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 chart above reflects industry sentiment in March—capturing how professionals perceived their business conditions in February.
To provide additional context, the data below is sourced from The KIM Report and represents actual industry performance for February.
Together, these offer a clear, side-by-side comparison of salon industry sentiment versus real-world results.
Year-over-Year Performance (Feb 2026 vs. Feb 2025)
- Solopreneurs: -0.5%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.08 service providers): +3.3%
Month-over-Month Performance (February 2026 vs. January 2026)
- Solopreneurs: -5.1%
- Commission Salons (avg. 6.08 service providers): -4.3%
KEY TAKEAWAY:
In February 2026, solo business was essentially flat year over year at -0.5%, while the salon cohort posted growth of +3.34%. Month over month, both segments declined, but that result should be viewed in the context of February having three fewer calendar days than January. On a calendar-adjusted basis, the daily pace was stronger than the raw MoM figures suggest.
STAY INFORMED
Explore more insights in The KIM Report, your source for real-world data and monthly performance trends shaping the professional beauty market.
