The EBS Beauty Industry Survey
An In-Depth Look at the Beauty Industry in 2024
The beauty industry is ever-changing. On the one hand, that makes our gigs as cosmetologists exciting, expansive, and always flooded with infinite possibilities. On the other, that means keeping up with the current trends of the industry can be, for lack of a better phrase, overwhelming.
Many cosmetologists (and we’re sure you’ve thought this) often wonder about the way the industry is moving, what other cosmetologists are experiencing, and what they need to know about this beauty biz as it evolves.
So, how can you keep up with the flux of the industry?
How can you gauge where your other cosmetologists are at? How can you take a look at your career and compare it against other careers to evaluate if you’re on the right track? This year, we’ve got you covered.
Elite Beauty Society (that’s us) recently conducted an expansive survey with a large group of cosmetologists to get a comprehensive snapshot of what the 2024 beauty industry is like.
We asked questions about social media marketing, salary, industry trends, brand identity, liability insurance (because, of course), and so many more.
In other words, we asked the big, important questions to bring you real answers from beauty industry professionals just like you. The results? We’ve got a few of them laid out below. Read on to get a closer look at our in-depth analysis of the 2024 beauty industry and a representative sample of professionals who comprise it.
The 2024 Beauty Industry: Top Trends & Insights Cosmetologists Need to Know
The Top Primary Beauty Career Professions
In this part of our survey, we asked participants to outline what their primary beauty career profession is. In other words, we wanted to know what they’d consider their no. 1 offering of their own career. We gave them a few options–cosmetology, esthetician, MUA, nail tech, barbers, and others.
Of the 242 participants who answered, the most popular title was cosmetology.
About 52.48% of the participants claimed their primary beauty career profession was cosmetology. Following that, about 14.88 said esthetician. Then, in order came other, MUA, nail techs, and barbers.
We were wondering the same thing you probably were–what does “other” mean in this context? Well, our participants answered. They dropped answers like:
- Lash artist
- Microblading
- Barber teacher
- Massage therapist
- Student
The result? Mostly, beauty pros in this survey consider themselves to offer cosmetology as a service over everything else.
The Most Popular Secondary Services Offered in the Industry
We were curious about what participants would say came in second to their primary service offering (which we just established was cosmetology). So, we asked. When we presented the question “do you offer secondary services beyond your primary modality?” we deduced that about 30.96% of participants said yes–while 69.04% said no.
Of that almost 31% that do offer secondary services, they listed modalities like:
- Eyelash extensions
- Semi-permanent / permanent makeup
- Hair styling
- Waxing
- Body contouring
- Hair braiding
- Tanning
- Travel styling
- Reiki
2024 Salaries–Current Annual Incomes for Cosmetologists
Are you wondering where your salary lies on the scale for 2024 cosmetologists and beauty pros? We get it–that’s a common question for professionals in any industry. So, of course, we asked our survey participants to share that information to help them get a better idea of what salaries in the industry look like. We received 266 answers to this question. Here’s what we got:
- 24.06% of participants earn between $10,000-$20,000 per year.
- 16.92% of participants earn between $20,000-$30,000 per year.
- 17.67% of participants earn between $30,000-$40,000 per year.
- 19.55% of participants earn $50,000+ per year.
How Cosmetologists Classify Themselves Professionally
Terminology can be tricky in our industry. So, how are others classifying themselves professionally? Our survey results indicate that about 26% of cosmetologists classify themselves as booth renters, while about 22% say they fall in the “other” category, throwing out titles like “educator, resident, salon manager, business owner,” and beyond.
Trailing those percentages comes titles like salon owner (17.72%), salon suite renter (19.83%), and salon employee (15.19%).
Average Amount of Time in the Industry
How long have you been in the industry? According to our survey, the bulk of our participants have been in the cosmetology or beauty industry for over 15+ years (about 34.3% of our participants)–that has to say something about the longevity of our industry, right? Following those numbers come cosmetologists who have been in the industry from 0-3 years (about 30.5% of our participants)
Hours Per Week in the Salon–What Do the Numbers Say?
Our participants reported differing numbers for their hours physically in the salon. Of 235 answers, we report that about 27% of our surveyed cosmetologists spent anywhere between 20-30 hours per week in the salon. About 15% spend 40+ hours in the salon, and about 17.45% spend less than 10 in the salon.
What are the Biggest Challenges in a Cosmetologist's Career?
Here’s one of the most interesting questions of all. We wanted to know what beauty pros considered to be the most challenging part of their career. So, we polled our participants, and of 234 answers, they said:
- Marketing (51.71%)
- Rent Prices (32.91%)
- Client Retention (31.20%)
- Competition (29.49%)
- Other (15.38%)
Do Cosmetologists Currently Have Liability Insurance?
You know we had to ask this question of our surveyed cosmetologists. Can you blame us? Of 297 answers to this question, only about 40% of cosmetologist participants said they have liability insurance–that means about 60% of them are at risk for dealing with the trials of claims, allegations, and accusations on their own with no liability insurance coverage. Do you fall into this category? There’s something we can do about that! Check out our cosmetology liability insurance plans here to see how our cosmetology liability insurance can change your career, protect your future, and safeguard you from trouble!
Want to know more about our survey? You’re in luck. We’re dropping important blogs about the results all month long, so make sure you don’t miss a single post.
We’ll talk insurance numbers, industry trends, and even insight about what services you should be offering in your salon, shop, or spa in our evolved industry.
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