With beauty DIY sales soaring will salons still be in demand?

Social distancing and lockdown restrictions has resulted in people sporting rather interesting hairstyles over the last couple of months. 

Thousands have gone online to share hilarious quarantine hair style woes, grey roots as well as tips and failures of cutting their own hair.

It’s been an uncomfortable few months for those who got their hair cut and coloured regularly by professionals.

But now that lockdown is easing and social distancing restrictions eased, the wait for a professional look is now over – if you can get an appointment. 

However, the exponential rise of sales in beauty DIY kits suggests this spike in demand could be short-lived and the likelihood is some have realised they can easily undertake their own beauty regime to save money. 

From last weekend, customers can return to their favourite hair salons and there have already been a stream of hairdressers boasting about full bookings for July, August and beyond.

There have also been reports of some barbers and hairdressers putting up prices thanks to extra measures that are needed – such as wearing personal protective equipment – as well as fewer clients being able to be inside at one time and simply to keep afloat.

It comes in an era in which the beauty industry has seen a surge in growth, especially in the dying high street – many towns are now dominated by beauty-related shops.  

Laura Hogan owner of independent salon New Images in Atherstone, Warwickshire is one of the many in the beauty industry that says she’s catered to a lot of pent up demand.

She claims she hasn’t seen any reticence from customers over potentially contracting Covid-19 as they seek out a beauty treatments.

She says: ‘From the salon perspective, we haven’t seen concern from customers or customers not wanting appointments due to continuing their DIY routes… it’s the opposite, they’re so happy to hear from us and can’t wait to get back in the chair.

‘Many of them have been too scared to take the plunge and do a DIY cut/colour, thankfully.

‘I opened the appointment book last week and we’re already fully booked all of July, that’s with longer opening hours and opening six days a week, opposed to our normal five days.’

Will this continue throughout the year, or will a chunk of usual punters decide not to return? 

The rise of DIY beauty

Despite the spike in demand for appointments following lockdown, it would be a mistake for the industry to ignore the online sales successes it has enjoyed in recent months.

While hair salons are allowed to open, beauty and tanning salons are still being forced to keep their doors shut until Monday and rely on their online business just a little longer. Gyms, meanwhile, are allowed to open from 25 July. 

Over the last couple of months, thousands have had a go doing their own nails, beards and hair. 

In May, beauty brand Ciaté London told Miss Vogue that they had seen sales in the nails category of its website increase by 900 per cent.

Meanwhile rival Naio Nails told This is Money that they sold over 6,000 starter kits since lockdown while Gina Conway, owner of three Aveda Salons, sold over 100 customised hair colour kits in the first two weeks of lockdown alone and will continue to sell them.

Exclusive data from online marketplace OnBuy.com shows that from March to June this year hair dye and care product sales shot up by 115 per cent while nail and beauty kits increased by 60 per cent. 

More people were also willing to have a go at removing unwanted hair with sales for these products increasing by 78 per cent according to OnBuy. 

Cas Paton, founder of OnBuy, says: ‘Sales have skyrocketed within the beauty category, across pretty much all products, indicating that instead of waiting for establishments to reopen, people have explored doing treatments at home. 

‘This isn’t that surprising, when you consider how many people have had more spare time over the last few months as well. 

‘I can imagine this new interest in DIY beauty will have a knock on effect for the wider beauty industry – those who have invested money and time into learning new beauty skills and buying the necessary tools will likely continue to practice on themselves, but there will always be a large group of people who just love the experience of visiting the salon and being pampered by someone else, and that can’t be easily recreated at home.’

British men have also been investing in DIY beauty. According to research by Growth for Knowledge back in April, sales of shavers rocketed 33.7 per cent in the first two weeks of April alone.

Meanwhile, sales of hair clippers enjoyed a whopping 228.2 per cent for 5-11 April compared to the same week in 2019.

GfK highlighted that consumers weren’t investing in cheap products either – making higher end choices instead, which could be a worry for barbers across the country. 

At the time Kelly Whitwick, UK retail lead for market insights at GfK, remarked: ‘The increased price points for both shavers and hair clippers indicates a transition from the focus on “survival” shopping that we saw in the first weeks of lock-down, into a ‘cocooning’ phase.

‘People are accommodating themselves to the new reality and are increasingly making aspirational purchases within these limits, rather than just survival purchases.’

Other beauty products and services have also enjoyed a dramatic hike in online sales and appointments. 

Nicholas Whitmore at falseyelashes.co.uk says the business has seen more than double (112 per cent) increase in sales across its website, while Lana Walker, founder of Body and Mind Holistics in Cumbria (see below) has seen an increased interest in virtual massages.

 

Drop off in sales but budgets will tighten

Nicholas admits there’s been a drop off in online sales since lockdown measures have been eased, with sales going down by around 30 per cent between May and June 2020.

This, some in the beauty industry believe, is down to customers returning to salons in favour of getting professional beauty treatments.

Lorena Oberg, a clinic owner and skin repair expert in Harley Street, argues that people will favour salons over DIY methods.

She says: ‘Although isolation has forced us to do our own hair and nails, this in no way means that we can do it better than a professional. 

‘Yes, I used a boxed hair dye, grey is not a good look on me, but I will go back to my hairdresser asap for her to do it properly.

‘There’s a big difference between ‘this will do for now’ and ‘it’s done properly’. On the clinic side of things, our phones are busy with people wanting to book themselves in.’

Lorena maintains that even in tough times the beauty industry should survive, adding: ‘Sure, if money is tight some people are going to space out their hair appointments but like in past recessions, the hair and beauty industry seem to keep their heads above the water.

‘I am far too vain to go down the DIY route permanently, I need my hair and nails looking good, not the half-baked jobby I do!’

But while hairdressers are enjoying a spike in appointments now not all are sure this bounce will last for the long term.

Jobs are at risk and while forecasts vary the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, for instance, predicts 6.5million jobs – around a quarter of the total – in the UK could be taken out of the economy.

This should have an impact on what people will be prepared to spend on the luxuries such as haircuts.

Nicholas says: ‘As people realise they can do their own lashes and brows much cheaper than going to the salon, we think more people will start to DIY especially as we start to tighten our belts with poor economic news dripping out on a daily basis.’