This year has been a whirlwind. Didn’t it seem like just yesterday it was January 1, 2022? So much has happened over this past year that it’s worth reflecting on as we bring in the new year. When we look back on this year, 2022 can be described as turbulent, a little rock n’ roll and the age of influencer marketing.

Economic Implications:

With COVID taking a front seat at the beginning of the year, Omicron struck the nation with its contagious furry. While it was less deadly, it had a huge impact on people’s ability and desire to travel or to even just be out and about. The pandemic has forced people to take their businesses online. While this was already happening prior to the pandemic, it just sped up the process. This year many new beauty businesses have been created online. Only time will tell how many of them stick around.

In response to the pandemic, processes we had come to get comfortable with became unpredictable. The movement of goods across the nation and international lines became more expensive as well as disrupted. A lack of workers and new international shipping policies came into effect. As a result of the disruption, havoc ensued at the shipping docks delaying consumer products from arriving on a timely schedule so they could be placed on retail shelves. The effect trickled down to the consumer as we noticed many empty shelves and higher prices for products.

On top of this, inflation has reached an all-time high. The cost of goods, gas and food skyrocketed. Higher costs without an increase in pay has left many with less disposable income. By increasing interest rates, the housing market has begun to cool down and finally gas prices have started to calm down. But it’s unlikely costs will go back to pre-pandemic levels.What did this mean for beauty professionals? This meant rising costs for supplies, less clients coming in and more uncertainty. While many stylists have kept their clientele, others have seen drop off. Clients either found new stylists, delayed services or have opted to cut their own hair. With the lingering effects of the pandemic, hair professionals have had to find other ways to supplement their income.

Hair Trends:

With people finding their way back to salons and barbershops, some emerging hair trends have unfolded. The shag continued its popularity into 2022 but the biggest trend was the mullet. Mullets were everywhere. Mullets were modernized with a fresh vibe where it could be worn by either a man or woman. Most easily done with a razor, mullets have begun to fade in popularity toward the end of 2022.

We also saw a lot of textured looks. Especially for young men, the tapered sides with textured hair on top hairstyle has been the look of 2021 and 2022. The perm has stayed afloat due to this haircut. But natural, textured looks have remained strong throughout this year.

Influencer Status:

Social media influencing for hairstylists and barbers have continued to grow throughout 2022. With Instagram’s algorithm change where original content is favored over reposted content, this has only encouraged influencer marketing. On top of this, Instagram is favoring reels over regular posts, making it harder for brands to push out content. This change has been influenced by the rival app TikTok which has exploded in popularity in recent years. In addition to these changes, large companies like Facebook and Google have been under scrutiny over their lack of privacy policies. With new privacy laws in place, it’s become more difficult to market products to the end consumer. All these factors have led to a lot of influencer marketing from businesses.

Especially in the beauty industry, influencers have a lot of opportunity to make themselves known to their fellow peers as well as clients. Stylists, barbers, nail techs and estheticians have thrived and grown their businesses significantly through social media alone. The trend will only get stronger going into 2023. We will see what TikTok and Instagram have in store for us or if a new social platform will rise to the top.

2022 has been a year of ups and downs. Recovering from the pandemic will take some time. But people love creating and that will never change. For beauty professionals, things are looking much more normal this year. In person classes and trade shows are starting to pop up again and people are eager to see people in person. But with spikes in covid and other new diseases popping up, some have remained cautious about making an appearance.

We hope 2023 brings more stability so we can focus on the fun things like the next hair trend. It will be interesting to see what’s in store for the beauty industry, but one thing is for sure. People will always want to look good even when times get tough. In this, we have comfort. As we wrap up 2022, we say farewell to another year, but we welcome a new one and are excited to see what’s to come.