What changed in 2024 for stylists, barbers, head spa therapists and cosmetic practitioners: advertising limits, ingredient rules, the formaldehyde question and the start of licensing in Scotland.
From the editors
This edition looks back at 2024 from the cosmetic chair. Trichozette was not published then; it is a retrospective, written in 2026 as part of our Four years in review series, for the stylists, barbers, colourists, head spa therapists and cosmetic practitioners who make up much of Trichollective.
The cosmetic side of hair and scalp care rarely makes headlines, but 2024 brought several changes that reached the salon floor. An advertising ruling drew a clear line under implied guarantees. The European Union tightened limits on several common cosmetic ingredients. In the United States, a promised ban on formaldehyde in smoothing products kept slipping, which left salons elsewhere asking what was in the bottles on their own shelves. At the end of the year, Scotland set out how it might license non-surgical cosmetic procedures.
The industry itself kept growing. The National Hair & Beauty Federation's figures published in 2024 showed business numbers up by 1,240, or 2.5 per cent, on the year before, with turnover of about 5.8 billion pounds for 2023 to 2024. More businesses means more competition, and more reason to be precise about what we offer.
The pages that follow set out what changed, then turn to the education that matters because of it: smoothing chemistry, advertising, and tension on the hairline. Every factual claim is sourced at the end.
The Trichollective editorial team
The rulebook
An advertising ruling, new ingredient limits, a stalled ban and a licensing consultation. What each meant for cosmetic professionals.
Photograph Gulom Nazarov / Unsplash
Words by the Trichollective editorial team
Salons and head spas are shaped by rules they rarely read in full. In 2024, four developments were worth knowing about, even for those whose working day is spent entirely at the basin and the chair.
On 6 March 2024 the Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint about a television advert for a hair-loss medicine. The advert offered a full refund if hair did not grow back within a set period and described the product as clinically proven. The ASA concluded that the combination was likely to give viewers the impression that the effects were proven and guaranteed, which the broadcast code does not allow for medicines. Refunds are not banned in themselves; the problem was the overall impression.
On 3 April 2024 the European Commission adopted Regulation (EU) 2024/996. It set maximum concentrations for vitamin A derivatives such as retinol, restricted alpha-arbutin, arbutin, kojic acid, genistein and daidzein, and tightened rules on triclosan, triclocarban and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor. The limits phase in from 2025. For Irish salons, and for UK businesses that sell into the EU, this matters for leave-on scalp and skin products.
“Refunds are not banned in themselves; the problem was the overall impression.
The US Food and Drug Administration had set April 2024 as its target to propose a ban on formaldehyde and formaldehyde-releasing chemicals in hair straightening and smoothing products. It missed that date, and NPR reported in July that it had missed a later target too. The next page looks at what that means for the chair.
On 20 December 2024 the Scottish Government opened a consultation, running to 14 February 2025, on regulating non-surgical cosmetic procedures that pierce or penetrate the skin. It proposed three risk-based groups:
Test yourself
What was the main problem the ASA identified in the March 2024 hair-loss advert?
Sources
Every fact in this edition, and where it came from.
Free with an account
Create a free Trichollective account to read every edition of Trichozette in full, including the archive from 2023 to 2026, with a new edition each month.
Already have an account? Sign in
Still to read
Free for every professional
Free, with a directory listing that stays free for as long as you like.
Membership
From £6 (€7) a month at the founding price, which you keep while you stay.
For clinics, salons and brands
Start with a free directory listing for 90 days, or take a full business page from £99 (€115) a month.
Next · 2024 · Clinical
Clinical, 2024
Measure, record, refer.