Emma Fowler is a colour educator extraordinaire whose party trick is 30-minute balayage; she’s amassed a 10k strong community of stylists in her closed facebook group, 18k followers on instagram and was voted 3rd in How To Cut It’s 100 Most Influential People. Emma’s incredibly popular 12-week signature Colour Confidence Programme runs from Jan-April 2024 and she also runs tons of free education so hairdressers are constantly updated with the latest trends and techniques as well as business advice. Emma covers colour and business in equal measure and has turned around the businesses of hundreds of hairdressers, so we asked her for her top tips to price for profit when clients leave longer between visits.
Sometimes we can feel nervous about pricing but without properly looking at this we’re not making the money we should. Colourists’ prices need to evolve to reflect the cost of products – there is such a high cost involved in colouring compared to cutting. Tubes of colours can be over £12 and the cost of foil has increased 100%.
When clients leave longer gaps between appointments you could be losing out when they return with longer re-growths. A client who has left their highlights for over 4 months could use 30% more product and it takes longer to apply the foils.
I have two full head highlight packages, Full Head and Mega Full Head. Mega Full Head is for anyone who has left their hair longer than around 20 weeks, or who wants to be blonder and needs more than a ‘normal’ retouch. By offering this as a package it’s more transparent for the client, so they know what the cost of the appointment is before they arrive rather than getting an additional surcharge for extra product used. I also know I’ve allocated enough time for their blonding session!
I price for 4-6 bowls of bleach for a full head of highlights and 90 mins of foiling, and 8- 10 bowls for a Mega Full Head Highlights and 2 hours, and all my packages include lifting, K-18, Toners, Treatment, Cut and Finish. Don’t feel you have to swallow the cost when they leave it longer between visits, be transparent about why it’s a bigger service!
Mindset is so important when it comes to pricing – know what you’re worth and charge it! So often I see hairdressers asking on social media what they should charge for balayage or highlights, when everybody’s price will be different depending on everything from training to location to products, and ultimately can be easily worked out by an equation that takes your costs into account first, and then you choose what level of profit you also want to make. But you must know your break even for each service to ensure you do actually make a profit, and not a loss – if you don’t know your numbers you could be LOSING money with each service. Remember, we’re colourists, not hobbyists!
Emma Fowler’s 12-week Colour Confidence Programme (£497 plus VAT, Jan-April 2024) is on sale for just 8 days from Sunday November 12, don’t miss out!
https://emmafowlerhair.com/
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