From dodgy haircuts and botched bleach jobs to wonky nail extensions, many of us have tales of beauty mishaps experienced while searching for the ideal salon. While the process of finding a beauty salon often hinges on factors such as price, service quality, reviews, ratings and word of mouth, it is also heavily influenced by what you have available to you.
A recent study by Currys uncovered the UK’s beauty hotspot destinations,analysing the offering of hair, nail and massage locations listed on Treatwell compared to the population of those areas. It also uncovered the average rating of the service to crown the best places to live if you are a beauty buff.
The data revealed that in joint first place was Salford and Edinburgh. Both ranked highly when it came to their hair and nail offering, with Edinburgh coming out as top overall for its quality and quantity of hair locations in the city, with an average rating of 4.92 for its hair salons. Both cities also scored well for massage with Salford ranking 3rd for massage businesses and Edinburgh not far behind in 4th, with an average review rating for massage services of 4.93 and 4.95 respectively.
Close behind in third place was Stockport, which came first place for nails and joint first place for massage, along with Oldham. This city was only let down by the quality of hair establishments, ranking 7th overall for this beauty service.
Top 20 UK locations for beauty and wellness
| Overall Beauty and wellness rank | Location | Hair rank | Nail rank | Massage rank |
| 1 | Salford | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | Edinburgh | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | Stockport | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | Oldham | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| 5 | Glasgow | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| 6 | Manchester | 9 | 5 | 10 |
| 7 | Luton | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 | Birmingham | 10 | 11 | 8 |
| 9 | Liverpool | 3 | 15 | 12 |
| 10 | Warrington | 16 | 9 | 6 |
| 11 | Leeds | 11 | 14 | 7 |
| 11 | Newcastle-Upon-Tyne | 4 | 6 | 22 |
| 13 | London | 12 | 11 | 10 |
| 14 | Bristol | 18 | 9 | 9 |
| 15 | Wakefield | 13 | 13 | 17 |
| 16 | Sunderland | 14 | 18 | 19 |
| 17 | Peterborough | 15 | 21 | 20 |
| 18 | Cardiff | 29 | 16 | 14 |
| 19 | Bradford | 22 | 21 | 17 |
| 19 | Bolton | 17 | 28 | 15 |
| 19 | Leicester | 18 | 27 | 15 |
The research also analysed the catering to diversity from these locations too. Out of 35 cities looked at, only 20 have establishments which offered Afro hair services.
The study looked at how many salons on Treatwell were offering Afro hair services in each city and then worked out the number of potential clients served based on ONS ethnic group data in the same areas. This was used in conjunction with the average rating to find the best locations in the UK for those with Afro hair.
Oldham came in at number one overall with the best average rating for Afro hair services in the area, and the fifth best offering of establishments to ethnic group population.
Top 5 cities for afro hair services
| Rank | Location | Afro hair to serve rank | Afro hair ranking rank |
| 1 | Oldham | 5 | 1 |
| 2 | Edinburgh | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Gateshead | 3 | 7 |
| 4 | Salford | 4 | 7 |
| 5 | Stockport | 1 | 13 |
| 5 | Bournemouth | 7 | 7 |
You can view the full study here: https://www.currys.co.uk/techtalk/how-to/health-and-beauty-hotspots.html
