Hair Care Packaging for Sprays, Bars and Dryers

A spray bottle is tall and light. A shampoo bar is a dense puck of 60 to 100 g. A hair dryer is an appliance with a cable and a nozzle, weighing 400 to 600 g.

Each needs its own construction, so rather than one generic hair box, there are three. Liquid shampoo and conditioner in pump bottles are boxed the same way as skincare pumps, and the sizes in that range apply. Ask for both and they are quoted together on one sheet.

The three products, with what each one does.

Shampoo bar makers come next, often moving from a paper band to a printed carton as they get into shops.

Barbers order sea salt sprays and beard oils. Trichology clinics box treatment sprays. Appliance brands and salon suppliers need a dryer box that looks right on a retail shelf.

A 100 ml spray in a tall carton is the typical first order, and hair spray and mist boxes are made for exactly that bottle.

• Salons with an own-label spray or mist
• Shampoo and conditioner bar makers
• Barbers selling styling sprays and oils
• Scalp and hair clinics with a treatment line
• Appliance brands and salon suppliers

The carton that fits is about 44 x 44 x 165 mm inside.

Measure with the cap on. Sprayer heads add 25 to 35 mm, and a trigger spray adds width as well as height. If the bottle is amber or coloured glass, a window on the front shows that off.

The spray box in our photos is a plain tuck end carton in a stone colour with two lines of type. That is the common look for salon ranges: one flat colour, no pattern, small type.

That argues for a simple carton or a sleeve rather than a lid box.

The bar in our photos sits in a white sleeve with the brand on the front and the weight on the side. A full carton protects the edges better in a parcel. Either way, give the bar 3 to 5 mm of room because bars shrink a little as they cure.

Shampoo and conditioner bar boxes are printed in kraft or white board and sized to your mould.

The box needs thicker board than any cosmetic carton, a shaped insert that keeps the body and nozzle apart, and a cable compartment.

The pink box in our photos is a lid-and-base carton with a photograph of the dryer across the lid. Appliance boxes usually carry the product photo on the front, the features on the back and the specifications on one side.

Hair dryer boxes with a shaped insert are built from heavier folding board or a corrugated layer under the printed sheet, quoted from your dryer measurements.

The bottle is light, so the lower end is fine for 30 and 100 ml; go heavier for 250 ml glass.

Bar boxes can use the same board, or a kraft board at the lighter end of the range. A damp bar will mark an uncoated box, so a thin lamination is worth having if the bar is sold near a sink.

Dryer boxes need rigidity more than print quality. A thick board, or a printed sheet laminated to a corrugated layer, carries the weight without the corners crushing. Other boards and finishes can be quoted if you ask, and the quote states which one is used.

That look prints well and costs less than full colour. It also reprints consistently, which matters when a range is reordered every few months.

Bar brands often go the other way, with full colour and a pattern, because the box is small and sits in a crowded shop. Appliance boxes need full colour CMYK for the product photograph, usually with a gloss lamination.

Foil, spot UV, embossing and soft touch lamination are all available as options on these boxes. On a tall spray carton a foil logo near the top reads at eye level on a shelf.

A card insert at the base and a few millimetres of headroom do that. For glass bottles, ask for the insert to grip the shoulder as well.

Bars are the easiest: a snug carton and nothing else. Dryers need their insert plus an outer carton, because the printed box is the retail face and should arrive without a crushed corner. Salon suppliers often pack six dryers per case, so give us that number and the outer is sized to match.

Card and foam inserts are available on request. Tell us whether the box is for a shelf or a parcel and we draw the insert to suit.

A salon range usually has a spray, a bar or two and sometimes a dryer or a brush, and the shelf reads better when they match. The trick is a design that scales from a 65 mm bar box to a 250 mm dryer box.

Keep the logo at a fixed proportion of the front panel, not a fixed size. Keep the product name in one spot on each box. Use one background colour across the range and change only the accent colour per product.

Send the designer the artwork once and the three dielines are laid out from it. The proofs come back as a set so you can see them side by side before anything prints.

If liquid shampoo in a pump bottle is part of the range, say so. It is boxed on the same dieline family as the spray carton and the design carries across without new artwork.

They are easy to avoid once named.

• Boxing a spray bottle without the sprayer height, so the lid will not close
• Cutting a window into a carton that only ever goes out in a parcel
• Choosing an uncoated bar box for a product sold next to a shower
• Sending a dryer photo that is not high enough resolution for the lid
• Leaving the cable loose inside a dryer box with no compartment
• Ordering one carton size for 100 ml and 150 ml bottles

For a dryer, include the cable length and whether the nozzle detaches.

1. Measure the product with the sprayer, cap or nozzle fitted.
2. Choose a carton, sleeve or lid-and-base construction.
3. Send artwork and the quantity for each box.
4. A written quote comes back within one business day.
5. Approve the free design proof.
6. Printing runs 4 to 6 business days; the boxes then travel free and tracked to your UK address.