Salon Lighting
Products
Track Lighting Series
Track lighting is perfect for hair salons, as it offers a modern aesthetic while allowing you to turn the light in any direction, as well as moving the lights up and down the track. This flexibility makes it easy for you to adapt the light to the rest of the interior even after the fittings have been installed.
In hair salons, 15W LED track lights with a 3000K (warm white) colour temperature should be used, to achieve sufficient lighting that’s not too bright and feels soft and relaxing. The sleek cylinder-shaped design in black or white will easily blend in with the surroundings and give any salon a high-end feeling. The tracks come in standard 1, 2 and 3 meter lengths, and can be joined together to create any shape; even round and bendable tracks are now available.
Track lighting creates the opportunity to customise a design to suite your personal style as well as the shape and size of your salon. The cheaper and lighter single circuit track format is perfect for salons, as it allows dimming all the light fittings at once from a light switch.
40W Black Track Light
30W Black Track Light
15W Black Track Light
9W Black Track Light
Linear Lighting Series
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CRI And Colour Matching
Perhaps the most important consideration in hair salon lighting is colour matching. If the CRI levels of the salon lights are far from those of natural light sources, problems will result when the customer leaves the salon. This is especially the case when it comes to hair dyeing. Hair colour can change appearance under different types of light, which is why it’s very common for people to get home from the salon and feel that the colour is different from what they saw when the dye was applied.
A low CRI level will also create an overall dull and washed out appearance on everything in the room. This is obviously far from ideal when you want to make the customer look and feel as attractive as possible.
By using a high CRI light, you will make colours look alive and radiant, and allow customers to see the true colours of their hair. Fittings with a CRI as close to 90 as possible are highly recommended for hair salons.
Creating Mood With Lighting
Dimming and glare control are important in controlling the mood and creating emotion within salons. Dimming allows you to control light levels, which are also known as lumens or LUX levels.
Within a salon space you want certain areas darker and others brighter. This creates a nice contrast, and will contribute to a more luxurious, high-end feeling. A common mistake is to install lights that spread the same amount of light all over the room, which will make the salon look very dull and plain.
It’s important to control the light levels on the walls to create a comforting feeling, as well as to keep glare levels down, which depends on the quality of lenses used within the fittings themselves. Poor quality fittings have very strong glare which is off-putting to customers. Choosing lights with excellent glare control will greatly benefit the look of the salon as well as the customers.
Colour Rendering Index
CRI 80
With a CRI of 80, colours appear washed out and dull and don’t appear at their true vibrancy to the human eye. Older lighting technologies like halogen, fluorescent or early LEDs are typically only capable of producing a CRI of <80.
CRI 95
With a CRI of 95, colours will appear almost at full vibrancy. This level is achievable with modern LED technologies and can make a huge difference when it comes to showing your customers the true colour of their hair, nails or makeup.
Additional Information
Beware of the following traps when lighting a hair salon.
Shadow Effect: Putting downlights directly over customers’ heads leads to large, unattractive shadows over their faces.
Cool White: It is common to see salons using a 6000K colour temperature. Lights this cool can easily give the room a clinical feeling, and customers don’t want to feel like they’re at the hospital or in a supermarket. Cool lighting also makes the skin look pale and dull, which makes it ill-suited to these applications.
Dimming: Many salons forget what a huge difference dimming can have in achieving that warm, relaxing feeling they are after. It’s all about creating the right mood, and having lights that allow you to experiment with different light levels. Dimming also helps to control unattractive glare, which is something nobody wants to experience in a salon environment.
With the right budget you can achieve great results by putting lighting around salon mirrors. This removes shadows from the customers’ faces and makes their skin look nice and even. However, this is a high-end alternative.
A cheaper option is to install two profile lights on each side of where the customer sits and aim them toward the shoulders. This will also effectively remove unwanted shadows from the face.
Hair & Nail Salon Lighting Design
To help you get started with your project, LED World can complete a 2D lighting plan for you within 5 days. Electricians understand how to install lighting, but most of the time lack the detailed knowledge that has such a great impact on the final outcome. Our lighting plans can be handed directly to your electrician, telling them exactly where to install the fittings.
Our 2D plans will give you the calculations and the positioning of the light fittings. The calculations show where the lux output of the lights will appear on the floor, while the positioning tells the installers the correct locations for the fittings. The price of a 2D plan starts at $199, which is a small amount to pay considering the highly professional outcome it will help you achieve.
Click here to find out more about our lighting plan design service.
