Number of hair salons in France: 58,600 in 2026
France has 58,600 hair salons and barber shops in operation in November 2026, and 92.9% are independent, outside any chain, franchise or buying group. For anyone selling to salons, prospecting means approaching one salon at a time: the 80 chains identified account for only 7.1% of salons.
France has 58,600 hair salons and barber shops in operation in November 2026, according to Scalon's count. That is just over half of the 110,055 locations listed in the register under the hairdressing code, which also include home hairdressing and registrations with no activity. More than 9 in 10 (92.9%) belong to no chain, franchise or buying group, and their owner usually makes purchasing decisions alone; the 80 chains identified account for only 7.1%.
Get the list of the 58,600 hair salons in France, with the contact details available.
Get the full listPublished on November 2, 2026 · Updated on November 9, 2026
In this article
- How many salons, depending on your question?
- Why does the number of hair salons vary so much?
- How much revenue do the industry and individual salons generate?
- Which NAF code (the French activity classification code) applies to a hair salon?
- The market's vocabulary, explained simply
- The six levels of the market
- Who are the companies behind the salons?
- Is the market moving? Openings, closures and bankruptcies
- How many hairdressers are there in France?
- Hairdressing submarkets
- How to use these figures for a market study
- How to build a prospect list of hair salons
- Frequently asked questions
- Method
- Key takeaways
How many salons, depending on your question?#
| Question | Key figure |
|---|---|
| How many salons and barber shops are in operation? | 58,600 (November 6, 2026) |
| How many hairdressing locations are in the register? | 110,055 (October 1, 2026) |
| How many are coded "in salon" in the register? | 70,814 |
| How many business locations have employees? | 37,068 (Urssaf, end of 2025) |
| What share of salons is independent, outside any chain, franchise or buying group? | 92.9%, or about 54,400 when applied to the total of 58,600 |
| How many observed salons belong to a chain, franchise or buying group? | 3,952, in 80 chains |
| How many barber shops were observed? | 8,090 |
| How many salons publish their services online? | 19,790 |
| How many in my region or département (a French administrative area roughly comparable to a county)? | see geography |
The right answer depends on your question. To size the market, the benchmark is 58,600. For an offer aimed at salon owners, it is the 92.9% of independents outside any chain, about 54,400 salons. For an offer negotiated with head offices, it is the 80 chains, ten of them with 50 salons or more. For a list drawn from the activity code alone, expect nearly 2 rows for every 1 salon in operation.
Three steps for anyone selling to salons. Call the owner: they usually decide alone for more than 9 salons in 10, and almost all publish a phone number, almost none an email address. For a chain, the head office can get you onto the approved-supplier list, but the franchisee still decides for their own salon (see chains). Track openings: 11,807 hairdressing locations opened in the register from October 2025 to September 2026, and a one-year-old list contains none of them (see the prospect list).
The breakdowns below cover the 55,461 mainland salons we reviewed individually; the total of 58,600 also includes overseas salons and salons with employees but no public listing (the Method section explains the calculation).
Why does the number of hair salons vary so much?#
The figures published on hairdressing do not count the same thing. The difference comes first from the unit: a location in the register, that is, a place of business identified by a SIRET number (the French ID of a business location), or a salon that actually receives customers. It then comes from the scope: salons only, or salons plus home hairdressing.
Take a simple example. One hairdresser works in her clients' homes and another runs a salon with a storefront. In the register, each is a hairdressing location. For Scalon, only the second is a salon that receives customers. Both readings are correct; they do not answer the same question.
This confusion shows up on published pages: some write "111,200 hair salons" to mean locations in the register. Yet the Union nationale des entreprises de coiffure (UNEC), the industry's employers' union, counts only 69,556 salons in that same file. For anyone preparing a quote or a prospect list, the difference is considerable.
What the other sources say, and why they differ:
| Publication | Figure | What is counted | Why it differs from 58,600 |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNEC, end of 2024 | 111,177 | Hairdressing locations in the register | Counts registrations, salons and home hairdressing, including those with no visible activity |
| UNEC, same brochure | 69,556 | Hair salons | Counts registrations coded "in salon," not places that show activity |
| UNEC, same brochure | 31,501 | Home hairdressing businesses | Outside a salon: not a place that receives customers |
| Sirene register, October 1, 2026 | 110,055 | Locations open under code 96.02A | Keeps registrations with no visible activity and home hairdressing |
| EPSIMAS, January 1, 2026 | 113,702 | Active locations under code 96.02A, market study published online | Raw register count, with no check of activity |
| Urssaf, end of 2025 | 37,068 | Employer locations | Leaves out salons with no employees |
| saloncoiffure.net directory (read on November 6, 2026) | 17,019 | Salons listed with address and phone | Lists only the salons registered in the directory |
| Scalon, November 2026 | 58,600 | Salons and barber shops in operation | Places that receive customers, location by location |
There is no single "correct official figure" that makes the others irrelevant. 110,055 answers "how many addresses are registered under the hairdressing code?" 37,068 answers "how many salons employ staff?" 69,556 answers "how many registrations are coded as salons according to UNEC?" 58,600 answers "how many salons can you visit, call or prospect today?"
The gap between the register and our total deserves a closer look: it comes to 51,455 locations. A prospect list drawn from the activity code alone therefore contains 1.88 rows per salon in operation. For a sales rep, that is nearly one call in two going to a home hairdresser or to a registration with no open salon.
Our own count shows why registration is not enough. In mainland France, no public listing was found for 22,821 of the 68,599 locations coded "in salon" (1 in 3). The same is true of 30,146 of the 37,691 locations coded "out of salon" (4 in 5): a home hairdresser rarely has a listing.
Our estimate of 58,600 is therefore below the register total and 10,956 below UNEC's salon count. It sits above Urssaf's 37,068 employers, because it also counts salons with no employees. These figures cannot be added together or averaged.
To test your own list: pick 20 rows at random from a list pulled under code 96.02A in your département (the French county-level administrative area). Look up each address on an online map and keep those with a public salon listing at that address. Expect to keep about half: in mainland France, no public listing was found for 52,967 of the 106,290 locations under the code. Results from a sample of 20 rows vary widely; treat this as a rough indication rather than a precise measurement.
The scope will also shift: a new classification takes effect on January 1, 2027 (French business activity (APE) codes change in 2027). A 2027 count will not necessarily be comparable with the 2026 one.
