Focus on "wastage"

Products used in the salon may be wasted or used in excessive quantities as a result of;

• poor stock rotation; many hair treatment products have a short shelf life and must be discarded if they are not used within this period
• purchasing in excessive quantities, in order to obtain volume discounts
• careless, inexperienced or very busy staff; tops may be left off bottles, new containers may be opened prematurely and too much of a product (for example perming lotion, which cannot be re-used) might be decanted and mixed; in some cases, busy staff forget to add extra products used to the bill
• misusing concentrated products; stylists may routinely over-estimate the amount of shampoo, for example, which is actually required
• imprecise measuring; shampoo, for example, is often dispensed 'by the squirt' rather than in consistent quantities
• 'bottling down' shampoo and other products purchased in bulk into smaller containers, which may lead to spillage
• variation in clients' hair type and state; this may lead to as much as twice the 'usual' amount of a product being required to complete a treatment
• different hair lengths and densities, which may also affect the quantity of a product required; double the 'normal' amount of colourant, for example, might be required to tint a head of very long hair
• a 'hard' water supply, which may increase shampoo consumption
• other factors; containers may leak or split, aerosols sometimes fail to operate and products might become contaminated with foreign matter

In the VAT tribunal case of James Mills (EDN/87/96), it was accepted that wastage and purchases of goods for non-customer use amounted to 7.5% of turnover. In the VAT tribunal case of Aquarius Hair and Beauty Ltd (LON/90/960X), the appellant's estimates of 5% and 10% of purchases lost due to damage/spoiling and free re-does/price reductions respectively were upheld.

In addition to the above, both salon products and stylists' time may be used non-productively for the following reasons;

• during training sessions, special demonstrations and model nights
• entering competitions and holding exhibitions or demonstrations
• re-doing hair free of charge for dissatisfied clients (or for any other reason)
• free staff hair styling

The number of productive hours which is achieved each week may fall further if staff are lazy, dishonest, unsupervised and/or lack motivation.