How to Choose Lighting for BarberShop?

When it comes to a barber shop, it‘s the service you provide and the experience the client enjoys that results in a successful business. Most shop owners make the mistake of using vibrant colors and cool white light when it comes to barber shops. 

However, this can quickly deteriorate the overall experience resulting in unappealing lighting and dreaded shadows. 

Here we’ve discussed choosing the right lighting and lighting fixtures for your barber shop so that you can get the best result in your business. 

Importance of Right Lighting Design in Barber Shops 

The importance of lighting the barber shop is immense due to the nature of this business. Good lighting not only ensures precision in services but also helps in creating an inviting environment. Whenever the client visits any salon or similar place, the primary motivation is to look good and feel good. You can take off the looks part with exceptional services but feeling good is another subject altogether. 

Researches show that aesthetic and well-curated lighting has an extraordinary influence on people’s mood. So, acing the lighting design for a barber shop will result in satisfied customers, repeat business, referrals, and more clients. 

7 Things to Consider While Choosing Lighting For The Barber Shop 

1. Select a Theme 

A theme is a combination of lighting and decor that reflects your inspiration. For barber shops and salons, the right theme is crucial for business. A lighting theme is a combination of the following features. 

• Color Scheme

• Light Temperature

• Intensity 

• Color Rendering Index (CRI)

We’ll expand more on these features later. Older luminaires like fluorescent, incandescent, and halogen lamps weren’t flexible enough to experiment with different features. This changed with modern LED lights, which offer various features including energy efficiency and virtually no limitations.

2. Calculate the Lighting Requirement 

Having the correct illumination in the barbershop is essential, not only because we are working with sharp scissors, but also to accurately assess and work with different hair colors. For convenience’s sake, let us divide your shop into three areas.

First is the cutting area, where all the magic happens. Second is the washing area, where all hair dyeing and shampooing are done. The third is the general area where customers wait and are received by the receptionist.      

Lumen (lm) is the unit used to define how much light a lamp emits. Start by measuring the length and width of your shop. Multiply it to get the total area of your shop. For example, a 20 ft by 10 ft shop will have an area of 200 sq. ft. 

You can also measure the area of the cutting station separately. It’s recommended because working stations need bright light, unlike the rest of the shop area. 

Next, multiply the area with the recommended lumens mentioned in the table. For a 200 sq. ft general area, you will need 200*50= 10,000 lm per sq. ft. for proper lighting.  Each luminaire comes with a lumen rating mentioned on its packing. So, the number of bulbs required will be:

No. of bulbs = Total Lumen required per sq. ft / Lumen rating

A typical 10 W LED recessed light emits 950 lm. We require 10-11 LED lamps (10000/950) to illuminate the general area. It’s an easy method and gives a reasonable estimate. 

3. Proper Placement 

The keyword here is “shadows.” You have to eliminate shadows at all costs. No matter how good the lighting is, it will be a disaster if the placement is inaccurate. 

Never use a light bulb directly above the workstation. A good practice is to place track lights 2 feet away from the working station and point them towards the mirror. The reflection will give a nice soft light effect. 

Furthermore, keep a distance of 2 to 3 ft between the overhead lighting, as this will give a nice spread of the light beam. 

The lighting source should be around 0.8 to 1 ft above the sitting customer to provide adequate illumination. Use a down-rod extension if the ceiling is too high.

For a more professional look, position warm temperature lighting alongside the mirror, which directs lights horizontally at the customer, eradicating any shadows. 

4. Types of Lighting 

There are a few options for effective lighting, each with its pros and cons. We are going to divide them into two categories for easy understanding. 

• Traditional Lights

Traditionally barber shops used to have fluorescent bulbs, incandescent lamps, and halogen lights. Fluorescent and incandescent are the least efficient, owning to inefficient CRI and color temperatures. 

However, halogen bulbs proved quite effective because they have the highest CRI value and the best color temperature. The yellowish tint offered by halogen hides the imperfection and smooths the human skin. Making it perfect for salons.  

