LONDON — Shakespeare’s Juliet asked, “What’s in a name?” but for Millie Kendall, founder and chief executive officer of the British Beauty Council, the question is more like, “What’s in a number?”

After seven years of campaigning and consulting with the U.K. government, Kendall has managed to get the official number codes attached to beauty industry services clarified and changed for the first time since 1948.

The Standard Industrial Classification, or SIC, codes are used by government agencies, including Companies House and the Office for National Statistics in the U.K., to classify businesses and collect data on economic growth.

Businesses are required to use them for incorporation, tax purposes and when they’re applying for bank loans.

Changing the codes is a big win for Kendall and for the U.K.’s diverse beauty businesses, which cover hairdressing, aesthetic and wellness treatments, nails, brows, tattoos and spas.

Until now, all beauty services were lumped in with disparate, unrelated businesses, including pet sitting, funeral directors, dry cleaning and laundry, and they all had similar codes.

In an interview, Kendall said the whole system was odd, confusing and prevented accurate gathering of data for the industry, which accounts for around 1.1 percent of the U.K.’s total GDP.

“If you look on the Office of National Statistics website, you can’t see how much hairdressing is worth compared to beauty treatments. Not being able to break down those valuations right now is frustrating,” she said, adding that the council was supported by the U.K. Department for Business and Trade in making the changes.

Until now, the British Beauty Council has had to conduct its own private research in order to track U.K. business trends and changing patterns in consumer demand. But it’s expensive work, and the council only does it once a year.

“If I get a phone call from government asking me what’s happening on the high street, I can only rely on our annual” Value of Beauty report, which is done with Oxford Economics, said Kendall. “I can’t just log into the government website and look at the latest data” regarding business openings, closures and other trends.

The changes will gradually come into effect over the next years, and will mean that hairdressing, barbering, beauty treatments and day spas will all have their own codes, making it easier to build up a picture of how different sectors are performing. “The changes will finally give us factual transparency on the industry,” she said.

The British Beauty Council has also set out updates to the wording that accompanies the updated U.K. codes, making sure the descriptions accurately reflect the modern professional services industry. 

“It’s the biggest piece of work we’ve ever done and, most importantly, it will help us to value different sectors independently and lobby government in the areas where help is most needed,” said Kendall.

“Right now, it’s a difficult thing to tell the government, ‘Beauty is growing four times faster than the national economy, but can we have some help, please?’ Now we can tell them that while beauty may be growing as a whole, certain sectors are really struggling,” she said.

Kendall’s years of campaigning have resonated beyond the U.K., with European and other countries worldwide also updating their classification frameworks following approval by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC).