KEY TAKEAWAYS: Your salon is due for a good spruce. The best way to do that? Run through your go-to checklist. No matter how clean your space might be,every salon, spa, and shop out there could use a guide. In this blog, we're sharing our salon sanitation checklist that every cosmetologist out there should have in their back pocket. 

Your salon is due for a good spruce up. How we can tell?

Well, it's not because we're being judgy–it's just because of the industry you work in. Odds are, no matter how tidy you run your shop, it's always due for a quick and thorough cleanup. 

But we're tired of just saying that and sending you on your way! We want to help expedite the sanitation process for you!

If you’re not all about a super deep, super satisfying, and super-intensive cleansing of your beloved salon, shop, or spa, or if you feel overwhelmed just thinking about where to start on your own salon sanitation journey, we’ve gone ahead and made it just a touch easier for you this year. 

Meet our  Salon Sanitation Checklist. A point-by-point of the must-know tips when it comes to really giving your salon, spa, or shop a proper spruce. 

Hopefully, this little salon guideline will help take you from a cleaning-is-a-total-drag attitude to a let’s-hear-it-for-cleaning level of enthusiasm in no time! (And if it doesn’t, well, we can only make cleaning sound so fun, okay?) 

The Must-Know Salon Sanitation Checklist for Every Shop, Salon, or Spa

Out with Old—Purge the Expired, Dirty, & Outdated 

If you’re one of those people that gets so overwhelmed with the idea of a total clean, we recommend taking a small step by starting with all the old, expired, dirty, broken, and outdated product, tools, and other equipment in your salon. 

• Take inventory. 
• Check all of your products.
• Take note of all the tools and equipment you use every single day.
  • What’s broken? What’s leaking? What’s past its expiration date? What’s not relevant anymore? 

Purge your salon or shop of all the bad, old, dirty, expired, or outdated stuff that’s just taking up space. This step is simple, it’s quick. And it doesn’t require any deep cleaning skills—not yet, anyway.

Once you get all the gunk and junk out of your salon, you’re ready to move onto phase 2 of the salon sanitation checklist.

Sanitize, Sanitize, Sanitize (Then Clean & Disinfect)

We said it three times for a reason—because we mean it. Obviously, you should have sanitation on lock at all times, but if you’re cleaning, now’s the time to truly get down with the dirty and sanitize your little heart away. 

Why is sanitizing your salon and your tools and literally everything you regularly touch a must?

We could explain this with a ton of words, but instead, we’ll just give you five: microbes, yeast, viruses, fungi, bacteria. These gross little fellas are microscopic and exist everywhere around us. They make us sick, they wreck immune systems, and they can even be fatal. 

Need we say more?

An important thing to note here is that sanitizing is different than cleansing and disinfecting.

When you disinfect, you’re using antibacterial substances to destroy those microbes and fungi we talked earlier—disinfectants typically include things like barbicide, bleach, alcohol, peroxide, etc. Cleansing something is more of a soap-and-water take on cleaning. When you sanitize, though, you’re disinfecting, cleansing, and sanitizing, so you’re checking every type of “cleaning” off the list. 

While you should be sanitizing all of your tools and surfaces after every use and client (tweezers, clippers, combs, brushes, etc.), we absolutely suggest doing a deep sanitize of every item and surface in your salon to really get your salon suite sanitation on. 

You should always be up-to-snuff on the industry standards for sanitizing your salon. So, if you’re not quite there, we've got some insight to help get you on the right track. Remember, this isn’t just friendly advice that you could follow. This stuff is an absolute must because sanitizing your salon is government-sanctioned.

If you don’t meet the codes or regulations, you can put yourself at risk of fines, lawsuits, and damage to your reputation. Worst of all, you could put your clients at risk.

Don’t take the sanitation part of the salon sanitation checklist lightly—that’s all we’ll say about that. 

Once you’ve totally disinfected everything, it’s time to clean in the more traditional sense.

Sweep, mop, vacuum, laundry, dust—whatever it is that you do to clean your space, do it now! 

Don’t forget, this applies to all aspects of your salon—from the bathrooms to the laundry room to the client spaces to the office. No room should go untouched or uncleaned. 

In With the New—Organize, Decorate, Add the Finishing Touches 

You’re in the best phase of salon sanitation now: the finishing touches phase.

Once you’ve gotten rid of all the gunk and junk in your salon and you’ve sanitized your space to the max, it’s time to add in any new décor or finishing touches to give your salon a totally new and improved look.

But most of all, this phase should be dedicated to organization. You’ve got a beautiful, spotless salon to work with, so use this time to upgrade your organization.

Switch over your filing system to digital storage, build or buy new organizational cabinets for your tools and equipment, re-arrange any furniture (which has been appropriately disinfected and cleaned) to optimize flow through the salon. 

Salon sanitation shouldn’t just be about cleaning up, it should also be about revamping and improving your already wonderful salon.

Draw Up a New Weekly Cleaning Schedule 

Now that your salon is spotless, don’t you want to keep it that way? Draw up a new cleaning schedule to ensure that all of your hard work wasn’t for nothing! Whether you want to create a daily checklist or a weekly schedule, be sure to be firm about the musts behind your cleaning schedule.

Have a meeting to get your staff on board and make sure everyone is aware of who is responsible for what. Make sure you have an accountability system in place, too! 

Salon santiation doesn’t have to be a drag! In fact, it can be a cleansing experience—both for the salon and for you! Follow along with this salon sanitation and cleaning checklist and we can guarantee your space is going to feel refreshed, clean, and beautiful in no time!

For more  cleaning tips, salon guidelines, and beauty biz advice, follow along with Elite Beauty Society’s regularly updated blog! We’re always posting about the top trends, tricks, and beauty inspo you need to stay on top of your beauty pro career!