Buying a Hair Salon and What It Costs to Buy an Existing Salon

An existing US hair salon or barber shop cost a median $115,500 to buy across 2021 to 2025, based on 879 closed BizBuySell sales, on median revenue of $298,401 and median owner earnings of $70,225. Financed with an SBA 7(a) loan at 10 percent down, the cash you bring to that purchase is about $13,317 for the equity injection and the SBA guaranty fee, plus the lease deposit, retail inventory and a few weeks of payroll. What you get for it depends on whether you keep cutting. At the median price the loan leaves room for an owner salary of about $49,185 a year, which beats the $35,790 median stylist wage only if you are behind the chair.

Most pages that answer this question price opening a salon: a build-out, plumbing for shampoo bowls, chairs, dryers, a sign and months of building a client list. Buying a salon is a different purchase. You pay for clients who already rebook, stylists already on the schedule and a lease already signed. The price is set by earnings. Whether it is a good buy is set by whether those clients and stylists stay after the owner they came for leaves. The full sold-price distribution is on our hair salon valuation page; this article is the buyer's version, with the cash and the salary worked out.

How much does it cost to buy a hair salon?

The median hair salon or barber shop sold for $115,500, which is 1.64 times its $70,225 of seller discretionary earnings and 0.39 times its revenue. The published median multiple is 1.77x earnings, and half of all sales landed between 1.25x and 2.34x. Those readings differ because the median price, the median earnings and the median multiple come from different salons. Sellers asked a median $125,000 and closed at an average 0.91 of their asking price.

Which column applies depends mostly on size and on who holds the clients. BizBuySell states that a salon with sales over $500,000 may sell for an earnings multiple near 2.34 or higher, while a shop doing $165,000 is more likely to sell near 1.25. Prices have also moved: the 2025 median sale was $165,000, up 57.1 percent on 2024, while earnings rose 27.2 percent. If you priced a salon from a 2023 or 2024 listing, re-check it against the 2025 row. If the seller has handed you a profit and loss statement rather than an SDE figure, start with how to calculate SDE.

How much cash do you need to buy a salon?

About $13,317 at the median price before working capital, on an SBA loan with 10 percent down. On a $115,500 purchase that is an $11,550 equity injection and a $103,950 loan. Loans of $150,000 or less carry an 85 percent SBA guaranty, so the guaranteed portion is $88,358, and the FY2026 upfront guaranty fee on loans that size is 2 percent of it, or $1,767.

The closing statement rarely stops there. Plan for these on top:

• Lease deposit and assignment costs. Most landlords want a new security deposit or a personal guaranty from the buyer, and some charge a fee to consent to the assignment.
• Retail inventory. Shampoo, color and styling product on the shelves is usually bought at cost on top of the price, counted the day before closing.
• Working capital. Commission or hourly pay goes out every week or two whether the first month is busy or not. A month of stylist pay and rent in the bank is a sensible floor.
• Licensing and transfer fees. A new establishment license, any franchise transfer fee, and legal fees for the purchase agreement and the lease review.

Can you get an SBA loan to buy a hair salon?

Yes, and at the median price the loan is easy to cover; the limit is the salary you can take. On a 10 year SBA loan at 10.5 percent, debt service on $103,950 is about $16,832 a year. The median $70,225 of earnings covers that 4.17 times. After the lender's usual 1.25x coverage cushion, the most a buyer can draw at $115,500 is about $49,185 a year. If the loan prices at the SBA cap of prime plus 6 points, 12.75 percent, that falls to about $47,173.

Put another way, drawing $60,000 a year at the median price takes $81,040 of owner earnings, and drawing $80,000 takes $101,040, close to the average sold salon rather than the median. Because almost every salon sells for under $350,000, the lender may value the business in house when buyer and seller are not closely related, instead of ordering an independent appraisal. That puts more weight on the numbers you bring. Our guide to the SBA loan to buy a business covers the down payment rules, seller notes and what the lender will ask for.

Is buying a hair salon a good investment?

For a stylist or barber who will keep working, usually yes; for an absentee investor at the median size, no. The median stylist on payroll earns $35,790 a year (BLS, May 2025) and the median barber $38,210. A stylist who buys the median salon and keeps a full book can draw up to about $49,185 while the loan is repaid, about $13,400 more than the payroll median, and owns the equity at the end.

