To better understand how confident beauty professionals and beauty schools feel about their businesses, the Professional Beauty Association (PBA), in partnership with PBA Business Member Pivot Point International, created the Pro Beauty Pulse.
This monthly index tracks industry sentiment across W-2 beauty professionals, 1099/independent professionals, salon owners, and beauty school leaders. We also include data from The KIM Report, providing real-world salon performance results to complement sentiment insights.
The charts above reflect industry sentiment in January, capturing how professionals felt about business conditions for December. To provide additional context, the data below comes from The KIM Report and reflects actual performance results, allowing for a direct comparison between sentiment and real-world outcomes.
Year-over-Year Performance (December 2025 vs. December 2024)
- Solopreneurs: +2.1%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.1 service providers): +6.3%
Month-over-Month Performance (December 2025 vs. December 2024)
- Solopreneurs: +9.4%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.1 service providers): +11.2%
KEY TAKEAWAY
Sentiment data in January indicated that a majority of professionals viewed December positively, with 52% of independents and 57% of salon owners rating the month as good or excellent.
The KIM Report confirms this optimism, showing growth across both year-over-year and month-over-month performance. Notably, the slightly stronger sentiment among salon owners aligns with their comparatively stronger performance versus solopreneurs, showing a strong alignment between perception and actual results.
Activities related to restricting Title IV funding and reducing licensure hours may impact school confidence levels in the months ahead.
The KIM Report aggregates data from more than 10,000 salons and solopreneurs, each with 24 consecutive months on the same software platform to ensure data consistency and reliability.
STAY INFORMED
Explore more insights in The KIM Report, your source for real-world data and monthly performance trends shaping the professional beauty market.
