Boost your beard business

As salon owners, it’s inevitable you’re always thinking of ways to grow your business. We spoke to some of the biggest names in barbering who reveal how adding male grooming to your treatment list can add a whole new dimension.

Whether it’s a beard trim, haircut, nose wax or a skin fade – these are all ways of making a few more pennies to add to your profit.

If you are already offering female waxing services in your salon, then introducing male waxing to your repertoire can open a whole new revenue stream for your business.

As male grooming becomes more mainstream and the barbering industry continues to boom, Oliver Waterman and Nicholas Webb from the ever successful Waterman & Webb reveal that they think by adding male grooming treatments to your salon can massively expand your profits: “You gain another set of customers that will have the treatments you offer, but also, you can offer these new customers male grooming products, which will therefore add another revenue stream to your business.”

Oliver and Nicholas both agreed that by adding male treatments you will definitely add a new dimension to the business. As well as the extra income and different clientele coming through the door, there is more room for more treatments: “These can be male hair colouring, male skin care and even beard products for sale in your salon.”

With your usual haircutting and beard trimming services, these can be replicated at any salon or barber shop. If you go down the route of male grooming, you can expand on these practices. Oliver said: “Men love having their beard treated using a hot towel and facial steamer. This in turn, lets us use much better products on their hair and gives a more intimate service.”

Supplying an intimate service for your clients will encourage them to come back for more – in turn, growing your client retention as well as your profit.

We asked Oliver and Nicholas, why they would recommend adding barbering to your business to which they said: “We would definitely recommend it; what is there to lose? Even if you don’t have a lot of calling for it now, once you are trained, every customer that comes in your door will know men that might be interested in coming in and having the services you offer. You could also bring in male clients who might recommend you to females they know for treatments.”

Oliver and Nicholas told us they have seen a drastic change in the barbering industry over the last few years as it has really taken off: “We see the male grooming industry getting a lot stronger over the next ten years. Barbering has always been the poor cousin to hair and beauty, but now it is on the rise. It will take time for the industry standards to be set but we think you will see luxury salons and franchise salons opening across towns and cities. Men like to look after themselves just as much as women.”

Personally, we can’t wait! It’s inevitable that adding a new line of work into your business will see an increase in profit (well, if the treatment is executed that is) but as we know, barbering is really taking off. Joshua Collins of Ruthless Barbers, Daventry, explains how he thinks barbering could boost your business.

“The cost of a treatment at a hairdresser’s – say a standard cut and colour – is obviously a lot higher than the cost of a standard cut at a barbershop. However, the huge difference is that men’s hair generally takes a fraction of the time to cut and style that women’s hair takes, so the turnover of clients throughout the day at a barber shop is rapid in comparison to a salon. On a busy Saturday I can have around 30 people in and out of my chair over the course of the day. In theory, if you were going to add male grooming to your salon, you could be making money fixing up a beard in the time it takes for the colour on one of your female clients to develop!

“I think it’s important to add that although often referred to as ‘male grooming’, barbering isn’t just for men, and more and more women, often with shorter, cropped styles, are turning to barbers for their trims to save themselves time and money. By including treatments and prices specifically for shorter hair, particularly styles involving skill with a pair of clippers, there’s always going to be potential to boost your client base.”

Josh feels that barbering and hairdressing – although both have their similarities – are two very different professions, each requiring a very different set of skills. The merge between the two, obviously go hand in hand, therefore introducing barbering to your salon is a great way of creating a new, larger client base but can also come with difficulties… Like most things.

Josh explained: “I don’t see anything wrong with bringing the two worlds together to create a universal space for anyone to get their hair treatments, but you’d either have to be extremely dedicated to becoming a master of both trades, or have barbers working alongside hairdressers in the same shop – which admittedly does sound like an interesting business venture!”

Thanks to the rise in popularity of male grooming seen amongst male celebrities and influencers, the male grooming industry has boomed massively over the last five years. It’s become the norm for men to pop into a salon to try out a new look or trend they’ve spotted on Instagram, in the same way that women have been doing for years, and increasingly, men are now prioritising grooming treatments too.

Adam Gore, Founder and Director of Barberology, told us: “Realising that self-care is no longer an expensive luxury but a necessity, men are happy to spend money on looking good and are now factoring brow, skin treatments and nail services into their weekly or monthly schedule and embracing the importance of regular beauty maintenance. If your salon is looking to cater to this growing industry – and boost your business and profits in the process – then it’s essential to add male grooming to your treatment list.”

It’s important to bear in mind that it isn’t as easy as simply extending your existing list to male clients; you need to show that male-specific treatments are a deliberate, considered and valued feature on your treatment menu, as opposed to being an afterthought, or simply a women’s treatment menu that has been extended to men.

With men becoming increasingly trend aware, we are now seeing the value in salons with treatment menus that are not only male-specific, but that also reflect the changes in male grooming trends, so it’s also important to update your male treatment list as regularly as you would update a female or standard treatment list. Adam believes there is an increasing bias towards being gender-neutral with regards to adding male treatments to your service menu: “It’s better to keep separate treatment lists for men and women – it tends to give men that added bit of confidence to try out grooming treatments if they believe they are catered specifically to them.”

The essential technical elements of certain treatments – such as brow threading, waxing and manicures – are essentially the same as standard salon treatments that traditionally cater for women. However, men’s physical needs differ from women’s – for example their skin behaves very differently, and they have facial hair, together with the issues that presents – so their requirements will always differ from those of women: “This means that the products used need to be slightly different and the formula and processes used must also be varied. In terms of marketing, male grooming differs massively from standard treatments, too. In order to appeal to men in the first place, you need to think about the way you market your male treatments and the message your salon sends out to men.” Said Adam.

After hearing from the experts, it seems that adding barbering to your salon is a great way to boost your business, but as Josh said – it is something which will take a lot of dedication. There are, of course, ways around this, the British Barbering Association can offer advice to those wanting to test the water, you’d be silly not to – barbering is booming!