Économie du salon
Combien la coloration vous coûte-t-elle vraiment par service?
Colour cost per service is simple arithmetic — cost per gram of product multiplied by grams actually mixed. The interesting part is the half of the equation nobody measures.
Publié le : · 7 min de lecture
Par NeonO
Most salons price colour services on instinct and find out at year-end whether it worked. It doesn't have to be a mystery. Colour cost per service is simple arithmetic: cost per gram of product, multiplied by grams actually mixed. For a typical Canadian single-process root retouch, that lands somewhere around $12 to $14 in product on a $95 service — roughly 13%. If your target is 8–10%, you already know where the problem is.
The number itself isn't the interesting part. What's interesting is that almost nobody measures the second half of the equation — grams actually mixed versus grams actually used — and that gap is where the money goes.
Le calcul, étape par étape
Commencez par le coût au gramme. Utilisez ce que vous payez à votre distributeur, pas le prix de détail inscrit sur le tube.
| Élément | Prix de gros typique (CAD) | Coût unitaire |
|---|---|---|
| Coloration permanente, tube de 60 g | $11.00 | $0.183 / g |
| Révélateur, 1 L | $24.00 | $0.024 / mL |
| Décolorant, pot de 500 g | $55.00 | $0.110 / g |
| Reconstructeur de liaisons, 100 mL | $32.00 | $0.320 / mL |
Figures are illustrative. Substitute your own distributor pricing — line, brand, and volume tier all move these materially.
Faisons maintenant une retouche de racines standard avec un ratio de mélange 1:1 :
60 g colour × $0.183 = $10.98
60 mL developer × $0.024 = $ 1.44
Total product cost = $12.42Sur un service de 95 $, cela représente 13,1 %. Ajoutez un reconstructeur de liaisons et vous atteignez 17,54 $, soit 18,5 %.
Un balayage complet avec décolorant se calcule différemment :
120 g lightener × $0.110 = $13.20
240 mL developer × $0.024 = $ 5.76
60 g toner + 120 mL dev = $13.86
Total = $32.82Sur un service de 250 $, cela représente encore 13,1 %.
Où l'argent fuit réellement
Le calcul ci-dessus suppose que vous mélangez exactement ce que vous utilisez. Personne ne fait cela.
Le surdosage
Mixing 90 g “to be safe” on a 60 g application and rinsing the extra down the bowl costs $5.49 in that one service. It's invisible because it never appears on a report — the tube empties faster, and you assume you were busy.
Projetons cela dans le temps. Un coiffeur qui fait six services de couleur par jour, quatre jours par semaine, en surdosant de 25 g en moyenne :
25 g × $0.183/g = $4.58 per service
6 services × 4 days = 24 services/week
24 × 4.3 weeks ≈ 103 services/month
103 × $4.58 ≈ $472/month, per stylistPour quatre coloristes, cela représente environ 22 600 $ par année qui part littéralement dans le drain.
Bols non consignés
Corrective work, re-dos, and “just a quick toner” rarely get recorded against the ticket. These are real product draws with no revenue attached, and they distort every cost number you look at afterward.
La dérive des prix
Distributor pricing changes. If your cost-per-gram assumptions are from eighteen months ago, every service price you've built on them is wrong. This is the quietest of the three and usually the largest in aggregate.
À quel pourcentage devriez-vous être?
Colour cost as a share of colour service revenue is the metric that matters. Total backbar — colour, developer, shampoo, treatments, everything applied behind the chair — is a separate, wider number.
| Indicateur | Fourchette saine | À examiner au-dessus de |
|---|---|---|
| Coût des produits colorants / revenus des services de couleur | 6–10% | 12% |
| Total du backbar / total des revenus de services | 8–12% | 15% |
If you're above the threshold, the cause is almost always one of three things, in this order: over-mixing, service prices that haven't moved with product cost, or unrecorded product draws. Not, usually, the brand you buy.
Comment le mesurer sans ajouter de travail administratif
Il vous faut deux choses : une balance, et un endroit où consigner le chiffre.
- Pesez au bol. A $30 digital gram scale beside the colour bar. Stylists weigh what they mix. This alone typically surfaces the over-mix gap within a week.
- Consignez la formule sur la facture. Not in a notebook — against the client record, so the same formula can be pulled up next visit and the cost can be attributed to real revenue.
- Gardez les prix de votre distributeur à jour. If your cost-per-gram is static, your margin is fiction. Pricing needs to flow from the distributor into the formula, not get typed in once and forgotten.
- Passez en revue mensuellement, par coiffeur. Le pourcentage de coût de couleur par coiffeur, pas pour l'ensemble du salon. Le chiffre global cache l'exception qui le fait grimper.
Les étapes 1 et 2 sont difficiles sur le plan culturel, mais faciles sur le plan technique. L'étape 3, c'est l'inverse.
Voici le problème précis Colour Studio de NeonO was built for: formulas are logged in grams against the client record, and product cost is pulled from Metro Beauty Supply pricing rather than a number someone entered last year. The cost per bowl is calculated at the moment of service, and it's attributed to the ticket and the stylist. If you want the same discipline across the rest of the floor, the aperçu du salon l'explique en détail.
Questions fréquentes
- What is a good backbar cost percentage for a salon?
- Most healthy salons run total backbar at 8–12% of service revenue, with colour product specifically at 6–10% of colour service revenue. Above 15% total backbar, something structural is wrong — usually pricing that hasn't kept pace with product cost.
- How much colour is wasted in a typical salon?
- There's no reliable industry figure, because almost nobody measures it. In practice, over-mixing of 20–30 g per service is common where mixing isn't weighed. At Canadian wholesale pricing, that's roughly $4–5 per service, or $400–500 per month per full-time colour stylist.
- Should backbar cost be built into the service price or charged separately?
- Built in, for standard services. Charging separately for product on a listed service creates checkout friction and price confusion. Extended additions — a second tube on very long hair, a bond builder add-on — can reasonably be a named upcharge, because the client can see what they're paying for.
- Does HST apply to backbar product purchases?
- Yes, you pay HST on professional product purchased from your distributor, and as an HST registrant you claim it back as an input tax credit. For margin analysis, always use the pre-tax cost — using the HST-inclusive figure overstates your cost of goods by 13% in Ontario.
Faites le calcul pour votre propre salon
Pull your last three distributor invoices, divide by grams, and check the result against one week of actual services. If the gap between what you mixed and what you charged for surprises you, it's a measurement problem before it's a pricing problem.
Voir comment Colour Studio le suit →