The two o'clock is waiting and the foils are not finished
A full head of foils is set up in your salon software as two and a half hours. For a client with fine, shoulder-length hair, that is plenty. For a client with thick hair past her shoulder blades, it is not even close. The stylist is still weaving at the time the toner should be going on, and her two o'clock cut is sitting in reception with a coffee, looking at her watch.
Receptionists know which clients take longer, some of the time. They add a bit on when they remember. Online bookings get the default. The stylist's day goes out of shape from mid-morning, and by five everyone is running late.
Why colour durations are wrong
Salon software is set up once, often by the owner when the system was installed, with a duration per service. The default is a sensible average, which means it is wrong for most real clients in one direction or the other.
The factors that matter are known but not recorded in a usable way: hair length and thickness, how many foils the client has, whether it is a regrowth or a full refresh, and which stylist is doing it. They sit in notes or people's memories.
Online booking makes it worse, because clients choose the service and the software applies the default with nobody to adjust it.
What wrong durations cost
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Colour booked too short | Overruns and waiting clients |
| Colour booked too long | Gaps in the column that could have been sold |
| Online bookings on defaults | Wrong length for new and returning clients |
| Receptionists adjusting by memory | Inconsistent columns |
| Stylists rushing to catch up | Stress and rushed finishes |
An overrun at eleven can cost you the last appointment of the day, and a stylist who is always running late is a stylist who starts looking for a calmer salon.
How we get colour durations right
- We add a few fields to the client record that affect timing, such as hair length and density, set by your team at the consultation and updated when they change.
- Services can have durations that vary with those fields, and with the stylist's level or personal pace, using timings your team agrees.
- For returning clients, the system looks at how long their recent colour visits actually took, from check-in and check-out times, and suggests a duration based on that.
- When a receptionist books, the suggested duration appears and can be accepted or changed. Online bookings use the same logic for known clients.
- New clients booking colour online are asked a short question about length and thickness, with simple picture guides, to set a starting duration.
- A weekly report shows appointments that ran well over or under, so durations can be tuned over time.
Salon software such as Phorest, Shortcuts and Fresha supports variable durations to a degree. We set up what it can do natively and add the history-based suggestions where it cannot.
The column, a few weeks later
The client with long, thick hair is booked for the time she actually takes, because the system knows her last three visits ran long. The fine-haired client's slot is shorter, which frees half an hour for a blow-dry. The stylist's day runs more or less to time, and the five o'clock does not wait.
- Durations that fit the client and the stylist
- Online bookings as accurate as desk bookings
- Fewer overruns and fewer dead gaps
- Timings that improve from real data
Stylists also stop feeling that the diary is set against them. When the times on the screen match the work in the chair, the whole team runs calmer.
Signs your colour timings are off
- Colour appointments regularly overrun.
- Receptionists add time from memory for certain clients.
- Online colour bookings nearly always need adjusting.
- Some colour slots finish early with nothing to fill the gap.
- Stylists are routinely running late by the afternoon.