How to set up a home salon for under $1500

The average cost to set up a beauty salon is estimated between $15,000-$65,000, depending on where you get your information. If you’re not in a position to invest that much money into getting the doors open, consider a home based or mobile salon. This is a very real alternative to your traditional brick and mortar store and the start-up costs are minuscule in comparison.

We are going to break down the investment expense of a home-based salon using real opportunities on items that we find on the internet. This exercise will be carried out for the needs of a hair extension technician, though your requirements may be a little different for your trade, we will try to keep the items as universal and general as possible.

We will look at both new and used items, considering the items purpose and its condition before making the decision on whether to get it. The goal here is not to create the cheapest salon possible, rather to just spend mindfully and tastefully.

 

The Exercise

Chair

The chair is the centrepiece of the salon, it sits away from the wall, so it is often the first thing to be noticed when you enter. Selecting a comfortable chair for both you and the clients is important, you’ll want a pleasant experience for them, whilst having all of the convenience to adjust the height, spin and maybe tilt of the chair.

Used – Black Styling Chair $150.00

 Textured Black Salon Chair

 

Mirror

You don’t need to buy a brand-new mirror, a clean mirror in great condition is what you’re after, however, the mirror can be the special piece that makes the salon stand out, this would be the appropriate item to splurge on If you can’t find the right one second-hand or just have a little extra to spend. For this reason, I am going to list two mirror options. One heavily reviewed new mirror and one used.

New – Crystal Vanity Mirror 2 (LUVO) $450.00

LUVO Vanity Mirror

Used – Elegant Floor Mirror $130.00

 Elegant Floor Mirror

Wash Basin

When it comes to a wash basin you’ll want to go for something super-duper clean and looked after or even new. We found a fantastic plumbed basin with attached leather bench that had barely any use for a fair price and decided to go for it.

Used - Salon basin and chair set $100.00

 Water Basin With Chair

Lighting

Sharp, crisp photos and videos are important, that’s why lighting is CRUCIAL for your content! The ability to take stunning before & afters, stories and reels depends considerably on what you do here. Personally, we love the ability to adjust the brightness, warmth or even colour of our lighting to set the mood in our content. That’s why the people at LUVO and their quality ring lights have also won us over in this category.

New – GlowPro 2 Ring Light (LUVO) $249.00

 LUVO Glow Pro 2


Salon Trolley

If you need one, I think you can be conservative with your selection, so long as it looks neat, sturdy and rolls well. We found heaps of excellent used candidates for this item, but I’ve just given you the best value for money piece I came across.

Used – Salon Trolley $80

 Salon Trolley

Tools

As I mentioned, for this activity we are specifically using the requirements from the example of a hair extension salon, because that’s where we have experience. We actually sell everything we need for our own trade on the website and could acquire it all for around $200.

Sophia Hair Australia Hair Extension Toolkit 

Salon Station Vanity/Bench

A narrow hallway/entry table that supports your mirror and allows your clients somewhere to place their stuff is necessary. There is no shortage of these sorts of tables and similar vanities available on Marketplace.

Used – Hallway table $80

Hallway Table

Cloak/Cape

You can get a salon cape from just about any beauty supply store for around $10-$30. We personally like the WAHL microfibre capes we buy from Kimdec.

 Wahl 3004 Microfibre Cape

Décor

Adding the finer decorative touch will make a big difference in how your salon vibes. This part is really up to you and the possibilities are endless. If you need some inspo, there are pages on Instagram and Facebook that you can follow.

New - Preserved and dried flowers $12-$150

Dried and Preserved Flowers

Used - Metal Artwork $30

Metal Wall Artwork

Used - Textured Wall Art $60

 Textured Wall Art

 

This concludes the examples for our exercise. If we were to set up a salon using just the items on this list, it would cost us between $1,000 – $1,500 depending on the items you would have preferred. Keep in mind that this guide is designed to cover the bare essential for those of you just starting out. As you progress with work and begin to turn a profit, you might want to resell the used items for what you initially paid, and then use that towards gathering entirely brand new or better stuff.

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If you have more/better information that could help out our community, or questions that need answers, drop a comment below or email us at support@sophiahair.com.au.

 

Looking forward to hearing from you,

 

Lucas Miller

Sophia Hair Australia

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