How the beauty industry is boosting High Streets

Marie Campbell is sitting in the hairdresser's chair at the Wolverhampton salon she has been visiting she since was a teenager.

Now 29, she is getting ready for an event and she knows that salon-fresh style will help her feel more confident when she steps back outside later.

"People in the salon feel like family and people I can confide in, whether we are talking about day-to-day life or things I'm going through," she says. "It makes me feel settled down. Like this is a safe place for me."

It is something that matters to Marie Camara, who has been a hairdresser at Marie's Hair and Beauty salon for the past 14 years.

Specialising in treating afro hair from "the granddaughter to the grandmother", she believes beauty and personal care businesses are playing a key role in supporting our High Streets.

Camara said: "I renovated not long ago. I wanted to create a space for women to come every week to have a coffee and a chat, not just doing your hair but just to come out. All get together as friends, as ladies."

Scenes like those unfolding at Marie's can be found all over the country, with a new report by the British Beauty Council suggesting beauty salons and shops now make up almost a third of all leisure sites across UK retail centres.

It says those business take an even greater share of the smaller high streets and as spend on personal care shows no sign of slowing, it is now equivalent to pubs, bars and cafes combined.

Laura Garbett, owner of the Rectory House in Wolverhampton said: "If you look around you can see there are so many hair and beauty salons of different shapes and forms, so I definitely think they support the high street.

The study suggested that more than half of personal care appointments nationally took place on a high street or in a town centre, and in 86% of those cases the appointment was the main reason for the visit.

Half of customers then spent money at nearby businesses, helping boost local economies.

Garbett added: "Often a lot of our clients will say that after the treatment that they're going for coffee or lunch with a friend afterwards."

Camara said: "You can order a burger in bed, but you can't order a haircut in bed so you have to come out, then while you're out to go and get your hair done you're doing other things as well.

"Also if you're going out to the hairdressers, you might do some shopping or window shopping. So for the beauty industry its definitely bringing people together, it makes people come out of their houses."

Christina Smith-Gorman, 34, is a new mum to son, Teddy, who is three months old. She has travelled from her home in Staffordshire to the Rectory House for a pedicure.

She added: "The treatments make you feel amazing. It's just about having some time out for yourself, especially as a new mum."

Hina Rauf, 29, comes to Rectory House up to four times a week for massage treatments.

She explained: "I get massages for my fibromyalgia so it helps take the tension away from my shoulders and my neck. It makes me feel grounded.

"I was also really poorly with my mental health last year. When I did come back to the salon I had a whole day of treatments, which made me feel really revived and like myself again."

Garbett says: "We see some elderly people who it might be the first time they've come out, it might be new mums who want to feel like themselves again, people with mental health issues. We're always just an ear for people to talk to as well."

The Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade said: "For many people, these are places to catch up, have a chat and feel good about themselves.

"They help keep our high streets busy and support local jobs in every corner of the country, and I want to make sure the industry has the backing it needs to keep growing."

The report also identified several West Midlands constituencies among the areas where beauty businesses make up more than 35% of all leisure and recreation amenities, including Sutton Coldfield, Solihull West and Shirley, Birmingham, Edgbaston and Wolverhampton West.

Megan Jones owns The Beauty Spectrum, in Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, which specialises in manicures, pedicures, gel nails, and facials.

She said: "I wanted to have a beauty business that was accommodating and inclusive to everyone."

Jones added that some of her neurodivergent clients usually found salons too "overwhelming", but had discovered a safe space in her treatment room.

Becci Hollis founded Blossom Academy, based in Shrewsbury, after she originally started doing her own nails at home to save money.

Hollis, 29, delivers training courses on how to do nails, and has a team of 10 women offering their own treatments from the building.

"It has boomed, and we're kind of a household name in the industry, which is just a dream come true."

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