Salons, barbershops and nail salons in South Carolina by county

South Carolina had 1,422 beauty salons, barbershops and nail salons with paid employees in 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns (CBP). That includes 1,038 beauty salons (NAICS 812112), 302 nail salons (812113) and 82 barbershops (812111). Together they reported 5,440 employees in the March pay period and $190.0 million in annual payroll, an average of 3.8 employees per salon.

Scaled to the Vintage 2024 population estimate of 5,478,831, that is 2.60 salons per 10,000 residents, or one for every 3,853 people. Summed across all U.S. counties, the same three codes total 124,122 establishments and a rate of 3.65. South Carolina is about 29 percent below the national rate.

This is the biggest caveat in any salon count: CBP only covers businesses with paid employees. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook reports that 80 percent of barbers and 48 percent of hairdressers, hairstylists and cosmetologists are self-employed. Booth renters, suite operators and mobile stylists are counted in the Census Bureau's separate Nonemployer Statistics, not here. So the figures below describe salons that run a payroll, which is the group that competes on staffing, booking and brand.

All three types are less common per resident in South Carolina than nationally, and nail salons show the widest gap. The state has 0.55 employer nail salons per 10,000 residents versus 0.99 nationally, 1.89 beauty salons versus 2.45, and 0.15 barbershops versus 0.21. With 80 percent of barbers self-employed, according to the BLS, most barbershop chairs are run by owner-operators or renters, which helps explain why so few barbershops appear in a payroll-based count.

Beaufort County has the highest density of employer salons in South Carolina, with 116 for 201,775 residents (5.75 per 10,000). Charleston follows at 5.24 with 226 salons, the most of any county. These two are the only counties above the U.S. rate; Greenville (3.64) is just below it. The five counties with the most salons (Charleston, Greenville, Horry, Beaufort and Richland) hold 803 salons, 56.5 percent of the state total.

Richland County is notable for its size: 113 salons for 430,651 residents, a rate of 2.62, close to the state average even though it is one of the three most populous counties. Its salons are larger than most, averaging about 5.1 employees.

Twenty counties, home to 472,962 people, have no published count of employer salons: Abbeville, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Chester, Clarendon, Colleton, Dillon, Edgefield, Fairfield, Hampton, Lee, McCormick, Marion, Marlboro, Newberry, Saluda, Union and Williamsburg. Because CBP publishes a cell only when it covers three or more establishments, each has zero, one or two employer salons in each category. Salon services there are mostly provided by self-employed stylists and barbers.

Growth counties are thin as well. The six counties that grew 10 percent or more from 2020 to 2024 average 2.35 salons per 10,000 residents. Spartanburg, with 369,256 residents and 12.6 percent growth, has 60 employer salons (1.62 per 10,000). Lancaster (1.16) and Jasper (1.40) are lower still, and Edgefield, which grew 14.9 percent, has no published count.

For a salon thinking about a second location, the useful comparison is a county's employer salon rate against its growth. Dorchester and Berkeley sit on the Charleston side of the state and are growing with rates of 3.49 and 2.61; York and Lexington are large suburban counties at 2.44 and 3.19. In those markets, a well-run salon can give residents a reason to book close to home instead of driving into the metro.

South Carolina salons are smaller than the national pattern. 73.1 percent have fewer than five employees, compared with 67.6 percent nationally, and only 0.8 percent have 20 or more (2.2 percent nationally). Payroll averages about $34,930 per employee, consistent with the BLS median pay of $35,880 for barbers, hairstylists and cosmetologists in May 2025.

In a three or four person salon, the front desk is often the stylist between clients. Confirmations, rebooking, waitlists and replies to Instagram and text messages compete with the chair, which is where no-shows and lost rebookings come from.

Demand is growing. The BLS projects employment of barbers, hairstylists and cosmetologists to grow 7 percent from 2025 to 2035, with about 80,300 openings a year nationally. In South Carolina, employer salons are scarce outside the coast and the largest metros, which leaves room for salons that can staff up and stay fully booked.

• In Beaufort and Charleston, salons compete with many nearby options. Online booking, current photos of your work and a steady flow of reviews decide which salon a new client tries.
• In growth counties such as Spartanburg, Lancaster, Berkeley and Jasper, new residents are looking for a regular stylist. Being easy to find for the specific service (color, natural hair, extensions, nails) matters more than a broad salon listing.
• Rebooking at checkout and automated reminders protect the schedule, which is the main constraint for a small team.
• Salons that recruit from the self-employed pool can use stable bookings, shared marketing and front desk support as reasons to join.

Local counts show where clients have choices; booking data shows whether a salon's chairs stay full. Monvell's Marketing and Automation teams help salons get discovered for the services they want more of and set up the reminders and rebooking prompts that cut no-shows.

Dataset: U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023, county file (cbp23co.txt), NAICS 812111 (barber shops), 812112 (beauty salons) and 812113 (nail salons). CBP covers establishments with paid employees; employment is for the pay period including March 12 and payroll is annual. CBP data from 2017 to 2023 use 2017 NAICS codes.

Population: Census Bureau Vintage 2024 county estimates (co-est2024-alldata.csv), POPESTIMATE2024. Growth is POPESTIMATE2024 divided by ESTIMATESBASE2020, minus one. The U.S. population is the sum of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Method: we filtered CBP to South Carolina (state FIPS 45), summed the three codes per county, joined population by county FIPS and computed salons per 10,000 residents for all 46 counties. U.S. rates sum the same codes across every county record. Size shares sum the published size class columns; cells marked N are excluded and shown as not allocated.

Limits: CBP excludes nonemployer businesses, which include most booth renters, suite operators and independent barbers; the Census Bureau's Nonemployer Statistics is the complement for that group. Each code is suppressed separately below three establishments, so small-county totals are undercounts. Employment and payroll carry disclosure noise. Vintage 2025 population estimates are now available; we used Vintage 2024 to stay closer to the 2023 business data.