Best beauty salons

Four beauty and nail salons in Torre del Mar carry a public rating, with more than 300 reviews between them. This is the lowest scoring table in the personal services section, and the reason is worth explaining rather than leaving to look like a verdict.

Why the scores sit where they do

Two things pull them down. First, the ratings themselves are lower than in neighbouring trades: nail work is judged on how it looks two weeks later, and that is a harder test than a haircut. Second, and more mechanically, these are small salons that mostly work through social media and messaging rather than a website of their own, and the portal score awards points for having one. That is a real difference in how easy a business is to find, but it is not a difference in the work.

The busiest is not the best rated

The salon with the most reviews in the trade, 130 of them, sits second. The one at the top has a higher rating on a quarter of that volume. As always, both numbers say something and neither says everything.

Beauty and medical treatment are not the same thing

Injectables, laser and anything described as a medical aesthetic procedure must be performed by qualified medical staff in an authorised centre, not in a beauty salon. If a treatment is offered under a medical sounding name, ask who performs it and where.