Beauty & personal care franchise finance
Averan read the 2026 FDDs of seven beauty & personal care brands.
The median brand here reports average revenue of $566,774 an unit. Percentage fees at the median brand come to 10% of sales. The median cost to open runs $339,945 to $770,754.
Find a beauty & personal care brand
7 brands in this guide, each from its own 2026 FDD. Open one, or pick two and compare them.
The brands in this group
Each brand has its own business model breakdown, with every figure set out against the brand’s disclosure document it comes from.
- Amazing Lash Studio Revenue by group · System-wide contraction with one disclosed operating metric explaining the range
- Blo Blow Dry Barquartiles of gross sales, member counts and appointment counts with low/median/high and attainment · The ticket is the same
- Drybar Revenue by group · Visit counts differ, prices do not, a visit is worth about $61 everywhere
- European Wax Centerquartile · quartile position is years open, and the fee curve is almost flat
- Hammer & Nails Full P&L · Shop-level expense detail reduced to one two-line ratio that sorts profit from loss
- The Lash Lounge Every location listed · Identical bed counts, three times the output, capacity is the same everywhere and what fills it is time
- Waxing the City Revenue by group · The membership line, not the waxing line, is where the quartiles separate
The figures, brand by brand
| Measure | Median | Brands | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average sales per unit | $566,774 | 7 of 7 | Median of each brand’s disclosed average |
| Median sales per unit | $507,581 | 5 of 7 | Median of each brand’s disclosed median |
| Initial franchise fee | $47,500 | 6 of 7 | |
| Royalty | 6% | 7 of 7 | Headline rate |
| Brand or advertising fund | 2% | 7 of 7 | |
| Percentage fees, all in | 10% | 7 of 7 | Royalty, funds and local marketing set as a share of sales |
| Cost to open, low | $339,945 | 7 of 7 | |
| Cost to open, high | $770,754 | 7 of 7 | |
| Profit margin | Fewer than three disclose | 1 of 7 | Each brand’s own profit line; definitions differ |
| Labor, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 7 | |
| Building costs, share of revenue | Fewer than three disclose | 0 of 7 | |
| Unit growth, 2025 | 10.6% | 7 of 7 | (End − start) ÷ start |
| Customers lost, 2025 | 4.8% | 6 of 7 | Terminated, non-renewed, reacquired and ceased, ÷ opening units; transfers excluded |
Each figure is the median of the brands that disclose it, and the Brands column counts them.
How we calculated this
Revenue is each brand's own reported figure on its own unit basis, so the median describes the group and no single brand. Growth and customers lost are our calculations from each brand's outlet table. Where fewer than three brands disclose a figure, no benchmark is shown.
The model
The business model the top performers in beauty & personal care are running
What the top performers can do that others cannot
7 of the 7 brands here sell a membership. 4 sell gift cards in volume, which brings cash in months before the service is delivered.
What the customer is buying
The customer buys a plan they pay for monthly whether they show up or not. A location at the middle brand sells $566,774 a year; the top group sells $926,445. The offer is the same at both ends of that range, so the difference is volume rather than product. At 5 of them the top performers widen the offer rather than the building: retail and higher service tiers raise what an hour earns without adding an hour.
Who the customer is, and how often they come back
This is a retention business. The money is made in the second year of a customer, not the first month, so the number that decides the year is how many stay. A median 43% of locations reach their own brand’s average, so most of the system is below the number the brand advertises, and the gap is usually a demand gap rather than an effort gap. The top group sells $926,445 against $299,564 at the bottom. Trade area and site set that range before an owner takes a booking.
How the money works
Opening costs $316,665 to $1,096,999 across the group, and inside one brand the top of the range is typically 1.9 times the bottom. At the middle brand the cost stack runs franchise fees 10.0% of sales. What is left runs 12.0% at the middle brand, which is $111,173 a year at the top group and $35,948 at the bottom. The percentage barely moves between them; the dollars do. Cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods here, so the cash forecast matters more than the profit line in any given month. 3 of these brands publish how a new location builds up, so the first year can be read out of the document instead of guessed at.
Also disclosed across this group: $405,325, $5,668, $929,020, 3.3, 5.7.
Top performers
These are the things that separate top performers in beauty & personal care
At the typical beauty & personal care brand, the best group of locations sells $926,445 a year. The worst group sells $299,564. That is $626,881 more a year, 3.1 times over, for the same brand on the same agreement. Across these brands, a median of 43% of locations reach their own brand’s average. The average describes the top of a system, not the middle. 7 of the 7 brands here publish bands; the rest disclose no spread at all.
Decided before you open
- What it costs to open.Opening costs run $316,665 to $1,096,999 across the group, and the top of a single brand’s range is typically 1.9 times its bottom. The top group sells $926,445 a year against a build that tops out at $1,096,999, so at the heavy end of the range a location sells $0.84 for every dollar it cost to open. A build that heavy takes years of sales to recover, so the site has to be right the first time.
- What a location sells.Average sales run $566,774 at the middle brand and $926,445 at the top group. Format and site decide most of that before an owner does anything, which is why the same operator produces different results in different trade areas.
Live operating levers
- 7 of the 7 brands here sell a membership.The owner watches three things. How many people join in a month. How many cancel. What a member spends on top of the plan. The top performers work the cancellations as hard as the joins, because a member who leaves in month four has cost a year of revenue that was already counted.
