What Type of Insurance Does a Hairstylist Need?

What Liability Risks Do Hairstylists Face?

As a hairstylist, you aim to transform your customers’ lives by making them look beautiful and feel more confident. You may not be able to change the world, but you can change your customers’ hair and help them shine.

But, sometimes, things don’t always go as you expect despite your best efforts. Hairstylists face several liability risks that can damage their finances and reputations. Among the most common risks hair professionals face include:

• Accidental Injuries to Customers

Slip and fall accidents are quite common on business properties at any time of the year, and they can be costly to deal with – a Zensurance survey found that almost 70% of Canadian consumers would sue a small business if injured on their property from a slip and fall. Moreover, you could accidentally burn a customer with a hot styling tool or cut them with scissors or shears.

• Damage to a Customer’s Hair

Treatments to hair using hair dyes, bleaches or heat could damage a customer’s hair and lead to them demanding compensation, or a customer might sue you if they feel your service was poor and negatively affected their appearance. 

• Harm Caused to a Customer By the Beauty Products You Use or Sell

The products you use or sell to your customers – hair dyes, shampoos, or any other formulated hair product – could trigger an allergic reaction or skin irritation in them. You can be liable for any product you use or sell.

• Giving Incorrect Advice

Giving incorrect advice about hair treatments, such as recommending the wrong product for a hair type or failing to warn a customer about the risks associated with a particular treatment, can lead to a stylist liable for damages.

The above are common risks that can harm one of your customers, but then there are others that can shutter your salon or barber shop, such as:

• Damage to Your Salon

Some things are beyond your control, even if you’ve proactively taken measures to minimize risks to your shop or salon. For example, a water pipe bursts and causes water damage to your salon and equipment, or a fire ignites in an adjacent unit and inflicts smoke damage in your shop, forcing you to close for repairs.

• Equipment Breakdowns

You likely have expensive equipment in your salon – hooded dryers and steamers, clothes dryers, hot towel cabinets, and colour processors. Any of these could unexpectedly malfunction due to a mechanical or electrical failure, putting you in a tight spot.

• Theft and Break-Ins

Unfortunately, any type of business can be subject to theft and break-ins. For example, one report notes that 32% of small businesses in Western Canada have been hit by theft and property damage, but that grim statistic isn’t exclusive to any one region in Canada.

• Cyber-Attacks and Data Breaches

Cybercrime is as prevalent and broad as the internet itself. No individual or small business is immune from the risk of a cyber-attack or a data breach that exposes your business’s or customers’ confidential information. 

What Does Hairstylist and Salon Insurance Cover?

The coverage your policy should have depends on the details about your business and the services you provide. A typical hairstylist insurance policy might include the following coverages:

• General Liability Insurance

General liability insurance covers everyday risks while running your business, such as third-party bodily injuries (e.g., slip-and-falls) or damage to a customer’s property while visiting your salon.

• Professional Liability Insurance

Also called errors and omissions (E&O) insurance, professional liability insurance covers you for mistakes, giving poor advice, professional negligence allegations, or failing to warn a customer about the risks they face from a particular treatment.

• Product Liability Insurance

Product liability coverage protects you against claims alleging that a product used during treatment or sold to a customer caused them bodily injury (like a chemical burn or allergic reaction) or damages their property, such as staining their clothing. Product liability insurance may be included with general liability insurance, or you can add it to your policy if it isn’t.

• Cyber Liability Insurance

Cyber liability insurance covers data breaches and damages caused by a cyber-attack that compromises your website, cloud data storage, point-of-sale (POS) system, email accounts and data as well as your customers’ confidential information.

• Commercial Property Insurance

Whether you own or rent a hair salon, commercial property insurance covers the business location and the contents of your business inside it from damages caused by fire, water, vandalism, or theft. It often includes business interruption insurance, which reimburses your lost income and operational overhead following an insured event (such as fire damage) that temporarily forces you to close for repairs.

• Equipment Breakdown Insurance

Equipment breakdown insurance covers unexpected damages to owned or rented hair treatment equipment in your salon that ceases to work because of a mechanical or electrical failure. It also covers your salon’s HVAC system, laundry appliances, and alarm systems for the same reason if you own the property.

How to Get Low-Cost Hairstylist Insurance Today

Business insurance is an investment in your salon’s financial viability and protection for your finances and professional reputation if hit with an unexpected claim, lawsuit, or damage to your property and contents caused by elements out of your control.

Zensurance can get you the comprehensive, low-cost hairstylist and salon insurance you need quickly and easily. Fill out our online application for a free quote in less than five minutes.

Let our team of knowledgeable insurance brokers shop from over 50 Canadian insurers to find the right coverage to suit your needs and tailor it to your specifications, so you can concentrate on leaving your customers in shear delight.