Eighty-eight new salon, spa, gym, and studio licenses have been filed in Chicago so far in 2026. In the same January-through-early-May window last year, that number was 64. That's a 37% jump — roughly in line with the broader 2026 licensing surge, but with a structural twist that makes this category behave differently from almost everything else in the data.
Of those 88 filings, exactly one was at an address where a prior license had recently closed.
That's about 1%. Citywide, address recycling — new operators taking over recently vacated storefronts — accounts for the vast majority of new license activity. We've written about that pattern at length in the ghost-storefront piece. Beauty and wellness operators are doing the opposite. They're building out new-to-commerce spaces: second-floor office suites, strip-mall units that were never food or retail, and mixed-use buildings with no prior license history.
What's filing
The breakdown across the 88 licenses:
- Salons (hair, nails, barbers): 34
- Spas (facials, threading, skin care, massage): 32
- Gyms and fitness studios: 13
- Yoga and boutique movement studios: 4
- Other wellness: 5
Salons and spas together account for three-quarters of the category. Gyms — particularly boutique and specialty formats — are the faster-growing sub-segment.
Where it's concentrated
Lake View leads with 7 filings, followed by Lincoln Park, the Loop, West Loop, and Lincoln Square at 5 each. Humboldt Park and Wicker Park each have 4. The category spreads wide: Auburn Gresham, Edgewater, Garfield Park, and Portage Park each show 3 filings.
That geographic spread matters. Salons and barbers file steadily in South and West Side neighborhoods where restaurant and bar activity is thinner. For vendors who focus on F&B-heavy corridors, beauty and wellness is the category that fills in the map.
Multi-location operators are here too
Twenty of the 88 filings — about 23% — came from multi-location operators. Salon Lofts filed in the West Loop and already holds 12 Chicago licenses. First Ascent Climbing & Fitness was licensed at 100 S Morgan with 5 locations on its account. Brows Threading in West Town carries 4. Oasis Face Bar filed two new locations in late April — one on Halsted in Lincoln Park, one on Division in Wicker Park.
The multi-location share is lower than the citywide 86% average, which means beauty and wellness has a higher proportion of first-time founders than most other categories. That's a different buyer: more price-sensitive, more likely to self-serve onboarding, and more responsive to starter-tier pricing.
Why vendors should care
The near-zero address-recycling rate changes the vendor playbook. When a restaurant takes over an old restaurant, the hood vents, walk-in, and grease trap are already in place. When a facial studio builds out a former insurance office, everything starts from scratch — plumbing, electrical for specialized equipment, HVAC for treatment rooms, interior buildout.
That means the build-out spend per beauty and wellness license is often higher than a recycled-storefront restaurant — and the vendor window is longer. These operators are quoting contractors, equipment, and fixtures for 60 to 120 days before opening, not 30.
If you sell buildout services, salon or spa equipment, scheduling software, or small-ticket equipment financing under $100k, this is 88 leads that most sales teams are ignoring while they chase the next restaurant opening.