- 5 of the 7 brands here can widen what they sell without widening the building.Selling a product alongside the service, or moving customers onto a higher tier of it, raises what an hour of the same room earns. It is the only way to lift the ceiling without spending money on more space or more hours.
- 4 of the 7 brands here sell gift cards in volume.The top performers run a deliberate push into the holidays rather than selling a card when somebody asks for one. The money arrives when the card is bought and the service is delivered months later, so the bank balance and the profit line tell different stories in the same quarter. They are Amazing Lash Studio, Drybar, Hammer & Nails, Waxing the City.
- 3 of the 7 brands here publish how a new location builds up.Where a brand shows its first year month by month, an owner can see when sales finally cover the costs and how much cash has to be put in before that point arrives. Where a brand does not show it, that curve has to be guessed at, and the guess is usually optimistic. They are Drybar, European Wax Center, Hammer & Nails.
- What is left at the end. Where the gap comes from.Of the 1 brands that publish a profit line, the middle one keeps 12.0% of sales, from 12.0% to 12.0%. The cost lines above move by a few points between the best and worst locations while sales move by multiples, so the top performers are not running a cheaper business. They are running the same cost base over more revenue. Hold that 12.0% margin steady and the top group earns $111,173 against $35,948 at the bottom, a difference of $75,226 a year that comes from volume alone.
- What the brand charges. The line that works backwards.Fees run a median 10.0% of sales across 7 brands, from 8.0% to 14.2%. Where a minimum sits underneath the percentage, the weakest location pays the highest effective rate, so the fee line costs most exactly where it can least be afforded. The top performers clear the minimum early and stop thinking about it. At $926,445 the fees cost $92,644 a year; at $299,564 they cost $29,956. The percentage is the same and the burden is not.
- No brand here prices its cost lines.Not one of these 7 filings publishes wages, rent or cost of sales, so the operating gap between the top and the bottom cannot be read from the documents. The sales figures are all you are given, and everything that turns those sales into earnings has to come from owners you call. Ask three at each end of the system for wages as a share of sales, rent as a share of sales, and what is left at the end.
Context you underwrite around
- How many brands show a ramp.3 of 7 filings in this group show how a new location builds up. For the rest the first year has to be assumed, and the assumption is usually wrong in the same direction.
Operating levers
What each brand’s top performers actually work on
The levers the filing supports, brand by brand. Three to five each, read from that brand’s own 2026 FDD. Filter by type of business, or open a brand for the figures underneath.
7 brands
Amazing Lash Studio
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 10.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Blo Blow Dry Bar
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 14.2% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Drybar
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 11.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
European Wax Center
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 9.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
Hammer & Nails
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 11.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
- The first year. This filing shows how a new location builds up, so the ramp can be underwritten from the document rather than assumed. Read two things out of it: the month sales cross the point where costs are covered, and how much cash you fund before that month arrives. Everything before break-even is paid for by you.
The Lash Lounge
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 8.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Waxing the City
Beauty & personal care
- Members, the operating driver. This model bills on members. The owner watches how many people join, how many cancel, and what a member spends beyond the plan. It is worth watching every week, because by the time it turns up in a monthly close the quarter is half gone.
- The gift card book. Gift cards are sold before the service is delivered. The top performers are not selling more of them by accident, they are running a deliberate seasonal push into the holidays and out of it again. The accounting follows: a gift card is deferred revenue until it is redeemed, so cash and earned revenue arrive in different periods.
- Service and retail mix. Attachment rate on retail, and the share of customers on the higher service tiers, lift what each hour earns without adding an hour or a room. It is the only lever that raises the ceiling without spending capital.
- Fees, and where the minimum bites. Fees run about 8.0% of sales. A minimum sits underneath the percentage, so the low-volume location pays the higher effective rate. The brand charges the weakest locations the most. Work out the sales level where the percentage overtakes the minimum and know which side of it you are on, because the answer changes what an extra dollar of sales is worth.
Questions owners ask next
The figures above raise these, and each one is answered on its own page.
- Money arrives before the service does. How should that be booked?Deferred revenue, and why the bank balance and the profit line disagree.
- At what level of sales does a minimum fee stop costing me more than the percentage?How royalty, ad fund and minimums actually work on a monthly statement.
- How much cash do I fund before a new location covers its own costs?A 13-week forecast for the months before break-even.
- How much of Item 19 can I rely on?What a financial performance representation does and does not tell you.
- What should I be looking at every week?The handful of numbers that move before the P&L does.
Run your own numbers.
The Franchise Finance Diagnostic runs the same checks on your own numbers. It scores where you stand and compares you with Item 19 of your brand’s FDD. It works out what one location earns and spends, and builds a 13-week cash forecast. Checks whether you are ready to open another one. It is free and it runs in your browser.
Launch the diagnostic →Where does your unit sit?
A structured review of your unit economics, cash forecast, and reporting, benchmarked against the brands in this guide.
Request the reviewWhere these figures come from
Every figure here comes from the brands' 2026 FDDs and is unaudited by us. We are unaffiliated with the brands. The medians, growth and customers lost figures are our own calculations. The figures describe past performance at other businesses. They are not a projection of your results. This page is an educational summary and is not an offer to sell a franchise or financial, legal or tax advice. All trademarks belong to their owners. How Averan reads a Franchise Disclosure Document.