Create a QR Code for Your Salon
A client in your chair has a phone in one hand and forty minutes of colour processing ahead of them. They are not going anywhere. No other business on the high street gets that, and most salons put nothing in front of it except a magazine.
The tool encodes your link in the browser and uploads nothing. Pick your colours, drop in your logo, download an SVG for the printer or a PNG for a story. The contrast gets measured before the file leaves the page, which on this palette matters more than you would think.
Blush and Gold Do Not Scan
Here is the part nobody mentions. Salon branding runs on blush pink and gold, and both fail outright. Blush pink measures 1.58:1 against white. Gold measures 2.1:1. Print needs 4.5:1 to be reliable, so those codes look right on your monitor and die on a price card under downlights. The tool measures the ratio while you pick and refuses to hand you a code it cannot read back, so you find out here rather than after 200 cards.
The fix is duller than the problem. Keep the palette on the card stock and put the modules in something dark. Plum (#7b3f61) measures 7.7:1 and still reads as salon rather than as a parcel label. Charcoal is 13.39:1 and always works. Picking a colour that passes and still looks like you is genuinely tedious, so budget twenty minutes for it once, then reuse the hex forever.
The second thing is length. A Fresha or Booksy booking URL is about 68 characters, which encodes as a version 5 symbol and wants roughly 18mm of printed width. Put a redirect on your own domain, yoursalon.co.uk/book, and you are at 29 characters, a version 3 symbol, 14.8mm. Same destination, eight fewer modules across, and you can repoint it later without reprinting a thing. If the client Wi-Fi comes up too, a Wi-Fi code saves reading a passphrase over a hairdryer, and the Google review QR code generator explains which of the two links Google gives you opens the star form directly.
How to Make Your Salon Code
Pick the link the code should open
Your booking page, your Instagram, or the Google review form. One code, one job. A code that opens a link tree is a code that asks a client with wet hair to make a decision.
Shorten it if you can
A Fresha or Booksy booking URL runs to about 68 characters, which encodes as a version 5 symbol needing roughly 18mm of print. A redirect on your own domain, yoursalon.co.uk/book, is 29 characters and needs 14.8mm. On a mirror decal that is the difference between tidy and stuck on.
Set the colours, then look at the ratio
Blush and gold will not pass. The tool measures contrast as you pick and refuses to hand you a code it cannot read back, so the failure happens here rather than on 200 printed price cards.
Download for the surface, not in general
SVG for anything a printer touches. PNG for the Instagram story. The preview tells you the minimum width in millimetres for the exact code you made, and that number changes with the link.
Where Each Code Belongs
- The mirror station
- A decal on the mirror edge, the station card, the trolley. Forty minutes in a chair with a phone and a colour processing timer running. This is the captive moment other businesses do not get, and almost no salon uses it.
- The backwash
- The ceiling above the basin, the shelf in eyeline. Sounds odd until you have lain in one. The client is staring straight up for ten minutes. A code on the ceiling gets scanned more than one on the counter.
- Reception and checkout
- The card machine sign, the rebooking card, the receipt. Where the review gets asked for, while the blow-dry still looks like the blow-dry. Two days later it does not.
- The price list
- The printed menu of services, the window card. Prices change and printed lists go stale. Point the code at the live page and reprint the card once a year instead of every time a service moves.
- Retail and gift vouchers
- Shelf talkers by the shampoo, the voucher itself. The aftercare product a client photographs and forgets. A code to the exact product page closes that gap while they are still holding the bottle.
What a Salon Actually Gets Out of It
- Rebooking without the awkward ask
- The client scans at the mirror and picks their own slot while you finish. Nobody has to stand at a desk deciding in front of a queue.
- Reviews while the hair is fresh
- The Google review link that opens the star form is 39 characters and prints at 14.8mm, small enough for a rebooking card.
- A price list that does not go stale
- Point at the live page. When a colour service goes up, the printed card stays right.
- No account, nothing uploaded
- The code is built in your browser. Your booking link never reaches our server, and the code carries no dependency on us once it is printed.
- Instagram in one scan
- A profile URL is 32 characters, a version 3 symbol, 14.8mm. It fits on a station card without crowding anything.
- It still works next year
- Static codes have no expiry and no plan behind them. The window decal keeps working whether or not this site does.
