Help me choose a hair colour brand for my salon

lostinrates

classixuk wrote: »

I'd just like to thank everyone for their responses so far. It's really helping me to paint a good picture of what needs to be done. I'm looking forward to reading other responses too.

Bronnie wrote: »

The bit I bolded Bronnie is exactly what I wanted to hear. :beer: Can I just ask whereabouts in the country you are by the way?

You see, the thing is, in our salons we've always tried to offer our clients the best value for money that we can. Unfortunately though, some of our existing customers are finding their finances a struggle so are stretching out the times between appointments, or have resorted to colouring their hair themselves. We've no problem with this, but it does leave appointment gaps open that could be filled with new clients. We're hoping to fill them with the people who can no longer afford £80-£90 for a colour at their existing salon, but aren't quite at the home colouring stage of financial cutbacks.

The responses here are helping us to decide in which direction we need to go. :j

I wonder....I let my hair go a long time between highlights...its very curly, I actually think it looks better after 4-5 weeks than it does after one -two weeks. I'd be more likely to go regularly if I could spread the cost a bit and get another treatment. e.g. if I paid my salon monthly but went, say four times a year for a colour and once/twice for a treatment. That way I'd also feel a bit more ''loyal'' to my hairdresser individually rather than the product. And you'd get a payment in advance rather than waiting til pay day...everyone feeling ''safe'' and happy on appt day?

As someone who only goes every 12 weeks ish things like getting a convenient appt ..you don't feel prioritised or ''regular'' enough to be as important as someone who goes in more regularly for a lower value thing like a trim.

Since moving house 6 months ago I've been to the hairdresser twice...I couldn't get an appt when I tried three weeks before Christmas for ''anytime around now and New Year'' and I understand why...but...if I had been less laid back I would have looked elsewhere. when you don't go a lot...i.e. like I do for colouring rather than regularly for blowdries like my mother's generation did, I think you feel less...''bought in'' to the salon.

Dawning

classixuk wrote: »

We've launched a few bargain price cut and blowdries at our quietest times which seems to be helping some of the clients. The way I see it is if they are now out of work and can make it on Wednesday at 9.30AM for their haircut and blow, we can afford to offer it at a reduced price compared to Saturday 4pm when we are overrun.

That's a great idea!
Best of luck with the reps.

Bronnie

classixuk wrote: »

I'd just like to thank everyone for their responses so far. It's really helping me to paint a good picture of what needs to be done. I'm looking forward to reading other responses too.

Bronnie wrote: »

The bit I bolded Bronnie is exactly what I wanted to hear. :beer: Can I just ask whereabouts in the country you are by the way?

You see, the thing is, in our salons we've always tried to offer our clients the best value for money that we can. Unfortunately though, some of our existing customers are finding their finances a struggle so are stretching out the times between appointments, or have resorted to colouring their hair themselves. We've no problem with this, but it does leave appointment gaps open that could be filled with new clients. We're hoping to fill them with the people who can no longer afford £80-£90 for a colour at their existing salon, but aren't quite at the home colouring stage of financial cutbacks.

The responses here are helping us to decide in which direction we need to go. :j

The original salon was in a fairly affluent small town (north west England) and I was a client for about 6 years. I abandoned home-colouring around the same time as I was fed up with the mess, but mainly because I couldn't manage to just colour the roots myself and was finding I was getting a build-up of colour which was giving my hair a very flat look as my hair is dark.

My hair was short at the time and very thick and this salon cut it perfectly, however it was very high maintenance with a cut needed every 5 weeks and the regrowth stretched to 4 weeks max (dark hair and lots of grey ). The whole process was fairly ££ although I don't spend a lot in other areas, so it was my indulgence. Regrowth and blow about £54 inc VAT. Colour Cut and Blow £71 with senior stylist. Although, I used to get a less experienced stylist to do the regrowth and book the cut and blow with the senior stylist at the same appointment and they didn't mind!

2 years ago, decided to grow my hair, so just have occasional trim now and layers refreshed a bit. The new salon is in a less upmarket area, with more of a social mix of customers I imagine. They're young and enthusiastic working owner managers and are trying very hard to give good customer service and I'm impressed, even though it's less sophisticated than previously! Regrowth and a quick bouncy long hair blowdry, £26 with reasonably experienced stylist, which I think is very reasonable. If I'm going out and want more time spent on the blow dry, there is an extra charge.

The saving in ££ justifies swapping the in-salon luxuries of "Conde Nast Traveler" for "Heat" and Lavazza for Nescafe at the moment!

Bronnie

Classixuk, does your business use Facebook?

nearlyrich

classixuk wrote: »

1. Does the brand of products/colour that a salon uses/advertises as using, influence whether you will try them out? (If the answer is NO, please skip to question 4. Otherwise, could you answer the next 2 questions as well please.

I trust my hairdresser t use decent product on my hair, I have been with her through 3 salons over 10 years, my DD uses the same hairdresser.

2. If you went into a new salon that you hadn't tried before, which of the brands (listed at the end of this post) would make you more likely to have trust in that salon's expertise? Why?

I don't know what they use at my salon LOL:o

3. If you were already using a salon that used your favourite branded products to colour your hair, and a competing salon began using the exact same products but charged 25% less than you currently pay, would your confidence in the product brand encourage you to try them out?

I would only change if my stylist moved!

4. Can you rearrange the brand names (at the end of this post) into a list, starting with the brand names that inspire your confidence when a salon uses them and ending with the brand name that either makes no difference to you either way or might even put you off?

