The UK’s Most Saturated Hair & Beauty Markets Revealed: City
21 February 2026
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21 February 2026
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Source: Nomis (SIC 96020) | Population data: ONS mid-year estimates | Geography: Local Authorities | Updated: 2025
The UK hair and beauty sector has undergone significant structural change since 2018. Rising demand for grooming services, shifting high-street economics, and post-pandemic business turnover have reshaped where salons and barbershops operate across the country.
Using official ONS and Nomis data, this analysis examines how business density, growth, and regional competition have evolved between 2018 and 2025.
🇬🇧 England's hair and beauty business density rose from 6.64 to 8.41 per 10,000 residents — a 26.7% increase since 2018.
📈 London reached 10.41 businesses per 10,000 people in 2025 — 23.8% above the national average.
🏙️ St Albans recorded the fastest growth of any tracked city at +64.7% — and it's not even a major city.
📍 Cambridge, Durham, York, and Kingston-upon-Hull all saw registered business numbers fall between 2018 and 2025.
England and Wales' hair and beauty sector has grown consistently since 2018.
England and Wales had 37,657 registered hair and beauty businesses in 2018. By 2025, that figure had reached 45,250 — an increase of 20.2% over seven years.
That growth has not been spread evenly across the country.
Some cities have seen dramatic expansion. Others have contracted. And a handful of areas remain significantly below the national average despite having large or affluent populations — which is where it gets interesting.
These are the areas with the highest concentration of hair and beauty businesses relative to population, based on official business count data (Nomis SIC 96020) and ONS mid-year population estimates.
London leads comfortably, but the real story is Southend-on-Sea at number two — nearly 10 businesses per 10,000 residents puts it ahead of far larger cities including Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester.
London's position at the top is expected. Southend-on-Sea at number two is a surprise — nearly 10 businesses per 10,000 residents puts it well ahead of cities like Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester.
Worcester and Lichfield are also notable. Both are relatively compact cities, which means a smaller population base against a solid number of established salons pushes the per-capita figure high.
St Albans is arguably the most interesting entry. It's a commuter town, not a major metropolitan centre. High footfall, good local spending, and proximity to London appear to have driven consistent demand — and that demand has clearly attracted a lot of supply.
🧠 What this means for barbers High-density markets like London and Southend-on-Sea are competitive by definition. Winning in a saturated area means sharper pricing, a stronger reputation for a specific service, or a location that captures walk-in footfall that competitors miss. If you're already operating in one of these cities, your competitive moat matters more than the market size.
📍 How competitive is your local area?
National rankings only tell part of the story. Competition varies dramatically even within the same city — often street by street.
Check competition in your postcode
Raw business counts can be misleading in isolation. Growth figures tell a different story about where momentum is.
St Albans and Winchester — both affluent commuter towns with populations under 200,000 — recorded higher growth rates than London, Manchester, and every other major city in the dataset. The story here isn't size. It's spending power and available supply.
The headline finding here is St Albans and Winchester — two affluent, predominantly commuter-belt towns — outpacing every major city in the country for growth rate.
Neither is a large urban centre. St Albans has a population of around 150,000. Winchester is smaller still. Yet both have seen registered hair and beauty businesses grow by more than 60% since 2018.
Manchester and Salford together tell a different story. Looked at combined, Greater Manchester added well over 240 businesses in seven years — sustained expansion driven by urban growth, regeneration, and rising population.
London added 2,990 businesses in absolute terms between 2018 and 2025. No other city comes close on raw numbers.
What this means for barbers Fast growth in a market means new competitors are arriving — but it also means demand is outpacing supply. Cities like St Albans and Winchester are still in an early expansion phase, which means there's room for a well-run shop to establish itself before the market tightens. In slower-growing cities, you're competing for a largely fixed pool of clients.
Not every market has grown. Several cities sit well below the national density of 8.41 per 10,000 residents.
Oxford, Plymouth, and Hereford are the most striking findings — all sitting at roughly half the national density despite having established local economies. These are not declining towns. They are simply undersupplied relative to the national benchmark.
Oxford at -46.3% below the national average is one of the more striking findings in this dataset.
It's a high-footfall, relatively affluent city with a substantial daytime population — students, academics, tourists. Yet hair and beauty business density sits at just 4.52 per 10,000 residents, roughly half the national average.
Harsh truth: the assumption that an affluent city automatically means a well-served market doesn't always hold. High commercial rents, transient student populations, and seasonal footfall patterns can all act as natural constraints on supply.
Plymouth and Hereford sit at the bottom of the table. Both are predominantly serving local residential populations with limited commuter or tourist traffic.
What this means for barbers Undersupplied doesn't automatically mean easy. Cities like Oxford have structural reasons for low density — high rents, transient populations, seasonal footfall. But Plymouth and Bradford sit below average without an obvious economic explanation. In markets like those, a well-located shop with consistent quality faces less competition than the national numbers might suggest.
A few factors are likely driving sustained national growth across the seven-year period.
Post-pandemic bounce. The 2020–2022 period saw significant volatility. Businesses that closed during lockdowns either reopened under new ownership or were replaced by new entrants attracted to lower commercial rents. The sector proved resilient, with national density recovering quickly after 2020.
Urban population growth. Cities like Manchester, Salford, and London have seen significant population increases through the period. More residents means more demand, which attracts more supply.
Commuter town expansion. The St Albans and Winchester growth figures point to something specific: affluent commuter areas with strong local spending are increasingly attractive markets. Lower commercial rents than central London, combined with residents who work in the city but spend locally at weekends, have made these areas productive territory.
The male grooming shift. Consumer spending on men's grooming has increased consistently since 2015. More men visiting hair businesses regularly — for cuts, beard work, and styling — has broadened the overall customer base for the sector.
Rent dynamics in city centres. Some of the low-density findings — Oxford, Plymouth, Coventry — may partly reflect the difficulty of securing affordable, high-footfall commercial space. Where rents are high and footfall is variable, the economics of a standalone salon become harder to justify.
Six cities saw an absolute fall in registered hair and beauty businesses between 2018 and 2025.
Durham recorded the largest absolute decline, while Cambridge and York saw modest contractions despite strong regional economies — suggesting market-specific pressures rather than a broad local downturn.
Durham's decline from 370 to 345 is notable — it was one of the higher-density areas in 2018 and has since contracted. Whether this reflects consolidation, economic pressure, or demographic shifts in the local authority is worth watching.
Cambridge declining while cities of similar size have grown points to market-specific factors rather than a broad national trend.
While national growth has been strong, outcomes vary widely at local level.
Several cities stand out in the 2018–2025 data:
Local authority-level data is available for journalists and researchers on request.
This analysis uses publicly available business count data from the Office for National Statistics Labour Market Statistics database (Nomis), filtered by Standard Industrial Classification code SIC 96020 — hairdressing and other beauty treatment.
This classification covers hair salons, beauty salons, barbershops, and related businesses registered at the local authority level. It does not distinguish between business types within the category.
Population figures are drawn from ONS mid-year population estimates for each corresponding year.
The density metric (businesses per 10,000 residents) is calculated by dividing the registered business count in each local authority by the local mid-year population estimate, scaled to per 10,000.
The national average figures are calculated from the aggregated England-wide business count and ONS England population totals. Welsh cities (Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Wrexham) are benchmarked against the Welsh national average.
Growth percentages represent the change in registered business count between 2018 and 2025.