The salon's real risks are dermatitis and electricity near water, and neither is solved by a certificate. Gloves, ventilation and daily cable checks do more than any package. The building compliance is the standard small-premises set, most of it yours to do, and the fire risk assessment is where you spend once and then maintain yourself.
← All sectors
Compliance for Hair & beauty salons
Compliance for Hair & Beauty Salons — What You Actually Need
You run a small premises with the public in the chair, electrical tools next to water, and chemicals on every shelf. The risks are specific and mostly cheap to control. Here is what applies, in order, and what you can do yourself.
Your risk profile
Low to medium. Salons rarely see enforcement, but they combine three things that matter: chemicals (COSHH is real here), electrical equipment used wet, and the public on the premises. The compliance is light and most of it is yours to do. Salons are heavily targeted by compliance sellers precisely because owners are busy and the sector is fragmented.
What applies to you
In the order it matters. Each links to a plain-English guide.
Required by lawYou must do this. Not doing it is an offence.
Required if…Required in some situations, not others. Depends on your premises and how you use them.
Good practiceNot written into law, but it is the recognised way to show you have met a legal duty.
Insurers, landlords or clients ask for itNot a legal requirement. A contractual one. Check the wording of what is actually being asked.
Optional, often oversoldNobody is making you buy this. Suppliers will still try.
Health & Safety Risk AssessmentRequired by law
Yours to do. The specific parts that matter: COSHH for colourants, bleaches, nail products and disinfectants (the manufacturer safety data sheets do most of the work), skin sensitisation and gloves, manual handling of stock, and slips on wet floors. Record it once you have five staff, including self-employed chair renters if you control the premises.
Fire Risk AssessmentRequired by law
Required and recorded in full. A single-floor salon with a clear exit is the kind of premises a competent owner can assess using the government guide, but most owners are better served paying £200 to £350 once and doing their own annual reviews.
PAT TestingGood practice
Dryers, straighteners, clippers, wax pots, UV lamps, all used daily and often near water. Annual test of the hand-held tools, two-year cycle for the rest. Daily visual checks by staff on cables and plugs matter more than the test.
Electrical (EICR)Good practice
Five-yearly. RCD protection on circuits serving the backwash and wet areas is the thing to check; if your report gives it a C3, that is one of the C3s worth fixing.
Legionella Risk AssessmentRequired by law
Backwash units and any shower are aerosol-generating outlets, so the assessment matters slightly more than in a shop. Still simple: write it yourself, run the backwash weekly if it sits unused, note the temperatures monthly.
Fire ExtinguishersRequired by law
Typically a CO2 for the electrical risk and a water or foam unit, near the exit. The FRA sets it. Annual service.
Workplace Safety TrainingRequired by law
COSHH briefing on induction (the products and the gloves), fire awareness, an appointed person or trained first aider, and the specific training for any treatment that carries a risk (lasers, IPL and some aesthetic treatments need licences in some areas).
Fire Alarm SystemsRequired if…
A small single-room salon may need only a manual system or none, per the FRA. Anything with a back room, a basement or a flat above needs detection. Weekly test by you.
Emergency LightingRequired if…
Back rooms, stock rooms, toilets and evening opening usually bring it in. Monthly test by you.
Gas SafetyRequired if…
Only if you have a gas boiler or water heater: annual service by a Gas Safe engineer.
Asbestos ManagementRequired if…
Pre-2000 high-street units often have it in ceilings and floor tiles. Ask the landlord for the register; survey before any refit.
Common questions
Do I need a COSHH assessment for hair colour?
Yes. Colourants, bleaches, perm solutions and nail products are hazardous substances, and skin sensitisation (dermatitis) is the most common occupational disease in hairdressing. The assessment is short: which products, what the safety data sheet says, gloves and ventilation, what to do if something goes wrong. The product manufacturers give you most of it free.
I rent chairs to self-employed stylists. Who is responsible?
You, for the premises and everything in it, because you control it. The stylists are responsible for their own work and their own tools. Put the split in the chair rental agreement, and PAT their tools as part of yours if they plug into your sockets, because it is your electrical installation.
Does a small salon need a fire alarm?
It depends on the layout, which is why the fire risk assessment comes first. A single room with a clear exit and no one working out of sight may need only a shout or a manual bell. A back room, a basement treatment room, or a flat above changes the answer. Do not let an alarm company answer it for you.
What should this cost?
Under £500 a year for most salons once set up: PAT of the hand tools, extinguisher service, a first-aid course, and the five-yearly EICR spread over its cycle. The fire risk assessment is £200 to £350 every few years. Salons are a favourite target for "compliance packages" on multi-year terms at several times that figure. Decline them.
Not sure how this applies to your premises?
Tell The Guide about your business and it will help you work out what you actually need — in plain English or full technical detail, your choice.
Review my risk →General information to help you understand your obligations and judge your own risk. Not legal advice.