What should a UK hair stylist contract include?

A UK hair-stylist contract should name the parties, the booking, the services and who is being styled, whether a trial is in, travel and early-start fees, unused booked dates, how strand tests and scalp conditions are handled, and whether anyone may use photos of the look. Sign it before the date is held.

This page is England and Wales first. Copyright under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is UK-wide. Off-payroll working (IR35) is a UK tax rule and only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. The money-claim route for an unpaid invoice is the England and Wales procedure in Client won't pay a freelance invoice. Typical salon, brand, production and agency bookings are business-to-business. A company brief does not get the consumer 14-day cooling-off. A wedding couple buying wholly or mainly outside their trade is usually a consumer, so cancellation terms must be fair. A named date does not, by itself, make the booking a leisure-related service under regulation 28(1)(h). The exception applies only if the service is related to leisure activities and the contract specifies the performance date or period. Fairness of cancellation terms is a separate Consumer Rights Act 2015 question.

This page is freelance hair bookings: bridal and wedding hair (including trials), editorial and fashion-week days, commercial and event work, film or TV dailies, and a visiting stylist in a salon. It is not an employment paper for a salon stylist on payroll. It is not a chair-rental or booth-rental hire of space. It is not makeup as a standalone trade, and not photography. Makeup on the same day sits on What should a UK makeup artist contract include?. Photographs of the look sit on What should a UK photographer contract include?. A filmed day sits on What should a UK videography contract include?. A model booking sits on Contracts for models.

Contracts.io has no hair-stylist template. Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Those papers already have fee, cancellation and liability slots. Repeat bookings can hang a statement of work under standing terms, or sit on a retainer. A brand or editorial day can sit next to an influencer agreement. A job that sits on a filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. Still photos you take yourself can sit next to a photo licence. Company-to-company contractor work can start from an independent contractor agreement. If you are sharing an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it. Contracts for hair stylists is the shorter audience page. Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK? is the wedding-fee sibling. Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit? is the general deposit page.

Twelve blocks finish this paper:

The counts, hours and splits are examples of how to write the list, not a required rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

Sign before the date is held. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule.

Name the services — cut, colour, styling or extensions — who is being styled, the call time, whether an assistant is in, and whether a trial is in. “Some hair” is not a list. Extra people, a second look and a party finish are a change of scope, quoted first.

You do the named services. A mother-of-the-bride, a party, colour, extensions and makeup are named items or they are out. A colourist or barber booking uses the same list with different labels: the service, the time, the kit, unused dates. Write what is being done, not a trade title.

Write nine things:

• Booking. Date, place, indoor or outdoor, call time. A rain plan for an outdoor getting-ready is a named item, not a guess.
• People. Who is being styled, by name or role. One bride is not a bridal party.
• Services. Cut, colour, styling, extensions, a fashion-week or editorial day, a film/TV daily. Named finish. A Pinterest board is input; it is not the list.
• Assistant. A second stylist is in or out. Extra faces they cover are named or quoted first.
• Trial. In or out. See the trial section.
• Kit. Whose products. What the client or the salon must supply. Your kit is pre-existing materialspre-existing materialsPre-existing materials are tools, libraries or work the supplier already owned, which are licensed for the job rather than handed over.More in the glossary.
• Time on site. Call, wrap, and whether a touch-up window is in. Overtime after wrap is a named rate or it is out.
• What is out of scope. Extra people, a second look, overnight, a second location, colour when only styling was booked, makeup, a livestream tutorial.
• Dependencies. Access, power, a clean well-lit space, running water, a named contact, the people arriving on time. The job slips if those do not arrive.

A chair-rental or booth-rental day is a hire of salon space. It is not this freelance booking. An employed salon stylist sits on an employment paper, not this one. A visiting stylist working a salon’s clients still needs the services, kit, fee and unused-date lines on this page.

A revision limitrevision limitA revision limit says how many rounds of changes are included in the fee before extra work is quoted.More in the glossary is the wrong tool for a live booking. A change adds an extra person, a second look, or a later wrap you never priced. Mixing the two is how a “quick extra face” becomes a new product at no fee. See Client keeps adding extra work and change control.

Film, TV and fashion-week dailies use the same list with different labels: call sheet, department, continuity of the look, kit, second stylist, overtime after wrap. Write the daily as a day, not “some hair on set”.

