ife does not come in black and white; much of it is grey. That used to be pretty much true for hair as well. Not any longer, though. Apart from black, white and grey, it now comes in a bewildering variety of colours and shades, some of them really quite improbable. From a marketing standpoint, what is remarkable is the pace at which coloured hair market has moved from being a niche to becoming mainstream. Just a few years ago, it was strictly for the adventurous. Now, the young mum next door in a middle class neighbourhood may sport it. All this has helped create a product category that is approaching Rs 400 crore in value annually.

"The social acceptance of colours has resulted in broad-basing of the market from metro cities to mini metros and Class One towns. Key influences such as movies and television have catalysed its acceptance," says Ashish Mishra, vice president, planning, Mudra, the ad agency on the Godrej Colour Soft account.... more