The Top 15 Hair Trends of 2025

Shower water quality is a growing skincare focus

Filtering drinking water is not a new idea. But what about shower water? That’s the idea behind the growing interest in the Jolie filter.

Authorities usually purify drinking water supplies by adding a small amount of chlorine. While research says the chemical is largely harmless to consume at dilute concentrations, many people say they don’t like the smell or taste. It’s what’s in part led to the popularity of Brita filters and similar products.

Showering or bathing in chlorine also causes an unwanted side-effect: dry skin and hair. Given that consumers spend over $10B a year on moisturizing, it’s easy to see why a filter that removes chlorine would be a tempting investment.

In fact, Jolie pitches its product as a financial investment: “Women who invest in their appearance spend an average of almost $3,800 a year on beauty-related expenses…if you are combining your products with unfiltered water, you're foiling your investment in your appearance.”

As for the business model, Jolie’s customers first buy a special showerhead, then start a three-month rolling subscription for replacement filters.

Glueless wigs are on the rise

The world’s highest-earning house of worship makes roughly $30M per year through a hair arbitrage: The Indian temple Tiraputi Balaji attracts millions of Hindus who want to sacrifice their hair by shaving it off. The temple, in fact, employs thousands of barbers so they can then auction the hair at high prices.

The secondary hair market, it turns out, is surprisingly massive, at $5B in the US alone. Suppliers are mostly in India, often coming from temples before heading to China for treatment and packaging. They’re then typically sold to Korean-owned beauty supply stores in America and are bought primarily by African American women for hundreds of dollars per wig.

While it seems like wig sales may be better off at hair salons, it turns out that nearly 95% of African American-run hair salons don’t have the ability to retail products because of low cash balances and credit. They essentially can’t afford to stock inventory.

There are also peer-to-peer hair marketplaces like buyandsellhair.com which offer more control for sellers and more transparency for consumers. Sellers not only share photos of their hair but also details about their diet, whether they smoke or drink, their hair care routine, and reasons for selling. They’re able to charge between $750 and $1,250 and usually only cut their hair once an offer goes through.

Some sellers add details to their listings like “I’m sad to say goodbye but I’m too busy to keep taking care of it” and “I’ve donated it 4 times in the past 10 years and now I’m looking to sell.”

The rise of glueless wigs is a variation on typical wigs; one reason it’s increasingly popular is that wearers can much more easily remove it before bed each night.

Men increasingly seek out hair transplants, especially in Turkey

As stigma around seeking treatment for hair loss declines, and men face increased pressure to conform to idealized beauty standards they encounter in the media and on Instagram, more and more are discussing, searching, and acting on plans to get a hair transplant in — of all places — Turkey.

There, patients can expect to pay around $2,000 for the surgery — roughly a tenth of what it might cost in the U.S.

At the same time, influencers, celebrities, and ads for direct-to-consumer companies like Hims are helping normalize the idea of getting medical help for these concerns, while also making men more self-conscious about their hairlines.

In Turkey, hair transplants are a $1 billion industry, serving patients primarily from the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S. (where, in the latter case, prohibitively high costs lead some men to venture farther afield for the procedure). Getting the surgery performed abroad may also help some men feel more comfortable with the recovery, knowing their friends and acquaintances won't see them with their heads bandaged.

And at the same time, the rise in popularity of head hair transplants has caused a skewed perception of what is a normal amount of hair at a given age. This skewed perception, in turn, widens the gap between reality and expectations, so there’s more pressure to get a hair transplant.

Style-conscious men drive hair texturing movement

As part of the greater male self-care movement, men are increasingly seeking out small ways to add personality and style to their appearance. Hair texturing, or adding layers to the hair through cut or product, is an emerging practice to help add something special without much extra time spent styling.

Hard water concerns drive hair repair efforts

Searches for "hard water filter" have skyrocketed over 500% in the past five years, signaling increasing concern over the damage hard water in the shower might be doing to consumers’ hair. Alongside trying to prevent the damage in the first place, beauty-conscious consumers' efforts to repair the damage are growing with demand for hair strengthening and repairing products.

Overnight bonnets redefine hair care routines

An increasingly common theme is the reformatting of physical products: Rather than buying a sauna, many consumers are buying sauna blankets. And rather than turning the air conditioner all the way up at night, many are resorting to cooling blankets. When it comes to hair care, consumers are increasingly looking to sleep on softer materials like silk and satin which can reduce friction on the hair when tossing and turning. This leads to less static electricity which means less frizz, and less of a “bed head” look upon waking. But while many sleep and bedding brands are focused on sheets made of these materials, others are behind the increasingly popular sleep bonnet - a soft hair covering worn while sleeping. Like sauna blankets, sleep bonnets are a localized solution to the problem: instead of buying satin or silk sheets and pillowcases, it’s just a single covering over the hair. And while some products sell utility, others sell optionality: they don't necessarily let you do something new, but they give you more flexibility regarding when you do things. Sleep bonnets partly fit into this category: they let consumers schedule their hair care routines for the evening, without worrying that their efforts will be wasted the next morning. This turns hair care from a time-sensitive chore to a way to relax at the end of the day. It's in the same category as meal prep, soylent, and programmable coffee machines—a way to shift certain activities to a time when there's less pressure to get things done fast.