Beauty salons are targeting girls with offers of cut-price bikini waxes (Picture: Getty)

Beauty salons are targeting girls as young as nine with offers of cut-price bikini waxes, campaigners have discovered.

Some are prepared to slash their prices by as much as £30 because a girl was ‘likely to be less developed than older people’.

Just one in 25 salons refused to carry out the eye-watering procedure on any child, according to charity Jeena International, which said it had uncovered ‘a form of cultural-driven abuse’.

Founder Rani Bilkhu said: ‘This raises further questions of normalising girls to culturally harmful practices, objectifying them and girls not being allowed to celebrate their bodies changing.’


Ms Bilkhu decided to investigte after hearing the shrieks of a nine-year-old having a bikini wax at a salon near her home in Slough.



She called salons posing as a mother trying to book in her nine-year-old daughter for a ‘Hollywood’ full wax. Just four per cent refused to wax a child, while another four per cent refused to treat a child under 12.

Cathy Ranson, from parenting site Netmums, said: ‘It’s another example of young girls’ bodies being used for commercial gain.’

But Deborah Morris, from beauty salon group BABTAC, said waxing might help a child who had early puberty.

She added: ‘We advise our members to assess the client on the basis of need. When it comes to treating minors, the responsibility actually lies with the parent or guardian in the case of low-risk, non-invasive treatments.

‘Treating a minor should never be done just for the sake of it.’