Beauty economics

The world we live today is a harsh world, we have to be successful, we want a big house, a nice car and a fancy title, but perhaps the most important thing right now is beauty. You get judged for your appearance in work interviews, you have your social media telling you that beauty is more important than your brains. The people around you is always telling you (especially if you’re a woman) how good you look - never how smart or witty you are. You even can’t walk by a mirror without checking your reflection cuz your crush (or maybe an ex) might walk by.

So I have been thinking -how does this affect your economy? Let’s get down to it!

Disclaimer if you do nails, extensions, salon waxings and continuously enhance your lips, lashes and brows - you’re in for a bit of a rough ride... 

I’ll try my best to get a fair view over prices and I’ll do this one in SEK (cuz I’m Swedish) if you want to want to translate it to what ever currency you use I use the free app Currency Converter Plus (for Iphone)

So the most common beauty treatments in my opinion are

Eyebrow shaping and color - refreshed every 3-4 weeks
Eyelash lift - also 3-4 weeks
Lip fillers -
Haircut and coloring - every 3 months
Botox - varies from 3 months to 6 months
3D brows - refreshed within 6 months to a year
Nails gel/acrylic - refreshed within 3-4 weeks
Hair extensions - varies but I will calculate 6 months

Not counting various expenses for hair products, makeup, body creams and anti aging treatments.

Not judging anyone I will try to calculate a “normal” beauty regime for one year using mid-range salon prices.

Individual one, let’s call her Sally does her nails, cuts and colors her hair on a regular basis, she goes to the salon for either lash lift or brow shaping and coloring (this example uses brow shaping and coloring) lots of people has this level of grooming and this is nothing out of the ordinary.

Sally goes to refresh her nails every three weeks (adds up to 17 times a year) and she pays in SEK 550kr each time, also her eyebrows gets a treatment with three weeks apart for 330kr. Sally cuts and colors her hair according to the trend and pays 1590kr 4 times a year.

Nails 17 X 550kr = 9350kr
Brows 17 X 330kr = 5610kr
Hair 4 X 1590kr = 6360kr

21320kr is the grand total Sally spends a year on normal treatments. This adds up to 1776kr per month, an amount most Swedes does not put in their savings account each month, nor for pension savings.

Individual two, I named her Bella she’s more of a beauty icon with a job in fashion and more pressure to look a specific way. Her beauty regime is hair extensions full set with hair purchase and moving them up quarterly, Botox every six months, nails (same as Sally), lip injections three times a year. She also does lash extensions with refills when one falls out (price is a calculated from an average new set plus the occasional repair and redoing once more from scratch) Bella tries 3D brows one time this year as well.

Hair 13450kr
Nails 9350kr
Botox 6000kr
Lashes 2000kr
Lip fillers 10500kr
3D brows 4000kr

This adds up to 45300kr which is 3775kr/month - Bella is perhaps not the ordinary person, I used her for reference to point out the yearly costs for the most common beauty treatments.

As a closing point to this blog post I really hope women can in the future be equal to men in the light of savings, to see the big differences in men’s costs and women’s costs - even if our salaries would be 100% equal - our beauty obsession is costing us in the long run. I too have considered some treatments to make my melasma less visible. If Sally instead invested 1770kr monthly in a diverse portfolio the interest effect would over 25 years accumulate to almost 1,7 million kronor.

Efter 25 år, med ränta på ränta, är värdet 1 693 851kr.