14 June 2021 How to Create Your Own Branded Hair Products (The Ultimate Guide)

If you’re a barber or small business owner looking to create your own line of branded hair products then look no further! In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know to make your next men’s grooming endeavor a profitable one.

How to create your own branded hair products

1. Finding your brand’s purpose

In today’s consumer-centric world brands need a purpose. No longer can you just copy-paste the look and feel of an existing brand and expect consumers to fall in love. But finding (or creating) your brand’s purpose is easier said than done. So how exactly does one go about finding a purpose for their branded hair products?

Start by writing down the mission and vision for your brand. Grab a pen and paper and get ready to do some soul searching. Both should be no longer than 1-3 sentences each.

Mission: Describe what it is that your brand is trying to achieve. I.g. There’s no body wash catering to men living a vintage lifestyle and it’s our mission to fill that void.

Vision: Where do you see your brand going in the long term? Do you own a small-town barbershop and are you creating your branded hair products to sell in your own shop or do you have the ambition to go global? I.g. It’s our vision to be the number one supplier of body wash to men living the vintage lifestyle all around the world.

Now that your purpose is clear we can move on to step 2!

Want to start your own unique cosmetics brand without high upfront costs? Follow our Branded Hair Products process and start your brand today!

2. Knowing your customers

You may feel like creating products solely based on what you want, I know I did. Nevertheless, I highly encourage you to talk to your potential customers. I didn’t do enough of this when I first started my line of branded hair products and it was incredibly difficult to find customers. Why? Because I had to find customers for my products instead of having products for my customers. Believe me, it’s a lot easier the other way around. So don’t skip this step!

So how do you go about finding your target customers? If you own a barbershop this shouldn’t be too difficult as you already have clients coming in for your services. But I do believe you should still give it some thought. I personally like to create what we in the marketing world call a ‘buyer persona’. Here’s how to create one:

1. What’s your persona’s name?
2. How old is your persona?
3. What’s your persona’s gender?
4. What’s your persona’s job title?
5. How much money does your persona make?
6. Where does your persona shop?
7. What does your persona like to do?
8. Where does your persona like to go on holiday?

Some of these questions may seem trivial at first. Why would I need to know where my persona goes on holiday if I’m selling branded hair products? But these are important details for you to get a better understanding of your customers. Say your persona likes to travel to very hot and humid places. Creating a cream pomade might not sound like such a good idea huh?

3. Creating your products & finding a manufacturer

With all the boring stuff out of the way, you can finally focus on the fun part, creating your very own branded hair products! But how do you go about doing this? Where can you find a manufacturer and how much does it cost? This part of the article addresses all those questions and more.

	Minimum order	Price	Customisability
Do it yourself	None	$	High
Our Branded Hair Products method	24pcs.	$	Medium-high
Traditional manufacturer	1000-2000pcs.	$$$	Low-high depending on the manufacturer

Making branded hair products yourself

Formulating a hair product is something anybody can do, formulating a good hair product isn’t so easy. Depending on your chemistry skills you can try and make the products yourself, I did this when I first started out and it worked quite well. Do keep in mind that figuring out how to formulate cosmetics yourself can get expensive if you don’t know what you’re doing so make sure to do your research!

Here’s what you need if you want to formulate your own products:

• A formula to start with, if you don’t have one you can easily find a basic formula online. Use this as a base and tinker with it until the product is to your liking.
• An electric hand blender (here’s one from Amazon).
• A big pot.
• Raw materials (Making Cosmetics has a wide range of ingredients).

IMPORTANT: With regards to at home manufacturing you should take the following two issues into account:

1. Formulas can change when the overall volume of the batch increases.
2. If you’re located in the EU the regulations are a lot stricter on how cosmetics can be manufactured. Please consult your country’s industry association or contact an expert on EU regulations.

Alternatively, you can go and find a manufacturer to help you create your branded hair products.

Finding a manufacturer

Finding a manufacturer to partner with can be very difficult. Good manufacturers are hard to find and most of them don’t allow you to customize your products and/or they have a very high minimum order quantity (around 1000-2000 pcs. per product). The upfront investment is more often than not too high for small brands that are just starting out.

That’s why we started Branded Hair Products by Mr. Coté. It’s our aim to bridge the gap and give small brands the opportunity to create customized grooming products for the low minimum order quantity of just 24 pcs. per product. With us, you can choose which products you’d like (we can make anything from hair care to eau de toilettes), what oils/extracts you want in them, what packaging you want and you can even create your own fragrance from scratch! Find out how we can help you and contact us here.

4. Designing your packaging

Branding and marketing are everything when it comes to men’s grooming products. Your product could be the most amazing product ever, but if your customers can’t find it it’s all been for nothing. Whether it’s e-commerce or retail, your customers have to notice you. So what options do you have when it comes to packaging design?

Designing the packaging yourself

Unless you’re very artsy (tattoo artist, designer, etc.) I wouldn’t recommend designing the packaging of your branded hair products yourself. But if you do feel particularly creative here are some things to keep in mind:

• When designing your labels, always make sure you use royalty-free icons. Don’t just download graphics from Google.
• Always use a template or measure your bottle/jar to make sure the label fits.
• Use vector graphics, these can be scaled without losing resolution.

Hiring a cheap vs expensive designer

You might feel tempted to hire a designer from Fiverr, but is it worth it? No, at least not when it comes down to your packaging. In my experience, you’re better off saving your money and hiring a more experienced designer. Quality design work that perfectly encapsulates your brand makes people automatically more curious. At Branded Hair Products by Mr. Coté we only work with top-tier designers.

5. Involve your customers

This point is very relevant if you’re the owner of a barbershop. Handing out product samples or asking your customers for opinions is a great way to build excitement around your new branded hair products. Involving your customers in the initial stages of development is best as they can see your products evolve. When done right your customers will feel some sort of attachment to your brand long before it’s available for purchase.

Conclusion

Now you know how to start your own line of branded hair products. Now get out there and make it happen, I’m rooting for you! Below is a summary of what we’ve talked about in this article:

1. Find (or create) your brand’s purpose, write down your mission and vision.
2. Create buyer personas to discover who your ideal customers are.
3. Pros and cons of formulating and manufacturing branded hair products yourself or partnering with a manufacturer like us.
4. What to do if you want to design product packaging yourself and the benefits of hiring a more experienced designer.
5. Involve your customers when you’re developing your brand.