After decades of hairstyling across the globe, one stylist says she is observing a clear cultural shift in hair care — one defined less by trends and more by changing values.
Sara Viklund, who has worked in Europe, Asia and the United States with clients in salon chairs and on larger stages such as New York Fashion Week, says people now approach hair care with a level of awareness that didn’t exist when she started. Viklund, who owns The Cutting Factory in lower Manhattan, says the shift is visible every day simply in the questions clients ask.
“People have become way more aware of ingredients, both in their food and in their beauty routines,” Viklund told NBC Local. “Back in the early 2000s, it was very much toxic hairsprays and gels that would keep your hold all day and then include terrible ingredients that would disrupt your hormones and just like cancer‑causing issues.”
Today, she says, clients are far more informed and selective, noting that they actually read the back of the bottle, prefer shorter ingredient lists and look for cruelty‑free brands.
That shift in awareness has changed how people want their hair to look. Viklund says the definition of “good hair” has moved away from control and uniformity toward something more personal and lived‑in.
“Lived‑in hair means letting your natural pattern live,” she said. “If you have curls, you enhance them instead of straightening them.”
The contrast with the early 2000s is striking.
“In the early 2000s, everyone was straightening their hair and plucking their eyebrows to no end,” she said. “Now people want bushy brows and curls that look like themselves.”
Instead of forcing hair into a specific shape, she says clients are choosing cuts and routines that help their hair “be more of itself rather than trying to change it.”
