Hair perfume for good-hair days

More choice, staying power and the fact that hair perfumes are a cheaper way to try a new fragrance or wear your favourite, make hair scents a hot topic. So go ahead, let your hair down and spritz away!

We didn’t really need a study to declare that our general mood is directly tied to whether we’re having a good-hair day or not. Duh.

But research reported in the perfumeflavorist.com from ProfilePro LLC, the parent company of Cloud 10 and HairRX brands, studied just that, declaring that of 1,000 millennial women surveyed, 59 percent said they wish they had someone else’s hair. When they broadened that age bracket and spoke with 1,000 women, aged 30-60, most shared that they were unhappy with their locks. And 80 percent said that it really does influence how they feel about themselves.

Enter the fragrance industry. Stepping up to make us all feel better about our tresses (and of course to expand big-beauty perfume portfolios everywhere), an increasing number of brands have added hair mists to their scented repertoire.

Of course, the hair perfume category isn’t new but it is growing. “Hair is now the fastest growing category in prestige beauty,” trumpets a recent article in trade journal WWD, pinpointing broader retail distribution, the wellness movement and new products as drivers for success. One look through the virtual shelves at Sephora.com supports that new-product fact, as we spy an ever-increasing selection of hair mists at all price points.

We’re supposing that the current trend began with the cult love of certain haircare products such as Oribe, with its citrus-meets-jasmine scent which enjoys a certain cult-like popularity among beauty insiders and devotées.

We’re fully onboard. Obviously.

Hair perfumes make sense from a fragrance layering point of view. For brand loyalists, whether you love Tom Ford or Tocca, Dior J’Adore or Yves Saint Laurent’s Mon Paris, one can perfume your locks with your favourite fragrance  after you’ve showered with their go-to brand’s shower gel and applied a scented body lotion too, all as part of a head-to-toe perfume-layering ritual.

Hair perfumes are also a great solution if you’re interested in trying a new scent without facing the typical prestige-perfume price tags. You see, most hair mists are priced lower than their sister EDTs and EDPs. Take for instance Viktor & Rolf Flowerbomb Hair Mist. It rings in at $65 on Sephora.com versus $140 for the 50-mL eau de parfum spray. Or Narciso Rodriguez for Her Hair Mist which bears a $50 price tag for the 30 mL bottle versus $112 for the 50-mL EDP.

And if you want to wear fragrance but don’t want to be so obvious—yes, those who work in fragrance-restricted workplaces, we’re talking to you—scented hair mists are a more subtle way to wear scent than your traditional eau de parfum.

For other times when you’re unapologetically perfumed and in social settings, we’re of the mind that the swish of one’s (subtly) scented locks is pretty captivating and stylish.

So go ahead, spritz away. And if you’re worried hair perfumes might be drying, try using a hair oil as part of the restorative part of your haircare regime and then brushing your locks with a hairbrush that has been sprayed with your chosen hair perfume. That oil also seems to help hold the fragrance in place so you get glossy tresses that both look and smell great. How’s that for a good-hair day?

PHOTO: iStock (deniskomarov)