Stop Copying the Salon Down the Road: Their Prices Could Be Ruining Your Business

Be honest.

When did you last set your prices by looking at what everyone else was charging, choosing somewhere around the middle and hoping for the best?

You are definitely not the only one. It’s one of the most common ways freelance hairdressers create a price list. It feels like the obvious decision, because the local salon must know what it’s doing, right?

Perhaps. Or perhaps they just copied somebody else too.

The problem with the “going rate”

The going rate sounds reassuringly official. It makes you imagine that somebody, somewhere, has completed the calculations and approved a fair price for every root tint, balayage and cut and finish in your postcode.

They haven’t.

The going rate is literally just a collection of prices being charged by different businesses with different costs, different clients and different goals.

Copying their prices means copying a number without understanding the business behind it.

Their costs are not your costs

Two freelance hairdressers can offer services that look almost identical whilst needing completely different price points.

One stylist works from a converted room at their home. Another rents a premium salon suite in the town centre. One uses a lower cost colour range. The other has invested in premium products, ongoing education and a luxury client experience. One completes the service in three hours. The other allows four and a half hours for detailed placement, consultation and styling.

Should they charge the same? Absolutely not. Yet this is exactly what happens when hairdressers price according to competitors rather than their own numbers.

A busy competitor can still be undercharging

This is an age-old trap. You see another stylist with a full diary and assume their prices must be bang on. But being busy only proves that clients are willing to book at that price. It doesn’t prove the service is profitable.

Low prices can create demand very quickly. That doesn’t necessarily make them a good business strategy. A stylist can be booked for six weeks, working ten hour days, and still earning very little once product, overheads and unpaid time are removed.

A packed diary often hides a pricing problem beautifully.

Okay, so what should determine your prices?

Your pricing should begin with your own business and the numbers within it.

First, calculate the actual product cost for each service. Not a rough guess. Not “probably about two scoops”. The real amount of colour, lightener, toner, treatment and supporting product used.

Next, calculate the real time involved — always including consultations, mixing, application, processing supervision, rinsing, styling, cleaning and relevant administration.

Then include your hourly business overheads, your chosen wage and a profit margin. Once you know the minimum amount any service needs to generate, you then consider your market position. Your experience, specialisms, client journey, location and demand also justify charging above that minimum.

Your costs create the floor. Without that floor, pricing becomes emotional, not helpful.

Your prices are part of your brand

Price is not only a financial figure. It also communicates something about the experience clients can expect.

That doesn’t mean increasing your price automatically makes you a luxury brand — your service and presentation need to support the promise. It does mean your prices influence how clients perceive you before they ever sit in your chair. There’s a reason for the saying, “you buy cheap, you buy twice”.

Don’t even try to be the cheapest

There will always be a cheaper hairdresser. Trying to beat them is a race you cannot win; somebody will always be willing to charge less.

Your goal is not to attract everybody. You shouldn’t want to either. Your goal is to build a sustainable business serving clients who understand and value what you offer. That requires clarity.

Drop the thinking behind, “I think this sounds reasonable.” Have the confidence of knowing, “I know what it costs to deliver this properly.”

Competitors give context, not calculation

Competitor research can still be helpful. It can show you how services are packaged, what language is being used and where there may be a gap in the local market.

But competitors should provide context only. They should not provide your calculations. Their bills don’t drop on your doorstep. Their business is not funding your life. Their price list can’t tell you what you need to earn.

So… have a little nose at the salon down the road’s price list. Admire their branding. Notice their service menu. See what the local market is doing.

Then close the tab and price your own business. Your business deserves better than somebody else’s guess.