How Beauty Salons Can Boost Profits with Sustainable Practices

Benyamin Bohlouli from Unsplash

Your beauty clients deserve beauty products that won’t poison them — and our planet deserves that, too. Fortunately, there are methods and products available to help you make your beauty salon more sustainable and more profitable. A 2023 CleanHub study found that 63 percent of survey respondents who identified themselves as beauty product consumers prioritized “clean beauty” when selecting cosmetics. The survey also revealed that consumers were concerned about whether clean beauty brands were being authentic.

This presents an opportunity for your brick-and-mortar business: to become a trusted supplier of sustainable beauty products and services. Not only do customers research and prefer this attribute —they’re willing to pay more for it, especially in high-end markets. 

Sustainable salons monitor waste and pay attention to things like hair waste — as hair can become a soil treatment. If your salon offers dermatological treatments like fillers, you can also work on your sustainable practices for disposal of medical waste. 

Sustainable Beauty Products and Services to Offer

If you’re committed to becoming more sustainable, you can offer specific products and services. To start, you can make a store effort to track and reduce energy consumption and waste. Audit your energy usage and consider adjusting your store hours to accommodate. Additionally, let customers know what happens when clean products go down the drain in the salon versus traditional hair products, and consider providing them with refillable containers for their sustainable beauty products. 

Sustainable and Organic Hair Products

Hair products are notorious for containing parabens and other chemicals that can harm a person and the environment. Customers are on the hunt for eco-friendly hair dye and shampoos — in use at the salon, and for use at home, which can increase your product sales. Consider carrying products that are free of petroleum, parabens, formaldehyde, phthalates, ammonia, fragrances, sulfates, and mineral oils. Gravitate towards using and stocking products that have vitamins and botanicals. Additionally, look for products that come in recyclable bottles that are also made with recycled materials. 

In particular, keratin treatments usually contain formaldehyde, so offering a formaldehyde-free keratin treatment can help your salon stand out as friendly towards the environment and your customers’ health. 

In the salon, you can also switch to single-use biodegradable towelsto reduce energy consumption: less laundry also means a lower electricity bill for your business.

Sustainable Waxing Products

Consider providing sustainable waxing products. Not only are products like Madagascar vegan beads more friendly for the environment, customers will feel better about putting this 100% plant-based formula on their skin. These beads come from sustainable crops and arrive in a biodegradable bag. Plus, it supports the developing economy of Madagascar. 

Sustainable Nail Products

A number of brands now offer more sustainable nail products, such as vegan nail polish. Kinder to the environment and to animals, this type of vegan product stacks up to traditional polish in terms of durability and gloss. Vegan nail products typically contain fewer harmful chemicals versus traditional products. This is particularly important for anyone handling food at home or in the food service industry, and can minimize the risk of ingesting chemicals and their fumes when a person paints their nails or touches a mucous membrane. 

Biodegradable Consumables

Anyone with a regular beauty routine knows that doing hair and makeup means making a lot of waste. Products like cotton applicators are often single-use, generating a lot of waste. You can reduce the harm to the environment by lowering use of cotton buds, tissues, and cotton wool, or you can find biodegradable versions of these products. 

In addition to offering these types of products, you can look for products that are not animal tested or derived from animals (the “vegan” label covers this) and products that have a negative carbon footprint. You can also recycle or donate any old decor and replace it with eco-friendly decor. Make sure to include signage at your salon notifying customers of the availability of your sustainable products and services. 

How to Market #CleanBeauty

Clean beauty, a short way of referring to sustainable beauty, is a major trend, especially on Instagram and TikTok. Your social media presence can benefit from using the #CleanBeauty hashtag, and if you have space in your salon, you could even create a #CleanBeauty selfie station for customers to take photos, post, and tag your salon with the hashtag. This has the added benefit of displaying their hair and makeup after you’ve done it. 

Weddings are another way to capitalize on #CleanBeauty. The sustainable bride could bring her entire wedding party to have their hair and makeup done by a sustainable salon, making the moment totally Instagrammable. Consider working with local wedding magazines or advertising clean beauty wedding preparation in those publications and on those websites. 

If you’ve made a considerable effort to transition to a more sustainable salon, gather your metrics (energy consumption, amount of products recycled, etc.) and contact your local media about it. Local news stations and websites are always on the lookout for a feel good story about helping the environment and promoting personal health. When considering metrics, set realistic goals and track them: you can use this data to prove your sustainability efforts.

Your salon website should also receive an update and an upgrade to promote your sustainable practices, products, and services. Don’t forget to add these offerings (and updates about them) to your Google business page as a standard marketing practice. Send your customers email updates notifying them of the sustainable products, and interact with local clean beauty influencers online. Consider inviting them to your salon for a photo shoot in exchange for some sustainable products. 

When you commit to sustainability, it’s a reason for your business, your clients, and your community to celebrate. These types of products produce more profit but do cost more in general, so make sure your clients and community understand the safety and value of using sustainable products. When done well, your sustainability efforts could have a ripple effect in your community, causing your customers and fellow businesses to make small and large changes when it comes to sustainability, energy consumption, and what they consume.