AEO INDEX OCTOBER 2026 USA: Pureology is named in fewer than a quarter of AI haircare answers, yet no brand is ranked first more often
Nine brands split ten haircare questions, and the brand at the top of the index was ranked first just once.
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Pureology shows up in 23% of the 30 answers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews gave to ten “best haircare brands” questions, and it is ranked first in five of them, more than any other brand. That is from Answer Engine Daily’s October 2026 AEO Index, with analysis powered by markaeo.com. The catch is at the top of the table: Kérastase leads the index with an AI Rank Score of 26.0, built on steady mentions and a single first place.
The AI Rank Score weights a mention by how high it sits in an answer, from 0 to 100; a brand named first by all three engines on every question would score 100. Nobody in haircare gets past 26.
The ten questions go to nine different winners. Olaplex and Kérastase are each named in 47% of answers, the most of any brand, and still no engine ranks Olaplex first. The question tables are in the full October 2026 report. We collected the answers on 21 October 2026 from one U.S. location.
How does a brand with fewer mentions collect more first places?
We can see where Pureology’s first places come from, not why. Gemini gives it three and Google AI Overviews two, while ChatGPT names Pureology in 20% of its answers and never puts it first. It wins the shampoo question with a score of 67 and color-safe shampoo with 93, the only brand to win two questions.
Kérastase gets there the other way round. It wins conditioner with a score of 57 even though none of the three engines ranks it first on that question (ChatGPT went with Aveda, Gemini with Pureology, AI Overviews with Redken). Its one first place in the whole index came from Gemini, on hair oil.
Olaplex is the brand ChatGPT names most, in 60% of that engine’s answers. It is also the most-mentioned brand on 9 of the 101 cited pages we read, more than any rival.
Who wins each haircare question?
Most of the questions go to a brand known for that one need:
- Hair loss: Nioxin wins with 80. Each engine picked a different #1.
- Dry shampoo: Batiste wins with 80, although ChatGPT and Gemini both ranked Living Proof first.
- Curly hair: Curlsmith wins with 67, first on Gemini and AI Overviews.
- Dandruff: Nizoral wins with 87, with Head & Shoulders close behind at 80.
- Hair masks: K18 scores 100, the only unanimous #1 in the category.
Nioxin, Batiste and Curlsmith win their questions without making the overall top 15. Some big names were missing where you would expect them: Dove was not named for 5 of 7, TRESemmé for 4 of 6 and Pantene for 3 of 6. The hair oil answers did not name six large brands, L’Oréal and Redken among them.
Where do the engines find their haircare answers?
Mostly from other people’s pages. The engines cited 192 sources from 118 websites, and only 11 of those citations (5.7%) point to brands’ own sites. Google Shopping cards were cited 20 times, all in AI Overviews, where they make up 28.2% of citations. Then come Allure with 11 and Who What Wear with 9, eight of them from ChatGPT.
ChatGPT cited the most sources, 96, and not one came from Reddit or YouTube. Gemini wrote far longer answers, about 1,135 words naming 10.3 brands each, but cited sources in only 3 of its 10 answers. Of the 25 it did cite, 28% were brand-owned.
The data does not tell us why Gemini leans toward Pureology, or whether that holds from one month to the next.
What should haircare brands read into this?
My read is that the overall score is the wrong scoreboard for a category this split. Pureology got its first places by being the answer to two specific questions, mostly on one engine. If you run AEO for a haircare brand, work question by question. Which need do you actually own, and do all three engines agree on it?
A 47% mention rate looks fine on a dashboard. But a shopper reading a five-name AI list mostly acts on the first name, so I would track first places per question and per engine before anything else.
The November edition will show whether ChatGPT starts ranking Pureology first anywhere, and whether any engine settles on a clear #1 for conditioner. The engine-by-engine detail is in the full October 2026 report.
How we measured: we asked 10 haircare buying questions on 3 engines, for 30 answers, collected on 21 October 2026 from a single U.S. location. AI answers vary by time, place and user. The full method and notice are in the report.
Sources
- Answer Engine Daily AEO Index: Haircare, October 2026
