It can be tricky to fi nd a balance between keeping kids entertained, happy and calm, whilst avoiding irritating your child-free clients. Here three hairdressing pros share their tips

Wear fun masks and invest in ipads

“Many salons have team members who avoid child clients due to fidgeting, crying or interfering parents. Book children with the team member who has the quietest column. It can be an ideal way to grow their client base, which hopefully will turn into a column of young, fun teenagers.

To encourage the child to have their hair cut it’s best to make it as easy as possible for both the stylist and child. Invest in brightly coloured kids gowns. A few fun animal or cartoon masks will also relax and possibly even make your child clients smile while they’re sat in your chair at the moment. iPads are also a great tool to buy you time, put on their favourite programme and that will give you 20 minutes to work your magic. Never underestimate the power of Peppa Pig! Colouring books are also handy to keep kids engaged or simply entertain them if mum or dad are getting their hair done.”

Tracy Hayes, Fudge Professional global brand ambassador and Jonathan Andrew, Fudge Professional brand ambassador

Create an entertaining space

“Create an interactive area in the salon to entertain children while they are having their treatment, or while they’re waiting for their parents. When we opened Hari’s Fulham Road salon, we created the Hari’s Hair Hub. The hub includes an iPad at each section which features e-magazines, treatment menus and an online shop, as well as a kid’s section with puzzles, games and crosswords. We also have the Readily Magazine subscription which offers a huge variety of magazines for kids of all ages. These interactive activities help keep them busy while mum has her highlights done. We also offer child-friendly juices and healthy snacks which we all know is the best way to keep kids happy. Lastly, for the new mums, we always allocate enough space at their station so they can bring in their pram and park it next to them. Babies always find it easy to sleep in the salon thanks to the white noise from the hairdryers, so it really is a case of happy mum, happy baby!”

Lucan Salem, director at Hari’s Hairdressers for L’Oréal Professionnel

Don’t forget about your other clients

“We actually started out being a child-friendly salon. We had special seats, drinks, products and so on. Unfortunately, we found that as more children were coming into the salon, it became more of a challenge to keep our other clients satisfied. The child clients were irritating too many of our other clients, which of course we didn’t want to do! We still offer child cuts but the parent has to be in control and sit with the child at all times. Due to current social distancing rules, we are not accepting children because we don’t allow clients to bring anyone else into the salon with them. There is simply not enough space. During normal times we don’t have ‘a no child policy’ but our negative experience means we don’t promote the fact we provide child cuts. Our advice is to decide in advance if you want to attract parents with their children in your salon. If you do, don’t forget it is just as important to keep your other clients comfortable and relaxed.”

Anne Veck and Keith Mellen, Anne Veck Oxford