Male grooming boosts UK beauty salons

David Beckham, the former England soccer international, has been hailed as a style icon by British men frequenting these salons. The North West has emerged as the biggest growth area for male grooming, particularly manicures, while Welshmen are the most enthusiastic about tanning treatments, opting for fortnightly visits.

Alan Revitt, commercial and marketing director of Salon Services, UK and Ireland, the authors of the survey, said: “We’ve seen steady growth in recent years of men coming into salons for beauty as well as hair treatments, so the businesses that have branched into this market will be in a particularly strong position to grow in 2014.”

Salons have been reducing prices to stimulate trade, according to the survey data. The average price of hair colouring for women has dropped by £7 while the typical price for a male haircut has fallen from £16 to £12 over the last year.

The price changes have resulted in women adding 10 tanning treatments a year to their beauty routine, topping up every three weeks compared with every five a year ago. The result is an increase in the annual beauty treatment spend by women of £73 to £1,033 a year.

Women in Wales have more than matched their male counterparts in the tanning sessions. They treat themselves to more fake tans, manicures, facials and hair removal treatments more often than anywhere else in the UK.

Welsh women also spend more on “after-care” products. On average, they spend £17 every time they visit a salon – £8 more than the national average.

Male converts to salons are paying an average £152 a year for a hair cut every four weeks, £215 for hair colouring every six weeks, £233 on fake tanning every 3.8 weeks, £161 on manicures every 5.8 weeks, and £328 on massages every 4.6 weeks.

The survey shows that two thirds of salons are now more optimistic than a year ago. Staffing increases to accommodate the male invasion have seen average salon employment grow from 1.9 full-time and 1.5 part-time employees in 2012 to 2.5 full-time and 2.3 part-timers.

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