Buying a Hair Salon or Barbershop in Ontario: Licences, Certified Stylists, Chairs and What You Are Paying For

By Jatin Dua · Broker of Record, RE/MAX Quantum Realty · Updated 29 September 2026 · 12 min read — the licences and notices a new owner needs, why every stylist and barber must be certified, employees versus chair renters, inspection history, client lists, HST and the documents to ask for.

What you are really buying

A salon or barbershop sells the time and skill of the people in the chairs. The assets are real but modest: chairs, basins, dryers, retail stock, the booking system and the lease. The value is the clients who come back, and most of them come back for a person, not a brand.

That shapes the whole deal. Before you look at the profit and loss statement, find out who does the work, on what terms, and whether they are staying. A salon where the owner does half the revenue is a very different purchase from one where six stylists each have a following and the owner manages. If the seller is leaving, ask how their clients will be introduced to someone else, and price in some of them not staying.

Every stylist and barber must be certified

Skilled Trades Ontario states plainly that “Hairstylist is a compulsory trade in Ontario.” To practise, a person must hold a registered training agreement, a provisional certificate of qualification or a certificate of qualification, appear on the public register and renew the certificate every year. O. Reg. 876/21 lists hairstylist among the compulsory trades, and O. Reg. 875/21 defines its scope as performing, for pay, cutting, designing, permanent waving, relaxing and straightening, and colouring.

Barbering is inside that scope. There is no separate barber trade today: O. Reg. 877/21 lets people who held a barber certificate on 26 March 2013 apply for the hairstylist certificate without fees. For a buyer the practical point is simple. Check every stylist and barber on the public register before you close. Toronto’s licensing rules also require the owner or operator to ensure that every personal services worker holds whatever qualifications the law requires, and a sole-proprietor applicant for a hairstyling licence must submit their own certificate of qualification.

Licences and notices for a new owner

• Public health notice. Under section 3 of O. Reg. 136/18, every person who intends to operate a personal service setting gives the medical officer of health written notice at least 14 days before starting, with the setting’s name and location, the operator’s contact details and the list of services. Adding a service later needs another 14 days’ notice. Toronto asks for notice to Toronto Public Health (BodySafe) at least 14 days before opening under a new licence.
• Toronto licence. Toronto’s licensing chapter says licences are not transferable and their value belongs to the City. A new owner applies for a personal services setting licence: $211.73 to apply and $239.18 for the licence, $296.45 to renew, with a criminal record and judicial matters check. Each class of service, such as hairstyling, manicure and pedicure or aesthetics, needs its own endorsement, and changing the classes needs 30 days’ written notice to the City and the medical officer of health.
• Zoning on a takeover. Toronto does not require new zoning approval when you take over a business with a valid licence, or one that expired less than three years before, in the same category.

Outside Toronto, the provincial notice still applies and the municipality may have its own licence. For the physical requirements of the space, see hair salon and barbershop premises.

Inspection history

Toronto’s BodySafe program treats hairstyling and barbering as semi-critical services, likely inspected once a year and on complaint, and posts results on its web pages. The operator must keep the most recent inspection notice posted near the entrance and produce the report on request. Look up the salon’s history and ask for the last reports. Repeated notes about disinfection or equipment tell you about habits you will need to change, and staff you will need to retrain.

Employees, chair renters and the Employment Standards Act

Salons use a mix of arrangements: employees on hourly pay or commission, and independent stylists who rent a chair or booth. The difference matters in law and in value.

Employees. If you keep the seller’s employees, section 9 of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 treats their service with the seller as service with you for notice, severance and vacation, unless you hire them more than 13 weeks after the earlier of their last day with the seller and the sale date. A long-serving stylist brings a long notice entitlement.

Chair renters. They usually own their client relationships and can leave on short notice. Whether someone labelled a renter is actually an employee in law is a question for an employment lawyer. Get every agreement in writing, and do not pay for renters’ clients as if they were the salon’s.

The people question is the same in other professional service businesses; see buying a mortgage brokerage and, for a regulated health practice, buying a physiotherapy clinic.

Client lists, HST and the lease

Client data. A hairdressing-only salon is not required by O. Reg. 136/18 to collect client contact details, but most booking systems hold them. Federal privacy law (PIPEDA section 7.2) allows personal information to be shared in a business sale without consent only if the buyer uses it solely for the deal, protects it and returns or destroys it if the deal fails, and clients are told after closing. Put the booking system and client list expressly in the agreement.

HST. Section 167 of the Excise Tax Act allows a joint election so no GST/HST is charged on the business sale when you acquire all or substantially all of the property needed to run it. It is not available where the seller is registered and you are not, and it does not cover property supplied by lease. It is filed on CRA Form GST44.

Lease. Salons invest heavily in plumbing and fit-out. Read the remaining term, renewal options, assignment clause and what must be removed at the end.

Documents to demand before you sign

No Canadian regulator, statistics agency or industry body publishes sale prices or price multiples for these businesses, so I will not quote one, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What you can do is test the asking price against documents.

• Names of every stylist and barber, and their Skilled Trades Ontario register status.
• Employment contracts and chair or booth rental agreements.
• Revenue by stylist for two to three years, reconciled to HST returns and bank deposits.
• The Toronto (or other municipal) licence and endorsements, and recent inspection reports.
• Booking system data: active clients, rebooking rates and who each client books with.
• Equipment list, retail stock count method and supplier terms.
• The lease and any landlord consent needed to assign it.

For a personal service setting with higher infection-control stakes, compare buying a tattoo studio.

Where I fit

I help salon and barbershop buyers and sellers across the GTA with the lease, the location and the premises. The AI hair salon value estimator below gives a range from the salon’s numbers in about a minute. Then book a call or phone 833-330-1925.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• Skilled Trades Ontario — Hairstylist — compulsory trade; annual renewal
• O. Reg. 876/21, Prescribed Trades — e-Laws — hairstylist listed as a compulsory trade
• O. Reg. 877/21, General (skilled trades) — e-Laws — former barber certificates; one-year term
• O. Reg. 136/18, Personal Service Settings — e-Laws — notice, setting, equipment and records rules
• City of Toronto — Personal services settings licence — fees, C of Q, $1,000,000 CGL, 14-day notice
• City of Toronto — Municipal Code Chapter 545, Licensing — licences are not transferable; licence categories
• City of Toronto — About BodySafe — inspection frequency by risk
• Employment Standards Act, 2000 — e-Laws — s. 9 sale of a business, 13-week rule
• PIPEDA, section 7.2 — Justice Laws Website — personal information in a business transaction
• Excise Tax Act, section 167 — Justice Laws Website — joint GST/HST election on the sale of a business
• Canada Revenue Agency — Form GST44 — election concerning the acquisition of a business

Related reading

• Hair salon and barbershop premises in Ontario
• Buying a tattoo studio in Ontario
• Buying a mortgage brokerage in Ontario
• Buying a physiotherapy clinic in Ontario
• Selling a business with employees
• AI hair salon value estimator