Salon QR Code Best Practices
- Keep the blush on the card, not in the code
- Blush pink measures 1.58:1 against white and gold measures 2.1:1. Both fail. Print the card in your palette and the modules in a dark plum (#7b3f61 measures 7.7:1) or near black. The code still looks like you.
- Mind the mirror
- A code stuck on glass with a lit room behind it fights reflections. Put it on the frame or on matte vinyl, not on the reflective surface itself.
- Size for the distance, not for the design
- A station card is read at arm's length and 18mm is fine. A window code is read from the pavement, and that is a different file at a different size. The same artwork cannot do both.
- One code, one destination
- Booking, reviews and Instagram are three different asks at three different moments. Three codes on three surfaces beat one code on a link tree.
- Print the link underneath
- Some clients photograph the card instead of scanning it, and some hand it to someone else. The text underneath is what they use.
- Test it on a phone with a case
- Under salon lighting, at the angle a client actually holds a phone in a chair. Do it before the print run, not after.
What This Does Not Do
- No scan counts. A static code holds the address and nothing phones home. Counting needs a dynamic code pointing at a redirect you control.
- It cannot make anyone rebook or leave a review. It removes the typing, not the decision.
- If the tool refuses your blush or your gold, that is the contrast gate doing its job, not a bug. Darken the module colour, or read the print size guide before you commit to a run.
- A static code goes stale if you move salons or your booking platform changes its URL. Point it at a short address on your own domain, or use a permanent code, and you can repoint it without reprinting.
- Nothing here is salon-only. The same sizing maths runs the estate agent board code and the museum label code, both read from further away than a station card.
Salon QR Code Questions
How do I make a QR code for my salon?
Paste your booking link, Instagram profile or Google review link into the tool above. The code is encoded in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and you can download SVG for print or PNG for a story. There is no account and no watermark.
Can I use my salon's pink and gold on the QR code?
On the card, yes. In the code itself, usually not. Blush pink measures about 1.58:1 against white and gold about 2.1:1, where print needs 4.5:1 to be reliable. The tool measures the ratio as you pick and blocks the download if the code cannot be read back. Dark plum at 7.7:1 passes and still reads as salon branding.
Where should I put a QR code in a salon?
The mirror station first. A client in the chair has a phone in hand and time to spare, which is the moment other high street businesses have to buy. After that the backwash ceiling, the checkout and the price list.
How big does the QR code need to be on a price list?
About 15 to 18mm for a short link read at arm's length. The exact minimum is shown under the preview for the code you made, because it depends on the length of your link. A Fresha booking URL needs 18mm, your own short domain needs 14.8mm.
Should the code go to my booking system or my website?
Whichever gets to a bookable slot in the fewest taps. If your booking platform's URL is long, put a redirect on your own domain and point the code at that. It prints smaller and you can change where it goes later without reprinting.
Can clients book without an app?
That depends on your booking platform, not on the code. The code opens whatever link you give it in the phone's browser. If your platform pushes an app install before it shows a slot, the code inherits that, so test the link on a phone that has never used it.
Do QR codes for salons expire?
The ones made here do not. They are static, so the link lives inside the pattern and nothing is looked up on our servers when a client scans. A window decal made today still works in three years.
Can I put my logo in the middle?
Yes. A logo covers modules, so the tool caps how much it can cover at the current error-correction level and decodes the finished code before the download unlocks. Keep it small on anything printed under 20mm.
More for work and admin
Contact cards, Wi-Fi, and forms people fill in.
- Google review QR codeThe review link forms measured side by side, including the one that opens the star form rather than the listing.
- Google Form QR codeTurn a Google Form link into a code that scans, and see which of your two links prints smaller.
- Wi-Fi QR codeShare a network without reading the passphrase aloud, with the separator characters escaped properly.
Guides worth reading
All guides- Comparisons
Static vs Dynamic QR Codes
What the redirect actually buys you, measured on real encoded codes, and which payloads are worse off for it.
16 min read - Printing
QR Code Sticker Size: The Circle Costs You 30%
The usable square inside a round sticker is 70% of its diameter. Measured minimum sizes for real links, against every common sticker size.
8 min read - Reference
Offline QR Code Generators for Every Device
What each platform already ships, the measured cost of each payload type, and how to check an offline claim yourself.
26 min read