How much revenue do the industry and individual salons generate?#
What public statistics say#
According to Insee's 2022 Ésane structural business statistics, as reported by UNEC, industry revenue was €6.3 billion. It splits into about €5.5 billion for salons and €0.9 billion for home hairdressing (amounts rounded by UNEC). From this, UNEC derives an average revenue of around €76.3K per company.
Another benchmark, more recent but less solid: a market study published online by EPSIMAS puts the market at €7 billion in 2025. It is an estimate, not a count.
For anyone selling to salons, these figures give the order of magnitude of the market, not the purchasing power of a given salon. A hair product brand bills a salon with €76,300 in revenue differently from a company in a large network that reports nearly four times as much (see below).
What we measure#
Scalon linked each salon to its operating company and reviewed the company's published financial statements. Of the 41,868 hairdressing companies (code 96.02A) that run the salons observed, only 2,037 publish recent revenue, or 4.9%. We keep only fiscal years ending in 2024 or later. Most salons do not publish their accounts.
Of these 2,037 companies, half make less than €81,354 in revenue a year. A quarter make less than €42,720 and a quarter make more than €149,025. Together, they report €478 million.
| Company revenue | Companies | Share of companies | Share of published revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under €50,000 | 629 | 30.9% | 4.2% |
| €50,000 to €100,000 | 608 | 29.8% | 9.4% |
| €100,000 to €250,000 | 571 | 28.0% | 18.5% |
| €250,000 to €500,000 | 156 | 7.7% | 11.1% |
| €500,000 to €1M | 45 | 2.2% | 6.4% |
| €1M and over | 28 | 1.4% | 50.4% |
| Total | 2,037 | 100.0% | 100.0% |
The table shows where the reported money is concentrated: only 28 companies (1.4%) reach or exceed €1M, and on their own they make 50.4% of published revenue. The top tenth of companies by reported revenue makes 66.4% of published revenue. At the other end, 6 in 10 companies report less than €100,000 a year.
In practice: for a point-of-sale software vendor, a bank or an insurer, the typical salon is a small business that reports less than €100,000. Only a few dozen companies report revenue above €1M.
The size of the player changes the picture. Here is the revenue of the companies that publish their accounts, by the size of the network their salons belong to. A network here means salons that share a company, a website or a storefront name (details in level 5).
| Size of the player | Companies | Typical revenue (half make less) | Share of published revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| A single salon | 1,775 | €71,596 | 36.4% |
| 2 salons | 34 | €199,051 | 2.2% |
| 3 to 9 salons | 47 | €286,124 | 4.8% |
| 10 to 49 salons | 70 | €243,358 | 4.8% |
| 50 salons and over | 111 | €286,685 | 51.8% |
| Total | 2,037 | 100.0% |
Among companies affiliated with networks of 50 salons or more, median reported revenue is €286,685, compared with €71,596 for a single-salon company: four times as much. There are only 111 of them, but they make 51.8% of published revenue. For a supplier, the franchisee of a large network is a bigger account than the independent down the street.
Barber shops are smaller. Among the companies that publish their accounts, half of the 346 companies linked to a barber shop make less than €42,214, against €89,516 for the 1,691 companies linked to a hair salon. For equipment or software suppliers, the target order value is different.
A word of caution: the companies that publish their accounts are probably larger than the average salon. Our 2,037 companies are only 4.9% of the 41,868 hairdressing companies that run the salons observed. Sole proprietors, very common in hairdressing, have no accounts to publish: they are missing from this base, which therefore leans toward incorporated companies. This revenue is also that of the company, not of a single salon, when the company runs several. We do not rank operating companies by name; only chain names, which are public, are named.
Which NAF code (the French activity classification code) applies to a hair salon?#
The NAF code (the French activity classification code, also called APE code) of a hair salon is 96.02A, "Coiffure" (hairdressing). The APE code is the main activity code that Insee assigns to each location. On October 1, 2026, 110,055 open locations carry this code in the register. Beauty salons fall under another code, 96.02B, which counts 116,343 open locations and stays outside this study.
The classification is changing: NAF 2025 takes effect on January 1, 2027, and code 96.02A splits into two codes. 96.21G covers in-salon hairdressing (70,814 locations), 96.21H out-of-salon hairdressing (38,750), at the customer's home for example. All the changes are detailed in APE code, NAF code: what changes in 2027.
Filtering by code 96.02A alone does not capture the full market. It retains registrations with no visible activity: in mainland France, no public listing was found for 1 in 3 locations coded "in salon". It also misses barber shops and salons classified under another code. If you compare two years, check the classification used for each.
The market's vocabulary, explained simply#
The industry's words do not mean the same thing to everyone who uses them. Here are the ones used in this article.
The eleven market terms, defined
| Term | Simple definition |
|---|---|
| Location | A place of business, identified by a SIRET number. A hairdressing company can have several. |
| Salon in operation | A place that receives customers and shows proof of activity: an open location in the register linked to a public listing, a customer review less than a year old, or an employee reported to Urssaf (the French social-security contributions agency). Beauty salons are not included. |
| Barber shop | A salon focused on men's cuts, beards and shaving. It is counted in the 58,600 salons. |
| Home hairdressing | A hairdresser who travels to clients, with no place that receives them. Counted separately. |
| Independent | A salon that belongs to no chain: no group, no franchise, no buying group under one brand, no company-owned branch network. Its owner chooses suppliers alone, even if they run a second salon. |
| Network or player | Several salons that share at least one company, website or storefront name. A network of at least 3 salons under a common brand is a chain. |
| Storefront name (enseigne) | The name displayed on the storefront, for example that of a network. |
| Franchise | A network whose salons belong to different companies that use a franchisor's brand. |
| Company-owned branch | A salon run directly by the company that owns the brand. |
| Group | The owner of several chains, for example Provalliance. |
| Online booking page | A salon's page on an online booking service, where it often publishes its services and prices. |
The word "independent" is easy to misread. Here, it has the meaning that matters to a supplier: a salon outside any chain, franchise or buying group, whose owner makes purchasing decisions alone, whether they run one salon or two. An independent can buy its products from a large manufacturer or display a shampoo brand: that does not make it a network.
