Child safety concerns within the Hair salon

Some moms are finding that dropping off children at the daycare while they run errands may cost them $60.00 per day.  So some moms are feeling pressured to bring their child with them to sit through their hair appointment service.  This is not a good idea for many reasons.

1) Hair salons use hot tools.  The child could grab a curling iron or worse, stick their hand into a hot conventional stove.  Or the hot tool or hot stove could fall on them as they may get their foot caught in the cords. Burns can leave scarring.

2) Hair salons use chemicals.  The child could come into contact with relaxers or other chemicals at the shampoo bowl, trash receptacle  or on mommy's head if she is having to comfort the child.  Chemical exposure to eyes, skin, etc is dangerous.

3) Hair salons are supposed to be a pampering experience.  If the hairstylist, the mom being serviced, and the other clients in the lobby are all rotating through "babysitting" duty, then this does not promote a professional environment.  It is extra stress on everyone witnessing the child wandering into everything that catches the child's eyes.

4) Soiled "pull-ups" and "pampers" can be annoying to dispose of.

5)  Candy wrappers, cracker crumbs, and spills from juice boxes are also bothersome to clean up.

6) Concentration on the hair service is hard when one is constantly trying to keep track of the child even if no  other clients are in the salon being serviced except the mother.  This often delays the timing of the hair service.

7) Child is exposed to the hairsprays and other aerosols in the air which is unnecessary.

So in a nutshell, I absolutely deny service to mothers who bring children to my salon who are not being serviced along with the mother if I have other clients scheduled to be serviced in an overlapping time slot.  I do not want to subject other clients to becoming babysitters or exposure to unnecessary noise.

However, if I do not have any other clients overlapping, then I have allowed mothers to bring their child with them.  I was originally thinking that as long as other clients were not affected that it would be fine, but now, I realized that I do not want any extra bodies runnning around, pumping up styling chairs, and going on treasure hunts within my salon with out being compensated for the extra stress.  Most of the time, the mothers' learn from the initial experience, and they definitely make babysitting arrangements prior to their next hair appointment without me saying a word.  However, I think that I really have to start mentioning this at the time of the booking of the appointments.  I may have to start charging about $25 an hour for any time past 30 minutes of babysitting time.  If the child can be picked up within 30 minutes, then not so much of a problem, but over 30 minutes, a penalty fee would have to be implemented to avoid future distractions.