Thursday afternoon, no 7/1 on the shelf
A stylist mixing for a four o'clock client reaches for a shade the salon uses constantly and finds the slot empty. There is one tube in the back, maybe. Someone runs to the wholesaler, or borrows from the salon down the road, or the stylist adjusts the formula and hopes the client does not notice the difference.
Meanwhile the colour room has a drawer full of fashion shades bought for a trend two summers ago, a stack of a developer strength nobody uses much and three boxes of a lightener the salon moved away from. The colour order was placed on Monday by whoever had a moment, from a quick look along the shelves.
Why the colour room is always wrong
Colour stock is used in small amounts, by many people, throughout the day. Nobody records a tube as used when they take it, because they are mid-mix with a client waiting. So the only count is a look at the shelf.
Ordering is done on instinct. The person placing the order knows roughly what is popular, but not how much colour work is booked next week, or that two big blonde transformations are in on Saturday.
And the brand rep's visit tends to set the order. Reps are helpful, but they bring new launches and deals, and the order ends up shaped by what is being offered rather than what the salon is short of.
What that costs
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Popular shades run out | Formulas changed or emergency trips |
| Slow shades pile up | Money sitting on the shelf, some past its best |
| No link to bookings | Big colour days caught short |
| Orders shaped by deals | Stock the salon does not need |
| No usage record | No idea which shades actually earn their place |
Colour is one of the bigger costs in a salon after wages and rent. Getting the stock right is quiet, unglamorous work that pays back every week.
How we keep the colour room stocked
- We set up your colour list by brand, range and shade, plus developers, lighteners and toners, with the units you buy in and a barcode where the maker provides one.
- Usage is recorded as colour is mixed. If your salon uses a bowl-weighing system such as SalonScale or Vish, we read usage from it. If not, a tube is scanned when opened, from a phone or a scanner in the colour room.
- Deliveries are booked in by scanning, so the stock level reflects what has actually arrived.
- The system looks at the next week or two of colour bookings in your salon software and, where formulas are recorded, the shades those clients usually have.
- Each shade gets a reorder point, set with you and adjusted from real usage, and a suggested order is produced for your chosen day, ready to send to your wholesaler or rep.
- A slow-moving list shows shades that have not been used in a while, so you can decide whether to keep stocking them.
If your salon software already tracks professional stock well and it is simply not being fed, we fix that first rather than adding another tool.
A normal week with the new set-up
On Monday the owner opens the suggested order. It includes extra of the shades on Saturday's formulas and nothing of the fashion shades still sitting in the drawer. The order goes to the wholesaler in a few minutes. On Thursday the shelf has what the stylists need. At the end of the month, the slow-moving list prompts a decision to stop reordering two shades.
- Busy shades in stock when stylists need them
- Orders based on usage and bookings
- Less money tied up in slow stock
- A clear view of what the colour room holds
Signs your colour stock needs sorting
- Stylists regularly find a popular shade missing.
- Colour is reordered from a look along the shelves.
- The colour room has drawers of shades nobody uses.
- Big colour days are not planned for in the order.
- You do not know which shades you use most.