The six levels of the market#
To keep the underlying populations distinct, the study examines the market at six levels, from the register to the region. Figures at levels 3 to 6 are expressed as shares of the 55,461 salons observed. The last column of the following table applies each share to the total of 58,600, rounded to the nearest hundred.
| Level | What it counts | Count or share of salons observed | Applied to the total of 58,600 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. The universe | Hairdressing locations open in the register | 110,055 locations | not applicable |
| 2. Activity | Salons and barber shops in operation, all of France | 58,600 (estimate) | 58,600 |
| 3. Channel | Hair salon / barber shop | 85.4% / 14.6% | 50,000 / 8,600 |
| 4. Specialties | Services published on online booking pages | 19,764 salons | not applicable |
| 5. Chains and independents | Independents outside any chain / salons in a chain, franchise or buying group | 92.9% / 7.1% | 54,400 / 4,200 |
| 6. Geography | Region: Île-de-France | 14.1% | 8,300 |
Each salon is first classified by the category on its public listing, then more precisely by any services it publishes. Each level answers a different question, and going down the hierarchy keeps you from taking a register figure for a salon figure.
Level 1: the universe, locations in the register#
The Sirene register (the French government's business register) lists 110,055 open hairdressing locations on October 1, 2026, 3,305 of them in the overseas territories. Each row is a location, identified by its SIRET, the fourteen-digit number of a place of business. "Open" means registered and not closed, nothing more.
The 116,343 beauty salons, coded 96.02B, form another market, outside the scope.
For anyone selling to salons, this level serves as an upper bound and as the starting point of a list; it says nothing about actual activity. A gap of the same kind between register and activity shows up elsewhere in the Observatory, for bakeries as for businesses as a whole.
Level 2: salons in operation#
Among these locations, 58,600 are hair salons and barber shops in operation. This is the reference figure of the study: places that receive customers, overseas territories included.
Home hairdressing is considered separately. The register codes 38,750 locations as "out of salon," and UNEC counts 31,501 home hairdressing businesses. Our check gives a benchmark: among the 30 places with no SIRET that were reread, 5 are home hairdressers.
In practice: an offer that assumes a storefront and a chair (shampoo bowls, furniture, point-of-sale software) targets the 58,600. Products and services suited to mobile work (hair color products, liability insurance, scheduling tools) can also be sold to home hairdressers, but you have to find them in the register rather than in public listings.
Level 3: channel, hair salon or barber shop#
Of the 55,461 salons observed, 47,371 are hair salons and 8,090 barber shops (14.6%).
| Channel | Salons | Share | Share in a chain | Share publishing its services online |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair salon | 47,371 | 85.4% | 7.6% | 34.7% |
| Barber shop | 8,090 | 14.6% | 4.2% | 41.6% |
| Total | 55,461 | 100.0% | 7.1% | 35.7% |
Barber shops are slightly better equipped: 41.6% take online bookings with their services displayed, against 34.7% of hair salons. They are less often part of a chain: 4.2% against 7.6%. The totals of the last three columns are calculated on all 55,461 salons.
For a booking software vendor, this shows where tools are already installed and where the market is still to be won: nearly 2 salons in 3 have no published services page.
Level 4: specialties and entry prices#
Service information comes from online booking pages. Among the 55,461 salons observed, 19,790 publish their services there (35.7%): these are the salons that use an online booking tool. The others sometimes have a page created by the platform itself, with no services, which the salon does not use. The shares below cover those whose page details their services, which is almost all of them.
Chart data
| Service | Salons | Share of the 19,764 salons |
|---|---|---|
| Salons whose services are published (base) | 19,764 | 100.0% |
| Men's cut | 17,157 | 86.8% |
| Child, teen or student cut | 16,342 | 82.7% |
| Women's cut | 15,840 | 80.1% |
| Scalp care and spa | 13,568 | 68.7% |
| Color | 12,607 | 63.8% |
| Updos and wedding hair | 11,631 | 58.8% |
| Beard trims and shaving | 11,393 | 57.6% |
| Highlights, balayage, ombré | 10,928 | 55.3% |
| Straightening and relaxing | 7,467 | 37.8% |
| Perm | 6,665 | 33.7% |
| Beauty services (facials, waxing, nails, lashes) | 6,435 | 32.6% |
| Ammonia-free color | 2,319 | 11.7% |
| Extensions | 2,185 | 11.1% |
| Afro hair and braids | 1,738 | 8.8% |
A salon may list several services, so these shares should not be added together.
The same group of salons provides the breakdown by clientele. 74.3% of salons serve both women and men, 12.5% men only and 5.9% women only; for the remaining 7.3%, the page does not say.
| Published clientele | Salons | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Women and men | 14,677 | 74.3% |
| Men only | 2,480 | 12.5% |
| Women only | 1,163 | 5.9% |
| Clientele not specified | 1,444 | 7.3% |
| Total | 19,764 | 100.0% |
Names also offer clues across the 55,461 salons observed: 485 (0.9%) mention organic or plant-based hairdressing, 336 (0.6%) Afro hair, braids or locs, 305 (0.5%) extensions, and 120 (0.2%) children's services. Beauty salons or beauty services appear in the names of 5,665 (10.2%). These clues underestimate specialties, since many salons do not write them in their name.
Entry prices are published by some of the salons. A men's cut costs €20 at the typical salon, across 14,482 salons: a quarter of salons charge €17 or less and a quarter €25 or more. A women's cut and blow-dry costs €37 at the typical salon, across 7,276 salons: a quarter charge €34 or less and a quarter €42 or more. EPSIMAS estimates the average ticket at €42 in 2025: that is spending per visit, not a posted price, and the two cannot be compared directly.
In practice, the services salons list help product manufacturers, distributors and franchisors identify prospects. A hair color manufacturer targets the 63.8% of salons that list coloring services, offering ammonia-free formulas to the 11.7% that list them. A barber equipment supplier targets the 57.6% that list beard trims and shaving. These shares are minimums: a salon can offer a service without listing it.
Level 5: chains, franchises and independents#
Of the 55,461 salons observed, 51,509 are independent (92.9%): they are not part of any chain, franchise or buying group. The other 3,952 (7.1%) belong to one of the 80 chains identified, networks of at least 3 salons under a common brand, storefront name or website in the network's name. This is an upper bound for the number of independents: we cannot identify a chain whose salons share no name, website or company. Among independents, 2,329 share a company, a website or a name with another salon, without a chain brand: often one owner who runs several salons and buys alone.
