Hair care exports hit record highs, as major K-beauty firms expand globally with Blackstone bets on Korean salons
(Getty Images) 
In January, Vogue declared in a headline what Seoul already knew: “Korean hair care products bring a skin-care-first approach to repairing and hydrating.”
Korean beauty has quietly been ahead in both what it makes and how it thinks about the body — scalp included — being deserving of the same obsessive care as the face. And in recent years, the rest of the world seems to be catching up.
According to data from the Korea Customs Service, exports of hair care products hit a record $478 million in 2025, up 15.7 percent from the previous year.
Market projections point in the same direction: Grand View Research forecasts the Korean hair care market expanding from $3.8 billion in 2024 to $6.1 billion by 2030, at a compound annual growth rate of 8.4 percent.
Skin care formula applied to hair
Against a backdrop of growing global demand, Korean manufacturers are well positioned to capitalize, industry officials say, drawing on deep roots in functional skin care.
“If K-beauty companies can bring the technical and brand expertise they’ve built in skin care to hair care, there’s a real growth opportunity ahead,” one industry official said.
Among those moving with conviction is Amorepacific, which in November renamed a division within its research and innovation unit from “Daily Beauty” to “Hair and Beauty,” marking hair care as a formal strategic priority.
The company is making a global splash with two hair care brands, Ryo and Mise en Scene. Ryo’s function-focused lines are driving steady sales growth in China, while Mise en Scene’s hair serum topped Amazon’s hairstyling oil category in the US last year. Amazon has been the gateway to global audiences for smaller brands like Grabity and Aromatica as well, where problem-solving formulas have built notable followings.
LG Household & Healthcare brought Dr. Groot, its dermatology-inspired hair care brand, to the streets of Manhattan in December last year with a pop-up, backed by its established presence in over 680 Costco locations across North America.
“When you combine genuine hair care technology with the K-beauty appeal, consumers respond,” a Dr. Groot official said.
LG Household & Healthcare holds a pop-up for its hair care brand Dr. Groot in Manhattan, New York, Dec. 11-12, 2025. (LG Household & Healthcare)
The manufacturers behind much of the world’s cosmetics are making their own measured moves, with formulations to span the full gamut of hair types.
Kolmar Korea, which expanded its hair care research headcount by 40 percent last year, is building out a research infrastructure capable of responding to global clients in real time.
“We are reinforcing our patent portfolio to stay competitive in hair care,” a Kolmar Korea official said. “We are also developing formulas tailored to different climates and ethnicities.”
Likewise, Cosmax, which posted triple-digit export growth in hair care for three consecutive years of 2023 to 2025, saw export destinations rapidly expanding into Europe, the Middle East and Australia, with client orders now flowing in from India, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
CJ Olive Young’s data tells the story in granular detail.
British shoppers reach for anti-hair-loss shampoos, while Americans seek damage-repair formulas. In the Middle East, harsh climates drive demand for high-performance shampoos, while Latin America’s humidity-battling consumers favor oils and repair products.
“Over the past three years, hair care has been our fastest-growing category, with annual growth exceeding 70 percent,” said an Olive Young official. In the first two months of this year, hair product and styling sales rose 48 percent and 90 percent, respectively, the official added.
Customers browse hair care products at an Olive Young store in Seoul. (CJ Olive Young)
Hands-on art of hair care
Products tell much of the story, but the rest must be experienced in person.
According to the Seoul Tourism Foundation 18.5 percent of foreign tourists in Seoul used a hair salon or beauty service in 2025, up 14.9 percentage points from just 3.6 percent in 2019.
Foreign visitors have taken particular note of Olive Young’s scalp diagnostic service, available at its Seongsu-dong and Gangnam locations, where licensed consultants use diagnostic devices to assess scalp condition and recommend personalized routines. Nine out of 10 users are international tourists, the company said.
Not lost on travel operators is the styling dimension of K-hair’s appeal. Packages combining medical procedures with K-hairstyling sessions are now brisk sellers. For instance, Hyundai Department Store, in partnership with travel platforms, has launched what it calls a K-Beauty Pass, offering foreign tourists discounted access to salon styling, makeup and photo shoots in a single itinerary.
The credit goes largely to Korean culture, according to industry insiders, in particular K-pop idols whose glossy skin and hair drove consumers first toward Korean cosmetics, and now, toward hair care.
“The look of K-pop idols — the skin and the hair — has become shorthand for K-beauty globally,” one industry official said. “That fascination is now spilling over into hair care and men’s beauty products as well.”
Then came the deal that hinted at something far larger on the horizon.
In September 2025, US asset manager Blackstone acquired a controlling stake of over 70 percent in Juno Hair, Korea’s leading salon chain, for over 500 billion won, marking the first private equity acquisition of a Korean salon franchise.
The chain of more than 180 salons with a foothold in the Philippines, Japan and Thailand is opening its first Vietnamese location — a five-story flagship offering a full suite of K-beauty treatments — set to open Saturday. Blackstone, eyeing further global expansion, found its infrastructure and expertise hard to resist, citing explosive global demand for Korean beauty services.
The deal seems to have set off a scramble, according to industry sources, leading private equity firms to draw up lists of potential acquisition targets among Korean salon franchises.
The logic, industry officials note, is simple: A domestic beauty service model proven in Korea can fetch a higher valuation multiple once exported abroad.
An Olive Young consultant uses a scalp diagnostic device to assess a customer’s scalp health. (CJ Olive Young)
minmin@heraldcorp.com