No idea what they use now I trust my stylist to do a great job

5. Can you list the brands you'd expect (and be happy) to pay more for in a hairdressing salon if they were used on your hair, followed by the brands that you don't feel would equal a higher price?


Many thanks guys!

Chris.

The Brands I have heard of:

Clynol
L'Oreal
Redken
Revlon
Schwarzkopf
Tigi
Wella


The brands I have not heard of!

• Affinage
• Alfaparf
• Fudge
• Goldwell
• Joico
• Matrix
• Paul Mitchell

I know my stylist has used Tigi in the past, the one they use now is not on the list ( I can't remember what it is to be honest but I think I would have recognised it if it was on the list!

I have a 6 to 8 weekly cut, have a colour once or twice per year and I pay around £27 for a cut, I think the colour I had in early december was about £60 including the cut, I am also in the North West. I wouldn't change salons for a lower price but I would be happy to choose a less popular time for an appointment if it came in at a lower price and I could get there around work comittments etc.

Hope that helps;)

ali-t

classixuk wrote: »

That was an amazingly insightful post!!! Thank you so much!!! :T

P.S. You're not a hairdresser by any chance are you?

LOL, not a hairdresser just had lots of different cuts, colours, styles over the years.

I used to be a total clubber and had hair that was different colours each couple of weeks. I had colours stripped out regularly to get more put in and I was like the guinea pig in the salon for new techniques that had been learned. People always asked where I got my hair done and this generated extra business for the salon and I got cheap hair cuts. Win win for everyone.

Now I am much lower maintenance and have longer hair that doesn't require such precision cutting or frequent appointments to make it look ok.

I get the brazilian keratin treatment on my hair and this is what convinced me to go to a much cheaper salon. One of the really small ones in a rough area of town was advertising the treatment for 3/4 of the price of the premium salon I was going to. I originally planned to continue getting my £50 cuts at the other salon but decided to give the cheaper place a shot and it turned out ok! I can now get a keratin treatment and a cut for less than the price of a keratin treatment in the other place - and parking is free!

So, the gist of this rambling post is that although you are trying to keep the customers you have that are struggling financially, it may be worth while to undercut the premium salons on some of their specialist techniques or products e.g. extensions or keratin treatments. This will allow you to generate a new client base that may have more disposable income.

I like the idea of offering different prices depending on the time/day of the appointments. Convenience costs more and this is fair enough.

Starrystarrynight

I don't colour my hair, but I must admit that, when I see salons advertising the trendy or expensive brands, it puts me off a bit. I worry that I'd be paying over the odds for the same service I'd get somewhere less pricey.

jenniewb

I only ever seem to get offered L'Oreal colour for my hair- twice having had Aveda colour I found it looked too ...normal and I like my hair to be bright and look soft of fake (I dye it red, bright red or pink!)

I have to say though, the last few times I have had my hair coloured with L'Oreal's INOA which is a non ammonia based dye and I was really impressed with the shine it gave and how long the shine lasted! I don't think the dye itself lasted any longer then any other brand but the condition of my hair was so much better that if I'm given the option, this is what I go for. Its still quite a natural based colour shade they have so I ask them to pre-lighten my hair as much as possible (with INOA) and then colour it a paler shade of red/pink which seems to work well for me.

I have no idea on prices though as I get my hair dyed each time (inbetween home dyes) as a hair model and just pay a basic £10.

classixuk

Bronnie wrote: »

Classixuk, does your business use Facebook?

Hi Bronnie,
Yes, we use Facebook and also have a website too.

ali-t wrote: »

...I get the brazilian keratin treatment on my hair and this is what convinced me to go to a much cheaper salon. One of the really small ones in a rough area of town was advertising the treatment for 3/4 of the price of the premium salon I was going to. I originally planned to continue getting my £50 cuts at the other salon but decided to give the cheaper place a shot and it turned out ok! I can now get a keratin treatment and a cut for less than the price of a keratin treatment in the other place - and parking is free!...

Hi Ali-t.
By the brazilian keratin treatment, do you mean that you have the full Brazlian Blowdry to straighten your hair? If so, do you mind telling me how much you pay now as opposed to how much your previous salon wanted to charge? Many thanks.



Once again, I'd just like to thank everyone for their responses. I have also asked at other forums I use, and so far the list of brands on average (including the results here) has been arranged like this (most popular/confident at the top):

L'Oreal Redken Fudge Tigi Paul Mitchell Schwarzkopf Revlon Wella Goldwell Clynol Joico Matrix Affinage Alfaparf
Just thought you'd like to see the results!

My feeling at the moment is that we'll be calling the L'Oreal rep and the Fudge rep judging by the list. Any thoughts?

ali-t

classixuk wrote: »

Hi Ali-t.
By the brazilian keratin treatment, do you mean that you have the full Brazlian Blowdry to straighten your hair? If so, do you mind telling me how much you pay now as opposed to how much your previous salon wanted to charge? Many thanks.

Yes, that's the one. the premium salon uses the Coppola one (starts at £160 for short hair but going up to over £200) and the cheap salon uses Nanokeratin (£125 regardless of length or thickness).

I have found the nanokeratin one http://www.nanokeratinsystem.co.uk/109835/Hair-Stylists---Recommendations lasts longer and the shampoo is better as it does lather unlike the coppola one http://www.keratincomplex.com/