EPSIMAS estimates that chains make up 7% of locations, home hairdressing included, or about 1 salon in 10 excluding home hairdressing. We find 7.1% chain salons. Among employers alone, EPSIMAS counts 20% chains; we find 9.0% chain salons among the 27,680 employer salons observed. Our measurement does not explain these discrepancies, and EPSIMAS does not publish its list of chains.
How chains operate can be read in public sources: the chain's website, franchise directories, trade press.
| Type of chain | Chains | Salons | Share of chain salons |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group (several chains) | 4 | 2,319 | 58.7% |
| Franchise | 27 | 971 | 24.6% |
| Type not established | 45 | 533 | 13.5% |
| Group of independent salons under one brand | 3 | 111 | 2.8% |
| Company-owned branches | 1 | 18 | 0.5% |
| Total | 80 | 3,952 | 100.0% |
Four groups bring together several chains: Provalliance, Groupe VOG, Dessange International and, much smaller, Blindustry (Chez Max and three other chains). Together, they hold 2,319 salons, and their chains grow mainly through franchising. 27 chains are franchises (971 salons), such as Pascal Coste, Diagonal Coiffure, Bruno Flaujac Coiffures, Diloy's, Excel Coiffure or Biguine Paris. Three operate as groups of independent salons under a shared brand (Viva la Vie, Eric Stipa, Biocoiff'); only one operates through company-owned branches (Vincent Coiffure, in Brittany). For 45 chains, mostly small (533 salons), we found no public source that states how they operate.
For sellers, the purchasing process depends on the structure: in a group of independents, each member controls its own purchasing; in a franchise, the franchisor can approve a supplier for the whole network; with company-owned branches, a single company decides for all its salons.
The top of the market is concentrated: only ten chains hold 50 salons or more, 2,823 salons between them; 61 networks have 10 or more. Provalliance, Groupe VOG and Dessange International lead the market, far ahead of the rest.
The ten largest salon groups and networks: salons observed and their operating companies
| Chain or network | Salons | Companies |
|---|---|---|
| Provalliance | 1,631 | 916 |
| Groupe VOG | 362 | 281 |
| Dessange International | 311 | 246 |
| Pascal Coste | 147 | 41 |
| Diagonal Coiffure | 72 | 46 |
| Bruno Flaujac Coiffures | 71 | 57 |
| Diloy's | 70 | 12 |
| Excel Coiffure | 55 | 43 |
| Viva la Vie | 54 | 46 |
| Biguine Paris (Jean-Claude Biguine) | 50 | 40 |
The "Companies" column counts the companies of only those salons whose company is known (1,105 of the 1,631 Provalliance salons, for example). When salons in the same network belong to several companies, they have separate operators, often franchisees.
The five largest networks bring together 4.5% of the salons observed, the ten largest 5.1%. Provalliance alone holds more salons than the next nine combined: 1,631 against 1,192. The group claims 1,800 salons in France; we observe 1,631 under its chain names.
They are mostly franchises: of the 1,105 Provalliance salons whose company we know, we count 916 different companies. The register confirms it: 147 of these 1,105 salons belong to the group's own companies; the others belong to franchisees. For the Pascal Coste chain, 2 group companies hold 21 of the 64 salons whose company we know.
For sellers, the head office can get you onto the approved-supplier list, but the franchisee decides for their own salon. Negotiating with Provalliance's head office does not give you automatic access to its 1,631 salons. A supplier targeting a franchisee has to plan two steps: approval at the head office, then selling salon by salon.
Salons by size of their network (shared company, website or storefront name)
The 55,461 salons observed can be grouped into 50,156 players, a player being a single salon or a network of salons that share a company, website or storefront name. This view counts shared companies and websites; it does not say whether a salon belongs to a chain: a network of 2 salons without a common brand remains independent in the sense of this study.
| Size of the player | Salons | Share | Players |
|---|---|---|---|
| A single salon | 49,180 | 88.7% | 49,180 |
| 2 salons | 1,238 | 2.2% | 619 |
| 3 to 9 salons | 1,251 | 2.3% | 296 |
| 10 to 49 salons | 969 | 1.7% | 51 |
| 50 salons and over | 2,823 | 5.1% | 10 |
| Total | 55,461 | 100.0% | 50,156 |
Level 6: geography#
Île-de-France has the most salons observed (7,805, or 14.1%), ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (7,231) and Occitanie (5,961). Among mainland regions, it is also the one with the most barber shops (22.0% of salons) and where chains have the largest share (9.9%), ahead of Normandie (8.8%).
Online booking draws a different map: 44.9% of salons in Pays de la Loire and 44.6% of those in Bretagne publish their services, against 28.8% in Hauts-de-France and 22.2% in Corse.
Regions: salons, share, share in a chain, share publishing its services online, share of barber shops
| Region | Salons | Share | Share in a chain | Share publishing its services online | Share of barber shops |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Île-de-France | 7,805 | 14.1% | 9.9% | 33.7% | 22.0% |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 7,231 | 13.0% | 4.8% | 36.1% | 13.7% |
| Occitanie | 5,961 | 10.7% | 7.9% | 35.2% | 15.3% |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 5,802 | 10.5% | 7.9% | 39.7% | 11.7% |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 5,143 | 9.3% | 6.7% | 35.5% | 17.3% |
| Grand Est | 4,855 | 8.8% | 5.1% | 31.9% | 13.5% |
| Hauts-de-France | 4,562 | 8.2% | 7.9% | 28.8% | 14.3% |
| Pays de la Loire | 3,222 | 5.8% | 5.8% | 44.9% | 11.3% |
| Normandie | 2,826 | 5.1% | 8.8% | 40.7% | 11.3% |
| Bretagne | 2,768 | 5.0% | 6.9% | 44.6% | 10.6% |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 2,643 | 4.8% | 5.1% | 33.2% | 10.9% |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 2,145 | 3.9% | 7.9% | 31.0% | 11.4% |
| Corse | 284 | 0.5% | 7.7% | 22.2% | 10.6% |
| Overseas territories (971, 972, 974) | 19 | 0.0% | |||
| Region not given | 195 | 0.4% | |||
| Total | 55,461 | 100.0% | 7.1% | 35.7% | 14.6% |
The listings reviewed cover mainland France; they also include 19 salons linked to an overseas département, which do not represent the overseas territories, counted separately in the total. Chain, online booking and barber shop shares are not given for fewer than 30 salons.
