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 February, capturing how professionals felt about business conditions for January. To provide additional context, the data below comes from The KIM Report and reflects actual January performance results, allowing for a direct comparison between salon industry sentiment and real-world outcomes.
Year-over-Year Performance (January 2026 vs. January 2025)
- Solopreneurs: -4.8%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.01 service providers): +0.3%
Month-over-Month Performance (January 2026 vs. December 2025)
- Solopreneurs: -8.3%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.01 service providers): -11.9%
KEY TAKEAWAY
February sentiment findings suggest a generally positive start to the year, as 46% of commission stylists, 51% of independents, and 57% of salon owners described January as good or excellent.
The KIM Report reflected expected seasonal month-over-month declines. Year-over-year, commission salons were up slightly compared to January 2025, while solopreneurs were down 4.8%.
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.
January follows the holiday peak, so the month-over-month drop is a normal seasonal reset. The more important signal is year-over-year, where total revenue was essentially flat but slightly negative, driven by softer traffic and service volume rather than price.
STAY INFORMED
Explore more insights in The KIM Report, your source for real-world data and monthly performance trends shaping the professional beauty market.
