Colour correction: quoting and booking an open-ended service

Some colour takes as long as it takes. A consultation first, a time and price range in writing, a deposit, and a day booked around the top of the range.

Jun 23, 2026 · 5 min read

The message arrives on a Tuesday: "I box-dyed my hair black in March and I want to be ash blonde for a wedding on the 12th. How much?" There's no honest answer to that by message. It might be four hours. It might be two visits. It might be "not blonde, but a lovely light brown, and we'll get closer in six weeks."

Colour correction is the one service on your menu with no fixed length and no fixed price. Book it like a regular colour and it eats the stylist's afternoon, makes three other clients late, and ends with a bill the client wasn't expecting. Book it like the open-ended service it is, and it's some of the best work, and best money, in the salon.

Never book it blind

A correction starts with a consultation, in person, in daylight or good light, before any colour time is booked. Fifteen to twenty minutes is enough. Not a phone call, and not photos alone: lighting on a phone camera can turn brassy orange into honey.

Keep the consultation easy to say yes to. Two common ways:

• Free, and short: 15 minutes, at the quiet edges of the day. It fills your gaps and you meet the client before you commit an afternoon.
• A small fee that comes off the service: $25 for 20 minutes, credited if they book the correction. It filters out the "just curious" and pays for the strand test.

Either way, say on your menu that colour correction is booked after a consultation. Clients who know the rule don't argue with it.

What to find out in twenty minutes

Have a short checklist the stylist follows every time, so nothing is forgotten when the client is charming:

1. Two years of history. Box dye, henna, a keratin treatment, a "colour remover" from the drugstore, swimming every day. Anything on the hair now is part of the job.
2. What they want, in photos, and what they'd be happy with. They're rarely the same.
3. A strand test, from underneath, where it won't show. It answers more than any question: how it lifts, how it holds up, what it turns.
4. The condition of the hair. Stretch a wet strand. If it doesn't spring back, the plan changes, and maybe so does the timeline.
5. Their date. A wedding in eleven days is a different plan from "whenever".
6. Their budget, asked plainly. "Most corrections like this land between $450 and $650. Does that work for you?" is kinder than a surprise at the till.

Write the answers on the client's record, where the stylist will see them on the day.

Quote a range, in writing

You can't promise a number, but you can promise a range and what moves it. Say the salon prices correction at $95 an hour of the stylist's time, with the bond treatment and toner on top:

Then send it, by email or text, before they book:

Here's what we talked about today. Goal: a soft light brown with lighter pieces around your face, as close to your second photo as your hair will safely allow. Time: 4 to 6 hours, in one visit. Price: $455 to $645, depending on how your hair lifts on the day. If it needs a second visit to reach the goal, that's priced separately and we'll tell you before you leave. A $100 deposit holds the day and comes off the bill.

A written range does two things. The client agrees to it before the chair, not during. And when it lands at $590, nobody feels ambushed.

The deposit

A correction that doesn't show costs the stylist half a day, booked weeks ahead and impossible to fill at short notice. Ask for a deposit when you book it: a flat amount, such as $100, or about a quarter of the low end. Make the cancellation window longer than for a cut, 72 hours rather than 24, because nobody fills a six-hour gap with two days' notice.

Book the top of the range

The mistake that ruins the day is booking the low end and hoping. Book the high end, plus half an hour.

• Start in the morning. A correction that starts at 2 PM ends at 8 PM if it goes well.
• Book nothing tight after it. If it ends early, the stylist gets a proper lunch or takes a short service from the waiting list. If it runs long, nobody is waiting.
• Use processing time carefully. While the lightener works, the stylist can do a quick cut in the next chair, but corrections need checking every few minutes. Short services only, and never one that can't be interrupted.
• Never on a Saturday at peak, unless the stylist does nothing else that day.

When the answer is "not in one day"

Some hair can't safely go where the client wants in one visit. Say so at the consultation, not at hour five:

"I can get you to a soft, even light brown on the 12th, and it'll look great at the wedding. To get to ash blonde without damaging your hair, we'd do a second session about six weeks later. Doing it all in one go would risk breakage, and I'm not willing to do that to your hair."

Most clients take the plan. The ones who don't would have been unhappy with the result anyway.

Where Caletan fits

In Caletan, the consultation can be its own short service that clients book online, and the correction a service with online booking turned off, so only your staff book it, once the consult is done. Versions give it more than one length and price, such as a half day and a full day, and a client's alert, such as "box dye on the ends", shows with each of their appointments. For salons shows the rest, and services and staff shows each option.