Nord (1,905 salons observed), Bouches-du-Rhône (1,834), Gironde (1,616) and Rhône (1,560) follow Paris (2,398); expand the table below for details by département.
Départements: salons observed, locations in the register and density
| Département | Salons observed | Locations in the register (code 96.02A) | Salons with a review within the year per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paris (75) | 2,398 | 4,697 | 107 |
| Nord (59) | 1,905 | 4,040 | 62 |
| Bouches-du-Rhône (13) | 1,834 | 3,942 | 78 |
| Gironde (33) | 1,616 | 2,899 | 84 |
| Rhône (69) | 1,560 | 2,974 | 72 |
| Hérault (34) | 1,319 | 2,549 | 94 |
| Haute-Garonne (31) | 1,237 | 2,343 | 75 |
| Alpes-Maritimes (06) | 1,214 | 2,821 | 96 |
| Pas-de-Calais (62) | 1,199 | 2,555 | 67 |
| Var (83) | 1,164 | 2,675 | 91 |
| Loire-Atlantique (44) | 1,130 | 1,950 | 67 |
| Isère (38) | 1,097 | 2,128 | 74 |
| Bas-Rhin (67) | 1,012 | 1,929 | 75 |
| Seine-Maritime (76) | 1,005 | 2,039 | 67 |
| Moselle (57) | 913 | 1,937 | 74 |
| Seine-et-Marne (77) | 889 | 1,994 | 54 |
| Yvelines (78) | 833 | 1,765 | 51 |
| Hauts-de-Seine (92) | 831 | 1,700 | 48 |
| Ille-et-Vilaine (35) | 806 | 1,335 | 62 |
| Finistère (29) | 775 | 1,256 | 69 |
| Gard (30) | 752 | 1,532 | 82 |
| Seine-Saint-Denis (93) | 746 | 1,976 | 40 |
| Haute-Savoie (74) | 743 | 1,470 | 77 |
| Essonne (91) | 729 | 1,712 | 49 |
| Loire (42) | 725 | 1,321 | 75 |
| Val-de-Marne (94) | 718 | 1,598 | 47 |
| Maine-et-Loire (49) | 716 | 1,196 | 69 |
| Haut-Rhin (68) | 708 | 1,376 | 76 |
| Charente-Maritime (17) | 698 | 1,269 | 90 |
| Morbihan (56) | 669 | 1,105 | 73 |
| Pyrénées-Atlantiques (64) | 667 | 1,288 | 76 |
| Val-d'Oise (95) | 661 | 1,630 | 47 |
| Calvados (14) | 643 | 1,145 | 78 |
| Vendée (85) | 619 | 1,106 | 71 |
| Vaucluse (84) | 616 | 1,254 | 90 |
| Oise (60) | 604 | 1,163 | 62 |
| Meurthe-et-Moselle (54) | 600 | 1,102 | 68 |
| Puy-de-Dôme (63) | 593 | 1,033 | 76 |
| Saône-et-Loire (71) | 571 | 967 | 76 |
| Ain (01) | 549 | 1,109 | 67 |
| Loiret (45) | 545 | 961 | 67 |
| Pyrénées-Orientales (66) | 545 | 1,049 | 95 |
| Doubs (25) | 540 | 900 | 78 |
| Indre-et-Loire (37) | 538 | 904 | 73 |
| Drôme (26) | 526 | 922 | 83 |
| Côtes-d'Armor (22) | 518 | 826 | 68 |
| Eure (27) | 498 | 937 | 68 |
| Sarthe (72) | 470 | 795 | 67 |
| Côte-d'Or (21) | 447 | 799 | 69 |
| Landes (40) | 445 | 794 | 84 |
| Somme (80) | 441 | 901 | 61 |
| Manche (50) | 441 | 700 | 75 |
| Marne (51) | 440 | 935 | 63 |
| Savoie (73) | 423 | 744 | 81 |
| Aisne (02) | 413 | 830 | 60 |
| Tarn (81) | 390 | 735 | 75 |
| Dordogne (24) | 389 | 754 | 72 |
| Aude (11) | 379 | 715 | 82 |
| Vosges (88) | 379 | 655 | 79 |
| Vienne (86) | 365 | 632 | 68 |
| Haute-Vienne (87) | 342 | 552 | 69 |
| Eure-et-Loir (28) | 341 | 639 | 67 |
| Ardèche (07) | 336 | 560 | 83 |
| Charente (16) | 333 | 611 | 75 |
| Lot-et-Garonne (47) | 324 | 591 | 78 |
| Allier (03) | 319 | 552 | 73 |
| Deux-Sèvres (79) | 289 | 499 | 61 |
| Mayenne (53) | 287 | 419 | 74 |
| Yonne (89) | 284 | 505 | 69 |
| Aveyron (12) | 276 | 475 | 72 |
| Loir-et-Cher (41) | 275 | 485 | 63 |
| Aube (10) | 263 | 503 | 66 |
| Jura (39) | 262 | 446 | 74 |
| Tarn-et-Garonne (82) | 258 | 465 | 81 |
| Cher (18) | 253 | 440 | 63 |
| Orne (61) | 239 | 396 | 63 |
| Corrèze (19) | 236 | 411 | 74 |
| Hautes-Pyrénées (65) | 234 | 404 | 86 |
| Haute-Loire (43) | 225 | 389 | 74 |
| Ardennes (08) | 219 | 439 | 60 |
| Haute-Saône (70) | 218 | 381 | 64 |
| Indre (36) | 193 | 336 | 65 |
| Nièvre (58) | 192 | 320 | 71 |
| Lot (46) | 186 | 311 | 82 |
| Alpes-de-Haute-Provence (04) | 181 | 326 | 89 |
| Gers (32) | 174 | 348 | 66 |
| Meuse (55) | 169 | 305 | 67 |
| Haute-Marne (52) | 152 | 279 | 65 |
| Haute-Corse (2B) | 149 | 396 | 69 |
| Ariège (09) | 146 | 275 | 73 |
| Corse-du-Sud (2A) | 135 | 322 | 70 |
| Cantal (15) | 135 | 215 | 67 |
| Hautes-Alpes (05) | 134 | 243 | 77 |
| Territoire de Belfort (90) | 129 | 219 | 73 |
| Creuse (23) | 98 | 168 | 60 |
| Lozère (48) | 65 | 102 | 68 |
Salons observed: as read on November 6, 2026, 55,247 of the 55,461 salons attached to a mainland département. Register as of October 1, 2026; density: salons that received a review within the year (as read on November 2, 2026) relative to Insee's municipal population.
