Summer for most salons can mean our numbers can be a bit off. But it’s not because our businesses are going in the wrong direction, it's just simply the fact that between our guests and our team it seems like someone is always taking some vacation time. When it comes to our guests, that could mean as much as 20 percent of our guests away on any given week! And if we live in an area where school doesn’t let out until late June, leaving only July and August for families to take their vacation time the percentage could be even higher. But where there may be a service loss, a retail opportunity does present itself.

When people travel or even rent a house for the summer, the products they need there are many times not the products they need at home. Think about like things like sunscreen, mosquito repellent and hopefully a hat, these are things they might use at home, but when on vacation, they need to be different and maybe more specific. For instance, many skin beauty products contain sunscreen today, but that’s not enough protection when laying on the beach.  Or, maybe your guest wears hats as a fashion accessory or to keep their head warm in the winter but on vacation a wide brim hat not only can help keep them cool, it can also protect their face, neck and hair from unneeded sun damage.

When it comes to haircare and styling tools this is a huge opportunity, I think, many salons and stylists miss. When families are traveling together or people are sharing a house, the opportunities to make sure they can play hard and still look great is even greater. Offering your guests summer protection kits for their hair or helping them pack for a beautiful vacation are just two easy ways to build your retail during the summer months. Let’s take a look at how we can create these opportunities.

Summer Protection Kits: These are great for a family, people who have pools in their backyards or to have at summer homes that people will be visiting. Put together easy to grab kits that include — daily shampoos that will be a bit more cleansing for the hair and gentle at the same time and pair that with a clarifying shampoo or treatment that can be used once a week to get the chlorine, salt water or lake water out of their hair.

Add to this a large size conditioner and for guests who fight warmth also include either a shampoo or conditioner that fights brassiness. Make sure in the kit you include products that protect the hair from UV ray with options like sprays or leave-in conditioners.

And finally don’t forget about some styling products that can make it easy to go from the sun to dinner like dry shampoos, dry conditioners and beach wave sprays that can reactivate style without having to shampoo the hair.

Packing for a Beautiful Vacation: When it comes to destination vacations like Florida, an Island, Las Vegas or California, this truth is the products that the guest uses at home might not work where they are going.

So put together “Beautiful Vacation Packages” with things that protect their hair from the sun, help remove chlorine, salt water or lake water and a dry shampoo, dry conditioner or other product that they can easily restyle their hair with. But then also include products that will work to give them the results they want in environments that can be 100% humidity or 0% humidity. So for Florida or an island, include anti-humidity sprays and products that help to control frizz. Then for places like Las Vegas or California, include things like moisture sprays and moisturizing shampoos and conditioners.

If you want to take the experience even further, create displays using sand pails or champagne buckets and shelf talkers that share with the guest how these products will help them have a beautiful vacation. Include in each purchase a fun postcard with instructions on how to use the products and that way you will know that your guests can have fun and will look great too.