Colour consultations: when to require one before booking
Big colour changes shouldn't be booked blind. Which services need a consultation, a free 15-minute slot that works, what to ask, and turning it into the right booking.
Oct 6, 2026 · 4 min read
A new client books full highlights online for Saturday at 10, a two-and-a-half-hour slot. They arrive with three years of box dye on their ends and a photo of platinum blonde. The stylist has two choices: send them home, or start a five-hour job in a two-and-a-half-hour slot and make every Saturday client after them wait.
Neither is the stylist's fault, or really the client's. The booking was wrong before anyone touched a brush. A short consultation, required for the right services, fixes it before the day.
Which services need one
Not everything. A consultation for a regular's root touch-up is a hurdle that annoys good clients. The test is simple: if the stylist can't know the time and the price without seeing the hair, it needs a consultation.
That usually means:
- Any colour correction. Always, with no exceptions.
- New clients asking for a big change: more than two levels lighter, balayage or full blonding, or going from dark to vivid.
- Fashion colours over existing colour, where what's underneath decides everything.
- Extensions and first-time smoothing treatments, where the hair's condition and the product matter.
What doesn't: cuts, blow-dries, glosses, a regular's usual colour, and returning clients repeating what they had last time.
Put the rule where people book, in plain words:
New to us and want a big colour change? Book a free 15-minute consultation first, so we can plan your time and give you a price. Already a client? Book as usual.
A free slot that's easy to take
A consultation that's hard to get is just a wall. Make it:
- Free and short. Fifteen minutes is enough for most. Charging for it puts people off; if no-shows become a problem, take a small amount that comes off the service.
- Bookable online, at times that suit people who work: the first 15 minutes of the day, the last, and a few in the late afternoon.
- With the stylist who'll do the work. A consultation with whoever's free means the client hears one plan and gets another.
- Near a window, or under the best light in the salon. Colour looks different under every bulb.
Fit them into the gaps the day already has. The 15 minutes after a 45-minute cut that ended early, or the stylist's processing time while a colour develops two chairs over, are perfect.
Ask before they arrive
The consultation goes faster if the stylist knows the basics before the client sits down. Send a few questions with the booking confirmation:
- What colour is on your hair now, and when was it last coloured?
- Any box dye, henna or "colour remover" in the last two years?
- A photo of what you'd like, and one of what you wouldn't.
- Is there a date you need it done by?
- Have you ever reacted to hair colour?
The last one matters. Most permanent colour instructions call for a skin test before the first application, usually 48 hours ahead. The consultation is the natural time to do it, so the colour can be booked for any day after.
Fifteen minutes in the chair
A consultation that wanders runs to 30 minutes and still ends without a booking. A shape that works:
- Three minutes listening. Let them tell you what they want and what went wrong before.
- Five minutes looking. Hair in the light, a stretch test, the ends. A strand test if it's a correction.
- Five minutes on the plan. What's possible in one visit, what would take two, how long, and a price range.
- Two minutes booking. Before they stand up.
The plan in words a client remembers:
"Today you're a level 4 with box dye on the ends. In one visit, I can get you to a soft caramel balayage, about four hours, between $280 and $340. Platinum would be three visits at least, and I'd rather get you there safely. Shall we book the first one?"
Turning it into the right booking
The point of the consultation is the booking that comes out of it. Book it before they leave, and get it exactly right:
- The right service and length. Not "highlights" but "balayage, long hair, four hours", with the stylist who consulted.
- A deposit, for anything long. A new client who books a four-hour colour and doesn't come costs the stylist half a day.
- Notes on the client's record: the plan, the formula ideas, the skin test date, anything they said they hated. The stylist reads it on the day; the next stylist reads it in a year.
- A short summary by email or text: the date, the plan, the price range, and the deposit. It's the written quote, and it's how the client remembers what they agreed to.
If they want to think about it, that's fine. Send the summary anyway, with a link to book, and follow up once a few days later. For corrections, the colour correction post works through the quote line by line.
Where Caletan fits
In Caletan, the consultation can be a short service clients book online, while a long colour can have online booking turned off, so only your staff book it after the consult. A colour service can also need a patch test from the last so many months before it's booked online, and a deposit can be asked only from new clients. For salons shows the rest, and online booking shows the deposit rules.
