With salons set to remain closed until July, Google searches for DIY beauty treatments continue to soar. Compared to this time last year, people searching for “how to cut your own hair“, and “how to do eyebrows” are among the queries that have quadrupled, exceeding more than a million.
That’s according to data collated via Google Trends by Cult Beauty.
Among the other DIY beauty treatments that hundreds of thousands of us are seemingly attempting during self-isolation, are “how to dye your hair at home”, “how to make your own hair masks” – and face masks for that matter – and how to make bath bombs. A slight outlier and not one we had considered!
Cult Beauty What’s more, searches between March and April this year, as opposed to year-on-year trends – show similar spikes, with searches for hair-related topics more than doubling.
This data builds on previous search data from RedBrain that looked at the most in-demand beauty products during lockdown. That particular list found that hair scissors, manicure glue and hair curlers topped the charts, which goes hand-in-hand with the numbers seen in Cult Beauty’s research.
Data from various sources have shown that the key beauty treatment that people are looking for the most help with is haircuts. Searches for terms such as “how to cut your own hair” have risen by 1,379% compared to last year and almost half a million of those queries have taken place in the past two months.
Men’s haircuts accounted for 70,070 of the searches while 60,430 searches focused on beard grooming. Meanwhile, women are carefully trimming grown-out fringes or experimenting with cutting in layers.
If you’re looking for advice, stylists Lee Stafford and Paul Windle recently gave us a tutorial on how to cut hair at home, including how to add layers, in our haircut guide.
We also spoke to hairdresser Sam Tully, who advised us on what to look for when buying the best hair scissors.
While we’re not brave enough to cut our own hair – yet – we have been researching how to dye our hair at home. We recently revealed what we consider to be the best hair dye kits, including the best products for covering up those pesky roots.
With this in mind, Hollywood stylist Paul Edmonds explained how to determine what colours to choose in our What hair colour suits me? guide.
It appears we’re not alone and more than 179,490 searches have been made around this topic since self-isolation began – making it one of the most popular beauty queries.
From one hair concern to another, Cult Beauty’s data shows that terms around how to do eyebrows have similarly soared in popularity. In particular, searches for “How to thread your own eyebrows” have increased by 1,115%
Whilst DIY eyebrow threading has seen the highest increase, the search term “How to wax your own eyebrows” is also proving popular with a 619% increase.
Our resident makeup artist recently took us through a step-by-step guide on how to do eyebrows and we spoke to experts about what causes thinning eyebrows and how to get thicker eyebrows
Hair masks, and face masks, aren’t necessarily products that people are struggling to get hold of but that hasn’t stopped people searching for DIY versions. General searches have risen by 333% for hair masks, which has seen an associated peak in searches for coconut oil – one of the most popular DIY hair ingredients.
Similarly, searches for DIY face masks have increased by 233%, while the specific “how to make an oatmeal face mask” has seen a rise of 22%. Popular ingredients searched for alongside these terms include aloe vera, charcoal, and honey. You can read more about these ingredients, among others in our guide to the best face mask 2020, and our The truth about the acids in your skincare guide.
We’ve also highlighted the best hair masks, best overnight hair masks, best overnight face masks and best sheet masks.
In addition to thousands of us turning to face masks to help with the lockdown breakout – this is a thing and you can read more in our Why is my skin breaking out? guide – the data shows that the search term “facial at home” is up by 115%, whilst more invasive treatments which require professional equipment, including hydrafacials, have seen an increase of 136%.
We recently explained how to make your own cleanser, and how to make your own toner in our DIY beauty guides.
FURTHER READING: How we test skincare to see if it lives up to the claims
At the start of lockdown, a number of our readers were asking about how to remove eyelash extensions at home and this goes hand-in-hand with increases for “how to remove lash extensions with coconut oil”and “how to remove lashes with baby oil.”.
Alongside these searches, people have also switched to queries on DIY lash lifts. In fact, they’re at an all-time high, with more 20,030 searches being made during self-isolation alone.
We do not advise you attempt such treatments at home, but you can read more about lash treatments in our eyelash extensions guide, or discover the best mascara and best false eyelashes, to plug the gap.
Before lockdown began, we spoke to a skin specialist who revealed what causes brittle nails and how to strengthen them. Since lockdown kicked in, we’ve seen an increase in people reading this guide – likely because they’ve attempted to remove their false nails at home and wreaked havoc on their hands!
What’s more, over 137,440 people have searched for “how to remove acrylic nails at home” – an increase of 129% on what is an already popular term. As we saw in the RedBrain data, in which there had been a surge in searches for manicure glue, Cult Beauty’s data shows that “How to do gel nails at home” has risen by 170% receiving 33,940 unique Google searches.
StockSnap from Pixabay And finally, with some people having more time to de-stress and relax – not something we can say is in abundance in our home with two kids – searches for DIY bath bombs hit 62,960 searches, a year-on-year increase of 128%. Among the top associated Google search results, moisturising rose petal is a popular ingredient, as are calming lavender and chamomile.
| Beauty Treatment | March | April | Overall |
| Haircut | 127,480 | 291,580 | 419,060 |
| Hair Dye | 60,840 | 118,650 | 179,490 |
| Acrylic Nail Removal | 65,160 | 72,280 | 137,440 |
| Bath Bomb | 25,090 | 37,870 | 62,960 |
| Beard Grooming | 16,160 | 44,270 | 60,430 |
| Eyelash Extension | 22,880 | 22,880 | 45,760 |
| Home Facial | 12,960 | 22,320 | 35,280 |
| Gel Nails | 18,280 | 15,660 | 33,940 |
| Lash Lift | 6,840 | 13,190 | 20,030 |
| Eyebrow Waxing | 2,180 | 6,760 | 8,940 |
| Facemask | 3,120 | 2,380 | 5,500 |
| Hair Extension Removal | 1,170 | 1,710 | 2,880 |
| Eyebrow Threading | 740 | 1,580 | 2,320 |
| Hair Mask | 200 | 390 | 590 |
Victoria is founder and editor-in-chief of mamabella, freelance journalist and Mum. She has a passion for empowering people to feel beautiful whatever their age, size, skin type and budget
