Price display rules for salons in the UK: the price list, 'from' prices and online booking

This guide takes those places in order: the list in the salon, the total that has to include VAT and every unavoidable extra, the 'from' price and the consultation quote, the booking page online, and the products at reception. The rules apply across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland unless the text names a nation.

The legal statements come from legislation.gov.uk and from guidance the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) publishes on GOV.UK, checked in September 2026. Guidance explains how a regulator reads the law; it is not the law itself. This guide does not cover Ireland.

The general rule for services is in the Provision of Services Regulations 2009. Regulation 8 lists information a service provider must make available to the people it serves, and that list includes "the price of the service, where a price is pre-determined by the provider for a given type of service". A fixed price for a clipper cut, a blow-dry or a gel manicure is exactly that kind of price.

The same regulation leaves you free in how you do it. The information counts as made available if you give it to the client on your own initiative, if it is easily accessible at the place where the service is provided or the contract is concluded, if it is easily accessible electronically at an address you supply, or if it appears in a document that describes the service in detail. Regulation 11 adds that it must be given in a clear and unambiguous manner and in good time before the contract is concluded or, where there is no written contract, before the service is provided. So a list at reception, a menu at each station or a prices page on your website can all do the job, as long as the client sees it before anyone picks up the scissors.

In practice, keep one list with the same services, names and prices at reception, on the website and on the booking page, and replace every copy at once when prices change.

Since 6 April 2025 the rules on unfair commercial practices sit in Part 4 of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. When you show a service and its price in a way that lets a client decide whether to book, the Act calls that an "invitation to purchase", and section 230 treats the total price as material information that must not be left out. That total includes "any fees, taxes, charges or other payments that the consumer will necessarily incur". The CMA's price transparency guidance (CMA209) names purchase taxes such as VAT, and booking or administration fees, among those mandatory charges, and its general guidance says that adding mandatory charges to a headline price as the client goes along, known as drip pricing, is prohibited.

For a VAT-registered salon, the prices clients see therefore already include VAT. For every salon, a supplement nobody can avoid belongs inside the price: if every colour service includes a toner, or every appointment carries a booking fee, the figure on the list must already contain it. A genuinely optional extra may be shown separately, but CMA209 warns that presenting a charge separately or calling it an extra does not by itself make it optional.

Two further rules sit close by. The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 forbid charging a fee for payment with a consumer debit or credit card. And section 50 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 treats what you say or write about a service as a term of the contract where the client took it into account when deciding, so the price on your list is the price you are held to.

Many salon prices depend on hair length, on the stylist's level or on what a consultation finds, and the law allows for that. Section 230 of the 2024 Act says that where the price cannot reasonably be calculated in advance, the invitation to purchase must say how it will be calculated, set out with as much prominence as the price itself. Regulation 9 of the Provision of Services Regulations says that where you have no pre-determined price, you must on request give the client the price or, if an exact price cannot be given, the method for calculating it or a sufficiently detailed estimate.

'From' prices are allowed, with a condition attached. CMA209 describes indicative and 'from' pricing as a useful tool for making complex pricing accessible, and warns that used inappropriately it increases the risk that consumers are misled; the price should also reflect the version of the product being advertised. For a salon, the 'from' figure should be one a real client can book, for example short hair with a junior stylist, and the list should name what moves the price: length, thickness, stylist level, extra product. Where the gap between levels is large, give each level its own line instead of a single 'from'. A list split into ladies' and gents' prices raises a separate question: in England, Wales and Scotland, section 29 of the Equality Act 2010 forbids a service provider to discriminate as to the terms on which it provides a service, so price the work rather than the client, as how to price hair salon services explains.

For colour and other work priced after a consultation, put the quote into words before you start and note it in the client record. Schedule 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 lists among terms that may be unfair one that lets the trader decide the price after the consumer is bound where no price or method was agreed, and one that raises the price without letting the consumer cancel if the final price is too high. A quote agreed at the chair protects both of you. Setting the figures themselves is a separate job, and the salon price calculator is a place to start it.

The CMA lists a price on a product in a shop, an item listing on a website and an advertisement in a social media post among typical invitations to purchase. So the rules from section 2 reach your Instagram post, your Google Business Profile and your booking page alike.

A booking made entirely online is normally a distance contract under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013, and these ask for more. Before the client is bound, regulation 13 and Schedule 2 require the total price of the service inclusive of taxes, or the manner in which it will be calculated. Where a booking made on a website places the client under an obligation to pay, regulation 14 requires that price to be shown clearly and prominently directly before the client places the order, and the final button to be labelled "order with obligation to pay" or an equally unambiguous formulation. Where that is missing, regulation 14(5) says the consumer is not bound by the contract or order. Check how the last button of your booking page is labelled, and ask your provider if you cannot change it.

Two more points concern extras and deposits. Regulation 40 says no payment beyond the agreed price of the main service is due unless the client gave express consent before being bound, and a pre-ticked box does not count as consent. And if you ask for a deposit, Schedule 2 requires the existence and conditions of that deposit to be given before an online booking becomes binding. Repeat the service, the price and any conditions in the confirmation; ready-made wording is in the appointment confirmation and reminder templates.

Shampoo, styling products and nail care sold at reception are goods, and goods follow the Price Marking Order 2004. Where a product is for sale to a consumer, its selling price must be indicated, and the Order defines the selling price as the final price including VAT and all other taxes. The Order does not apply to products supplied in the course of providing a service, so the colour used on a client's hair needs no price tag of its own.

Article 7 requires a price indication to be unambiguous, easily identifiable and clearly legible, close to the product and available without the client having to ask anyone. In Great Britain, the Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2024 has added two rules since 6 April 2026: the price must be shown in a clear font of reasonable size, and under a new article 7A a product sold at more than one price, for example a lower price for regular clients, must show each price, with its condition displayed prominently near the product. That amending Order extends to Great Britain only, so Northern Ireland keeps the earlier wording. Unit prices per litre or kilogram are part of the Order too, but a small shop, one whose floor area used for selling and displaying goods does not exceed 280 square metres, is exempt from them for products pre-packed in a constant quantity. Check both conditions before you rely on that exemption.