Salons affected by DIY beauty

Cost-cutting Kiwi women have turned away from salons in the recession and are taking their beauty regimes into their own hands at home, supermarket chains say.

Rather than splurging on a professional cut-and-colour or waxing, women have been opting for a $10 packet of hair dye and DIY wax strips - and beauty therapists and hairdressers have been feeling the pinch.

Foodstuffs, operator of New World, Four Square and Pak'nSave stores, says there has been strong growth across the category known as "personal care".

Foodstuffs Auckland general sales manager Murray Jordan says customers are "increasingly seeking better value" by buying their personal products from the supermarket.

Vitamin sales are up 20 per cent and facial skin products and hair dyes are up 12 per cent over the past six months.

A spokesperson for Progressive Enterprises, operator of Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths, says a large increase in sales of hair colours and cosmetics has been noticed over the past year.

Rachael D'Aguiar, who runs D'Aguiar Hair Skin and Nails as well as Worldwide Salon Marketing, providing marketing to other salons, says clients started to come less often when the downturn hit, and the retail side of the salon business has suffered.

"To afford a facial, people are buying shampoo from the supermarket."

Salons who were unprepared have been hit hard. She has been dealing with operators who can't afford the photocopying for their advertising material.

When D'Aguiar recently emailed salons around the country, one in five returned a "no longer at this address" response, indicating they were out of business. A lot of salons have been offering cut-price deals on treatments, and D'Aguiar says it is to get new clients through the door.

But she says things are starting to look up. "For the past four weeks we've been making budgets-plus and people are in jollier moods."