Inside the child beauty salons ringing alarm bells across France

Telegraph

09-03-2025

Amira, six, gawps at the symphony of pink as she steps into France's self-proclaimed first beauty parlour devoted entirely to children.
Here, the 'princesses' are not just teens or even tweens, but toddlers.
'Immerse yourself in a fairy-tale princess world where dreams come true. We are proud to offer a complete range of beauty services for kids as young as three,' trumpets its website.
With Let It Go from Disney's Frozen blasting at top volume, the young Parisienne is shown to a heart-shaped 'throne'. She dons a pink gown as her feet are given a scrub before they are plunged into a purple effervescent foot bath for a massage.
A fake tiara is placed on her head, which soon falls off. She is handed a flute of what looks like rosé champagne but turns out to be harmless 'grenadine' – pomegranate cordial.
'We'll give you a foot and finger beauty treatment, a scrub, moisturiser and nail varnish. Then you'll have a snack. How does that sound?' asks the beautician struggling to make herself heard through the Disney din.
Psychological and physical impacts
The salon in the Hauts-de-Seine west of Paris is just one of a snowballing number of 'instituts de beauté pour enfants' (children's beauty salons) that have popped up around France in recent months, apparently fuelled by a so-called 'Sephora Kids' social media craze for underage beauty care, supercharged by influencers such as Kim Kardashian's daughter, North.
Doctors, however, have sounded the alarm.
Dermatologists have warned of the potential risk posed by some substances to children's skin, while other experts are concerned about the psychological impact on body image.
Paris is not the only place where the kids' beauty fashion is catching on. The federation of beauty companies told Le Parisien that kids wellness, beauty care and salons was 'an emerging trend'.
In Nice one salon offers 'beauty-kids parties', a children's salon opened in July in Ploërmel in Brittany, and a ' baby spa ' opened in Lyon at the end of December.
In Verdun, the Secrets d'Ange salon, which opened last September is 'full until 2026', according to its owner.
In Langon, near Bordeaux, the founder of a similar establishment told Sud Ouest she got the idea from the United Arab Emirates. 'I discovered the beauty centres for children in a report on Dubai five years ago, and I loved them,' she said.
Salons booked for months in advance
Back in Paris, Amira – the daughter of Telegraph photographer Bruno Fert – is joined by two other young customers, sisters aged four and nine.
Their parents have all forked out €70 (£59) for a one-hour 'Bella' care package. Beauty packages can rise to €619 for a group of eight who are treated to a 'collective beauty activity', such as donning garish face scrubs. Others end in a catwalk show in taffeta and tulle.
After the foot bath, Amira's toenails are cut and filed and a warm face mask applied with cucumbers placed over the eyes.
Five minutes later, and with the six-year-old's patience running thin, the beautician removes the cucumbers and produces an array of nail varnish of different hues. 'Do you want water-based or adult?' she asks.
'We offer 'adult' from three up as before that they put their fingers in their mouths,' she tells the parents by way of reassurance. Then it's tea time, complete with raspberry cake.
Management says the salon is booked up months in advance for groups and insists it uses 'only natural products that respect children's delicate skin'.
'It's a bit of fun. I don't see the problem,' says the mother of the two sisters. 'It turns them into princesses for the afternoon. They get the feeling they're real-life ice queens.'