Colour without a skin test is how a claim gets refused.

Hairdressers' words, hairdressers' rules

You say skin test or allergy alert test, not patch test. Colour tests are typically valid for 6 months and done at least 48 hours before the appointment. Those are the defaults Glow starts a hair salon on. You can change them. Whether that satisfies your insurer is between you and them.

The NHBF and colour houses publish guidance on allergy alert testing. The CTPA has long told salons to ask about previous colour and about black henna before they mix. Glow does not replace that reading. It gives you a place to record the answers, the test date, the result and the signature so you are not reconstructing the visit from a paper card.

• Skin test booked as its own appointment, or paired with the colour.
• Expiry per category — colour at 6 months, cut-and-finish with no test.
• The client-facing page tells them how long a test lasts.
• Consultation and consent signed before they sit down.
• Colour and product batches on the visit, ready if anyone asks.

What the file has to show later

When a client reacts to colour, the question is not 'did you usually test?'. It is 'can you show this client, this date, this result, this product?'. A book of unsigned slips does not do that. A test that expired in March does not cover a June bleach. A client who had black henna on holiday and was never asked is a different kind of miss — see Black henna and hair colour.

Glow keeps the allergy alert test on the client, with the expiry you set. If it has lapsed, they cannot book the colour online. They book the test first, or they book test and colour together with the lead time you chose. Cut-and-finish stays unblocked. You are not making every wet cut carry a colour rule.

Not a generic till

Outside that file, Glow is just another diary: deposits, reminders, staff, a public page. The reason it is £19 and not a race with Fresha is the record: test, consent, batch. Hair is the largest trade where that record matters, and most booking tools still treat a skin test as a note.

One salon already runs piercings, nails, waxing, laser, facials, hair, tanning and tooth gems through Glow: 124 services across 12 categories, 17,000 bookings. Same product. Different menu.

Glow records what you set and shows when it was recorded. It does not decide what your insurer, council, pigment supplier or prescriber requires, and it does not claim a salon is compliant.

A colour Saturday without the argument at the desk

The fight is always the same: they want the bleach today, the test was last autumn, and the chair is empty at 11. If the booking page already refused the colour, you are not the villain. You are following the rule they saw when they tapped the link. If they want the colour, they book the skin test, they wait the lead time, they come back. Regulars who have been coming for a decade still need a current test when the window lapses or the brand changes. Familiarity is not immunity.

Reception can see the date on the client. The stylist can see the batch on the visit. The owner can see, later, that the file existed. That is the job of the software. The job of the salon is still the cut and the mix.

Price

£19 a month. Everything included. 0% commission. Free move from Fresha, Booksy or Treatwell. See Glow pricing and allergy alert test rules.