Hairdressers and Beauty Salons Are Booming Across West Kent - Except in Tunbridge Wells

The number of hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons trading in West Kent has grown sharply over the past decade - except in Tunbridge Wells, where the sector has flatlined while every neighbouring borough, and England as a whole, kept growing.

Government business data (ONS/NOMIS, UK Business Counts) records 125 hairdressing and beauty premises in Maidstone, 90 in Sevenoaks, 85 in Tonbridge & Malling and 85 in Tunbridge Wells as of 2026. Measured against population, Sevenoaks has the most per head and Tunbridge Wells isn't far behind, with Maidstone and Tonbridge & Malling a little lower.

The more striking pattern shows up over time. Taking 2016 as a baseline (to avoid a one-off counting change ONS made in 2015, explained below), the number of hairdressing and beauty premises grew 42% in Tonbridge & Malling, 32% in Maidstone and 29% in Sevenoaks over the following decade - all roughly tracking the 31% growth seen across England as a whole. In Tunbridge Wells, the count went from 85 in 2016 to 85 in 2026 - net growth of zero, though not a flat line throughout: it dipped to 75 in 2021-22 before climbing back to where it started by 2024.

The borough council's own evidence points to one likely factor: rent. A stakeholder report for the council's Royal Tunbridge Wells Town Centre Retail Study, published in May 2023, found independent businesses were being priced out of the town centre by high rents. The same retail study recorded the town centre vacancy rate hitting a record 18.1% at the end of 2021. High streets with the steepest rents tend to favour national chains and larger operators over the kind of small, independent premises that make up most of the hairdressing and beauty sector - which may help explain why the borough hasn't shared in the growth seen elsewhere, even though it still has close to the most salons and barbers per head of any West Kent borough today.

These figures combine hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons under a single official classification - there's no government data series that counts barbers on their own. ONS also revised its business-count methodology in 2015, adding previously excluded businesses nationwide, which is why every area shows a jump that year; the growth figures above are calculated from 2016 onwards to avoid that one-off effect.

Sources: ONS/NOMIS UK Business Counts, ONS mid-year population estimates, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Town Centre Retail Study