartner garnered $7.7M EMV as the brand’s No. 1 2023 hashtag, accounting for almost one-third of Vegamour’s $24.2M EMV total.
But before I go and crown TikTok, as I did for The Beachwaver Co., or reverse course and give credit to Instagram’s staying power, as I did for Shark Haircare, I’ll note that the channel situation for Vegamour is a bit more (mour?) complicated. Basically, the brand saw a decently large haul from TikTok, but its Instagram EMV saw greater growth overall.
Vegamour Social Media Channel EMV Breakdown 2023
With creators on both Instagram and TikTok touting the wonders of Vegamour’s GRO line, the brand has secured impressive EMV from multiple streams.
More broadly, when we look at all these brands and the reasons behind their momentum, we see several key patterns, but also iterations within those patterns. Despite the common threads linking these growth stories, each one is distinct, and exciting in its own way. In other words, these brands serve as a perfect encapsulation of the Haircare space at large.
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