Example

The Hair Stylist will perform the Services specified in Schedule 1, for the people, services and call time set out there, on the date in Schedule 1. Colour, extensions, makeup, extra people, a second look, a party finish, overnight, an assistant and work not described in Schedule 1 are out of scope and are quoted in writing before they start. Access, a clean well-lit space, running water and a named on-the-day contact the Client must supply are dependencies; the Hair Stylist is not obliged to start if those are missing.

In Plain English: they get the named services for the named people. A new shape of day is priced first. No space, no start.

A freelancer agreement or a services agreement is the usual paper. Repeat commercial clients often sit under a services agreement plus a statement of work per booking.

A trial is a named session or it is out. Write the date, who attends, whether it is billed, whether that sum is credited if the booking goes ahead, and what happens if they skip it. UK law does not imply a free trial.

A working trial clause answers five things:

• whether a trial is in, and on which date and place
• who attends — the person being styled, not an open guest list
• whether the trial is billed, and whether that sum is credited against the booking fee if the date goes ahead
• how long it lasts, and whether a second trial is extra
• what happens if they cancel the trial, skip it, or want a different look on the day after skipping it

A skipped trial is not a right to redo the look all morning. If they decline the trial, write that the on-the-day look follows the brief they already approved, and that extra time is overtime.

A bridal package that bundles the trial and the wedding day is still two named sessions. Write both dates, both fees, and whether the trial sum is credited. A colour trial or a strand-test appointment is a named session too; it is not implied by “bridal hair”.

Example

A trial session is included only if Schedule 1 names a trial date. The trial fee is the sum in Schedule 1. If the booking in Schedule 1 goes ahead, that sum is credited against the fee. If the Client skips the trial, the on-the-day look follows the brief already approved and extra time is overtime at the rate in Schedule 1. A second trial is out of scope unless quoted in writing.

In Plain English: a trial happens if you named it. Skipping it does not buy an open rewrite on the morning.

Put the list in a freelancer agreement.

Write the fee, whether it is a set fee, an hourly rate or a package, whether VAT is extra, travel and early-start, overtime after wrap, when invoices go out, and what unused booked dates cost. A deposit is not a statutory rate. For a qualifying business-to-business debt, statutory interest can apply under the 1998 Act unless your contract sets its own substantial remedy.

Payment terms should name:

• the fee and the basis — a set fee, an hourly rate, a day rate, or a named package (trial plus wedding day, for example);
• whether VAT is extra;
• travel, parking, congestion, overnight lodging — in or extra;
• an early-start extra if call is before a named hour;
• overtime after the wrap in Schedule 1;
• when invoices go out — on signature, before the date, or in named stages;
• how many days to pay — net 14 or net 30Net 30Net 30 means the client has 30 days from the invoice date to pay.More in the glossary;
• a pause right if an undisputed invoice is overdue, including a right not to travel;
• that any permission to use photos of the look you take yourself passes only on full payment.

Write the numbers you actually use.

A deposit before booked dates are reserved is a common shape, not a statutory rate. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree it. A cancellation charge should be a genuine, proportionate amount. For a consumer the term must be fair under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. See Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit? and Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?.

For a qualifying business-to-business debt, statutory interest can apply under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 unless your contract sets its own substantial remedy. GOV.UK on late commercial payments states the rate as 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. Look up the current base rate when you calculate. Once that interest runs, a fixed recovery sum is also due: £40 under £1,000, £70 from £1,000 to under £10,000, and £100 at £10,000 or more, plus any reasonable recovery costs not met by that sum. See late payment interest.

Example

The fee is the figure in Schedule 1. VAT is charged in addition where the Hair Stylist is VAT-registered. A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 is due on signature and reserves the dates. The balance is due before the date. Travel, early-start, overtime and lodging are the extra sums in Schedule 1. The Hair Stylist is not obliged to travel while any undisputed invoice is overdue. Statutory interest and compensation on late commercial payment apply where the 1998 Act applies.

In Plain English: they pay to reserve the diary. The rest is due before you travel. After an overdue invoice, you do not travel unpaid. A business client can owe the statutory interest and the fixed recovery sum.

The chase sequence is Client won't pay a freelance invoice.

Name travel, parking, congestion and overnight as in or extra. Name an early-start extra if call is before a named hour. UK law does not imply a mileage rate. Write the numbers you actually use.

