Create a hair salon app

Hair salon app: the right time for every service, color rules built in and your salon's lookbook

Clients book a cut, color or balayage in a slot that lasts as long as the service, send their inspiration photo before they come in and browse the season's lookbook.

Without writing a line of code, give your hair salon its own iPhone and Android app, plus a web version: one booking section per service family, color appointments framed by a patch test and a cut-off time, the colorist's calendar, the lookbook and coupons for slow hours.

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Cut, color or balayage: clients pick the service first

Each service family opens its own slots, at its own length

In the app, the client first taps Cut and Style, Color, or Highlights and Balayage: each of these is a booking section. She sees the open slots, all as long as that service, picks one and answers three questions: hair length, last color and when it was done, first visit or not. Since the app has a single booking form for every section, these questions work for a cut as well as for a color. A confirmation email goes straight to her and to the salon with her answers, which the stylist can also read in her Google Calendar.

Color, in three settings

Color doesn't use the chair the way a cut does: it runs longer, sometimes needs a patch test first, and can't start at just any time.

A Color section on the stylist's calendar
A root touch-up with a blowout takes about 90 minutes: that is the slot length of the Color section. Link it to the same Google Calendar as the stylist's Cut and Style section: a color booked at 2 p.m. then removes from the app any cuts it overlaps, and vice versa.
Two days' notice, time for the test
Many salons do a patch test 48 hours before a first color. Open a Color Test section with 10-minute slots, on the salon's own Google Calendar, so a test never takes a color slot away. On the Color section, a 2-day minimum notice means nobody can book a color for tomorrow.
No color starting at 5 p.m.
Started late in the day, a color ends after closing time. End the Color section's time range mid-afternoon: from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., the last color starts at 1:30 p.m., and the end of the day stays free for cuts booked after work. With 3-hour slots, the Highlights and Balayage section fits in the same range: 9 a.m. and noon.

The salon's week, Tuesday to Saturday

Closed Mondays, open late Thursdays, Saturdays in two parts

Each section gets its own days and time ranges: nothing on Monday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, and a Saturday split in two, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., then 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. Summer vacation, the week between Christmas and New Year's, a training day at your color supplier: all of these are exceptional closures, which cancel any appointments already booked on those days and email each client affected. Set to 45 days, the booking window opens New Year's Eve blowouts from mid-November.

The colorist gets a separate calendar

Color is booked with the colorist, cuts with the stylists

In a salon with four stylists, handing all color work to a colorist also keeps the app simple: his sections for color, highlights and balayage follow his Google Calendar, and each stylist keeps only a Cut and Style section, linked to their own. A balayage booked with Julien never closes a cut with Sarah. A client who wants both on the same morning books twice: color with Julien at 9 a.m., cut with Sarah at 10:30. On the Saturday Sarah does a bride's hair on location, a one-off event in her Google Calendar closes her morning, and Julien keeps every one of his slots.

In the app, between two salon visits

The season's lookbook

This season's cuts and colors in a photo gallery, from the soft bob to fall copper tones, to flip through before choosing.

The inspiration photo

Sent before the appointment through a Form section, which takes images, unlike the booking form.

The service menu

Your "starting at" prices by hair length, on a page you edit whenever your rates change.

Color care tips

Articles on making color last: gentle shampoo, lukewarm water, purple shampoo for blondes, how often to do roots.

Slow-hour coupons

A dated coupon, limited in number, for Tuesday mornings, kept in the client's account and redeemed at the salon.

How much does a hair salon app cost?

The native app starts with the Premium plan. Two options matter for a salon: Appointment booking, which runs your cut, color and balayage sections, and Couponing for slow hours. Couponing requires Authentication, an add-on with Premium and included in Pro, just like Appointment booking; Couponing itself stays a paid add-on on both plans. Hosting, updates and push notifications are included.

Premium · the salon's iPhone, Android and web app	$55 /month, billed yearly
Chair booking: Appointment booking, a Premium add-on	$15 /month
Pro · includes Appointment booking and Authentication	$105 /month, billed yearly
Couponing, an add-on with Premium	$6 /month

The Standard plan, limited to the web version, has neither booking nor coupons. The only costs outside GoodBarber: your developer accounts, opened and paid for with Apple and with Google.

See plan details

Seven questions from stylists before launching the app

A cut and a balayage don't take the same time: how does the app handle that?

With separate sections, since a section only knows one slot length: Cut and Style at 45 minutes, Color at 90 minutes, Highlights and Balayage at 3 hours. If your men's cuts take 30 minutes and your cuts with a blowout an hour, split those as well. All of one stylist's sections follow her Google Calendar, so a booking in any of them closes the overlapping hours in the rest.

How do I stop a client from booking color without a patch test?

The app doesn't check the test; it guarantees the lead time. With a 2-day minimum on the Color section, no color can be booked for tomorrow. Add an optional question to the form, "for color: date of your last patch test", and the answer shows up in the confirmation email. If it's missing for a first color, call the client, or cancel the appointment, which sends her an email.

Can I show the price of a service at the time of booking?

No: the booking screen shows time slots, with no price or description. Publish your service menu on a page in the app, with "starting at" prices by length, since color on long hair takes more product, and put it right before the booking sections in the menu. Nothing is paid in the app: the client pays at the salon.

Can a client send me a photo of the cut she wants?

Yes, through a Form section next to booking, since the booking form has no photo field. Include a file field, her name and the appointment date, so you can match the picture to the right client. You're notified by email for each submission, and the photo waits for you in the back office.

How do I fill Tuesday mornings?

With Couponing, create a coupon valid for a few weeks, limited in number and usable once per client, for Tuesdays before noon: that condition, written in the coupon text, is checked at the salon when you redeem it. On Monday evening, a scheduled push notification tells all your clients there are chairs free the next morning. The coupon requires a client account in the app, and therefore Authentication.

Are clients reminded the night before their appointment?

Nothing goes out the night before: no email, no text message. The confirmation email, sent to the client and the salon at the time of booking, is the only one that goes out on its own. A client who can't make it cancels in the app or through that email, and the chair opens up again for that time. A scheduled push notification goes to all your clients, or to a group, and never targets one specific client.

Does the app replace my point-of-sale and salon software?

No. It doesn't handle payments, your clients' color formulas, color stock or your team's hours: your software keeps all of that, and the app works alongside it. Appointments taken over the phone go into the relevant stylist's Google Calendar, where they close the slots they take up.

Extension Store

For a hair salon: Appointment booking, an extra with Premium but included in Pro, Couponing for slow hours, which requires Authentication, the free Form for inspiration photos, then articles, push notifications and the contact page.