How to Know If Your Salon Prices Actually Support Your Lifestyle
Introduction
Picture this: you’ve just finished a fully booked week at the salon. Your feet hurt, your back aches, your clients are thrilled… and then you look at your bank account and think, “That’s it?”
It’s like spending all day doing a beautiful full highlight, only to rinse it out and realize the toner didn’t take. Something isn’t translating.
That “something” is often your pricing.
Your prices aren’t just numbers on a menu—they’re the bridge between your energy and your life outside the salon. When they’re set too low (or haven’t been revisited in years), it doesn’t matter how full your books are. You’ll always feel like you’re hustling just to keep up.
In this post, we’ll gently walk through:
What it really means for your prices to “support your lifestyle”
The quiet signs your current pricing structure is draining you
A simple way to check if your top services are actually profitable
How to start adjusting your prices without shocking your guests
A free Salon Service Pricing Check-In Worksheet you can use to map all this out
Breathe. You don’t have to raise everything tomorrow. You’re just going to get clear—so your future decisions feel grounded, not guilty.
1. What “Lifestyle-Supporting Pricing” Actually Means
Before we touch a single number, let’s get clear on the goal.
“Lifestyle-supporting pricing” doesn’t mean charging the highest prices in town. It means your prices allow you to:
Pay your business expenses without panic
Cover your taxes without surprises
Pay yourself something that truly respects your energy
Have enough margin to rest, invest, and grow
If your current pricing only “works” when you overbook yourself, double-stack clients, or skip days off, it’s not supporting your lifestyle—it’s working against it.
Your prices should line up with:
How many hours you actually want to work
The level of service and experience you provide
The cost of your products and overhead
The take-home pay you want to see for all that effort
📌 Practical Tip:
Write this sentence at the top of a page:
“My salon prices should allow me to work ___ days per week, earn at least $____ per month personally, and still have room to rest.”
Fill in those blanks before you touch any calculations. That’s your anchor.
💡 FACT:
Behavioral finance research shows that people make better money decisions when they tie numbers to concrete life goals, not abstract figures. Defining your desired lifestyle first gives your pricing a clear purpose.
2. Quiet Signs Your Prices Are Too Low (Even If You’re Booked Out)
You don’t need a spreadsheet to know something’s off. Your body and your schedule usually tell you first.
Signs your pricing may not be supporting your lifestyle:
You’re booked solid, but your bank account doesn’t reflect it
You feel guilty taking a day off because it “costs too much”
You hesitate to invest in education, software, or help because “there’s never enough left”
You’re borrowing from personal savings or credit cards to cover slow weeks
You feel resentful or exhausted after certain services or clients
These are pricing red flags—especially if they’ve been true for months (or years).
It doesn’t mean you’ve “failed.” It means your numbers need to catch up to the level of care and experience you’re already giving.
📌 Practical Tip:
Make two quick lists:
Services that energize me: ___________________
Services that drain me or feel underpriced: ___________________
That second list is often where your pricing misalignment is hiding.
💬 Quote:
“You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop, and what you reinforce.” – Tony Gaskins
Your pricing is one of the main ways you teach your business how to treat you.
💡 FACT:
Studies on burnout in service-based professions show that perceived under compensation (feeling underpaid relative to effort) is a major predictor of emotional exhaustion—even more than total hours worked.
3. A Simple Way to Check If Your Top Services Are Actually Profitable
Now we’ll bring in just enough math to be helpful—without getting lost.
We’re going to gently audit your top 5–10 services using three pieces of information:
Time per service – How long it really takes, including consultation and cleanup
Product cost per service – Color, lightener, treatments, foils, etc.
Current price – What you charge now
From there, we want to know:
How much are you earning per hour for that service?
Does that number feel supportive of your lifestyle—and your body?
Mini Audit Example
Let’s say you offer a Full Highlight + Tone:
Time: 3 hours
Product cost: $35
Current price: $185
Step 1: Remove product cost
$185 – $35 = $150 (what’s left to cover your time + overhead + profit)
Step 2: Calculate hourly service rate
$150 ÷ 3 hours = $50/hour
Now ask yourself:
Does $50/hour feel supportive once you factor in rent, utilities, software, taxes, education, and your personal income needs?
Or does it feel tight when you remember everything that has to come out of that $50?
For a highly skilled, specialized service that uses your body and brain intensely, $50/hour before overhead and taxes may not be enough, especially in higher-cost areas.
That’s the clarity we’re after.
📌 Practical Tip:
Use the Salon Service Pricing Check-In Worksheet (free download below) to list your top services and quickly calculate:
Time per service
Product cost
Effective hourly rate
You’ll mark each one as:
Leave as-is
Raise slightly
Raise significantly
You’re not changing anything today—you’re just getting an honest picture.