A working travel clause answers:

• the start point you measure from, or a named lump for the booking
• parking, congestion and tolls — in or extra, against receipts if you want them
• overnight lodging if call is too early to travel the same morning
• an early-start extra if call is before the hour in SchedulescheduleA schedule is an annex to the contract that holds the detail: fees, dates, deliverables, service levels. It is part of the agreement if the main body says so. An order-of-precedence line should say what happens if the schedule and the clauses collide. Swap a schedule only by the variation method the contract names.More in the glossary 1
• what happens if the address changes after signature — requote, or the extra miles sit on the travel line

Do not leave “usual travel” as the list. A central London hotel and a barn two counties away are not the same job.

An early-start fee is a price for a named hour, not a penalty. Keep it as a primary price for working those hours. A cancellation charge is a different line.

Example

Travel, parking and congestion are the extra sums in Schedule 1, or a named lump for the booking. If call is before the hour in Schedule 1, the early-start extra in that Schedule applies. If the address changes after signature, travel is requoted in writing before the Hair Stylist is obliged to attend.

In Plain English: they pay the named travel. A 05:00 call is extra if you wrote that hour. A new postcode is a new quote.

Put the list next to payment terms.

Write the notice both sides use to cancel a booked date, what unused dates cost, and the kill feekill feeA kill fee is a payment due to a creator or supplier when a client cancels a project before it is finished.More in the glossary if they stop a started job. There is no default UK right to keep a deposit; both sides have to agree the sums. A cancellation charge should be a genuine, proportionate amount. Typical salon, brand and production bookings are B2B. For a consumer, cancellation terms must be fair. A 14-day cooling-off can apply to a distance or off-premises service contract (booked online, by phone or message, or agreed away from your business premises such as at the client’s home) unless a regulation 28 exception applies. Regulation 28(1)(h) excepts leisure-related services if the contract specifies the performance date or period. The regulation does not say whether a hair booking is a leisure-related service, so do not assume a named wedding date removes the right.

A common freelance shape — not a statutory rule — is:

• a deposit to reserve named dates;
• short-notice cancellation of reserved dates charged in full or in part;
• a kill fee if they stop after travel or setup has started, covering work done plus a named unused-date charge;
• rescheduling is not a free rewrite of the diary;
• stylist cancellation: write the notice you give, and how a substitute stylist or a moved date works.

Contractual cancellation is the agreed unused-date and kill-fee line. Force majeureforce majeureForce majeure is a clause that pauses a party’s duties when something outside both sides’ control stops the work.More in the glossary is a clause you write: if weather, illness, a venue shutdown or a travel stop neither side could reasonably control stops the booking, write who can postpone, whether the date moves, and what (if anything) is kept for work already done. Do not charge the client the full fee when you are the one who can’t attend. Where a contract is frustrated, money paid before the frustrating event is recoverable, money payable before that event ceases to be payable, and the court may allow a just sum for a valuable benefit obtained, subject to the Act. That is the Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Act 1943. A change of brief is a cancellation or a rewrite of the brief, not a frustrationfrustrationFrustration discharges a contract when an unforeseen event makes performance impossible or something radically different from what was agreed. In England and Wales the test is Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham UDC [1956] AC 696. Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826 is the classic illustration: a music hall burned down, so the hire could not go ahead.More in the glossary claim. See force majeure and frustration.

For a business client the charge must not be a penalty. A charge for breaking the contract can’t be out of all proportion to your real interest in the booking going ahead. That is Cavendish Square Holding BV v Talal El Makdessi [2015] UKSC 67.

Example

A deposit of the sum in Schedule 1 reserves the dates in that Schedule. If the Client cancels reserved dates on less than the notice in Schedule 1, those dates are charged. If the Client ends the job after travel has started, the Hair Stylist is due the work done at the agreed rate plus the unused-date charge in Schedule 1. A reschedule agreed in writing moves the dates; it does not waivewaiverA waiver is a choice not to enforce a right this time, without rewriting the contract. Accepting late work once does not, by itself, kill a time-is-of-the-essence clause if a no-waiver line is present. Waiver is not a variation: Rock Advertising Ltd v MWB [2018] UKSC 24 still requires the agreed method for a change of terms.More in the glossary the unused-date charge unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: unused booked dates are charged if you wrote that. Starting travel and then stopping still costs them the work done and the named kill fee. Moving the date is a written change, not a free pass.

