The rep has made you an offer
You have decided to move the salon from one professional colour brand to another. Perhaps the new brand's terms are better, perhaps your team prefers the results, perhaps the old range is being discontinued. The education days are booked. The new stock arrives in three weeks.
Then the practical questions arrive. Every regular colour client has a formula in the old brand's numbers, some going back years. The colour room holds a lot of old stock, some of it opened. Your patch test policy may treat the new brand as a change that needs a new test. And your stylists will be converting formulas at the bowl, one client at a time, with the client in the chair.
Why brand changes are harder than they look
Shade numbers look similar between brands but do not line up exactly. A level and tone in one range may need a different mix in another, and the conversion is a colourist's judgement, not a lookup. Doing that judgement live, for every client, on the first visit after the switch is stressful and slow.
Old stock does not use itself up in an orderly way. Without knowing which clients are booked in the next few weeks and what they usually have, the salon either runs out of the old brand halfway through a client's visit or ends up with a drawer of shades nobody will use again.
And the patch test question is easy to lose. If your policy says a test on one brand does not cover another, every colour client suddenly needs checking, and the record of who has been tested on what is rarely clear enough to tell.
What an unplanned switch costs
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Formulas converted live at the bowl | Longer appointments, inconsistent results |
| Conversions not recorded well | Next visit starts from scratch again |
| Old stock not planned | Stock wasted or run out mid-client |
| Test status unclear on the new brand | Colour appointments disrupted on the day |
| Team learning under pressure | Stress in the first weeks |
How formulas convert and what your patch test policy requires are decisions for your colourists, the manufacturer's education team and your insurer. We give no colour or safety advice. We organise the work so those decisions are made calmly and recorded.
How we plan the switch
- We pull every client's most recent colour formula from your salon software or record cards into one list, grouped by the old shades they use.
- For each common old shade or mix, your senior colourists, with the new brand's education team if you wish, agree a starting conversion. That is applied to each client as a proposed new formula, marked as not yet approved.
- Before each colour client's first visit after the switch, their stylist sees the old formula, the proposed new one and the last result, and approves or edits it ahead of the day rather than at the bowl.
- We look at colour bookings for the coming weeks and the old shades those clients use, and produce a run-down plan: which old stock will be used, when the salon should move each client to the new brand, and what will be left over.
- Your patch test rule for a brand change is applied to every colour client, and those who need a test on the new line are flagged with a reminder to book one before their next colour.
- After each visit, the new formula and result are saved as the client's current formula, and the old brand history stays readable underneath.
If your salon software already holds structured colour cards, we work inside it. Where formulas are free text or on paper, we bring them into a structure first.
The first month on the new brand
Each morning, stylists look at tomorrow's colour clients and approve the proposed formulas, adjusting a few. Clients who need a test on the new line had a reminder a fortnight ago and most have been in for it. The old brand is used up on the clients booked in the first weeks, and what remains is known in advance rather than found in a drawer in the spring.
- Every client with a checked formula in the new brand
- Conversions decided before the day, not at the bowl
- Old stock used up to a plan
- Patch test status clear for the new line
When the next brand review comes round, the salon has clean, structured formulas, which makes any future change far easier.
Signs your brand change needs a plan
- You are changing colour brand and formulas are in the old brand's numbers.
- Stylists expect to convert formulas at the bowl.
- Nobody has worked out how the old stock will be used.
- Your patch test records do not say which brand was tested.
- Formulas are spread across notes, cards and phones.