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Short answer: hair lightener and colour developer contain peroxide, which destroys ordinary towel dye on contact. A black towel gets orange or pink patches after one colour service. Use towels dyed to resist bleach, or use white towels for colour work, where bleach marks do not show.
What is happening
Most coloured towels are dyed with dyes that bond well to cotton and wash well, but give way to oxidising chemicals. Lightener is an oxidiser. Wherever it touches, the dye breaks down and the base shade shows through, usually orange on black and pink on navy.
Bleach-resistant towels are dyed with a different class of dye that withstands those chemicals. The colour holds through peroxide and chlorine.
Skin products do the same thing. Benzoyl peroxide in acne treatments is why beauty salons and spas see patchy face towels.
Your three options
| Option | Stains show | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary dark towels | Badly, after the first colour service | Lowest | Looks cheap within weeks |
| Bleach-resistant dark towels | No | Higher | Stay black. Hide tint stains too |
| White towels | Tint stains show, bleach does not | Low | Can be washed hot and bleached clean |
Many salons run two stocks: bleach-resistant dark towels at the colour station and backwash, and white or light towels elsewhere.
The sum
Our salon towel band is $1.10 to $1.60 FOB at 400 to 450 GSM. The rest of the figures are examples. Use your own.
| Ordinary dark towel | Bleach-resistant towel | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (example) | $1.20 | $1.60 |
| Looks acceptable for | 2 months | 10 months |
| Towels in a 6-chair salon | 120 | 120 |
| Replaced per year | 6 times | 1.2 times |
| Yearly towel cost | $864 | $230 |
Even if the bleach-resistant towel cost twice as much, it would still win, because the ordinary one is thrown away for how it looks long before it wears out.
How many towels a salon needs
A working rule is 3 to 4 towels per client: one at the backwash, one for drying, one for the shoulders, and a spare for colour. Multiply by clients per day and by the days between washes, then add a quarter.
Example: 30 clients a day, 3 towels each, washing daily: 90 in use, so stock about 120.
Size and weight
| Use | Typical size | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Backwash and drying | 50 x 85 cm to 50 x 90 cm | 400 to 450 GSM |
| Barber, shave and neck | 40 x 70 cm | 400 GSM |
| Beauty and facial | 30 x 30 cm and 50 x 90 cm | 450 to 500 GSM |
Salon towels should be light enough to dry fast. A heavy towel in a small salon dryer is a bottleneck by lunchtime.
Care
- Wash bleach-resistant towels separately for the first few washes.
- Rinse lightener off promptly. Even resistant towels last longer if product is not left to dry on them.
- Skip fabric softener. It coats the loops and makes towels less absorbent.
Ordering
Trial runs start at 500 pieces and wholesale pricing at 2,000 pieces per SKU. A distributor or a salon group reaches that easily. A single salon may do better through a local wholesaler who stocks our towels, or by sharing an order with other salons.
See our page for bleach-proof salon towels and barber towels. To price a salon range, send us sizes and colours.
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Written by
Dr Abin Babu
Founder & Chairman, Anabyn Global Ventures
Anabyn exports hotel and home linen from Kerala, India. These guides come from the questions buyers ask our desk. About the team
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