The longer consumer-versus-business page is Client cancelled: can you keep the deposit?. The wedding-fee sibling is Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK?. Cancellation and kill fee is the clause page.

Ask the client to tell you before the session about scalp conditions, previous chemical treatments or products they cannot wear. Keep a written record of health details only after you have a lawful basis plus a health-data condition under UK GDPR. Record whether a strand test or product patch was done, offered or declined. You cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence.

Scalp, allergy and other health details are health information. UK GDPR has extra rules for health data that this page does not cover. Booking terms and ordinary permission do not, by themselves, authorise that processing. The ICO explains lawful bases and the extra conditions for health data.

A working health clause answers:

• that the client tells you before the session about known scalp conditions, previous chemical treatments or products they cannot wear
• that any written record of those details is handled under the Hair Stylist’s privacy notice, and only kept once you have a lawful basis plus a health-data condition under UK GDPR
• whether a strand test or product patch is offered, done or declined, and on which date
• that you will use the products named in Schedule 1, or products of equivalent kind if a named item is unavailable
• that a clause in this agreement does not exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence

A strand test is a practical colour check on a small section of hair. A product patch is a practical check on skin. Recording the test, the offer or the decline is the practical way to show what both sides knew. Put that line in the booking terms, not in a story reply. It is not a licence to store health details without a lawful basis and a health-data condition, and it is not a blanket rule that every client must fill a health form.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.65 says a trader cannot by a term of a consumer contract or by a consumer notice exclude or restrict liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence. For a business client, Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 says liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence cannot be excluded or restricted by a contract term; other negligence liability can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable. Consumer contracts are not under that UCTA reasonableness test: unfair terms are not binding under Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62. A line that “the client wears the products at their own risk” does not write out the death-or-injury floor.

The implied termimplied termsImplied terms are obligations the law reads into a contract even when the parties did not write them down. In England and Wales they come from statute — for business services, reasonable care and skill under the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 — or from common law where a term is necessary for business efficacy.More in the glossary that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill stays in: Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer. See warranties.

Example

The Client will tell the Hair Stylist before the session about known scalp conditions, previous chemical treatments or products they cannot wear. Any written record of those details is handled under the Hair Stylist’s privacy notice. Schedule 1 records whether a strand test or product patch was done, offered or declined. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. The Hair Stylist will carry out the Services with reasonable care and skill.

In Plain English: they tell you what they react to and what has already been done to the hair. You only keep a written health record once UK GDPR lets you. You write down the strand test. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out injury caused by negligence.

How a freelancer caps liability is the longer liability page.

Get the client’s permission before posting photos of the look and record it in the booking terms. Doing the hair does not make you the author of a photograph someone else takes. There is no automatic permission to post. Ownership follows the Act.

A working photo clause answers:

• whether you may take your own phone or camera photos of the finished look
• whether you may use photos a third-party photographer takes — that needs the client’s permission and a licencelicenceA licence is permission to use work in an agreed way, without taking ownership away from the person who made it.More in the glossary from the copyright holder; the client’s consent alone is not enough, and it is not a grant of the copyright holder’s copyright
• where you may post — website, Instagram, a printed portfolio, awards
• when — after they first publish, after a named embargo, or never
• whether you may name the client

A photograph is an artistic work. CDPA 1988 s.11 makes the author the first owner of copyright in it, unless an employee made it in the course of employment. Combined with s.9, that author is the person who creates the photograph. Doing the hair is not creating the photograph. If a photographer takes the picture, first copyright sits with that author, or with their employer if taken in the course of employment, unless agreed otherwise. CDPA 1988 s.90 says an assignmentassignmentAssignment is the transfer of rights under a contract to someone else, such as the right to be paid. In England and Wales a legal assignment of a debt must be in writing, absolute, and notified, under the Law of Property Act 1925 s.136. Duties do not pass by assignment; moving duties takes a novation.More in the glossary of copyright is not effective unless it is in writing signed by or on behalf of the assignor. A licence is permission. It is not a transfer of ownership.

A line that you own the wedding gallery because you did the hair does not work. A line that the couple own the photographer’s files because they paid you does not work. Those are different papers. See What should a UK photographer contract include? and publicity and portfolio use.

