Q: Clients are buying waxing products from the high street instead of my salon. How can I boost my retail?

As with all services, using the correct homecare products will help clients get the best longterm results from their waxing treatment. However, it seems many salons don’t understand, or tend to neglect, the retail side of hair removal.

Waxing is actually one of the easiest beauty treatments to support with retail – the service is about beautiful, smooth skin after all. Whether it’s in preparation for a holiday, special occasion, sporting performance or just part of regular grooming, nobody wants sore bits, pimples or ingrown hairs blighting their freshly waxed skin.

Don’t wait for customers to phone or come in for their next treatment complaining they’ve got spots or ingrown hairs; sell them something at that first appointment to help prevent the problem before it even arises. Mention specific products during consultation and again as part of your aftercare advice, so that it becomes a natural extension of the treatment itself.

Then at every subsequent appointment, ask if there were any issues after their last visit, enabling you to address concerns with a tweak to the client’s homecare. Letting clients pick up aftercare items at retailers such as Boots is like sending money out of the door. You don’t need 101 lotions and potions lining your shelves but there are some core products that every hairremoval practitioner should aim to offer.

In my own salon, the consistent bestsellers include soothing gels and creams, moisturising tea tree body lotions, exfoliating cloths and mitts, and specific ingrown hair products – all of which can be picked up relatively inexpensively from beauty wholesalers and waxing brands.

Don’t make your clients go down to the high street to pick something up: have the solution for them there and then as part of a ready-to-go homecare kit with written instructions for fabulous, fuzzfree results.

Andy Rouillard is a male waxing expert, trainer and speaker. He owns the Axiom Men’s Grooming Salon and The Wax Academy, both in Basingstoke. 

Check out our video with Rouillard on the five most common waxing mistakes therapists make and how to avoid them.