Pantene, a hair care brand owned by US-based Procter &Gamble, partnered with a major Chinese research institute to produce the Chinese Women Hair Archive Report on the status of women's hair health and hair care habits.
The report, released last month, represents the first time that a hair care brand partnered with dermatologists to study Chinese women's hair.
Early this year, Pantene researchers teamed up with researchers at the Peking University First Hospital, a professional scientific research institute, to study hair care in China.
"The 2009 Chinese Women Hair Archive Report is an advanced milestone in the Chinese women's hair care sector and will help P&G to adjust its brand formulas to better suit Chinese customers," said Kitty Shum, director of hair healthcare for Procter &Gamble China.
Pantene spent six months checking the hair of 600 women in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou through hair scans and then studies by electron microscope .
The report studied the condition of the women's hair, what products they used and how they viewed the condition of their hair.
According to the report, the three major challenges were hair that was dry, dull and/or had split ends.
Up to 60 percent of Chinese women prefer 2-in-1 shampoo, which combines a shampoo with conditioner, the report stated.
The researchers found that 30 percent of women they surveyed select shampoo that doesn't contain special hair care ingredients.
When using shampoo, more than 50 percent of women said they also apply conditioner to their hair.
"The report shows that hair care is becoming increasingly important to Chinese women, which will lead us to focus more on hair conditioning and hair mask series, " Shum said.
The report also stated that women in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou differ when it comes to the condition of their hair and hair care habits.
For example, 70 percent women in Beijing who were surveyed said they believe that their hair has been damaged - the biggest proportion of hair critics among the three cities.
But when their hair was placed under microscopes, the data showed that more Shanghai women (about 88 percent) had damaged hair - the highest proportion among the three cities.
Up to 78 percent of Guangzhou women prefer 2-in-1 shampoos versus 69 percent of Shanghai women and 53 percent of Beijing women surveyed.
More women in Shanghai use a hair conditioner (74 percent) than in Beijing (64 percent) and Guangzhou (42 percent).
The report also conducted an in-depth study of young women who work in beauty and fashion industries.
Among these women, 100 percent said they believed their hair has been damaged and almost all regularly use hair products such as hair masks with hair-nutrition ingredients, according to the report.
"The research holds value as a very important reference for hair care know-how for Chinese women, and it will help us to do better at product research and development in terms of targeting different customers," Shum said.