If they refuse any portfolio use, that is a price question. Some private family work never appears on a website. Write it before the date is held.

Example

The Hair Stylist may take stills of the finished look and use them on the Hair Stylist’s portfolio, website and social channels only if Schedule 1 says so, and only after the Client first publishes the look or gives written consent to post earlier. This permission is not an assignment of copyright in photographs taken by a third-party photographer, and it is not a licence from the copyright holder. Those photographs remain with the copyright holder — the author, or the author’s employer if taken in the course of employment — unless assigned in writing, signed. To post a third-party photographer’s photos you also need a licence from the copyright holder. The client’s consent alone is not enough.

In Plain English: you post the look only if they said you could. You do not own the photographer’s pictures. You do not get to tag the couple on a secret getting-ready reel unless the paper allows it.

Contracts for photographers is the stills sibling. Contracts for models is the talent sibling when the face in the picture is booked separately. Contracts for makeup artists is the makeup sibling on the same day.

Unreleased campaigns, product launches, private addresses and embargoed looks stay private until the go-live window. Write the usual limits: a court order, or what the client has already made public. A confidentialityconfidentialityConfidentiality is a promise to keep shared information private and to use it only for the agreed purpose.More in the glossary clause is not an NDANDAAn NDA is a contract in which one or both parties agree to keep shared information confidential.More in the glossary by itself. If you are opening an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, put a mutual NDA next to it.

Confidentiality on the hair-stylist agreement should name:

• the campaign, the product, the launch date, the address, unreleased assets, and the fact of the booking until go-live;
• how long the duty lasts after the day — the life of the remaining sensitivity, not “forever” as a slogan;
• the usual limits: a court order, information already public, or information you already held;
• whether you may name the client in a portfolio or on socials. Many unreleased launches say no until the embargo lifts. See publicity and portfolio use.

An embargo is a go-live rule, not a separate statute. Write the date and time zone a still may post, and that a leak before that time is a breach. Do not post a story from the chair the week before their announcement.

A one-way NDAone-way NDAA one-way NDA is a confidentiality agreement where only one side discloses information and only the other side is bound to keep it private.More in the glossary the brand or production sends before they will share a call sheet is common. Read it. A clause that assigns copyright, or that bans you from working for anyone in their sector, is not an NDA. See NDA for UK freelancers and the NDA generator.

Example

The Hair Stylist will keep the campaign, Product, launch date, address, unreleased assets and the fact of this booking confidential until the go-live window in Schedule 1, and will not disclose them except where required by law or a court order, or where the information is already public other than through the Hair Stylist’s breach. Portfolio or social use of the Client’s name is not included until that window, unless Schedule 1 says so.

In Plain English: the campaign stays in the job until the named go-live. You do not post it early. You do not put their name on your grid until they said you could.

NDAs explained is the longer NDA page.

Client contacts and photos of the client’s face are personal data. Scalp, allergy and other health disclosures are health information. UK GDPR has extra rules for health data that this page does not cover. Booking terms, ordinary permission and Article 28 do not, by themselves, authorise collecting or processing that information. Keep a written record of health details only after you have a lawful basis plus a health-data condition under UK GDPR. Your own invoices and booking diary are typically data you control. UK GDPR Article 28 applies when you process personal data as a processor for the client. A one-line “you will comply with data protection law” is not that contract.

The split is:

• Controller. You decide why you hold your own invoices, your own CRM and the portfolio you publish.
• Processor. You store a call sheet or client list they asked you to hold for the day. They decide the purpose; you process on their instructions.
• Article 28. Processing by a processor must be governed by a contract that is binding and that sets out the subject-matter, duration, nature and purpose, the type of personal data and categories of data subjects, and the processor terms in Article 28(3)(a)–(h). See data protection.

Typical booking data:

Do not copy their call sheet onto a personal phone “to make a backup” unless the paper says so. On ending, you stop processing and return or delete what the schedule requires.

Article 28 and the data protection clause are the processor terms that sit on this job.

Example

Where the Hair Stylist processes personal data for the Client — including call sheets and contact lists the Client supplies — that processing is governed by the processor terms in Schedule 2. The Client is the controller. The Hair Stylist will not process those data except on the Client’s documented instructions. The Hair Stylist’s own invoices and portfolio remain the Hair Stylist’s data.