The picture changes the moment the owner stops cutting. Replace the owner's chair with one hired stylist at the BLS median plus payroll tax, $38,528, and $31,697 of earnings is left, which makes the $115,500 price 3.64 times earnings. Hire a salon manager at $52,307 and step away entirely, and $17,918 is left: the price becomes 6.45 times earnings, and even with no owner salary the business supports only about $98,363 of financed price. Absentee ownership starts to make sense around the upper quartile, about $120,089 of owner earnings, or across several locations. The same split shows up in other owner-run service businesses; our gym valuation page runs it for gyms, where a hired manager breaks the median deal even harder.

What should I look for when buying a hair salon?

Start with who owns the clients, then the lease, then the books. A salon's value walks in and out of the door every day. The checks below take a week of document requests and save most of the bad deals.

• Client book by stylist. Two years of booking system reports: active clients per stylist, visits per client, rebooking rate and new clients per month. If one stylist holds half the book, your price depends on that person staying.
• Stylist roster. Tenure, pay model, weekly hours and share of revenue for each stylist, and any nonsolicitation agreements where your state allows them. Ask the seller how many stylists left in the last two years and where they went.
• Deposits against the point of sale. Twelve months of bank statements against the point of sale and booking reports. Cash tips and cash services that never reach the bank are revenue the lender will not count.
• Gift cards and prepaid packages. Every unredeemed gift card and prepaid package is service you will deliver for no new cash. Get the outstanding balance from the system and agree a credit at closing.
• The lease. Remaining term, renewal options, rent as a share of revenue and the assignment clause. A salon with a year left and no option is a salon you may have to move, with its plumbing.
• Retail and equipment. A count of retail stock and its age, and a list of chairs, dryers and shampoo stations with their condition. Expired color and dated product are worth nothing.

Is it better to buy a booth rental salon or a commission salon?

A commission or hourly salon is usually the better buy for an owner who wants a client book; a booth rental salon is a rent roll. In a booth rental salon, independent stylists pay weekly or monthly rent for a chair, set their own prices and keep their own clients. The revenue you buy is the rent, and every renter can move down the street the week after closing with every client they serve.

A commission salon books every service as its own revenue and controls the schedule, so the client list belongs to the business. It carries more payroll and more management, and it is what most lenders and buyers mean when they price a salon on SDE. Whichever you buy, check that the model on paper is the model in practice. Renters who work set hours, use salon product and take the salon's bookings can look like employees under the IRS common-law test, and reclassification brings back payroll taxes the buyer may inherit. Compare the two on the same basis: earnings after a market wage for any chair the owner fills.

Does the salon license transfer when you buy a salon?

Usually not; the new owner applies for a new establishment license. In Texas, the Department of Licensing and Regulation says a barbering or cosmetology establishment license cannot be transferred to a new owner, and the buyer must file an initial application (Texas Occupations Code 1603.2204). Most state boards treat a sale the same way, and some also care whether the owner or a named manager holds an individual license.

Build the license into the purchase agreement: who files, when, and what happens if the board has not issued it by closing. A short gap where the salon cannot legally operate costs more than the license fee, because clients who cannot book go somewhere else.

Keeping the clients through the handover

The first ninety days decide whether you bought the business or just the chairs. Agree that the seller stays on for a transition period, works alongside you and introduces you to regular clients personally. A seller note for part of the price gives them a reason to do it well. Keep prices and the stylist schedule unchanged for the first few months, and tell clients about the change in person before they hear it from someone else.

Make sure the client records actually come with the sale. The appointment history, contact details and service notes in the seller's booking account are part of what you are paying for, and they belong in the asset list of the purchase agreement. Before the seller hands over the logins, plan to move the client book and appointments into booking software you control, so rebooking reminders keep going out under the new ownership and nothing lives in a former owner's account.

How do you know if the asking price is fair?

Compare the asking price with three numbers: the multiple of owner earnings it implies, the sold range for salons of that size, and what an SBA loan will cover at the salary you need. A salon asking 2.5 times earnings on $70,000 of SDE is above the upper quartile of what sold. Current listings ask a median 2.13 times earnings against 1.77 times paid, so most asking prices have room to come down. If you need a formal report for a partner, a lender or the IRS, our breakdown of business valuation cost shows what each type of engagement costs and when it is worth paying for.

Before you sign a letter of intent, run the salon's revenue and owner earnings through the estimator on our hair salon valuation page. It returns a value range against what hair salons and barber shops actually sold for and shows how much of it an SBA loan will cover at the salary you need, so you go into the negotiation with a number you can defend.