Salon Hygiene Checklist: Between Clients, Daily and Weekly
Clients can forgive a late start or a slightly different haircut. What they don’t forgive is a dirty basin, a used towel or a comb that wasn’t cleaned. Cleanliness is the first thing people notice when they walk in, and the first thing they mention when they walk out.
It’s also a safety matter. Tools and surfaces can pass infections between clients, and the rules for how to deal with it depend on where you are. Check your local health and licensing requirements, and follow the instructions on your disinfectant label (they state the strength and the contact time). What follows is the common-sense baseline.
Between every client
- Wash your hands before and after each client.
- Clean and disinfect tools that touched skin or hair: combs, brushes, scissors, clips, tweezers. Remove hair and product first, then disinfect for the full contact time on the label.
- Fresh cape, fresh towel, and a clean neck strip.
- Wipe the chair, armrests and station with a disinfectant.
- Throw away single-use items: wax strips, applicator sticks, cotton, files that can’t be cleaned. No double-dipping in the wax pot, ever.
- Rinse and wipe the wash basin and the hair-wash area.
- Sweep up hair. A pile of hair around a chair tells a story you don’t want to tell.
For nails and foot spas
- Disinfect the foot basin or spa between clients. Many salons also run the circulation system with a disinfectant at the end of the day.
- Metal tools that can be sterilised should be. Items that can’t be disinfected (some files and buffers) belong to one client and then go in the bin or go home with her.
- Never use a tool that has touched broken skin or blood again until it’s been properly sterilised, and ideally not at all if it can’t be.
At the end of each day
- Empty the bins, including those at the colour and wax stations.
- Clean and soak brushes and bowls used for colour.
- Wash capes and towels, and have a clean set ready for the morning.
- Mop the floor and wipe down the reception counter and door handles.
- Disinfect the basins and any shared equipment such as hooded dryers.
- Close and store products. Open tubs and uncapped bottles attract dust and spoil.
Once a week
- Deep-clean the floors, mirrors and shelves, and the inside of drawers.
- Check expiry dates on colours, creams and wax.
- Descale and clean equipment such as steamers and wax heaters.
- Check the first-aid kit and replace what has been used.
- Walk through the salon as a client would, from the door to the toilet, and note anything you’d be unhappy to see.
Make it stick
A checklist on a wall that nobody ticks is just decoration. A few things help:
- Give each task an owner for each day, so nobody assumes someone else did it.
- Keep supplies where they’re needed. If the disinfectant is in a cupboard in the back, it won’t be used.
- Walk the floor at closing and tick the list yourself, now and then. Teams notice.
- Let clients see you do it. Wiping the chair in front of her says more than any sign.
Stock matters here too. Running out of towels, wipes or disinfectant is how standards slip. If you track consumables in Salonipy’s Products and Reorder & Expiry screens, you get a low-stock alert before the cupboard is empty. Our inventory guide covers the routine.
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