For Health & Beauty, it’s Galentines over Valentines

Valentine’s Day celebrates romantic love, and with it, comes date nights, indulgence, and a little extra pampering. This year, we dug into the health & beauty trends that define this romantic holiday, as well as its friendship-oriented counterpart, Galentine’s Day. While February consistently hits an annual low in the U.S. beauty sector – a pattern that held true in both 2024 and 2025 – Valentine’s Day brings an important spending boost to the month.

The annual February dip reflects broader seasonal dynamics. Consumers tend to pull back on discretionary spending during the winter months, and colder weather dampens demand for many beauty services. But zooming out obscures a more interesting story: Valentine’s Day creates a concentrated boost, with significantly increased sales during the week of the holiday.

In 2025, each of the three days leading up to Valentine’s Day saw noticeably higher beauty spending compared with both the prior week and the week that followed. This pattern points to consumers intentionally building beauty and self-care into their Valentine’s Day preparations. That preparation did not impact all subsectors uniformly: Hair removal and waxing services surged the most, with spending jumping +47% on February 13th, followed by day spas (+24%) and tanning salons (+23%).

Overall and within each of these subsectors, the increased spending reached a peak on February 13th – which is now well-known as Galentine’s Day.

In 2010, NBC comedy Parks and Recreation introduced Galentine’s Day as a holiday to celebrate one’s “lady friends,” and Square data shows that over the past three years, spending on “bestie” beauty services has grown at more than triple the rate of “couple” services.

For health & beauty businesses, the “bestie economy” is booming, driven by friendship-forward rituals, shared experiences, and pre-Valentine’s spa trips. This signals that mid-February isn’t just a season for the romantically paired, ushering in growth opportunities for businesses who cast a wider net. But on Valentine’s Day itself, the romantic hierarchy returns: bestie spending drops sharply, while couples’ treatments surge, reclaiming the spotlight for romantic indulgence.

This February, the question isn’t whether to book a spa day—it’s whether you’re bringing your bestie or your boo.