Density counts the salons that received a review on their public listing within the year, per 100,000 residents. In mainland France, it is 70. Paris comes first with 107, ahead of Alpes-Maritimes (96), Pyrénées-Orientales (95) and Hérault (94). The départements around Paris come last: Seine-Saint-Denis (40), Val-d'Oise and Val-de-Marne (47), Hauts-de-Seine (48).
In Paris, the register lists 4,697 open hairdressing locations. Density is more than two and a half times higher in Paris than in Seine-Saint-Denis (107 against 40).
UNEC gives other densities, based on registrations as of January 1, 2025: 101 salons per 100,000 residents on average, 164 hairdressing locations, and up to 167 salons in Paris. These figures are higher than ours, since they count registrations and not salons that show activity.
In practice, for anyone selling to salons, volume tells you how many accounts to visit; density tells you what the route costs. In Paris, the 2,398 salons observed are concentrated in a small area; in a sparsely populated département, each visit requires more driving. This density counts the salons that received a review within the year: it undercounts where customers leave fewer reviews.
Selling to hair salons in France? Get the list for your area and your target, ready to call.
Get the full listWho are the companies behind the salons?#
Behind the 55,461 salons observed are 42,803 companies. 17,073 are sole proprietors (39.9%), 16,713 SARL or EURL (French limited liability companies, 39.0%) and 8,946 SAS or SASU (French simplified joint-stock companies, 20.9%); 71 have another legal form (0.2%). Sole proprietors have no accounts to publish, which explains the bias in the revenue measurement.
A public benchmark for comparison: according to UNEC, which cites the figures for the skilled trades sector, 59% of locations are sole proprietorships, 31% of them micro-entrepreneurs (the simplified micro-business regime). These are locations, not salons observed, hence the gap with our shares.
Among the 43,618 salons observed linked to a SIRET number in the register, 27,680 are employer locations (63.5%). UNEC, for its part, counts 42% employer locations at the end of 2022: the two benchmarks cover different sets.
The businesses are small. 93.5% of the companies behind these salons have just one location (base of the first edition: 42,100 companies). Among salons with a headcount recorded in the register, 58% have 1 or 2 employees and 32% have 3 to 5; barely 1% have 10 or more. Half of company heads are 46 or younger; 11% are 60 or older.
For a bank, an insurer or an accounting firm, this sketches the typical customer: a very small business, often a sole proprietor or a one-salon company. A franchisor also sees potential buyers here: with 11% of company heads aged 60 or older, salons will change hands in the coming years.
Is the market moving? Openings, closures and bankruptcies#
A count is a snapshot at a given date. It does not say how many salons closed during the year. Yet the register dates every opening and every closure: from October 2025 to September 2026, 11,807 hairdressing locations opened and 9,952 closed, a provisional net balance of +1,855 (+1,528 over the previous twelve months): some closures may reach the register late, which can inflate the balance of the latest year. A closure in the register also includes a salon taken over under a new number.
Churn is high: 20,394 of the locations open in the register are less than 2 years old, nearly 1 in 5. For anyone prospecting salons, a list more than a year old has already gone stale.
UNEC counted 9,823 openings in 2024 (+10% over 2023) and 8,149 closures, a net balance of +1,674 locations. For 2025, EPSIMAS counts 10,477 locations created. These data series differ in source, dates and scope, so they cannot be combined into one trend line. The totals cannot be compared directly either: UNEC reports 111,177 locations at the end of 2024 (Sirene Stock file), EPSIMAS reports 113,702 "active" locations on January 1, 2026, and we find 110,055 open locations in the register on October 1, 2026, despite positive net balances. Extractions and definitions of "active" differ, and administrative deregistrations can close dormant registrations all at once.
Employers follow a different trend. There are 37,068 at the end of 2025, down 0.6% over one year (Urssaf, open data). The average revenue of a panel of salons tracked by UNEC fell 2.75% in 2024.
Financial distress is also visible: court orders initiating insolvency proceedings against 1,091 hairdressing companies were published in the Bodacc (France's official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements) between October 30, 2025 and October 29, 2026, compared with 1,046 a year earlier. More than 2 in 3 judgments are liquidations (752 of 1,096).
For a supplier that sells on credit, a credit insurer or a subscription software vendor, this risk can be tracked in the Bodacc. Meanwhile, some of the year's 11,807 openings are new salons that need equipment; the others are takeovers under a new number or home hairdressing businesses.
How many hairdressers are there in France?#
In 2023, 177,964 people worked in the hairdressing sector, including apprentices and students; 23,198 were apprentices. The figure comes from Urssaf, reused by UNEC, which notes that the number of workers was "down in 2023."
This figure is neither a count of people who practice hairdressing nor a count of people with a hairdressing qualification: it counts people working in the sector, including home hairdressers. For a school, a workwear manufacturer or a health insurer, it is the number of users; it does not say how many salons buy.
Hairdressing submarkets#
Each submarket has its own suppliers and decision-makers. No Observatory page covers them in detail yet; here is their size, detailed above.
| Submarket | Count | Base |
|---|---|---|
| Barber shops | 8,090 | salons observed (14.6%) |
| Home hairdressing | 38,750 | locations coded "out of salon" in the register |
| Chain salons | 3,952 | salons observed, 80 chains |
| Ammonia-free color | 2,319 | salons that publish their services (11.7%) |
| Extensions | 2,185 | salons that publish their services (11.1%) |
| Afro hair and braids | 1,738 | salons that publish their services (8.8%) |
How to use these figures for a market study#
Sizing an addressable market#
Start from the target of your offer (table "How many salons, depending on your question?"). Point-of-sale software targets the 58,600 salons, employer insurance the 37,068 employer locations, a franchise offer the 51,509 independent salons observed, outside any chain, an offer negotiated with head offices the ten networks of 50 salons or more (2,823 salons).
