Salon Pricing Calculator: How to Price Salon Services

Step 1

What it costs to keep your doors open

Monthly fixed costs

Rent, utilities, insurance, software, front desk, marketing. Leave out stylist pay and products.

Stylists on the floor

Hours each, per week

hrs

Weeks open a year

wks

How full the books are

Share of scheduled hours actually booked with clients. 65–80% is common. Weeks open: take off closures and holidays — 48–50 is typical. Counting all 52 makes your prices look lower than they should be.

Step 2

Pay, fees and the margin you want

How the stylist is paid

Commission

Payroll costs on top

Card processing

Profit you want to keep

Profit is the share of the ticket left after every cost. Salons often land between 8% and 20%.

The answer

Your menu, priced.

Five common services to start. Edit the names, chair time and product, add the ones you offer and delete the ones you don't. Tap a row to see its full breakdown and stylist-level prices in the panel above.

What each column means ShowHide

Chair minHow long the chair is busy, start to finish — the service, the wash, and clearing up before the next client. We assume the stylist is with that client the whole time.

Product $What the colour and products for that one service cost you.

You charge nowOptional. Put in your current menu price and we’ll show the gap under Your price — how much you’re under or over. Leave it blank if you’d rather not.

Break-evenThe lowest you can charge without losing money. Rent and overhead, product, the stylist’s pay and the taxes on it, and the card fee — all covered, nothing left for you. Charge a dollar less and that service costs you money.

Your priceBreak-even plus the profit you set in Step 2. This is the number to charge. If you filled in what you charge now, the gap shows underneath.

On the menuThe same price rounded up to the next $5 — the one you actually print. It only ever rounds up.

Per chair-hrWhat the service earns you per hour the chair is busy, so a 45-minute cut and a 3-hour balayage can be compared side by side. The biggest price is often not the biggest earner.

ServiceChair minProduct $You charge nowBreak-evenYour priceOn the menuPer chair-hr

Add a service

Not sure? Work it out from the tube or bottle

Price you paid for the tube or bottle, its size, and how much goes into one service. Use the same unit for size and amount (g, ml or oz).

Total $0.00

Email me this price sheet

We'll send your sheet to your inbox, with every level price and the numbers behind it.

That's only half the story.

Your costs set the floor: the least you can charge without losing money. They don't tell you the ceiling: what clients on your street will happily pay. In our Manhattan study the median hair service ran $75 higher on the Upper East Side than in Flatiron — twelve minutes apart on the subway, same city, same client pool.

See what your street charges

The other half

Your costs set the floor. Your street sets the ceiling.

Every pricing calculator, including this one, works from your own costs. That's the right place to start, but it can't see the salons around you. That's what we do.

What this calculator tells you

The lowest price each service can carry: chair time, stylist pay and payroll costs, product and card fees covered, plus the margin you chose. Charge less and the service loses money.

What it can't tell you

What the 25 to 30 salons nearest you charge for the same service, where your menu sits against them, and which prices you can raise without losing the chair. We measure that, service by service.

Get a free pricing snapshot for your street

We'll read the salons around you and show where your prices sit and which service to move first. Back within 48 hours. No card, no call.

How to price salon services: the formula

A service has to pay for five things before it makes a cent: its share of your fixed costs, the stylist, the payroll costs on the stylist's pay, the product in the bowl, and the card fee on the ticket. The calculator works it out like this:

Fixed cost per booked hour. Monthly fixed costs divided by the hours your stylists are actually booked (stylists × weekly hours × your weeks open ÷ 12 × booking rate). At 50 weeks open that is 4.17 weeks a month, not 4.33 — counting all 52 overstates your capacity and makes every price look lower than it should.
Direct cost of the service. That hourly figure times the hands-on time, plus product. On hourly pay, add the wage for the hands-on time, grossed up for unbooked hours and payroll costs.
Payroll costs. Employers pay on top of what the stylist earns. In the US that's Social Security and Medicare (7.65%), unemployment insurance and workers' comp, often about 10% in total. In Canada it's CPP (5.95%), EI (2.28%), at least 4% vacation pay and WCB, often about 13%. Booth renters and contractors: set it to 0.
Gross up for anything taken as a percentage of the price: commission (plus its payroll costs), card processing and your target margin.

Price = (fixed share + product + hourly pay) ÷ (1 − commission × (1 + payroll %) − card fee − margin)

Set the margin to zero and you get the break-even floor. Charge below it and that service loses money every time it's booked, however busy the books look.

Then check the floor against the street. If nearby salons charge well above your floor, you're likely leaving money on the table. If they charge below it, the fix is cost or chair time, not price. A free snapshot shows which one it is.