A new survey conducted by OnePoll, on behalf of Garnier, revealed that the average woman colored her hair at home four to five weeks into quarantine. About 85% said they did so to cover up grays, and more than half said they decided to dye their hair a bold color because it seemed like a good opportunity. Additionally, the average American woman said she feels she’s aged almost four years over the course of 2020 due to stress from the pandemic.

The survey, which delved into the hair color habits of 2,000 American women aged 18 and older, pinpointed that one in three women dyed their hair for the first time at home during quarantine, and most commonly, and unsurprisingly, turned to Instagram or the internet to learn how.

“With so many people turning to at-home hair color during the shutdown, we wanted to ensure they had somewhere to turn for help. We utilized our social channels to share tutorial content as well as details of Garnier’s various educational tools, such as our Virtual Shade Selector. We want to continue to be a resource and provide info wherever someone may be searching for it,” says Greg Hui, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Garnier USA.

Additional insights learned through the survey include:

• 42% of women polled reported discovering new gray hair during quarantine
• 52.32% agreed they went gray faster during quarantine than they would have otherwise
• Four out of five women dyed their hair themselves for the first-time during quarantine
• Women turned to various sources to learn how to color their hair at home for the first time, including Instagram (30.49%), online websites (29.2%), and YouTube (23.5%)
• Since the start of quarantine, 88% of women say they have dyed their hair at home multiple times
• Women used their time at home to try new products and shades they might not have otherwise. Nearly half of respondents (42.7%) reported trying a new brand of at-home hair dye than they have used before, and about a third of women (37.2%) reported that they tried a color that they might not have otherwise because they were at home.
• Various factors are considered when deciding on what brand of hair color to use at home. First and foremost, nearly half of women considered the price and value of the brand (48.9%) followed by how long the color would last (44.5%). Next, about a third of women looked for brands, such as Garnier Nutrisse and Garnier Olia, with a large range in color options (39.5%), brands that would not damage their hair (36.4%), how available and easy it would be to get the product (34.6%) and the level of chemicals found in the formula (33.7%).
• Women shared concerns about coloring hair at home for the first time. Nearly half of women shared concerns about if the end results would be as desired (47.8%) and if they were selecting the right shade (42.7%), while a third of women (33.6%) were concerned about damaging their hair. Garnier aims to help ease the shade selection process for women with their Shade Selector to allow users to try hair color shades on virtually in store or online.
• During quarantine, a quarter of women (25.54%) reported using a color care mask, such as Garnier’s Nutrisse Color Reviver 5-Min Mask. About one-third of women reported dying their hair with bleach or going blonde.
• More than two-thirds (66.75%) of women plan to continue to dye their hair at home, with one in three (31.99%) planning to exclusively color their hair at home.