Salons & barbers in United Kingdom

2026-08-23

From 1 October you have to check your chair renter. Getting it wrong costs £45,000 per person

Right to work checks have always been an employee thing. From 1 October 2026 they are not. If someone rents a chair, covers a Saturday, or takes your colour work as a freelancer, you are the one who has to check they are allowed to work here, and the penalty for getting it wrong starts at £45,000 for each person. The Home Office named beauty salons as a target sector when it announced this. The good news is that the actual task takes about ten minutes per person. The bad news is the bit almost everyone will get wrong, which is thinking the contract saying "self-employed" moves the risk somewhere else.

2026-08-09

A client abusing your stylist is about to become your bill, and the price list is already published

Short version: from 30 October 2026 the government intends that if a client harasses one of your stylists and you cannot show you took all reasonable steps to stop it happening, that is on you, not just on the client. And from 1 October the window for a member of staff to take you to a tribunal is meant to double, from three months to six. Neither change is law yet, which matters, and not in the way most of the newsletters are telling you.

2026-07-06

The employer National Insurance rise is quietly reshaping which UK salons are worth buying

The employer National Insurance change that took effect in April 2025 was not a headline in the salon world, but it changed the maths under every chair you employ. Here is what it actually does to your margin, your hiring choices, and, less obviously, what your salon is worth to a buyer.