In December 2021, Beauty Backed Trust launched an inquiry in order to find out more about what the consumer understands about beauty qualifications and what people look for when choosing a salon or therapist to go to.

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Beauty Backed Trust is dedicated to improving industry standards so that the consumer can make an informed decision about their treatments, their therapist and they salon they choose.

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On Friday, Beauty Backed will share their findings and compare with results from a BABTAC survey conducted in 2019, to assess if there has been any change in consumer perception.

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Please see below for our initial findings:

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Question One

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Question Two

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Question Three

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Question Four

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Other included:

• Try the salon once
• Qualifications AND recommendations
• Franchise
• Trusted source e.g The Tweakment Guide
• Price
• Location / proximity to home
• Policies on their website / social media
• Brand led salon
• GMC Registered

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Question Five

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Question Six

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Question Seven

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Question Eight

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Question Nine

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N 2019 BABTAC ran a consumer survey (2000 respondents) to determine consumer’s understanding of the state of regulation and standard of training of the Beauty Industry. The results were very concerning. After 2 years of heightened spotlight on our industry during the pandemic , Beauty Backed did a comparison survey again and the results are a stark reminder of how low consumer awareness remains about the state of regulation and lack of standardisation of qualifications and training.

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Interestingly the Beauty Backed Trust Survey results showed that 56% of consumers believed the industry was regulated while in 2019 30% believed it was and 25% didn’t know. A startling current perception given it remains almost as unregulated as it was 3 years ago.
A similar amount of consumers from both surveys believed their therapists held relevant qualifications (70%) although very tellingly over 90% would not feel comfortable asking to see their qualifications and 71% stated they didn’t know the difference between a regulated qualification and non-regulated short courses so the question remains how they actually know if the training is fit for purpose.
Most notably almost all consumers believed that the industry should be regulated and there should be a recognisable certification applied to fit for purpose training.

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