How Much Does a Hair Color Correction Cost?
How much does a hair color correction cost?
Is a color correction expensive? Why do color corrections cost more than regular color services?
As a professional, how should you price your color correction services?
What is a Hair Color Correction? Is a Hair Color Correction Expensive?
A color correction is a drastic change from one vivid color to another. Or a tone from one color tone to the opposite.
There are many factors in determining whether a color service constitutes as a color correction.
Or fixing a bad color from before. Either the color was too dark, or left you with chunks or splotches of color that was not supposed to be there, where perhaps the foils bled through.
A color correction is when you must go to a hair professional for this drastic change or fix.
For tools to determine if the tone can be changed at home or not please study the color wheel from one of the articles below.
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How much should a hair color correction cost? It’s not just for the application time.
Color correction costs vary per stylist, but the stylists should always be charging for the time taken for the entire color correction process.
A color correction can often be applying bleach to already-bleached hair, which is risky business or changing the tone of the hair from one side of the color wheel to the other, from warm tones or cool tones or vice versa.
All of the above takes close monitoring and will take the stylist’s careful attention and expertise for the full duration of the service.
A color correction costs and is charged for the amount of time taken for the entire process.
Why Should a Stylist Charge for Time?
A hairstylist, cosmetologist, or barber should be charging for their time per service anyway.
But specifically charging per hour for a color correction because the amount of time needed to correct a color might take longer than you or they originally anticipate.
Stylists don’t have a 9-5 job. We have a first client to the last client type of a job.
Some days, in my shop, I work for only 4 hours, other days I am on my feet seeing clients back to back for 14 hours. We have to know how much time a service will take before scheduling other clients around that appointment, or else we are missing out or need to reschedule other appointment slots that we could have taken or are no longer able to take.
Just like everybody else, we have bills to pay and a living to make. We don’t have a ‘salary’ per se, but we are responsible for charging appropriately for time and services offered so that we can pay the bills.
So when anyone asks “How much does a Hair Color Correction Cost?”
The answer should always be “X amount per hour.”
Explain to your client that it usually takes X amount of time, but it depends on how your hair takes the color and what condition it is in when you come in for your appointment.
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How Long Does a Color Correction Take?
4-6 hours or longer.
There are many factors to take into account when doing a color correction and it is impossible to determine exactly how much time it will take precisely, especially over the phone.
When scheduling a color, I always request the client comes in for a 5-minute consultation first.
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This way when I hear ‘just a touch up’ over the phone and they come in and their hair is actually blue and white (or completely different than what they were describing on the phone). That is automatically a color correction, not just a touch-up because of the number of processes that have to occur to repeat what I’m seeing on their head, not just what the client perceives is ‘just this’ or ‘just that’.
A color correction will take time to process, and we cannot rush that process because we are using chemicals that are harsh on the hair and scalp. If we hurry to get a color correction done, the tone might not be correct, or the hair might become chemically damaged beyond repair.
Sometimes, or I should say most of the time, we use bleach for color corrections because we have to lift some color or tone that has already been deposited onto the hair. And then we have to carefully watch it process and make sure that the hair isn’t melting or having a bad chemical reaction from whatever color is being fixed.
Henna and box color is the worst to have to correct because a lot of times the metallic elements in those colors have bad chemical reactions with the professional products. Which is why we have to monitor the hair so closely while doing a color correction.
It takes time.
How much a hair color correction costs is worth the price when done properly and you are ensured that you will still have all of your hair intact when you leave.
Why is a color correction so expensive?
Gaining education and skill does not happen for free.
Knowledge and expertise don’t just happen either. You charge for it.
It’s better to pay the expert to get the job done right the first time than to have to pay numerous times, even at discount prices, and damage your hair further to get it just right.
And color corrections typically take so much time in a day, remember 4-6 hours or longer usually, stylists don’t have as much time to see other clients and make their money with them.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a burden to schedule a color correction, we just have to price according to the amount of time that it takes in the day.
How much should a hair color correction cost? Setting your color correction price.
A color correction price should never be less than $85 per hour.
On average a color correction should be priced at about $100 per hour. Though in smaller towns $85 is a little more reasonable.
Many salons in large cities like Los Angeles, New York, or Miami charge up to $200 per hour, or even more!
Do a Little Math
When deciding for yourself and your shop how much your services for a hair color correction cost, calculate how much time it generally takes you for a general color maintenance service.
- Root Touch Up
- Highlights and Low Lights
- What techniques you use for some particular color affects, how many other stylists do you know use those same techniques or is it just you?
- How much money would you be making in this time slot if it wasn’t filled by a color correction?
After you have calculated, the prices should balance out to be about the same amount per hour if the time was filled with services charged individually (haircuts, beard trims, root touch-ups, blow-outs…).
However, though the price is high per hour, this price should already include all of the products used. It won’t matter how many ounces of color, bleach, or developer is used on the client.
The price is already set for the time it takes you as the professional, as well as the tools and ingredients used for your masterpiece.
If you choose to include a haircut in that price, is entirely up to you. I, personally, choose not to, it is a separate cost. Though color services always include a blow-dry style at the end, that is included in the price.
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To Sum Up
How much a hair color correction costs depends on the area you are in, as well as the expertise of the stylist.
A stylist should determine the price of a color correction based on-
- The amount of time it will take and how many processes it will take on the hair
- What condition the hair is in when the process is started and throughout the duration of the service
- Calculate how much money you would make per hour if the color correction wasn’t scheduled. The cost should average out to a la carte prices for that amount of time. Thus the stylist should charge for time and expertise