From styling to scalp treatments: Selfridges wants to be London’s one-stop shop for hair.
On Monday, the department store will open the doors to its new 3,500 square foot beauty hall dedicated to haircare, dubbed the “Beauty Workshop.” Selfridges will almost triple its hair care offering, placing a new emphasis on services for a full range of hair types and textures.
Expanding its offering for Black and textured hair types has been a key focus for the department store over the past 18 months. The retailer worked to bring on many new brands catering specifically to textured hair, spanning “wet” products from names like Bread, Dizziak and Afrocenchix, and “dry” textured hair wigs and extensions from British startup Ruka, which co-founder Tendai Moyo described as “the Fenty Beauty of hair extensions.” According to 2021 government census data, almost 20 percent of the population in England and Wales identify as being from Black, Asian, mixed or other ethnic backgrounds.
The haircare space is a booming opportunity for British beauty retailers. Last year, UK consumers spent £6.2 billion on hair services and a further £2 billion on hair products, according to data from the British Beauty Council. The premium end of the market is particularly ripe, with sales of prestige hair products in the UK up 80 percent on pre-pandemic levels in 2022, according to data from market research firm Circana.
As more purchases for prestige hair products continue to occur online post-pandemic — almost 70 percent in the UK last year, according to Circana — services are a big opportunity for retailers to entice shoppers back into stores.
“Key to Selfridges is having that experience and theater in store,” said beauty buying manager Emeline Ancelot. “Our focus as a team is definitely going beyond the scope of just the products themselves.”
Ruka will launch a Curl Bar in-store, offering a menu of services tailored specifically to curly, kinky and coily hair. Shoppers can experience a consultation with the brand’s resident trichologist, a 20 minute styling treatment or a fully customised wig fitting. Bigger names like Living Proof and Aveda have also developed new services exclusively for the space: Selfridges worked closely with the brands to ensure their new service offerings cater to a full range of hair textures, Ancelot said.
Going forward, Selfridges’ beauty offering will include an extensive hair accessories edit — from clips and scrunchies to beaded wigs — piercing services and a jewellery edit. Meanwhile, a weekly rotating pop-up space for brand takeovers will offer newness within the space, said Ancelot.
Ancelot declined to comment on how much the department store spent on the project, but noted it required a “significant investment from the business.”
The move comes as department stores globally seek to find ways to maintain market share amid stiff competition from online players, specialty retailers and brands’ direct-to-consumer channels. Last year, department stores accounted for 15 percent of total luxury goods sales globally, down from 18 percent pre-pandemic, according to estimates from consultancy Bain & Co. The firm forecasts department stores’ share of luxury sales to shrink further to between 11 and 13 percent by 2030.
However, Selfridges has a knack for mastering the physical retail experience — a trait that has proved highly attractive to investors. In August, Thailand’s Central Group and Austria’s Signa Holding completed the acquisition of Selfridges Group, purchasing the department store from the Weston family for a reported £4 billion ($5 billion).
“We have new owners and this new destination … it gives us an opportunity to differentiate and innovate,” said Ancelot.
