The best apps for hairdressers

As a self-employed hairdresser, it can often feel like there’s weight on your shoulders that you can’t trim. Companies recognise this, and many offer app services to help.

But with so many available, you don’t have the time to sort the style from the substance. We’ve got you, with a handpicked selection of applications to improve your practice.

This guide discusses the best apps for hairdressers that help with:

• Taking your bookings
• Managing your finances
• Marketing your service

As a service provider, you rely on customers to come for appointments. The booking process should be as simple as possible for you and your clients.

One of the best apps for hairdressers in the UK is Booksy. It’s a platform dedicated to the beauty and wellness industry.

There are two apps:

• Booksy — customers can find and book local services near them.
• BooksyBiz — businesses can accept bookings, manage their calendars and take payments.

You can download the BooksyBiz app and start to schedule appointments with customers in your local area. Clients provide payment details through the app and know how much your services cost when they book.

Booksy helps you to manage your appointments and keep your days as busy or quiet as you’d like. The clients can also leave reviews to help encourage other customers through your door.

The price of a subscription is £40 a month, with an additional £10 a month per staff member (if you grow in future).

Booksy’s most significant rival is the similar platform, Fresha. It also can help your business with your bookings, calendars and payments.

Fresha has its own card and contactless machines to support payments. These can link to a business account and charge you a processing fee of 1.29% plus £0.20 per transaction.

In contrast to Booksy, they have a version of their service which is entirely free. It includes limited features but still allows you to:

• Accept bookings from customers.
• Manage your appointment schedule.
• Notify clients to remind them to turn up.

The paid features are for help with your payments and to add your business to their marketplace. With the free version, Fresha does not bring customers to you, and it just enables the ones you have to book.

When you find and book customers, you also have to manage your finances as a business. The best bookkeeping app for hairdressers is Countingup.

It takes minutes for you to open your account, and it’s rated ‘Excellent’ by over 1,500 Trustpilot reviews. Countingup is a business account with built-in accounting software accessible through the app.

Keep track of any expenses with its receipt capture feature, which lets you take a photo of any paper billing to add to your accounts. That could be great if you need to stock up on hair products or equipment.

Countingup also has a tax estimate feature to tell you how much you should put aside. Your income tax Self Assessment at the end of the year will be more accessible than ever. 

Try the app for three months for free, and if you like it, you can choose a payment plan to suit your monthly deposits.

Get started for free.

To help get clients to schedule appointments with you, look to market what you do. These are some of the best apps for hairdressers to do that.

The social media app Instagram is a great visual platform to show off what you can do. If you manage to attract customers to your account, you can add your Booksy or Fresha link to your bio.

Like all social media platforms, it’s free to set up an account, and you won’t have to pay anything to Instagram if you aim to grow organically. To do that, you’ll need to try and create original content that people want to see.

For example, some exciting cuts can provide great pictures while promoting your abilities. 

To grow a following on Instagram, you’ll need to post original content daily, and it may take multiple days. It’s a process, and you’ll have to try different posts to find what works with your audience.

You may get a better response from funny captions on your hair posts than normal ones, for example.

If you want to reach people quicker, you can also pay for advertising on the platform. It can suit your budget, and you can spend as little as £1 per day, but the more you pay, the more people will see it.

For more information on Instagram, see: How to start a small business on Instagram.

Graphics design was previously for people skilled to use expensive software, but not anymore. Canva is the best app for hairdressers who want to create professional social posts themselves.

It’s the perfect way to create images to use on your Instagram, with the most straightforward design tools available. Even though it’s quick and easy to use, it’s got a wide catalogue of templates or image options.

You can get started with their free version. It gives you 5GB of storage and access to many tools. The paid version is £99.99 a year, and its significant addition is stock photos, videos and graphics to use.

Even with the free version, though, it would be simple to change the background and add text to photos of haircuts, for example. 

You’ll be able to make your images exciting which could help you stand out on social media.

If images and design don’t suit your business, maybe fun clips will. TikTok is a great platform to entertain customers and make your marketing fun.

You can share dances, tips or transformations with your business TikTok. It could help you connect with the public in a personal way, show the enjoyable side of haircuts or inspire people with bold looks.

Unlike Instagram, you won’t need to worry about sleek designs to look professional. 

TikTok is about low budget videos with high impact, so it provides you with all of the help you need to edit your short clips (15-60 seconds).

To build a following organically, though, you’ll aim to post content regularly like Instagram, and it could take a while to gain popularity. 

It does feature paid advertising as an option, where you can promote a post, with a minimum spend of £50 a day.

For more information on TikTok, see: How to use TikTok for your small business.

To find further relevant tips from Countingup, why not see:

• What insurance does a self-employed hairdresser need?