Half of UK Salon Staff Doubt They'll Still Be Open in 12 Months

Half of UK salon employees are unsure whether their business will still be open in 12 months, according to new figures from the British Hair Consortium — and one in five salons rates closure as now very likely.

The data, reported on 27 April 2026, marks a shift in what is actually threatening salon businesses. For years, debt, energy bills and declining footfall topped the list of concerns. They have now been overtaken by a cluster of policy-driven costs:

• VAT applied to labour
• Rising wages
• Higher national insurance contributions
• Business rates

What does the change in threat profile mean for salons?

For a working salon, the distinction matters. Energy bills and footfall can be managed — an owner can renegotiate tariffs, cut hours, or run promotions to lift appointments. VAT on labour, national insurance rises and business rates are fixed obligations. They scale with staffing and premises, not with trading performance.

That means the cost base rises regardless of how busy the chair is. For salons already operating on thin margins, the British Hair Consortium's finding that 20% of businesses consider closure very likely reflects arithmetic, not pessimism: costs that cannot be flexed are now growing faster than revenues.

How are stylists responding on the ground?

In Gloucestershire, the response has been direct: price increases. Self-employed hair stylist Amelie, who works in Cheltenham, has raised her client prices to keep pace with escalating costs.

Her account underlines how tight margins had become before the increases. "When I break it down to my clients and explain to them that between to the cost of living crisis, paying rent and paying the stock price increases, sometimes meant we were barely taking home minimum wage," she said. "They were a lot more understanding and could see it from our point of view so much better."

Two points stand out for salon owners weighing their own price lists. First, Amelie was earning close to minimum wage — in a skilled trade — before repricing. Second, transparent communication worked: clients accepted the increase once the cost breakdown was explained.

That is a usable playbook. Salons facing the same VAT, wages, national insurance and rates pressures can absorb them through itemised, honest price adjustments rather than silent increases — and, on this evidence, retain client goodwill in the process.

What should owners watch next?

The British Hair Consortium's figures give the industry a baseline: 50% of salon employees uncertain about the next 12 months, and one in five salons treating closure as very likely. The numbers to watch are whether those figures move as VAT on labour, wage increases and national insurance changes feed through into salon accounts — and whether more owners follow Cheltenham's lead in passing costs on transparently rather than absorbing them.

With the 12-month window the survey covers now running, the next round of British Hair Consortium data will show whether price rises like Amelie's have stabilised the sector or whether the one-in-five closure risk has hardened into actual closures.