Your chair. Your premises. Whose liability?
Cover for salons and barbershops on their own premises: the treatments, the fit-out, the retail stock, and the self-employed stylists renting space from you.
Salon and barbershop insurance
Usually includes
Treatment liability
Premises & fit-out
Public liability
Products liability
Employers’ liability
Retail stock
One
conversation.
You explain the business once, and we take it from there.
Bespoke service
for your business
No two businesses are the same, so we start with yours rather than with a template.
Everything
quoted together.
The premises, your stock, your liability and the trade you would lose, priced in one go rather than piece by piece.
Know your cover
What is salon insurance?
A salon on its own premises carries the treatment exposure plus everything a shop has: a fit-out that costs more than it looks, retail stock, and a landlord with a lease. The question that catches salon owners out is not cover for the treatments, it is who is responsible for the people at the chairs. A salon with employees, a salon with chair renters and a salon with both are three different presentations, and getting it wrong is discovered at claim.
It covers the treatments
A claim arising from the service itself, from a cutting injury to a reaction to a colour.
It covers the premises
The fit-out, the basins, the chairs and the stock, which are the largest part of the value.
It follows who works there
Employed, self-employed or renting a chair changes who answers a claim. It has to be declared accurately.
Who it’s for
Whatever your salon does.
✓
Hair salons
Cutting and colouring on your own premises, with employed or self-employed stylists.
✓
Barbershops
Cuts, shaves and beard work, often with several chairs let out.
✓
Salons with chair renters
Self-employed stylists working in your premises under their own arrangements.
✓
Beauty salons and treatment rooms
A treatment list rather than a service menu, rated procedure by procedure.
✓
Salons with a retail area
Product sales alongside the service, which brings products liability with it.
✓
Salons letting rooms to other practitioners
A therapist or technician using your space on their own account.
What we cover
Cover built around your salon.
We ask what treatments you offer, who works there and on what basis before we approach anyone. Then show you what’s available, and you decide what fits.
Treatment liability
A claim arising from a service carried out at the salon, against the treatments declared.
Premises & fit-out
Basins, chairs, mirrors, flooring and the plumbing and electrics behind them.
Public liability
A client or a visitor injured on the premises, including on a wet floor.
Products liability
Harm caused by a product applied or sold, which is separate from how it was applied.
Employers’ liability
Required by law for employees. Whether a chair renter counts is the question to settle first.
Retail stock
Product on the shelves and the professional stock in the back.
Business interruption
The takings lost while the salon cannot open, including after water damage from your own basins.
Legal expenses
Lease and landlord disputes, employment matters, and defending a complaint about a treatment.
Cyber & data
The booking system, client records and the card payments taken at the desk.
Who this cover tends to suit.
This cover is generally bought by salons and barbershops trading from their own premises, from a single chair to a business with several stylists and a retail area. Not every part will apply to every business, so tell us how you’re set up and we’ll show you what’s relevant.
Worth knowing
Check the details before you choose.
Chair renting has to be declared accurately
A self-employed stylist may need their own liability cover, and your policy may not extend to their work. The arrangement decides who answers a client’s claim, so it needs settling in writing rather than by habit.
Water is the property claim
Basins, boilers and a salon full of plumbing sit above or beside other premises. Escape of water is the loss salons make most on the property side.
The treatment list is the cover
Cover answers the treatments declared. Adding a chemical service or a beauty treatment means updating the list rather than assuming it is included.
Tenant’s improvements are usually yours to insure
A shopfitted salon interior in a leased unit is normally the tenant’s responsibility, and it costs far more to reinstate than to remember.
Every chair is different.
A barbershop and a colour-led salon don’t carry the same risk, so we ask different questions for each.
Hair salons
Barbershops
Colour and bleach
Cutting
Perming and relaxing
Hair extensions
Beauty treatments
Nail services
Chair rental
Room rental
Retail products
Apprentices
Student nights
Bridal bookings
Booking systems
Multi-site salons
Hair salons
Barbershops
Colour and bleach
Cutting
Perming and relaxing
Hair extensions
Beauty treatments
Nail services
Chair rental
Room rental
Retail products
Apprentices
Student nights
Bridal bookings
Booking systems
Multi-site salons
Why Vara
Bespoke service for you & your business,
without the big-firm minimum.
01
Who works there comes first
Employed, self-employed and chair renting are three different positions, and the wrong answer is found at claim. We settle it before we present the risk.
02
The treatment list gets checked in full
Including the services added since the last renewal, and the ones only one stylist offers.
03
The fit-out is valued to reinstate
Not to install. Basins, plumbing and a fitted interior cost more to put back than to put in.
04
We present the risk right
Treatments, staffing basis, retail sales, premises and claims history. How it’s framed changes what you pay.
You talk to a person. The machines do the typing.
Free review of your salon and barbershop cover and costs.
On a policy that never asked who rents your chairs? Leave your details and we’ll call you straight back. One conversation covers the lot.
What the review covers
A self-employed stylist renting a chair may need their own liability cover, and who answers a client’s claim depends on the arrangement being settled in writing.
Basins, boilers and a salon full of plumbing sit above or beside other premises, which is why escape of water is the property claim salons make most.
We approach insurers on our panel who write salon and barbershop risks, and come back with what they’ll offer.
We explain each option in plain English, including what it doesn’t cover.
If it’s not a risk we can place, we’ll tell you straight away rather than leave you waiting.
No obligation to switch. You decide what fits.
Rather not wait? Call us on 0333 091 3663
Good to know
Salon insurance questions, answered straight.
What insurance does a salon need?
Does my policy cover stylists who rent a chair?
Do I need employers' liability if everyone is self-employed?
What happens if a client reacts to a colour?
Is my fit-out covered, or is that the landlord's?
What about water damage from the basins?
Do I need products liability if I retail shampoo?
Are apprentices and student nights covered?
Vara Commercial Insurance · 0333 091 3663
Vara is a trading name of Koral AI Operating Company Limited. Vara is an appointed representative of Innovative Risk Labs Ltd, under Firm Reference Number 1060955. Innovative Risk Labs Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, under FRN 609155. We are registered in England and Wales under Registered Company Number 17256222. Registered office: 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF.