Gen Z has been the driving force behind a lot of hair trends recently—some good (middle parts) and some bad (zigzag parts). But trends move faster than break-up bangs grow out. E-girl highlights are so yesterday, it’s all about baby braids now.

Despite all the #hairstyle content (55.6 billion views on TikTok), less than half (44%) of Gen Z say they purchase hairstyling products, according to YPulse, a youth research firm. It shows there’s “definitely a gap there and potentially an opportunity to grow the Gen Z market,” YPulse Chief Content Officer MaryLeigh Bliss told Retail Brew. (Though it could, of course, be a “red flag” for new entrants.)

Still, new hair-care brands are using that open space to innovate—capitalizing on what’s going viral on TikTok and aligning their products with the needs, values, and budgets of Gen Z shoppers to (hopefully) outlast the frenzied trend cycle.

Hair and now

Hally Hair’s foam hair dye is reaching Gen Z by taking inspiration from the experiences of an actual Zoomer—and K-pop. Founder and CEO Kathryn Winokur told us she was leading marketing at Walmart’s Jetblack in 2019 when her intern had an at-home dye job go awry.

“I just couldn’t believe that this was still happening,” Winokur said. “I had a bad run-in with Sun In when I was in eighth grade, and my hair turned orange, and I’m 35.”

• She realized that the few CPG players controlled the bulk of the hair-color market with “little to zero innovation” to make at-home hair-dyeing accessible to young people.

Hally, which debuted in February 2021 and is sold at Ulta and DTC, puts a twist on bubble dye, a foam-based hair color made popular by K-pop. It sells for $15 and is formulated without harsh ingredients—like ammonia, PPD, and resorcinol—which is “core to our positioning,” Winokur said.

• Clean beauty and personal care is the top beauty trend Zoomer women want to try, per YPulse.
• Hally’s sales reached seven figures within its first year, according to the company, ~40% of which came from social media.

Second wave: Sharon Pak and Jordynn Wynn, former marketing employees for cosmetics brand ColourPop, also saw an “open spot in the hair market” when they started hair-extension brand Insert Name Here in 2018. The brand helps consumers achieve the Ariana Grande ponytail—or just a confidence boost—while catering to Gen Z’s lower spending threshold.

Click here to keep reading how these two hair-care brands work to balance virality and longevity.—EC

Welcome to the internet of plants. Precision agriculture startups are popping up left and right, and the market is growing just as fast. According to Pitchbook, it hit $7.8 billion in 2021 and is expected to nearly double to $13.9 billion by 2026.

Emerging Tech Brew’s Jordan McDonald spoke to three precision ag companies to understand how they’re hoping to help farmers boost yields by connecting crops.

First up: PhyTech, which sells an IoT platform to farmers. Jordan breaks it down:

• There are proprietary dendrometer sensors for crops that measure the contractions and expansions of their trunks—an indicator of how watered and healthy the plant is.
• The company also integrates soil sensors to track moisture, and weather sensors for a vibe check (aka atmospheric conditions).

Connect the plots: PhyTech displays a connected crop’s real-time condition in its app, giving farmers a color-coded overview of their fields that they can use to treat and water specific areas rather than blanketing the entire thing.

“Farming has been late to adopt to the digital transformation that we experienced as consumers, practically in every area of our life,” said Amir Lin, marketing director at PhyTech.

But wait, there are more startups. Click here to read the full story on Emerging Tech Brew.—GT

On Wednesdays, we wear pink spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

Adam Hall is a senior sales manager for DTC accounts at Dolly, a last-mile, on-demand delivery app that works with retailers like the Home Depot, the Container Store, and Purple. But for a guy in his 20s who works for a startup, he has quite a pastoral thing going. Before the pandemic hit, he and his wife lived in Nashville, but in 2020, they moved about 30 minutes south. “I have 11 chickens and eat fresh eggs every morning,” he told us. Hall, who these days is also bouncing a 12-week-old daughter on his knee, shares more below.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? I use technology to create enjoyable delivery experiences for big and bulky items. Dolly built an app that gives customers full visibility into their delivery. They can see their delivery team (we call them “Helpers”), vehicle, delivery window, and can edit their delivery appointment or message their Helper team right through the app.

Traditional carriers want to do a good enough job to not get fired by the retailer…Dolly flips that…We may deliver their couch from Polky & Bark, but we want the customer to have such a great experience that they use Dolly again when it’s time to move that couch to a new home.

Name your favorite retail accounts to follow: My favorite brands are the ones that don’t try to hide the fact there are real people running them. @DudeWipes comes to mind. So does @BlackRifleCoffee. If you’re selling with memes, you’re probably doing something right.

One trend that you’re excited about: SaaS for online retail. The logistics industry is catching up to provide consumers the digital experience they expect when shopping online.

What was the most memorable job you had in college? Setting up a weekly tailgate at Alabama football games for some finance guys that came in for all the games.

Hands down, the best fast-food restaurant chain is…Chuy’s—drown me in jalapeño ranch.

What’s the most embarrassing product in your order history from Amazon that you’re actually willing to admit? The Secret Life of Pets and all the Minions movies. Got tired of renting them, so it was time to buy.

Today’s top retail reads.

Spice up your life: When Old Bay was new—a history lesson. (The Washington Post)

Sisterhood of the traveling dresses: Macy’s created a line for Black sororities, which is on pace to hit $10 million in sales this year. “I have a dependable place,” said Michele Dorsey, one sorority member. “I can’t believe it wasn’t done before.” (Bloomberg)

Off Target: Last week, Target workers at a store in Virginia filed to unionize. A leader at Target Workers Unite shares why. (ModernRetail)

Usher in a new era of work: Leave behind the disjointed apps, vague tasks, and complicated processes—and say hello to a better way to work. It’s all here in Asana’s U.S. Anatomy of Work Report 2022.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}

Catch up on the Retail Brew stories you may have missed.

• ThredUp’s latest resale report
• B2B fashion marketplace startup raises $100 million
• David’s Bridal on expanding its quinceañera line