Original research from the Companies House register, July 2026. Method at the bottom, every number checkable.
The numbers
Hair and beauty is the busiest field we have analysed on the register: 77,885 active companies, 24,038 incorporated since January 2025, and the doors keep opening at nearly 1,300 a month. It also holds the record we did not want to award: 24% of the January 2025 intake was dissolved within 18 months, the highest early churn of any sector we have measured.
The most Instagram-dependent trade in Britain
No industry lives on Instagram like this one, and no industry pays more for the dependence. The feed is the portfolio, the DMs are the booking system, and the algorithm is the landlord: it decides which followers see you, it cannot be read by the search engines and AI assistants new clients actually ask, and if the account stalls, so does the diary.
Meanwhile the person who just moved to the area does what everyone does: searches “balayage near me” or asks an AI who is good locally. Those systems recommend businesses they can read: services listed, prices indicated, location clear, reviews visible, booking one tap away. A locked-up Instagram grid answers none of that.
What the survivors do
In the highest-churn trade on the high street, the survivors own their shop window: a simple site with the service menu and prices, the booking link, the reviews, and the location, feeding the diary regardless of what the algorithm decides this week. Instagram stays for the artistry. The website is where a stranger becomes a booking.
Method, so you can check it
Counts pulled live from the Companies House register (Advanced Search API) on 12 July 2026 for SIC 96020, hairdressing and other beauty treatment. Public data; verify any figure. Corrections: hello@modemarketing.co.uk.
Where Mode fits, stated plainly
Fixed-price websites with the booking route built in: one page for £249, five pages for £495 live in five working days, or £99 a month built and hosted. Prices published, you own everything. One Page Site · Website Subscription · all prices.