But halogen bulbs generate a lot of heat and need proper ventilation. They also have a low life cycle and require frequent replacement of bulbs. Anyhow, halogen bulbs are still used due to their high-quality light and cheaper rates.

• Modern LED Lights

LED lights are way more versatile and energy efficient. Many barber shops are updating their LED lighting system because they have more to offer. Such lights can mimic the warm yellow temperature of halogens and high CRI without the side effects of excessive heat.

A 10 W LED gives off the same light as a 50 W halogen bulb. In addition, an LED bulb lasts 50,000 hours. Imagine how much you will save on electricity bills with LEDs. 

5. Make Your Customer Look Good 

People come to the barber shop for personal grooming and want to feel good. Good lighting will hide the blemishes and uneven skin tone. Add that to a professional haircut, and your business will surely boom. Here is how you can achieve it. 

Color Temperature 

What works best for barbershops is the warm temperature lighting which falls within the range of 3000K to 4000K. Anything below or greater than this would result in poor lighting. It also creates a more relaxing overtone which is good for business. 

 Color Rendering Index (CRI)

CRI quantifies how well colors are seen under the light. Natural sunlight has the highest CRI rating of 100. If you offer hair dyeing and similar services where accurate hair color perception is essential, installing high CRI lights is crucial.

Customers often get their hair dyed only to find out the color appears entirely differently under the daylight. The only way to prevent this from happening to your loyal customers is by installing lights with a rating above 85. 

Halogen bulbs naturally emit light close to 90 CRI, which is pretty good. However, you can also find similar ratings in LED bulbs.

6. Use Lighting Design as a Marketing Tool  

You can always exploit lighting fixtures to use a marketing tool. Ensure your customer feels relaxed and enjoys the ambiance while having a haircut.  A great way to do this is by using LED lights. Many types of lights, like ring lights, pendants, recessed, and LED strips, can be used to attract customers. 

Moreover, you can use LED sign boards and neon lights to create a mesmerizing appeal. This is undoubtedly going to attract a younger customer base. Try an LED barber pole, which can give your place a retro and vintage touch. 

7. Invest More Now & Save Later      

We recommend high-CRI-rated LED lights for your barber shop. You may have concerns over the high initial investment, which is true.

However, due to the energy-efficient technology and low maintenance and replacement costs, the LED luminaire can recover the cost within the first year of use. And from the following year, you are going to save money. Some popular LED lighting options are recessed light, spotlight, track light, and downlight.

Distinct Lighting Setups 

You can do separate lighting in barber shops and salons and avoid wasting resources.  

Here’s an example for you. Use high-intensity task lighting for the working station. Though expensive, it’ll give better illumination. 

Similarly, only use high CRI lighting fixtures for dyeing and washing areas. These lamps are expensive, but limiting them to a certain area will give the best results. 

You can use normal-rated lighting for the general area as the stakes are much lower. 

By playing it smartly, you’ll have the most eye-catching and budget-oriented lighting in the shop. 

Final Thoughts 

A little time and investment in the lighting design will result in great success for your barber shop. This guide has presented in detail the things you can do yourself to make your place look better.

You don’t even have to contact a designer for this. Start by calculating the lighting required and remember the key points discussed above. Indeed, you’ll have a great time revamping your place. 

RC Lighting Provides Best Luminaire For Barber Shops 

RC Lighting is a leading manufacturer of LED lights in the market. Our high-tech manufacturing plants use supreme-quality materials and modern technology to create the best lighting products. 

We have a vast catalog of indoor and outdoor LED lights, such as recessed, panel, track, and spotlights. Our products excel in quality as well as aesthetics. RC Lighting has an expert team that ensures each product meets high international standards. Even with no compromise on the quality, our products are available at competitive market rates. 

That’s not all! We provide 24/7 customer service to help you customize your order promising guaranteed success. So, what are you waiting for? Contact us NOW!