In Plain English: their call sheet is their data. Your own grid stays yours. You do the hair they booked; you do not become the controller of their client list.

Often no. A salon, brand, production, agency or venue buying hair in the course of business is not a consumer. A company brief does not get the consumer 14-day cooling-off. Consumer rights bite when the counterpartycounterpartyThe counterparty is the other side of the contract — the person or company you are making the deal with.More in the glossary is a consumer — for example a wedding couple booking bridal hair wholly or mainly outside their trade. Being a consumer is not a 14-day right to cancel. Fairness of cancellation terms and cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations are different rules.

Who the other side is splits the page:

• A business client (a company, or a person buying in the course of business). No statutory 14-day cooling-off under the 2013 Regulations. An agreed cancellation charge must not be a penalty. The 1998 Act can apply to late payment.
• A consumer (an individual buying a personal booking wholly or mainly outside their trade). Cancellation terms must be fair. Distance and off-premises contracts (booked online, by phone or message, or agreed away from your business premises such as at the client’s home) carry a 14-day cancellation right unless a regulation 28 exception applies.

The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 give that right (regulation 29). For a service contract the cancellation period ends at the end of 14 days after the day the contract is entered into.

The leisure-date exception. Part 3 (cancellation) does not apply as regards the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance (regulation 28(1)(h)). A wedding-day hair booking that names the performance date is a specific-date contract. The exception also requires that the service is related to leisure activities. The regulation does not classify hair or beauty as leisure. A named wedding date alone does not remove the 14-day right. The exception is not a blanket 14-day walk-away, and it is not a blanket exclusion of every dated hair booking.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 says an unfair term of a consumer contract is not binding on the consumer. Section 49 says a trader supplying a service must do so with reasonable care and skill. Neither section turns a salon, production or agency booking into a consumer contract. Neither section is a 14-day cooling-off.

Most salon, editorial, production and agency bookings on this page are the left-hand column. A couple booking their own wedding hair is usually a consumer. Consumer status brings the fairness test. It does not, by itself, give them two weeks to cancel a named wedding-day booking.

Example

If the Client is a consumer and this agreement was made at a distance or off-premises, the Client may cancel in the cancellation period without giving a reason unless a regulation 28 exception applies. For the Services that period ends at the end of 14 days after the day this agreement is entered into. Regulation 28(1)(h) excepts the supply of services related to leisure activities if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance. This clause does not apply where the Client is buying in the course of a business.

In Plain English: a production buying a daily does not get the statutory 14-day cooling-off. A couple who booked wedding hair online for a named Saturday does not automatically lose a 14-day cooling-off. Part 3 cancellation does not apply to leisure-related services if the contract specifies the performance date or period. The regulation does not say whether a hair booking is one of those services. Whether a cancellation charge is fair is a separate Consumer Rights Act 2015 question.

Cap liability at a multiple of the fees. In England and Wales you cannot exclude liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence. Do not guarantee a Pinterest match, a photograph the couple will love, or that a colour will sit on every hair. See the longer liability guide.

Limitation of liability on a hair job usually does four things:

• caps the hair stylist’s total liability at the fees paid for that booking, or a named multiple;
• excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence from that cap — for a consumer Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.65 does not let you exclude it; for a business client Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 s.2 does not let you exclude it;
• says other negligence liability, on a business contract, can be limited only so far as the term is reasonable under UCTA; consumer terms are tested for fairness under Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62, not UCTA reasonableness;
• leaves the implied term that a service is performed with reasonable care and skill — Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982 s.13 for B2B, Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.49 for a consumer.

A cap at the fees, with the death-or-injury floor left in, is the common freelance shape. On a business contract the other-negligence limit must be reasonable under UCTA. On a consumer contract the term must be fair under CRA 2015 s.62.

A liability cap is not an indemnityindemnityAn indemnity is a promise to cover another party's losses arising from a particular event or claim.More in the glossary (a promise to cover someone else’s losses). Do not sign an unlimited indemnity for “any loss arising from the look” on a product-launch brief without pricing that risk. The client promises the space, the access and the disclosures they gave; you promise you will carry out the booking with reasonable care and skill. How a freelancer caps liability is the longer page.

Example

The Hair Stylist’s total liability under this agreement is capped at the fees paid for the Services. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud. The Hair Stylist does not promise a commercial result, a particular photograph, or that a colour or product will sit on every hair.