💡 FACT:
Salon industry consultants often recommend that service providers aim for $60–$100+ per hour (before overhead and taxes), depending on location and experience, in order to sustainably cover costs and owner pay.
4. Connecting Your Prices to Your Actual Take-Home Pay
This is where most pricing conversations stop too early. It’s not enough to know your hourly rate per service—you need to see how it lines up with your real life.
Start with three simple numbers:
How much do you currently pay yourself per month (on average)?
How much do you actually need personally per month? (basic bills, food, debt, baseline comfort)
What would feel spacious (even if it feels far away)?
Let’s say:
Current owner pay: $2,200/month
True baseline need: $3,000/month
Spacious goal: $4,000/month
If your current pricing only ever gets you to $2,200 unless you double-book and skip days off, your prices are not aligned with your lifestyle.
We want to gently build a bridge from $2,200 → $3,000 → $4,000 over time. That bridge is a mix of:
Adjusting prices where they’re low
Adjusting your schedule to protect your energy
Possibly refining your service mix (doing more of what’s profitable and aligned, less of what’s draining and underpriced)
📌 Practical Tip:
On your worksheet or a notebook page, write:
“Within the next 6–12 months, I’d like my salon to pay me $____ per month consistently.”
That number becomes your North Star when you’re deciding which prices to adjust and by how much.
💡 FACT:
Research on goal setting shows that specific, written financial goals significantly increase the likelihood of behavior change and follow-through, compared to vague mental targets like “I just want to make more.”
5. How to Adjust Prices Without Freaking Yourself (or Your Clients) Out
Raising prices doesn’t have to mean a giant, dramatic announcement that sends your nervous system into overdrive. It can be thoughtful, phased, and clear.
Here’s a cozy approach:
Step 1: Prioritize the biggest misalignments
Using your Pricing Check-In Worksheet, look for:
Services with low hourly rates compared to your others
Services that drain you physically but aren’t priced accordingly
Services where product costs have increased, but your price hasn’t
Start with 3–5 services, not your whole menu.
Step 2: Choose a gentle increase
Ask:
What would bring this service closer to a sustainable hourly rate?
What would feel fair for the guest and honest for you?
Sometimes a $10–$25 increase on key services can make a meaningful difference to your overall numbers, especially when combined with slightly improving product usage and your schedule.
Step 3: Communicate with warmth and clarity
Most clients aren’t mad about price changes—they’re confused when they’re not explained. A simple, honest message can go a long way.
Example wording:
“To continue using high-quality products and giving each appointment the time and care it deserves, I’ll be making a small adjustment to my prices starting [date]. If you have any questions about how this affects your services, I’m happy to chat about it at your next visit.”
You don’t have to over-explain. You’re allowed to honor the reality of your costs and your body.
📌 Practical Tip:
Choose an effective date 4–6 weeks out and update your booking system, website, and any printed menus. Make a note in your calendar to revisit your pricing again in 6–12 months, instead of waiting years.
💡 FACT:
Consumer behavior studies show that small, periodic price increases paired with clear communication are more easily accepted than large, infrequent jumps that feel sudden and unexplained.
6. Turn Pricing into a Gentle Annual Ritual (Not a Crisis)
Instead of waiting until you’re burnt out and resentful, you can treat pricing like a yearly check-up—predictable, calm, and preventative.
Ideas for a cozy pricing ritual:
Choose a month each year (or every 6–12 months) for your “Pricing & Tea” review
Pull your Salon Service Pricing Check-In Worksheet from last time
Update your time, product costs, and current feelings about each service
Adjust a few key prices where your hourly rate and energy don’t match
You’re not promising to overhaul everything every year. You’re simply promising not to abandon this part of your business.
📌 Practical Tip:
Add a repeating event in your calendar:
“Pricing Check-In – Cozy Ledger Style” – once a year (or every 9–12 months)
Include a link or note to your worksheet so it’s all in one place.
💬 Quote:
“Small disciplines repeated with consistency every day lead to great achievements gained slowly over time.” – John C. Maxwell
💡 FACT:
Small business research shows that companies that review pricing regularly (even lightly) tend to have higher margins than those who set prices once and leave them unchanged for years.
7. Grab the Salon Service Pricing Check-In Worksheet
You don’t have to do this in your head.
To help you move from “I know something’s off” to “I can see exactly where and what to change,” I created a free Salon Service Pricing Check-In Worksheet.
You can use it to:
List your top services
See your true hourly rate for each one
Highlight which prices are supporting you—and which aren’t
Plan gentle, thoughtful adjustments aligned with your lifestyle goals
You can download it, print it, or plug it into Canva and type directly into it during your next “Pricing & Tea” ritual.
Your salon is already working hard for everyone else. It’s okay to let it work a little harder for you, too.
Your prices are not just about what the market will bear—they’re about what you need in order to build a life you can actually enjoy.
