Introduce business-boosting extras to your backwash area

Give your clients a backwash experience to remember. By concentrating on design, ambience and treatments, clients will look forward to their salon visit, your salon will stand out from the crowd and business can be boosted.  

Design

The backwash has come a long way from a sink in the corner of the room and is now seen as an integral part of the salon. While the overall design of your salon interior will no doubt influence the feel of the backwash area, many salons choose to create a quiet, relaxing sanctuary-style space for their client to switch-off and enjoy some pampering.

Bryn Wilkins, Easton Regal Hairdressing, London, says: "We have consciously separated our backwash area from the buzz of the main salon and created an indulgent space. We've added mood lighting and ambient fragrance sticks and we chose a rich, deep, almost black velvet decor."

While VIP rooms and sectioned off backwashes offer a lavish experince, many salons simply don't have the space or budget to provide such luxury. Using clever lighting, curtains or room dividers can create the illusion of a separate space in smaller salons. Ultimately, ensure treatments are indulgent and relaxing so clients can enjoy a peaceful place, no matter where the backwash is located.

Ambience

Getting the ambience right in the backwash area can transform the entire experience - using the right language and techniques will transform a treatment, while creating sensorial surroundings with music, fragrance and more will ensure clients leave feeling pampered and preened.

"The treatment needs to be genuinely effective, but the service needs to have a sense of theatre," explains Skyler McDonald of seanhanna in Putney. "In the same way that an expensive meal is usually best enjoyed in beautiful surroundings, the backwash area should be relaxing and indulgent. We think about everything from sounds to smells, creating a sense of wellbeing for both the client and the hairdresser."

Keeping music low will create a relaxing ambience, while enhancing the scent of sensorial products with complementary candles or fragrance diffusers will set the mood for an indulgent experience.

Richard Darby, Mark Leeson Hair, Body & Mind, Mansfield, explains: "From the moment a client steps into the salon we promise to enhance their wellbeing and it all starts at the backwash. In our salon the zone itself has low lighting which helps create a calm mood and allows clients to switch off from the outside world. Everything from the smell of the products to the lighting and armrests have to be just right."

Treatments

Adding a treatment at the backwash is an easy way to enhance your client's salon visit, as well as adding to their overall spend and offering the ideal opportunity to promote take-home retail.

Prescribed products combined with sensational service will ensure an experience worth talking about - and an indulgent treatment is the ideal way to ensure your client's time at the backwash is special, even if you don't have space for a separate area or the budget for designer decor.

Russel McGrath, Clipso, Watford, says: "We stock a wide range of in-salon treatements for all our client's needs, whether that's shine, colour protection or just added strength or moisture. It's important that stylists are well educated on products so that they can confidently explain their benefits."

By linking treatments with the rest of the salon experience, an ideal opportunity to offer take-home products is created. However, don't get too carried away with pampering. Says Russell McGrath, Clipso, Watford: "Although 90% of clients love the chance to relax, we must respect the 10% who just want to have their hair washed and conditioned as quickly as possible."