Lexington, SC Salon Business Loans: Pedicure Chairs, Styling Stations and Product Orders

A hair salon spends on three things outside rent: the equipment at each station, the color and retail product on the shelves, and the occasional round of new stations and furniture. Hood dryers, styling chairs, styling stations and a color processor go into an equipment financing request with a vendor quote. Product orders and payroll gaps fit working capital, paid back from service and retail sales.

These are small payrolls. The 79 beauty salons with paid staff in Lexington County, SC reported 321 employees in March 2023, about 4.1 per salon, and 53 of the 79 had fewer than five (CBP; our arithmetic on the employee count). A dryer that fails in a three-chair salon takes a real share of the day's bookings with it.

Barber shops buy much of the same equipment as hair salons: hydraulic chairs, clippers and trimmers, sterilizing cabinets, hot towel units and mirrors. Nail and hair upgrades in a combined shop follow the same rule: anything with a serial number and a quote is equipment, and supplies are working capital.

Shops without a payroll sit in a different Census count: the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics list 120 establishments under Barber Shops in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 812111).

Pedicure thrones are the costliest piece in a nail salon, and pedicure chairs with built-in basins come with installation lines on the quote; the plumbing hookup itself is building work outside this site. Dust collection is the other big item: source-capture tables, desktop dust collectors and air purifiers at each station. Both are equipment, and both can be financed with the unit backing the deal.

Retail shelving for polish, lotions and gift sets is a fixture purchase, usually small enough to sit inside the same request. Ductwork, wiring and other work inside a leased suite are building work, and the building's structure belongs to the landlord; both are outside this site.

All 18 nail salons with paid staff in Lexington County, SC had fewer than five employees in 2023 (CBP), and ZIP Code Business Patterns placed 3 nail salons at a ZIP 29072 address. The 2024 Nonemployer Statistics, counted separately, list 453 establishments under Nail Salons in the county with no paid employees (NAICS 812113).

Salon suites are a different business: the owner leases a space, sets up individual suites with a chair, a mirror and storage, and rents each one to a stylist. The chairs, mirrors, storage carts and color bar fixtures are purchases that equipment financing or working capital can cover; building the suite walls and the shampoo plumbing is building work outside this site. A salon that wants to own the building itself is making a property purchase, and this site does not cover those.

Refreshing an existing salon follows the same split. New stations, mirrors and chairs are equipment, while lighting and flooring are building work outside this site; the weeks of reduced booking during the work are a cash flow gap.

In a separate count, the 2024 Nonemployer Statistics list 794 establishments under Beauty Salons in Lexington County, SC with no paid employees (NAICS 812112).

Working capital and equipment financing carry an interest cost that depends on the partner and the term. A merchant cash advance has a fixed cost set at signing and is collected from each day's card receipts; for a salon paid mainly by card, that cost is the number to compare before signing.

Annual payroll at Lexington County, SC beauty salons with paid staff came to $9.6 million in 2023, roughly $29,841 per employee by our arithmetic (CBP), a figure that includes part-time staff. Other personal care trades are on the industries page, and office-town figures are on the Lexington, SC page.