Beauty Therapist Insurance

This is a group for beauty professionals. You can join for free if you work as a self-employed beauty therapist, waxing therapist, nail technician or a massage therapist.

If you're a self-employed hairdresser or have a small salon, you can join our Hairdresser group to get insurance for your business.

Our cover is designed for self-employed beauty therapists and small businesses. It includes liability cover and a range of options such as employers' liability and offers more than the insurance provided by trade associations

We give you a choice between £1m, £2m and £5m public and products liability and have options for:

• Employers' liability - up to £10m
• Business tools and equipment - up to £10,000 and £5,000 for cover in unattended vehicles
• An add-on for specific hair and beauty treatments

Our insurance can cover beauticians and make-up artists renting a chair in a salon, working at weddings and more.

Our liability and products insurance is designed to cover legal costs if any of your treatments, your products or business activities harm a client or a member of the public or damage their property. For example, if one of the skin products you use caused a reaction and the client took legal action you could use your insurance to cover your costs.

Our tools and equipment option might come in handy if your equipment is stolen. We can even cover tools and equipment stolen from an unattended vehicle.

Employers' liability cover is a legal requirement if you have any employees working for you, including volunteers or people doing work experience. Our insurance covers up to £10m.

Personal accident cover offers a payout if a director or employee is injured as a result of your business.

Why do Beauty Therapists need insurance?

The main reason Beauty Therapists buy insurance is to protect themselves against the financial consequences of being sued by a client for compensation if something goes wrong. Common causes of legal claims against Beauty Therapists include burns from hot wax treatments and allergic reactions to chemical peels or massage oils.

Public Liability Insurance covers harm accidentally caused to a member of the public while at work. Product Liability Insurance, meanwhile, covers harm caused by a product sold by a beauty therapist to their client.

Beauty salons will also need to consider buildings & contents insurance for their premises and stock, and employer's liability insurance if they have staff (including freelancers).

By Ronny Lavie

Top questions answered by us

• What issues lead to legal claims against Beauty Therapists?

  Clients might develop allergic reactions to treatments, or be injured due to faulty machinery or human error during some treatments. Additionally, clients might injure themselves within the Therapist’s work premises, or be harmed by an employee.

• What specific types of insurance do Beauty Therapists need?

  There are several different types of insurance policies relevant to beauty therapists. Professional Indemnity Insurance (sometimes called PI Insurance), protects against lawsuits by clients who are hurt as a result of professional negligence or malpractice. Public Liability Insurance is needed in case a client hurts themselves on the therapist’s equipment or in his/her premises; and finally Employers Liability Insurance, to cover legal claims made by employees is a legal requirement for any beauty therapist who employs staff. Additionally, beauty therapists sometimes work abroad, and so need a policy that would cover them for work outside the UK. When the group reaches the minimum amount of members, we will endeavor to get an offer for a policy that offers as much flexibility and scope as we can find.

• What does the UK’s Beauty Therapist community look like?

  According to Habia, in 2011/12, there were 245,795 people employed in the Hair and Beauty Industry in the UK. Out of those, 57.8% were employed, and 42.2% were self-employed. The number of women in the industry is significantly larger than the men – 220,173, versus just 25,622. The dominant ages for workers in the industry are 16-24, with 31.1% and 35-44, with 29.8%.

• What treatments are not covered by Beauty Therapists insurance?

  Many policies exclude, or charge a premium for, treatments which involve the piercing of the skin (such as acupuncture and piercings for earrings), use of laser (for electrolysis or tattoo removal), and use of advance peeling, epilation or lipo.

• I like this idea, but it is not time to renew my insurance yet. Will I miss out?

  No, once we have an offer for our group members, you will be able to buy it at any time. Additionally, you can drop us an email and we will remind you when your current policy expires!