In Plain English: if the job goes wrong, they can come for the fee, not for an open-ended loss. You still owe care and skill. You cannot write out death or injury caused by negligence. You did not promise the board would match the picture.

Contracts for agencies is the sibling when an agency sits between the brand and you. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling.

IR35 only matters when you book into an organisation as a contractor through your company. It does not apply to a private couple buying a wedding look. No label decides the tax. From 6 April 2021, public authorities and medium or large clients must give a status determination statement (the client’s written decision on whether IR35 applies, with reasons). Small private-sector clients leave that decision with your company.

Write the working practices, then work that way:

• you decide how the look is done, within the brief;
• you can send a qualified substitute, and you have actually used one or can;
• there is no obligation on them to offer further dates, and none on you to accept them;
• you are not on their org chart, in their Slack, or in their holiday rota.

A heading that says “independent contractor” does not take you outside IR35. Chapter 10 of ITEPA 2003 (ss.61K, 61N and 61NA) puts the status determination on the public-authority or medium or large client with a UK connection. Chapter 8 and s.60A leave small private-sector clients on the older rules. See IR35 contract clauses checklist and sole trader vs limited companysole trader vs limited companyA sole trader contracts in a personal name and is personally liable. A limited company is a separate legal person; the company is on the hook, not the director, unless there is a guarantee. Switching from one to the other is a novation, not a letterhead change. IR35 / off-payroll rules can still apply to a personal service company.More in the glossary.

An exclusivity clauseexclusivity clauseAn exclusivity clause stops one side working with other people in a named market, for a named time. In England and Wales a lock-out has to be for a fixed period: Walford v Miles [1992] 2 AC 128 is why an agreement to negotiate exclusively with no end date fails.More in the glossary that stops you working for anyone else can look like employment. If they want you off competing brand days for a window, price it and keep it narrow.

Most direct-to-couple wedding bookings never reach this heading. Salon, production and agency jobs into a medium or large end-client still should, because the end client is often an organisation.

Example

The Hair Stylist is an independent contractor. The Hair Stylist decides how the Services are performed, may send a qualified substitute, and is not obliged to accept further dates. Nothing in this agreement makes the Hair Stylist an employee, worker or agent of the Client. The parties will work in line with any status determination statement the Client is required to give.

In Plain English: the tax follows how you actually work. A label on page one does not decide it. A large company client has to give you their determination.

On Contracts.io both sides draft, negotiate and e-signe-signatureAn e-signature is any electronic way of showing agreement to a document, such as a typed name, a drawn signature or a click.More in the glossary one shared hair-stylist agreement, so the services list, the trial line and the kill fee are the version you both signed. Describe the booking in a sentence. Lex, our AI host, drafts. You share one link. Nobody emails v4_final.docx back and forth.

The client opens that link. They can Accept, Counter or Decline on the same version, then both of you e-sign it. The other side never pays and does not need an account.

Start from a freelancer agreement or a services agreement. Repeat work can hang a statement of work under standing terms. A brand day can sit next to an influencer agreement. A job that sits on a filmed day can sit next to a videography contract. You can also start from the AI contract generator or the contract generator. If you are sharing an unreleased campaign before the deal is signed, a mutual NDA sits next to it, or use the NDA generator.

That does not chase an invoice for you. It does mean the deposit, the kill fee, the trial line and the photo-permission line are the words you both signed, not a line lost in email.

Free £0, then paid plans from £15 a month — see /pricing.

Try it on contracts.io: describe the booking in one sentence, share one link, and e-sign before the date is held.

Contracts for hair stylists is the wider set of terms that sit around this paper. Contracts for makeup artists is the makeup sibling. Contracts for photographers is the stills sibling. Contracts for videographers is the filmed sibling. Contracts for models is the talent sibling. Contracts for influencers is the brand-day sibling. Contracts for agencies is the campaign sibling. Contracts for freelancers is the delivery sibling. What goes in a freelance or contractor agreement is the shorter how-to. NDA for UK freelancers is the pitch-stage paper. Should I start work before the contract is signed? is the day-one rule. Is a wedding photographer's deposit refundable in the UK? is the wedding-fee sibling. What should a UK makeup artist contract include? is the makeup deep-dive.