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Daily Mirror

Preening Londoners are the vainest people in the UK according to research which shows Barnet to be the most image-obsessed area in the country.

The north London borough, famous in cockney slang for being a reference to people's hair, has a staggering 340 beauty companies registered within its boundaries.


This is the equivalent of 10.8 businesses for every 10,000 people in the daytime population of the area - the highest figure for any area of the UK.

The analysis, carried out by the Daily Mirror also revealed that 148 of these 340 companies had started within the last three years.

Under Companies House’s categorisation system beauty-focused businesses includes everything from hairdressing to massage services via beard trimming and electrolysis.
Hackney is the second vainest place in the UK with 10.1 beauty businesses per 10,000 people followed by Harrow with 9.4 per 10,000.

London’s boroughs dominated the top ten with only South Bucks (8.4 per 10,000) and Brentwood (6.6 per 10,000) located outside of the capital.

Across the UK as a whole there are currently 19,712 beauty businesses registered with Companies House, the official registrar of UK businesses, at a rate of three for every 10,000 people.

Of these businesses 7,725, or 39 per cent, have been started since 2012.

The vainest place in the UK when London was included was Barnet in London where there are 10.8 beauty businesses for every 10,000 people.