Drafting General Terms and Conditions for Hairdressers

General Terms and Conditions for hairdressers are the standard rules that you, as a hairdresser, hair salon, or barber, apply to every appointment with your client. They regulate, among other things, how appointments are made and cancelled, when and how payment is made, how you handle complaints about a treatment, and in which cases you are or are not liable. For a hair salon, these terms and conditions form the legal backbone of daily service provision.

You need these terms and conditions from the moment you offer treatments to clients, whether it concerns a haircut, a colouring treatment, a perm, or a beard treatment. Especially in the hairdressing industry, where many clients are consumers and where the result is strongly linked to taste and hair condition, a clear set of terms and conditions prevents disputes and enables you to legally apply, for example, a no-show fee or a cancellation policy.

A good set of general terms and conditions for a hairdresser is tailored to the specific risks of hair treatments. The core consists of a cancellation and no-show policy, a payment policy, a complaints and warranty policy, a limitation of liability, and a provision regarding the client's duty to provide information. Additionally, you specify the applicable prices and whether they include VAT; for hairdressing services, the low VAT rate of 9% generally applies.

Because many customers are consumers, you may not include clauses in your terms and conditions that are unreasonably burdensome. Clauses appearing on the so-called black or grey list of Articles 6:236 and 6:237 of the Dutch Civil Code are (presumably) voidable. A limitation of liability must therefore be reasonable and proportionate and may not exclude damage caused by intent or gross negligence.

A cancellation and no-show policy is often the most important aspect for hairdressers. You determine the timeframe within which a client can cancel free of charge, for example up to 24 or 48 hours before the appointment, and the rate that applies in the event of a late cancellation or a no-show. In practice, salons typically charge 50% of the rate for cancellations within 24 hours and 100% for a no-show. Ensure that this rate is reasonable and proportionate to the actual time reserved.

Equally important is the client's duty to provide information. For a responsible hair treatment, the client must inform you in advance about medication use, allergies, previous chemical treatments, or a sensitive scalp. Stipulate in your terms and conditions that the client must provide this information and that you may perform a sensitivity or allergy test in case of doubt. This limits your liability should an undesirable result be the consequence of withheld information.

General terms and conditions only bind your customer if you have offered him a reasonable opportunity to review them. This is the duty to inform under Article 6:233 sub b of the Dutch Civil Code, further elaborated in Article 6:234 of the Dutch Civil Code. In concrete terms, this means that you provide the terms and conditions to the customer before or at the time of concluding the agreement. If you fail to do so, the customer may invalidate the terms and conditions, and you will, for example, be unable to enforce a no-show fee.

When booking online, you arrange this by offering the terms and conditions via a clickable link and having the customer actively check a box indicating that they have read and accept them. Merely mentioning house rules in a newsletter, on social media, or on a sign in the salon is generally insufficient. Therefore, keep verifiable records of when and how the customer accepted the terms and conditions.

A complaints procedure describes the timeframe within which a customer must report a complaint regarding a treatment and how you handle it. In practice, different timeframes are often applied per treatment, for example, a shorter period for a haircut and a longer one for a coloring or perm treatment. Give the customer the opportunity to have the defect rectified by you first before incurring costs elsewhere; this is in line with the rules regarding non-conformity in service provision.

If you are affiliated with the trade association ANKO, you can refer to the associated guarantee scheme and the Disputes Committee for Personal Care. For consumers, an accessible dispute resolution procedure is a major advantage and strengthens confidence in your salon. However, always align the referral with your actual membership and the current regulations.

The greatest risk is that your terms and conditions are not legally valid because they were not properly provided. In that case, you cannot invoke precisely the provisions you need, such as the no-show fee or a limitation of liability. A second risk is an overly broad or unreasonable exclusion of liability, which may be voidable for a consumer based on the grey or black list.

A third, industry-specific risk concerns damage caused by treatments, such as an allergic reaction, a botched coloring, or damaged hair. Without a clear duty to inform the customer and a substantiated limitation of liability, you will easily find yourself bearing this risk yourself. Finally, ambiguity regarding prices and VAT leads to payment disputes; therefore, state transparently which rates apply and that these include VAT.

General terms and conditions for hairdressers are only effective when they are legally sound and align with your specific working methods, treatments, and appointment scheduling. Standard texts found on the internet rarely meet these requirements and frequently contain clauses that do not hold up against consumers. Our legal experts draft custom terms and conditions, including a proper cancellation and no-show policy, a sustainable limitation of liability, and a workable procedure for the provision of the terms.

You know exactly what to expect thanks to a fixed price upfront, with no surprises afterwards. We provide a document tailored to your salon that you can use immediately, whether you run a sole proprietorship or have multiple locations.