Segmenting#
Segment prospects by salon type, specialty, chain and region: reaching 8,090 barber shops requires a different approach from reaching 47,371 hair salons. Keep the same base from start to finish.
Choosing a territory#
Compare density rather than volume (the départements table in level 6). Salons in western France are more likely to publish their services online, a useful benchmark for a booking software vendor.
Tracking a changing market#
Record the date of each review and repeat it every year (see "Is the market moving?").
Need the list of hair salons in France? We send it with the contact details available, for the scope you choose.
Get the full listHow to build a prospect list of hair salons#
A useful list does not start from register rows. It starts from the target of the offer, then combines channel, specialty, chain and region. The three basic rules (start from salons in operation, call the owner, refresh every year) are at the top of the page (see How many salons, depending on your question?). The list must also say who you are talking to: for an independent, the operator; for a chain, the head office or each franchisee; so for each salon it states whether it is independent or part of a chain (and which one), and which company operates it. Only 27% of salons have a website.
A salon that publishes its services on an online booking page is already equipped with a booking tool. It is a customer to convince to switch to a competing vendor; a vendor looking for salons with no tool targets the others, about two thirds of the salons observed (64.3%, calculation: 100 − 35.7).
Published services help target the offer: a hair color manufacturer, a barber equipment distributor or an Afro hair specialist will not have the same list. Entry prices (€20 for a men's cut, €37 for a women's cut and blow-dry) help spot high-end or entry-level salons.
On the company side, legal forms vary: 39.9% sole proprietors, 39.0% SARL and EURL, 20.9% SAS and SASU. The company's revenue, when published, gives the size of the account. But of the 41,868 hairdressing companies behind the salons observed, only 2,037 publish it: for the others, the number of employees and the company's age are better benchmarks.
Frequently asked questions#
How many hair salons are there in France?#
58,600 hair salons and barber shops are in operation in November 2026, according to Scalon. The Sirene register lists 110,055 hairdressing locations, home hairdressing and registrations with no activity included, and UNEC counts 69,556 salons in that same file.
How many hair salons are independent?#
More than 9 in 10 of the salons observed are independent, meaning outside any chain, franchise or buying group: 92.9%, or 51,509 of 55,461. Applied to the total of 58,600, that comes to about 54,400 salons. The other 3,952 belong to one of the 80 chains identified.
How many hairdressing franchises are there?#
27 hair salon chains are franchises (971 salons observed), on top of the four groups, whose chains grow mainly through franchising. Ten networks have 50 salons or more, and 61 have 10 or more. The three largest groups are Provalliance (1,631 salons), Groupe VOG (362) and Dessange International (311). They are mostly franchises: Provalliance has 916 different companies for the 1,105 salons whose company is known.
How many barber shops are there in France?#
Scalon observes 8,090, or 14.6% of the 55,461 salons observed. 41.6% display their services online, against 34.7% of hair salons.
What is the revenue of a hair salon?#
Half of the 2,037 salon companies that publish revenue make less than €81,354 a year. UNEC gives €76.3K per company on average, based on Insee statistics for 2022. The companies that publish their accounts are probably larger than the average salon.
Which APE code applies to a hairdresser?#
Code 96.02A, "Coiffure." On January 1, 2027, it splits in two: 96.21G for in-salon hairdressing, 96.21H for out-of-salon hairdressing.
Why do figures on the number of salons differ?#
Because they count different units: registered locations (register, 110,055), salons coded as such (UNEC, 69,556), employer locations (Urssaf, 37,068) or salons in operation (Scalon, 58,600).
How do you reach salon owners?#
By phone first: 97% of salons observed have a number in at least one directory. 27% have a website and fewer than 3% a published email address. For chains, the decision can be made at the head office or by each franchisee.
Method#
Scalon's figures come from its graph, which gathers for each location its records in the Sirene register, in public business listings, in business directories and on online booking pages. Listings and verification results were reviewed on November 6, 2026; the total uses Sirene register data as of October 1, 2026. Scope: APE code 96.02A; a salon is a place that receives customers, barber shops included, beauty salons excluded. The calculation gives 58,619 salons, rounded to 58,600. Scalon reviewed one hundred randomly selected locations twice; the 5,175 salons with employees but no public listing come from Urssaf and were not checked individually.
The method in detail, and its limits
Unit and universe. The unit is the salon: a place that receives customers, identified by its public listing and, where it has one, its SIRET number. An operator of three salons counts as three. The universe starts from the 110,055 open locations in the register under code 96.02A and from the mainland places classified as hair salon, hairdresser or barber in public listings and not closed.
Total. The total adds three counts: T1, T2 and T3. T1 (52,692) comes from mainland places classified as salon or barber in public listings: 43,537 linked to an open location in the register, 10,882 with no SIRET number and 1,042 with a closed SIRET that received a review between November 2, 2025 and November 2, 2026, plus 694 locations open under code 96.02A whose public listing belongs to another category (beauty salon, wigs). Each group is adjusted using the share classified as salons in a random sample: 39 salons out of 40 locations reviewed with an open SIRET, 24 of 30 with no SIRET, 15 of 15 with a closed SIRET and 10 of 14 locations with a definite classification in the other categories (1 home hairdresser, 3 non-salons, 1 unresolved case excluded from the calculation). With samples this small, each share is uncertain, as reflected in the margin below. This gives 42,449, 8,706, 1,042 and 496 salons, or 52,692 after rounding.
T2 (5,175): Urssaf counts 37,068 employer locations under code 96.02A at the end of 2025; we find 27,797 of them in public listings through the link in the graph and 4,096 through their name and postal code; 5,175 remain, overseas territories included. T3 (752): the public listings we read do not cover the overseas territories; there we count 2,257 open locations with no employees in the register, 33.3% of which are in operation if we apply the share observed in mainland France. Total: 52,692 + 5,175 + 752 = 58,619. The uncertainty on T1, calculated stratum by stratum with 95% Wilson intervals, runs from −6,804 to +2,174 salons: the probable total lies between 51,815 and 60,793, or −11.6% to +3.7% around 58,619, below the 15% threshold Scalon sets for publishing an extrapolated count. This margin covers T1 only; T2 was not checked against a sample.
