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.

Luton landed very high on the list, ranking seventh overall, and is the only location in Bedfordshire in the UK’s top 20. The town’s rankings were highest for hair, ranking in fifth place, while it was eighth for nails and thirteenth for massages.

The data revealed that in joint first place are 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 places also scored well for massage 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

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

Summer nails trends: bright colours and flowers

Luton ranked high, eighth, for having excellent hair salons. Research also explored UK trends for summer-ready nail art. In April 2024, there was a 200% rise in Google searches for “summer nail art” with these specific nail searches:

1. orange nail art

2. daisy nail art

3. cherry blossom nail art

4. flower nail art designs

5. swirl nail art

6. french manicure nail art

7. black nail designs

8. tulip nail art

9. cherry nails

10. lemon nail art

11. flame nail art

12. star nail art

13. neon nail art

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

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