Key Risks in the Beauty Salon Industry

Salons and barber shops are all about making people feel good about themselves. But the mix of chemicals, products, trimmers, dryers and other machines used in the process can create an environment where injuries happen easily. This means if your business offers services that go beyond just simple hair-styling, your liability increases. This includes things like:

Manicures
Pedicures
Makeovers

Accidents that result in injury often end in a lawsuit. This means you’ll want to use risk management for salons and barbershops which can help you avoid key risks in the beauty salon industry.

Potential Risks in a Salon

Bodily Injury Risks

Accidents can happen anywhere, but the chance of them is even higher in a beauty salon where you rely on sharp tools, water and chemicals to do your work.

Some potential risks in a salon include:

Slippery floors due to product spills and hair clippings
Burns from dryers and curling irons
Cuts from razors
Repeated exposure to hair products and coloring agents
Chemical hazards in hair dye causing injury to customers

Professional Liability Risks

Apart from injuries caused by typical slips and falls, you’ll also face risks tied to the professional services you’re providing. For instance, if a chemical gets into a client’s eyes, nose or mouth, or if they suffer an allergic reaction to a product you’ve applied, you could get sued. To help protect your business from errors like this, you’ll need professional liability insurance. This policy also helps cover you if you’re found negligent in the services you provide. And since the nature of your industry requires physical touching, it’s also important that beauty salons guard against the perception of inappropriate contact with clients.

Property Damage Risks

Some examples of beauty salon and barbershop property risks include:

Overloading electrical plugs with curling irons, dryers and other tools which cause a fire that damages your client’s personal possessions.
A customer tripping over a blow dryer cord and breaking their phone.
A stylist at your salon gets distracted, dropping a hot iron onto your clients coat that leaves a burn mark.

Ways to Mitigate Key Risks in the Beauty Salon Industry

Some ways to reduce risk in your industry include:

Carrying hair salon business insurance: At a minimum, a Business Owner’s Policy combines business property and liability coverage. You may also want to add professional liability insurance to protect you against claims related to mistakes or negligence in your services. On top of this, your state may require you to carry workers' compensation insurance for your full and part-time employees. To learn more about hair salon and barber insurance, get a quote from us today.

Training your employees: You’ll want to be sure your employees help keep your salon or barber shop comfortable, clean and safe. This means you should regularly sweep up hair clippings and mop up any product spills right away, which will help reduce the chance of slips and falls. It’s also important to clean and disinfect all equipment that comes into contact with customers.

Knowing your products ingredients: It’s important to understand how chemicals in the items you use interact with one another. This is especially true if they’re spilled or mixed together.

Responding to incidents quickly: If you have an injured client or employee, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires salon and barber shop owners to document the injury. You also need to keep detailed records if the accident results in the person being unable to work.

Following the right guidelines: If you use certain chemicals or ingredients, you need to make sure you’re following the proper guidelines. Be sure to review OSHA’s formaldehyde and hazard communication standards if you use products containing this chemical.

Using the right equipment: Many salons and barbershops use ventilation systems to help clean the air from chemical sprays.