How to pricelash extensions

Step 1: Find the cost of one bookable hour

Write down everything the studio costs you in a normal month: rent or suite fee, lash trays, adhesive, primer, pads and tape, cleaning supplies, insurance, license renewals, software, phone, card fees and marketing. Then add the pay you want to take home for yourself. Owners who skip this line end up with a full book and nothing left over.

Next, count the hours you can actually sell. A lash day is never eight booked hours: you clean the bed between clients, mix nothing but still prep trays, answer messages, post on Instagram and do the books. Most solo artists can sell far fewer hours than they spend in the studio. Divide your monthly total by the bookable hours, and you have the minimum one hour of lash work has to bring in.

• All monthly costs, including the small ones
• Your own pay as a fixed line, not “whatever is left”
• Only hours a client can book, not hours you are in the studio

Step 2: Price each style by time in the chair

Classic, hybrid, volume and mega volume sets are not just different looks — they take different amounts of time. Time yourself on your last few sets of each style, from the moment the client lies down to the moment she sits up, and use the honest average, not your best day. Multiply that time by your hourly minimum.

Volume work also uses more product: more lashes per natural lash, more adhesive, sometimes premade fans. Add that difference on top of the time-based price. If you are still building speed, price for the time a confident artist at your level needs, not for the extra hour you need today — or you will have to raise prices sharply once you get faster.

Step 3: Build fills around a window

Fills are where lash pricing gets messy. A client who comes back after two weeks has most of her extensions left; a client who comes back after five weeks often needs nearly a full set, but expects to pay for a fill. The fix is a fill window: a fill price that applies only within a set number of weeks after the last visit.

Many studios offer a shorter and a longer fill, each with its own duration and price, and say that after the longer window the appointment is booked and charged as a new set. Some also ask that a certain amount of lashes remain — for example “at least half” — because a fill on very few remaining lashes takes as long as a new set.

• Two fill lengths with their own time and price
• A clear cut-off after which a fill becomes a full set
• The rule written into the service description, not only in your head

Step 4: Price the services around the set

Removals, lash baths, patch tests and lash lifts all take time and deserve their own price. A removal of your own work before a new set is often included; a removal of another artist’s work usually is not, because you do not know the adhesive and it takes longer. Foreign fills — filling another artist’s set — are best avoided or priced as a new set, since you cannot vouch for the base.

A patch test is a short, separate appointment a day or two before the first set. Whether you charge for it is your decision; what matters is that it has its own slot so it does not get squeezed in between sets.

Step 5: Check the market — after you know your floor

Now look at five to ten studios in your area that work at your level: similar experience, similar setting, similar reviews. Compare like with like — a classic full set against a classic full set, not against a “wispy” set that takes an hour longer. If your cost-based price sits well above all of them, look at your costs and your bookable hours first. If it sits well below, you are probably underpricing.

Avoid pricing yourself as the cheapest option to fill the book. Low prices attract clients who switch for the next discount, and every later increase hurts more.

Step 6: Write the prices where clients book

A clear lash menu answers most price questions before they reach your inbox. Give each service a plain name (“Classic full set”, “Volume fill — up to 2 weeks”), the time it takes and the price. If a service has conditions — a fill window, a required patch test — put them in the description, so the client reads them while she books, not after.

Review your prices once a year, or sooner if your book is full several weeks out. A full calendar is the clearest sign that your prices can move.

Mistakes that quietly cost lash artists money

The most common one is pricing fills by habit instead of by time. If your fills regularly run as long as a set, either the window is too long or the price is too low. The second is forgetting the time around the service: the consultation for a new client, the cleanup, the photo, the rebooking at the end. If it happens every time, it belongs in the price.

The third is discounting the wrong thing. A first-visit discount on a full set brings clients who may never come back for a fill; a small reward for rebooking a fill before leaving rewards the clients who keep your calendar steady. And finally: changing prices without changing them everywhere. Your booking menu, your website and your Instagram highlights should always show the same number.