A daily coffee, regular gel manicures and a monthly gym membership are among the everyday habits quietly adding thousands of pounds to household budgets each year, new analysis has found.
The comparison of common UK lifestyle spending found groceries and takeaways top the list at £2,288 a year, followed by a daily glass of wine (£1,887), a daily takeaway coffee (£1,387) and the cost of fuelling a petrol car (£1,164).
Regular gel manicures add £606 a year, while a gym membership costs the average Brit £581 annually.
But while many beauty routines come with hefty price tags, one everyday habit costs far less than most people would expect.
Research by energy company Valda Energy found styling your hair at home costs an average of just over 10p in electricity per session. Even if you style your hair every day, the annual electricity cost comes to less than £37.
That means a year’s worth of home hair styling costs less than many people spend on takeaway coffee in a single week. A daily latte adds up to £1,387 over the course of a year, while styling your hair every day at home costs just £36.90 in electricity.
The research also found the electricity needed to style your hair each day is around a third of the cost of taking a daily electric shower, which adds around £106 to annual energy bills.
Over the course of a year, the electricity used to style your hair every day costs little more than charging a smartphone every day for around a decade.
Hair stylist Milli Brown, founder of Milli Brown Hair, said people often overestimate how much energy styling tools actually use: “Hot tools are often in near-constant use when we are getting ready, but it is rarely something people measure. People assume hairdryers and styling tools are expensive to run because they’re powerful appliances. In reality, most styles only need a few minutes of heat, so the electricity cost is surprisingly low compared with many other parts of a beauty routine.”
Valda Energy’s analysis also found some hairstyles use considerably more electricity than others.
Volume-heavy looks, such as Sabrina Carpenter’s signature butterfly blowout, require a hairdryer to run for much longer than heat-free alternatives such as pin curls, making them among the most energy-intensive styles to recreate at home.
Brown adds: “The butterfly blowout relies on prolonged use of a powerful dryer to create volume. Now, this can be followed by straighteners, curling wands and heated brushes used to perfect the finish, which only adds to more cost. Pin curls use almost no electricity at all because the style develops as the hair dries naturally.”
The figures suggest that while everyday purchases, subscriptions and salon appointments can quietly add hundreds or even thousands of pounds to annual spending, the electricity needed to style your hair at home is one household cost that is far lower than many people expect.
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