Salon Pricing Guide For UK Businesses in 2025

Deciding on the right salon pricing strategy is one of the most important things you will do when opening a salon business. You should also stay on top and adjust, even for the most successful salons.

While coming up with a price list for your salon services might seem intimidating initially, don’t worry. You can do many things as a salon owner to make this easier.

Jump to The Section You Like

1. What To Consider Setting Up Your Salon Price List?
2. What Is Your Salon Pricing Strategy
3. Pick Your Salon Pricing Structure
4. How To Calculate Salon Prices in the UK?
5. How To Price Salon Retail?
6. Salon Pricing Ideas to Use and Mistakes to Avoid
7. What Should Be In Your Salon Service Menu?
8. Salon Price List Free Template
9. Conclusion

What To Consider Setting Up Your Salon Price List?

When deciding how to set salon prices, there are a few key factors you should consider. A salon’s location and target market, for example, will help you determine which services to offer clients and what you will want to charge your customers for each service.

Other things that could impact your hair salon price list are whether a product or service is in high demand, what your competition is doing, and the overall value of each item you’re offering. Let’s go over all of these in a bit more detail:

• 1. Service Value

  It can be tempting to discount your prices to get those all-important first bookings, but remember that you still need to pay the bills. You can’t charge less than you’re spending if you want your salon to make money.

• 2. Salon Location

  Look closely at your business’s location. This can tell you much about your clients and how to approach your pricing process. If you’re setting up shop in a high-end or busy area, chances are you can charge a bit more.

• 3. Target Clientele

  Your hair salon clients are just as important as your location. Often, the two go hand in hand. Do some online research and get an idea of the average income in your area. This will give you a better idea of the clients you want to attract and what they will be willing to pay.

• 4. Demand

  One of the things that you’ll have to do is find out which salon services are in demand among your chosen client base. You can usually charge a bit more money for these. Check and see what’s trending on social media and closely examine what each of your competitors is charging. This will help you to set your price list.

• 4. Prices of Your Competitors

  Speaking of the competition, you’ll want to know what’s on their salon price menu and the types of clients they attract. This will usually be on their website and will make it easier for you to make professional price decisions.

  It’s extremely important not to undercharge for no reason. If the price of a haircut or colour appointment is too cheap, for example, it could either lead customers to expect this all the time (making prices difficult to raise in the future), or hint at low-quality services.

What Is Your Salon Pricing Strategy

Your overall salon price strategy and any promotions or discounts you offer your clients will depend greatly on your long-term goals and your salon’s position in the market.

Here is an overview of the different pricing strategies for your salon business:

• Value-Based Pricing

  This strategy takes your customers’ preferences into account and charges accordingly. You’ll need to look at what each potential client values and what they’re willing to pay for a service.

  For this to work well, you’ll need to understand your clientele. You’ll have to know what they want, what they tend to avoid, and which services they value most. Then, you can budget for each of these things.

  This tends to work well for experienced salon owners who talk to their clients often or those who’ve been in the industry for several years.

• Skimming Pricing

  This is one way to simplify your pricing plan and involves setting higher prices for new or exclusive services and then moving these costs lower over time.

  One example would be initially charging a higher amount for a new hair extension technique or service, gaining maximum profit while it is trending, and then decreasing this price later once the novelty wears off.

• Premium Pricing

  Does your salon have a prestigious brand? Are your hairstylists experienced or well-known? If the answer is yes, prestige pricing can be effective for your business.

  Clients are often willing to spend more per service if your salon is superior. This is also known as “image pricing” and capitalizes on the perceived value of your salon’s brand. It’s a good strategy if you already stand out from the competition.

• Penetration Pricing

  Often used by hair salons looking to attract more clients. This may be the right way to go if you’re new in the area or to the business. You start by asking clients to pay lower prices and then raise the price later.

  While this does have the advantage of getting appointments booked for your stylists and getting clients in the door, it’s not always the right tactic. After customers get used to paying a certain amount for a haircut or colour, it can be hard to raise prices later.

• Economy Pricing

  This can be extremely successful if it’s applied carefully. This pricing strategy sets your business and services apart as more affordable than your competitors. 

  While you’ll still need to be careful of undercharging and keep an eye on the average prices in your area, you can target clients from lower or fixed-income markets, such as students, young families or senior citizens. This lets you appeal to a price-sensitive audience.

Define Your Salon Pricing Structure

The structure of your price list will connect to your chosen strategy and any discounts your business offers. Your industry salon strategy and services offered will work together to dictate how you approach your pricing.