Double reading. One hundred locations were randomly selected from the four groups of T1 (40 with an open SIRET, 30 with no SIRET, 15 with a closed SIRET, 15 from another category) and reviewed independently twice using the same decision rule; Scalon then reviewed them again to resolve disagreements. The two readings agree for 95 places out of 100 (95% confidence interval from 88.8% to 97.8%). Each review differed from the final verdict on 3 locations out of 100: an error rate of 3.0%, with a 95% upper confidence bound of 8.5%. Of the 100 places, 88 are salons, 7 home hairdressers, 4 are not salons and 1 remains undecided; 5 of the 30 places with no SIRET are home hairdressers. This check covers the type of place, not actual activity.
Alternative scenarios. 58,586 if undecided places are counted as non-salons; 58,632 if they are counted as salons; 52,692 without the employer salons missing from public listings and without the overseas territories; 62,627 if the register's employers missing from public listings are as often real as the others; 62,082 with no correction at all.
From salons observed to the total. Figures at levels 3 to 6 are expressed as shares of the 55,461 salons reviewed individually in mainland France, which represent 94.6% of the total (calculation: 55,461 / 58,619).
| From salons observed to the total | Salons |
|---|---|
| Salons and barber shops observed on November 6, 2026 | 55,461 |
| Minus places that are not salons, according to the check | −3,265 |
| Plus places whose listing belongs to another category, adjusted the same way | +496 |
| Plus employer salons with no public listing found | +5,175 |
| Plus overseas salons with no employees | +752 |
| Total | 58,619 (58,600) |
UNEC's two counts. 69,556 salons plus 31,501 home hairdressing businesses make 101,057 (calculation), out of 111,177 locations: about 10,100 have no known type of operation. Relative to the 111,177 locations, the 69,556 salons make up 63% (calculation); UNEC describes them as a "stable" number over one year.
The 55,461 salons observed. These are the mainland places whose public listing is that of a hair salon, hairdresser or barber, not closed, with an open SIRET (43,537) or a review received between November 2, 2025 and November 2, 2026 (10,882 with no SIRET and 1,042 with a closed SIRET). Figures on market structure use this group of salons before adjustments based on the verification sample. The table "From salons observed to the total" shows how one leads to the other.
Players and networks. Two salons form the same network if they share a storefront name identified by hand, the domain of their website, the domain of a business email address or the same company; a storefront name is attached to the company that runs the most of its salons, and the chains a group presents as its own are brought together. Booking platforms, point-of-sale software, web agencies and website builders, directories, product brands and messaging services are excluded. A network whose salons share no name, website or company escapes the count: the number of networks is a minimum. The players table counts 50,156 distinct players; six domains identified as service providers (a partner club, a booking platform, a tool for hairdressers, a makeup brand, a directory, a home hairdresser's website) were excluded after reading their websites. The corporate structures of Provalliance and Pascal Coste were traced company by company in the register; for Groupe VOG, the register does not establish any subsidiaries, so the analysis stops at the parent company. A chain is a network of at least 3 salons that displays a common brand, storefront name or website in the network's name; its type (group, franchise, buying group, company-owned branches) comes from a public source. An independent salon belongs to none of the 80 chains: a network without a common brand, same company or same owner, remains independent.
Revenue. It comes from the published accounts of the companies linked to the salons: 42,803 companies for the salons observed, 41,868 of them under code 96.02A; 2,037 publish financial statements reporting positive revenue for a fiscal year ending in 2024 or later. The median is €81,354; the quartiles are €42,719.5 and €149,025; the total is €477,599,412. The top decile makes 66.4% of published revenue. The median for barber shops is €42,213.5 (346 companies) and for hair salons €89,516 (1,691). This base is skewed toward companies that publish their accounts, which are larger than average; sole proprietors are absent from it.
Services and prices. They come from the online booking pages linked to the salons: 42,170 salons observed are linked to a page, 19,790 publish their services there, 19,764 of them with the detailed list that serves as the base for the shares by service. Entry prices are the prices of a men's cut (14,482 salons: median €20, quartiles €17 and €25) and of a women's cut and blow-dry (7,276 salons: median €37, quartiles €34 and €42), as posted on these pages. The name-based clues cover the 55,461 salons.
Cross-check with public sources. The totals are compared with UNEC (Sirene Stock file, November 2025 brochure), Urssaf, Insee (Ésane 2022) and EPSIMAS. Openings are the creation dates of locations; closures, the closing dates published by Insee up to September 30, 2026. The insolvency count covers court orders initiating safeguard, reorganization or liquidation proceedings, published in the Bodacc for companies whose head office is classified under hairdressing. Density is calculated by dividing the number of salons that received an online review within the year (46,929, before the check) by Insee's municipal population.
Rounding. Shares are calculated on the counts shown and rounded to one decimal place; their sum is not always exactly 100%. Numbers written as "about 54,400" are rounded to the nearest hundred.
Limits. A salon that appears under two listings the graph has not merged is counted twice; matching by name and postal code can merge two neighbors with the same name. The register's employers with no public listing and the listings with no SIRET may partly refer to the same salons: any remaining overlap would reduce the total. The 100-place check is too small to give a precise agreement rate (interval above). Revenue figures come from 2,037 companies. The commands used to reproduce each figure are kept with the article.
Edition history. November 2, 2026: first publication, which reported about 57,400 salons (57,351) and headlined the register's 110,100 locations. November 6, 2026: market study, 58,600 salons (58,619). The difference is 1,268 salons. The difference comes from two independent reviews of the 100 locations, replacing the initial check: previously unresolved cases were reviewed again and almost all classified, changing the estimated share of salons in each group (for example 10 of 14 instead of 2 of 15 for listings from another category). The one location whose classification remains unresolved represents 33 salons in the estimate. November 9, 2026: "independent" takes the meaning that matters to a supplier, outside any chain, franchise or buying group, rather than "one salon, one company": 92.9% of the salons observed (51,509) instead of 88.7% (49,180); no count changes.
Key takeaways#
France has 58,600 hair salons and barber shops in operation, against 110,055 rows in the register. 92.9% are independents, with no chain or franchise: most sales happen salon by salon. The 80 chains identified account for 7.1% of salons; ten have 50 salons or more, and their franchisees decide for their own salons.
The typical salon is a small business: half of the companies that publish their accounts make less than €81,354 a year, and only 28 companies reach or exceed €1M.
For a study or a prospect list, choose your target before choosing a figure, use the same population throughout, and record the date of each review.