How the hair and beauty industry is adapting to a down economy
Tuesday, 16 June 2026
Hairdressers, beauticians and industry wholesalers say New Zealand’s hair and beauty industry is holding up surprisingly well given consumers have a lot less discretionary income to spend than usual.
More than 2500 industry professionals attended the Hair & Beauty Expo, the country’s annual industry conference, over the weekend - a strong turnout, owner and organiser Shaughan Woodcock said.
While from a financial point of view, the industry - worth an estimated $1.4 billion to the local economy - is not growing, it is not declining either, said James Turner, managing director of Cosmetologists NZ, which supplies 2000 beauty salons and professionals across the country with tools and products.
“Despite everything that's going on in the world, we're still surviving. The industry is not going anywhere, it's just innovating and changing; the way people approach beauty products is very different these days.
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Turner told The Post that consumers were increasingly expecting more from their products, and that features once limited to professional‑only treatments were now available over the counter.
“You can go into a pharmacy now, and buy a professional, dentist-grade teeth-whitening kit. You can buy a brow-tinting kit using salon-grade ingredients that you never used to be able to get over the counter before. It's almost like some of the drugs we get now at the pharmacy, we're bypassing the doctor. It's effectively the same for the industry, we're bypassing the professional.”
Turner believes the change has been lucrative for the industry, because consumers also need the knowledge to use the products they now have access to.
He said they were becoming mentors and advisers to clients rather than the gatekeepers they once were, when salons insisted on regular visits and controlled access to professional‑only products. With everything now available online, they no longer held that gatekeeping role.
“Our job is to impart knowledge.”
According to Hair & Barber New Zealand, the hair and beauty industry is flat or stagnant, and would likely be in decline if not for innovation and social media driving demand for new products and services. Depressed economic conditions and reduced consumer spending were otherwise putting pressure on the sector.
Sales to a younger cohort were keeping the sector buoyant, said board member Janine Simons.
“Post-Covid, or the last six years, has been extremely hard for businesses, especially for small businesses like hairdressers and barbers.
Simons said clients had less disposable income, but would still spend if they felt they were getting value.
He said that for a long time hairdressing and barbering had been able to rely on creativity and steady client demand, but that operators now had to focus much more on the business side.
“Instead of being a technician that's bought themselves a job, they're having to focus on being the business owner and understanding their numbers.”
Simons said the biggest challenge for the industry, made up of about 5000 hairdressers and barbers, was finding and retaining experienced and qualified staff.
Kylie Lowe of Italian haircare brand Milkshake, which has been selling in New Zealand for seven years, attends the Expo every second year saying it was important for brand recognition.
Milkshake’s business was growing year-on-year and it had not seen a pull back in spending.
“We've actually had our two biggest months sales-wise in the last two months,” said Lowe, adding that a lot of its growth was coming from inquiries through social media.
“There’s definitely lots of opportunity, as long as you are putting yourself out there, putting the effort in, and working with your salons and your clients.”