Here are some of the most common approaches, as well as tips for how they work:

• Tiered Pricing

  This strategy starts clients with a basic price for a hair salon service, then allows them to add more items to this list, gradually increasing the amount. This formula allows for transparency (which clients like), and the chance to make a profit when they spend more.

  For example, a client booking a haircut would pay one price, but if the stylist adds a wash, the price goes up. If they want a cut, wash, hair treatment and scalp massage, the expense of the service increases per item.

  You can also apply this to bookings with more experienced or prestigious stylists by charging a premium price for appointments with them and a standard cost for other team members.

• Variable Pricing

  This is only recommended for complicated or multi-step colour treatments or services when breaking down these special cases on your basic menu is hard.

  Telling your clients to “call us for more pricing information” is helpful when calculating the costs of complex services. For more common hair salon appointments, though, you’ll still need to set clear and easy prices for clients to understand.

• Flat-Rate Pricing

  This is the most straightforward and involves charging one price per service, regardless of the time, products used, stylists, etc. This makes each amount easy for stylists and clients to calculate but leaves no room for flexibility.

  In this case, a hair salon would charge one price for all colouring services, regardless of the type of colour or the length of the client's hair. This is usually done by either very premium or very low-cost businesses.

• Tiered and Variable Pricing

  This is a combination of the last two, providing a fixed-cost menu for clients and consulting with them when pricing out more involved services or procedures.

  This can work well at salons specialising in more complex services, such as extensions or multi-stage hair colouring.

• Razor-Blade Pricing

  Some salon owners decide to discount an initial service and make money by upselling more expensive extras. You might list a low price for a core service such as a cut, then encourage your team to upsell add-ons such as a conditioning treatment or a blowout.

  This can be a good way to motivate each stylist and increase the number of services per visit.

Do not miss our post How to Make a Salon Price Increase Notice and Retain Clients.

How To Calculate Salon Prices in the UK?

People often ask, “How much should I charge for hair services?” First, we’ll have to determine how much each service costs the salon.

To start, you’ll have to look at every service and divide it by the time it takes (a £120 colouring job that takes two hours is 120 divided by 120 minutes = £1.00 per minute, for example). You’ll need to do this with every price on your menu. Once you have these numbers, you can calculate everything else.

Ultimately, your prices will cover running expenses, salaries for team members, and any products used. Let’s take a closer look:

• Running Costs

  Your overall monthly budget plus all year-end expenses. List out the money you use for rent, marketing, taxes, utilities, cleaning, supplies, insurance, etc.

  Salon Running Costs = (Rent + Supplies + Marketing + Taxes + Utilities + Cleaning + Insurance) / 12

  Here is an example of how this works:

  A salon with a yearly rent of £40,000, with supplies costing £10,000, marketing costs of £4,000, yearly utilities of £10,000, cleaning expenses of £4,000 and insurance costing £1,000 would have a running cost of £72,000, or £6,000 per month.

  How do you incorporate this large number of costs into a single haircut? With time and practice.

• Total Working Time Per Month

  The next step is to determine how many hours your salon is open per month and multiply this by the number of available working spaces (chairs).

  A salon opens 10 hours a day, Monday through Saturday, with seven chairs would have a Total Monthly Working Time of (10 hours x 24 days a month) x 7 chairs = 1,680.

• Running Cost Per Minute

  Now that you have your running costs annually divide that by 12 months, divide it again by the total monthly working hours, and finally divide this number by 60. This will give you the running cost per minute.

  The basic formula is:

  Running Cost Per Minute = Running Cost Per Year / 12 / Total Working Time Per Month / 60

  Here’s an example:

  Running Cost Per Year (£72,800)/ 12 months / Total Monthly Working Time (1,680 hours)/ 60 = £0.06.

  Remember, keeping a business open is never free. This is a measure of how much money it costs you and your team to provide services.

• Variable Costs

  Every product you use and quantity can just be added up. You’ll need to calculate the different salaries for each staff level (trainees, experienced stylists, etc.).

  To do this, take each staff member’s salary, divide by their working hours per month and then divide by 60. This is their cost per minute. So, if a stylist makes £2250 a month and works 40 hours a week, here’s how you could calculate it:

  Staff member’s Salary (£2,250) / their Working Hours Per Month (160) / 60 = Staff Cost per Minute of £0.23.

• Total Service Cost

  To find this number, break down your running cost per minute, plus your staff cost per minute, multiply this by your service time and then add the cost of products used.

