Please help me, what do we need to open a hair salon? Thank you.

[joannachen]

Hello everyone, I hope you could help me with my situation now. My husband and I are from China. Recently my husband just came to the UK to stay with me with sponsor visa, and I have got a permanent visa. My husband is a hairdresser in China, and he has 13 years working experience, also he was trained by Vidal Sassoon, he has got Vidal Sassoon ABC course certificate which is recognised worldwide. However he hasn't been trained in the UK and as he just came to the UK, he hasn't got any working experience in the UK. In this case, how can we open a hair salon? What do we need to open one? I heard it has to be holding at least NVQ level 4 in hairdressing to open a salon. Does this mean my husband have to take NVQ exam? How does he can get the certificates? I am qualified beauty therapist and nail technician, I have got ITEC level 2 and 3 in beauty therapist. And soon I will get a certificate of NVQ level 3 in nail technician. I am wondering is it possible if once we opened our nail and beauty salon, and let my husband to do his hairdresser job in our salon as well?
Sorry about my English, I hope this won't confused you. I really need some advice now.

 

[AcidPerm]

Hi. Welcome to salon geek!

Anyone can open a hair or beauty salon in the UK.
There are no legal requirements regarding minimum standards of training (unfortunately!) but you will need to check with the local council for any specific regulations regarding the premises you wish to use.

You should also purchase the appropriate insurance cover - public liability insurance. The insurance company will probably ask for verification of your qualifications obtained in China. However, if you have any difficulties, a level 2 hairdressing qualification is what your husband would need to complete in order to be recognised as a qualified hairdresser. Your local hairdressing training centre/college will be able to advise further. If he trained at the sassoon academy, he'll probably teach the tutors a thing or two.
Similar advice regarding beauty therapy qualifications.

I don't know about possible visa restrictions but you can access lots of great advice through the Chinese community groups based in the UK as well as organisations like Citizens Advice.
Is his spoken English adequate for liaising with English speaking clients or will his client base be predominantly Chinese speaking?

Best of luck!

 

[joannachen]

Hi. Welcome to salon geek!

Anyone can open a hair or beauty salon in the UK.
There are no legal requirements regarding minimum standards of training (unfortunately!) but you will need to check with the local council for any specific regulations regarding the premises you wish to use.

You should also purchase the appropriate insurance cover - public liability insurance. The insurance company will probably ask for verification of your qualifications obtained in China. However, if you have any difficulties, a level 2 hairdressing qualification is what your husband would need to complete in order to be recognised as a qualified hairdresser. Your local hairdressing training centre/college will be able to advise further. If he trained at the sassoon academy, he'll probably teach the tutors a thing or two.
Similar advice regarding beauty therapy qualifications.

I don't know about possible visa restrictions but you can access lots of great advice through the Chinese community groups based in the UK as well as organisations like Citizens Advice.
Is his spoken English adequate for liaising with English speaking clients or will his client base be predominantly Chinese speaking?

Best of luck!

Thank you very much for your information, This really helps us. The visa we holding allowed us to do any kind of jobs and business we would like to do, so this is no problem at all. My husband's English is not very good, and he is taking English language course now, and will finish in the early of next year. So hopefully since then he can communicate well with English speaking clients. At the moment he offer homebased haircut service to Chinese people.

Could you tell me does my husband have to take a level 2 hairdressing course at collage, or he can just go to take an exam? If he can just take an exam without going to collage, how should we register the exam date?

Thanks you very much again for your help!