Birmingham in top ten beauty spots in UK for hair, nails and massages

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.

Birmingham landed very high on the list, ranking eighth overall, and is the only location in the West Midlands in the UK's top 20. The town’s rankings were highest for massage, Birmingham ranked eighth there, while it was eleventh for nails and tenth for hair.

The data revealed that in joint first place were Edinburgh and Salford. Both ranked highly when it came to their hair and nail offerings, with Edinburgh coming out as top overall for its quality and quantity of hair locations in the city, with an average rating of 4.94 for its hair salons. Both cities also scored well for massage offerings with Salford ranking third for massage businesses and Edinburgh not far behind in fourth place, with an average review rating for massage services of 4.93 and 4.95 respectively.

Top 20 UK locations for beauty and wellness

Birmingham in 20 locations that offer Afro hair services

The research also analysed the catering to diversity from these locations. Out of the 35 locations looked at, only 20 have establishments which offered Afro hair services, Birmingham included.

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.

Birmingham came in last, with an overall afro hair rank of 4.67, which is not so low as Oldham who came first in the study had an afro hair rank of 5.0.