  The basic formula is:

  Service Cost = (Running Cost per Minute + Staff Cost per Minute) x Service Time + Products Used

  Let's break it down using the numbers from our previous calculations, assuming that for the sake of this one the hair color and other products cost £25 total, and the whole job took two hours to complete:

  Service Cost = (Running Cost Per Minute (£0.06) + Staff Cost Per Minute (£0.23)) x Service Time (120 mins) + Products Used (£25) = (£59.80)

• Salon Margin

  Now, you’ll need to make a profit. This is why undercharging can be such a problem when you think about it. This is where your pricing strategy comes in.

  It’s time to add the margin you’ve decided on and get your final service price.

  The average salon profit margin ranges anywhere from 2% to 17%.

  The formula is as follows:

  Service Price = Service Cost x (1 + Margin)

• Salon Pricing Calculator

  Salon software can help you with how to price hair salon services. Salon software includes a calculator to break everything down for you, making all this math easy. This will go a long way towards saving you valuable time and money.

We recommend you check out our Guide to Salon Expenses in the UK.

How To Price Your Salon Retail?

Manufacturers usually set prices for product sales, but they will usually give you a range you can work within. Take a look at the product’s website and see what recommendations they have for retailers.

Delivery and storage aren’t free, so cover these expenses. Depending on the products and your target market, your salon retail margin will usually fall between 50 to 100%.

Here are some different strategies to help you approach each price point:

• Bundle Pricing

  When selling multiple items together for a single price. One common bundle type is a shampoo, conditioner and styling product. This allows retailers to make multiple sales and profit from the volume sold.

  This is also convenient for customers, but it can be hard to sell these items individually for a higher price later.

• (MSRP) Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price 

  Manufacturers who want to standardise their products' prices across different salons will provide this. Usually, retailers will sell the products to you at discounts of about half this price, allowing you to make a profit.

• Loss-leading Pricing

  Many grocery stores do this. The strategy involves attracting customers with a lower-priced item they want and then convincing them to buy additional products while shopping.

• Prestige Pricing

  This is the opposite and involves charging top £ for what is perceived as premium or superior quality products. This strategy often works best at upmarket or prestigious salons.

• Competitive Pricing

  This is when you check your competitor’s average prices and deliberately set yours lower to make more sales. This often works, but it also makes it hard to raise prices later on, if you want to change things.

Salon Pricing Ideas to Use and Mistakes to Avoid

• 1. Stop Undercharging

  Don’t succumb to the temptation to drop your prices at the first sign of trouble. Any business website will tell you every salon has its ups and downs. Always remember the true value of your services.

• 2. Keep it Simple

  If you offer customers too many services, extensions and custom options, they’ll probably become confused and reluctant to choose. This will also make things harder for your staff. Use simple terms and easy-to-understand language.

• 3. Limit Discounts

  Only offer discounts when it’s appropriate (such as on products about to expire, or for trainee services, etc.). Although clients love saving money, you want to avoid losing profits and devaluing your services.

• 4. Try Psychology Pricing

  It may sound silly, but people are happier paying £99 for something rather than £100. It feels like a lower price. Use partial numbers and avoid decimal places, which lengthen prices.

• 5. Add Training Costs While Pricing High-End Services

  Your staff need specialized training for services like weaves or hair extensions. Make sure to include these when calculating your yearly costs.

• 6. Inform Your Clientele About Price Changes

  Remember to be transparent and tell clients why these changes occur. Train your team to talk to them, too.

What Should Be In Your Salon Service Menu?

When you decide “how to price my hair services” you’ll need to determine what these services are, too.

Your salon menu should include haircut services for men, women and children (unless you decide to specialize), hair colouring, styling, conditioning treatments, texture services, extensions and any other exclusive treatments you offer.

Don’t forget to put all of these on your salon’s website, too.

Salon Price List Free Template

Using a free template is a great way to start. Here is a free price list example you can use or modify to suit your salon’s business needs.

Conclusion

Setting your salon prices can be both rewarding and the best way to get control of your small business.

Remember, knowledge is power. Once you’ve decided on your business strategy and determined exactly what you need to do to make money, it’ll become much easier to run your salon daily.

Using these tips and strategies, you can set salon pricing that works for you and helps your business grow.

Citations

Is it time to rethink your pricing strategy
http://gsl-archive.mit.edu/media/programs/mexico-summer-2015/materials/is_it_time_to_rethink_your_pricing_strategy.pdf

10 Asset Pricing Implications of Equilibrium Business Cycle Models
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780691218052-014/html

A strategic approach to industrial product pricing: The pricing plan
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019850104001208