Salon Stories

Donna runs Salon Prisma in the seaside town of Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast. 

When lockdowns began, Donna took a long, hard look at her business and decided to change her service model completely. And as part of that revolution she brought in Colourstart as her allergy testing regime. 

“It’s professional, it’s modern and it demonstrates to clients that you’re taking their health very seriously. Now we’re fully open, we ensure that every new client has a face-to-face consultation before we make an appointment. We agree the colour plan, and then talk them through the Colourstart system.”

Donna’s clients have been very receptive to using Colourstart, and she says that all of her clientele – that’s 100%! – who aren’t medically exempt, have now signed up for their Passport. 

Donna also sees a benefit in the fact that clients own their own Passport, rather than merely relying on the salon to do the testing: “It’s a partnership. The client has invested in the process and they can see it’s in their best interests, as well as ours.”

And Donna’s advice to any salon thinking about using Colourstart? “I think it’s a must if you want to demonstrate you’re a professional, caring business. It’s been fantastic for us and for our clients. It takes some planning to introduce it fully and effectively, but I can tell you that it’s well worth the effort!”

Derry Vilcans-Moody is a highly respected salon owner, master colour expert, educator and state registered hairdresser and barber with the Hair and Barber Councils. His salon, Russell James, is in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, and has a clientele of over 500.

In line with the high standards promoted by the Councils, Derry has robust procedures in place at Russell James. Not least of these is his allergy testing protocol. Derry was an early adopter of Colourstart: “It’s MHRA approved, which means it’s the gold standard of testing”.

“We do still give clients the option of choosing an AAT skin test,” he says, “but as of January this year, we’re now charging £10 for the AAT test. That’s to cover our time doing it and the cost of product we have to use. We think that’s only fair.”

They also stress that clients who choose the AAT test will need to test every 6 months unless it’s been more than 12 weeks since their last colour: “By contrast, with Colourstart, they just need to answer their Passport questions again, and if all is well and nothing’s changed, we can colour with no further testing. It’s especially useful for our many clients who live some distance from the salon”, says Derry.”

“99% of our clients use Colourstart”. That amazing statistic comes from the team at Tops Hair Salon & Beauty in Wiltshire. That’s 99% of their 1000 or so colour clients.

Tops are enthusiastic users of Colourstart: “It fits our service aspirations and the way we run our business perfectly”, says Director & Office Manager Alex. They see Colourstart as a modern, professional and convenient testing solution.

So how do they use Colourstart within their colour service offering? “We ask all our new colour clients to come to see us for a consultation in salon,” says Director, Salon Manager, Level 6 Stylist & Colourist Victoria. “Once we’ve agreed a plan for their colour, we go on to discuss our allergy testing procedure. We explain we use Colourstart, and that it’s an MHRA approved process and so we do charge for the patch. I have to say that the cost hasn’t been an issue for us.”

Tops are clear about the benefits that Colourstart offers them. For example, many clients will, potentially, only have to test once. They just have to confirm that nothing has changed by using their Passport. “This is so much easier for us,” says Victoria. ”No need for blob tests. And no need for all the manual record keeping we used to do.”

So what would Tops say to hair professionals thinking about using Colourstart? “Do it,” says Victoria!