London has close to 9,900 hair and beauty businesses, almost all of them with fewer than ten staff. Nails and massage can need a council licence under the London Local Authorities Act 1991, the voluntary London Living Wage sits above the rest of the UK, and one Londoner in five speaks another main language. Salongram keeps the diary, rota and payments on one phone.
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Salongram is a free salon booking app for London salons and barbershops: appointments, clients, staff hours and WhatsApp reminders in one Android app.
Competition, licensing and pay. The number of hair and beauty businesses in London rose by about a quarter in five years. Treatments beyond hair can need a council licence, the capital has its own higher voluntary living wage, and about one Londoner in five has a main language other than English.
ONS business counts show 9,895 local units in hairdressing and other beauty treatment in London in 2026, up from 7,775 in 2021, a rise of about 27% in five years. That is around 18% of the 53,640 counted across the United Kingdom.
Of London's 9,895 hair and beauty business units in 2026, 9,380 had fewer than ten employees, about 95%, and only 505 had between ten and 49. Across the whole United Kingdom the pattern is the same: 51,285 of 53,640 units are micro businesses.
Westminster City Council licenses premises that offer massage, manicure, acupuncture, tattooing, cosmetic piercing, chiropody and similar treatments under Schedule II of the London Local Authorities Act 1991. The council says its list is not exhaustive, so a salon adding nails or massage should check with its own borough before taking bookings.
The Living Wage Foundation set the London Living Wage at £15.45 an hour for 2026-27, against £14.10 for the rest of the UK, announced on 15 October 2026 for employers to pay by 1 May 2027. It is voluntary, unlike the legal minimum wage, so paying it is the employer's choice.
In the 2021 Census, London had the lowest share of residents with English as their main language of any English region, at 78.4%. Romanian was the main language of 1.9% of Londoners, and of 7.5% of residents in Harrow, the highest of any local authority.
About 95% of London's 9,895 hair and beauty units have fewer than ten employees. Salongram is free and runs on the phone already behind the desk, so a small team gets a proper diary without buying a booking system.
Westminster licenses premises that offer manicure and massage. Link those services to the therapists who perform them, so a nail or massage booking only reaches someone who does it. The licence itself stays between you and the council.
Salongram keeps each person's working hours, breaks and time off, which is where checking pay against the £15.45 London Living Wage starts. It does not run payroll or work out wages.
London gained about 2,100 hair and beauty units between 2021 and 2026. A booking link and a QR code in the window let a passer-by request a real free time after you close, and you accept it in the morning.
Around one Londoner in five has a main language other than English. Each phone can run Salongram in English, Arabic or Spanish, although Romanian, Polish and Bengali are not offered yet.
We found no official data on how Londoners book salon visits, so this guide does not guess. What Salongram does is keep every booking, wherever it came from, in one diary per stylist, so a small team can take calls, walk-ins and online requests without double-booking a chair.
List manicure, massage or brow treatments as their own services with their own staff, so only the people your licence covers are offered for them.
Services and staffClients who book on the way home can use your booking link or QR code to pick a real free slot, and the request waits for you to accept it in the morning.
The booking linkIn a busy London week, a late cancellation is lost money. The waiting list shows who wants that time and turns them into a booking in one tap.
The waiting listAn illustrative Friday, not research: a five-chair hair and nail salon in Peckham with a mixed team, open six days, where the owner also cuts and the nail bar works under the borough's special treatment licence.
The owner checks the staff columns between her own clients: the nail technician is fully booked until three.
A walk-in asks for a skin fade; the barber has twenty free minutes and the cut is booked straight in.
A gel manicure cancels; a client on the waiting list who asked for Friday afternoons takes the slot.
Three booking requests from the link are accepted for Saturday, each checked against the right stylist's hours.
Type in your own numbers. A no-show is a slot nobody else could take; reminders and a waiting list are how most salons win part of it back.
An estimate from the numbers you enter (a month counted as 4.33 weeks). Nothing is sent or stored. Salongram is free to download.
Add hair services and, separately, any nail, massage or brow treatments your borough licence covers, each with its own price and duration.
Give each person the services they are trained and licensed for, plus their days, hours and breaks, so the diary only offers the right person.
Create the free optional account to get your link and QR code, and put it on your Instagram, Google listing or shop window.
Often, yes. Westminster City Council lists manicure among the treatments licensed under the London Local Authorities Act 1991. Ask your own borough council before adding nail services. Salongram can list those services separately, but it does not handle the licence.
Yes, if each person can use one of the app's three languages: English, Arabic or Spanish. Each phone can be set separately. There are no Romanian, Polish or Bengali screens yet, so check with your team first.
ONS counts show 9,895 hair and beauty business units in London in 2026, about 18% of the UK total and up by about 27% since 2021. A small salon competing for those clients benefits from a fast diary, a booking link and a waiting list for cancellations.
No. Salongram keeps each person's hours and breaks so you can see who worked when, but it does not calculate pay. The London Living Wage is voluntary; the 2026-27 rate is £15.45 an hour.
Yes. Salongram is free on Android, with no fee per chair or stylist, which suits the many London salons with fewer than ten staff. It keeps the diary, clients, staff hours and payment records. It does not take card payments or deposits.
Yes. Add nails, massage and hair as services, link each to the staff who do it, and Salongram books them all in one diary. It does not hold or check the special treatment licence a borough such as Westminster asks for; apply to the council for that.
Set up tonight, add your services and team, and book your first client in under a minute.
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