MANE ADVANTAGE: INDIAN TRESSES RULE THE WORLD
Sourish Bhattacharyya (HT City)

India is home to 16 per cent of the world’s population, yet Indians own 28 per cent of the world’s hair. If it seems like a statistical curiosity, rest assured it’s not the work of some boffin having a bad hair day.

As D. Shivakumar, Hindustan Lever’s Business Head, Hair Care, explains, “The average length of an Indian woman’s hair is 54 cm, compared to the global average of 28 cm, and that explains the numbers. For us, hair probably presents the biggest business opportunity in the next 20 years,” says the man whose product portfolio of five shampoos commands a whopping 61 per cent share of the Rs 900-crore market.

Sunsilk may be a Lakmé India Fashion Week co-sponsor, but our women still use a lot more oil than their western sisters, which is why hair oil is a Rs 1,600-crore business. “It’s a great conditioner,” admits Shivakumar, whose portfolio also includes a hair oil, “but it leaves a stickiness that gathers grime.”

The Indian mane, therefore, requires a shampoo that has hair oil’s conditioning qualities combined with elements to strip the natural oiliness of our hair, leaving us with a bouncy top. “Foreign shampoos don’t have these qualities because they haven’t been formulated for Indian conditions,” comments Shivakumar. “They’re good at conditioning, but bad at oil-stripping.”

Till 1987, pricing inhibited the shampoo market’s growth, but with the introduction of sachets for Re 1 (superior technology has brought down their price to 50 paise), which account for 70 per cent of all shampoos produced in the country, business has gathered steam.

The challenge for Shivakumar is to get people to use shampoos more frequently so that he attains his objective of making the shampoo business double in the next five years. That explains the battery of hairdressers Sunsilk has roped in to endorse its shampoos at the Fashion Week. “A hairdresser is a very important part of a woman’s life,” explains Shivakumar. “So we’ve employed the best talent to add authority to the brand.” Neeko has got the right credentials (he’s responsible for Halle Berry’s tresses), Jawed Habib has the right genes (his grandfather was Lord Mountbatten’s favourite), and so does Samantha Kochhar, who has blossomed out of her mother’s shadow.