The Brexit Effect: Why More Brits Than Ever Are Going to the Spa

In the aftermath of Brexit, according to recent reports, the British are flocking to spas in increased numbers. Appointment bookings for massages, scrubs, wraps, steams, and facials are filling up as residents seek momentary respite from the chaos. One London-based beauty concierge app, Ruuby, reported a 30 percent spike in bookings in recent weeks. It’s a sign of the times as much as it is of a weakened economic system. With the pound’s future looking hazy, a tension-relieving treatment will not only mitigate emotional stress, but also provide a confidence boost in at least one aspect of your life.

If the British rush to the spa is new, the principle behind it certainly isn’t. When the recession hit the United States in December 2007, the country turned its gaze away from the Dow Jones, Nasdaq, and S&P 500 and toward, of all places, its fingernails, causing an uptick in new and inventive manicures. This was the dawn of metallic Minx, nail art, and the micro services targeted at the preteen set—but soon embraced as a full-blown obsession by adult women. While the rest of the country watched unemployment rise, nail bars experienced exponential growth.

By 2009, headlines were already declaring nail-art fatigue—though the passion would re-ignite a year later with the advent of Instagram. In the meantime, energy once spent managing portfolios was rerouted to the micromanaging of eyebrows, with customization reaching a cultural apex in Givenchy’s fall 2009 campaign, which pictured Brazilian bombshell Adriana Lima with bleached arches, a symbol of liberation from the weight of her once-onyx brows.

This navel-gazing reaction to economic discomfort is known as the Lipstick Effect, a term coined after Estée Lauder chairman Leonard A. Lauder noticed that his company was selling an unexpectedly high number of lipsticks amidst the depressed economy following the 2001 terrorist attacks. According to this theory, cash-strapped citizens are more likely to invest in minor, short-term luxuries such as lipstick, which with the exchange of a $20 bill or two, has the power to immediately transform your day.

But the lipstick effect has since been documented across the globe, with evidence reaching as far back as the Great Depression—when, between 1929 and 1933, the sales of cosmetics rose while most other industrial production came to a near-screeching halt. The look better, feel better exchange seems simple enough to explain, though psychological studies published in recent years have begun to explore the relationship between hard times and an increased emphasis on mating, perhaps in hopes of pairing up for better access to scarce resources. Whatever the impetus, we’ll be the first to admit that there’s little a steamy bath, lymphatic drainage facial, or pitch-perfect swipe of red lipstick can’t improve, however temporarily.

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