A woman who has just moved to Drumcondra and needs her roots done is not going to ring four salons. She searches, opens two or three pages, and books with the one that tells her what a full head of colour costs, which stylist she would be with, and whether she can get a Saturday. That is what people want from websites for hair salons in Dublin: the price, the stylist, the slot. Everything else on the page is there to make her comfortable choosing you.
We build and run the site, the Google listing and the booking diary, so you can stay on the floor.
The colour appointment is where the money is
A cut and blow-dry can absorb a no-show. A three hour balayage cannot. The chair is blocked, the colour is already mixed in your head, and a Saturday afternoon is gone. Online booking with a deposit on colour services fixes most of this. The client picks the stylist and the service, pays a deposit you set, and gets a text reminder the day before. If she cancels late, the deposit covers part of the loss. If she turns up, it comes off her bill.
New colour clients need a skin test before the appointment. Put that on the booking page so it is agreed before she arrives, not discovered at the basin. The confirmation can tell her to call in for the test, and your front desk stops having that awkward conversation.
If you already run Phorest or Fresha, we connect the site to it rather than asking you to move.
A price list that answers the question
Salon pricing is layered: graduate, stylist, senior, director; cut and finish or cut only; root tint, full head, half head of foils, toner, treatment. A page that says ‘colour from’ and nothing else makes people assume the worst and move on. List each service with the price at each level and the time it takes. ‘Half head of foils and toner, senior stylist, two and a half hours’ tells her what to budget and how long to book off work.
Hours matter more than owners think. Late opening on Thursday, half day Saturday, closed Monday, the Christmas and New Year dates. Wrong hours on Google cost you walk-ins who never tell you they came.
The salon year
Communion and Confirmation season runs through May: mams and daughters booked together on a Saturday morning. Debs season is late August into September, with upstyles and trials. From mid-November to Christmas Eve every chair is full and the phone does not stop. January is quiet, which is when a ‘new year colour’ post on your Google listing and a voucher reminder earn their keep.
Bridal is its own stream. A trial, then the morning itself, often at a hotel or a house. Give it a short section with photos of upstyles and a line on how to enquire, and the bride-to-be will find it in February when she is planning.
Vouchers and reviews
Gift vouchers sell themselves in December and around Mother’s Day, if people can buy them at eleven at night from a phone. The site sells the voucher, the money goes to your account, and the code is redeemed at the desk. No book of paper vouchers to track.
Reviews are how a stylist builds a column. After each visit the client gets a text with a direct link to your Google review box. Some will write two lines about their colour, and the next woman searching for balayage reads them. We never post fake ones and we never ask you to.
Your Instagram shows the colour. The site takes the booking. We wrote about what Instagram cannot do for a salon if you have been relying on the grid alone.
What to send us before we start
Your price list with stylist levels and durations, your hours, the names of the team and what each one does best, a dozen photos of finished colour and cuts taken by the window, and the brands you use and stock. If you have a booking system already, the login for it. About ten minutes of your time to go through it.
Which plan suits a salon
Most salons want Complete: €1,499 to set up and €100 a month, which includes the bookings, deposits, vouchers and review texts. A salon that books by phone and likes it that way can start on Essentials at €499 and €50 a month and switch on bookings later. The full comparison is on the pricing page, and we have compared the booking systems Irish salons use if you are weighing up Phorest against Fresha. If you cut hair on your own and travel to clients, the mobile hairdressers page is closer to your situation.