How to Start a Salon or Barbershop in Ontario

Starting a salon or barbershop in Ontario means clearing three layers that sit on top of the generic business setup: a trade rule that decides who may legally cut hair, the provincial public-health layer, which is a notice and an inspection regime rather than a licence, and the municipal layer, which is a licence in cities like Toronto and varies everywhere else. The national guides linked below cover the generic spine — staffing models, business registration, tax accounts, chair fit-out, and bookings — so this guide covers only what Ontario adds: the compulsory Hairstylist trade, Ontario Regulation 136/18, your health unit, and your municipality. This guide is process information, not legal advice: where a figure was not verified on an official page, this guide states a check instead of a figure.

1. Confirm the trade rule before you hire anyone

This is the step that catches new Ontario salon owners, because it has no equivalent in most other provinces. Hairstylist is a compulsory trade in Ontario. To legally practice this trade, you need to hold a Registered Training Agreement, Provisional Certificate of Qualification or Certificate of Qualification, appear on Skilled Trades Ontario's Public Register, and renew your Certificate of Qualification annually, according to Skilled Trades Ontario, Hairstylist. Trade certification for hairstylists is compulsory in Ontario, according to Job Bank, Hairstylist in Canada. The apprenticeship takes 3,500 hours, approximately two years, consisting of 3,020 hours of on-the-job work experience and 480 hours of in-school training, according to Skilled Trades Ontario, Hairstylist. On passing the certifying exam, Skilled Trades Ontario issues a Certificate of Qualification in the trade, on the same page.

What this means in practice: every person cutting hair in your salon must either hold a Certificate of Qualification, hold a Provisional Certificate of Qualification, or be a registered apprentice working under a Registered Training Agreement — and appear on the Public Register. Check each hire on the Public Register before their first shift, and diary the annual renewal: a lapsed Certificate of Qualification is a person practising a compulsory trade without the credential. Barbers work under the same trade: Job Bank lists trade certification for barbers as compulsory in Ontario, according to Job Bank, Hairstylist in Canada, and Skilled Trades Ontario lists no separate barber trade — the trade is Hairstylist. A barber in your shop must therefore hold the Hairstylist credential or be an apprentice in that trade. If you plan to offer nails, waxing, facials, or other aesthetic services alongside hair, note that this guide does not state the certification position for those workers: no compulsory-trade status for nail technicians or estheticians is stated on an official page, so check with Skilled Trades Ontario before you hire for those chairs — see the figures section below.

2. Notify your health unit at least 14 days before you open

A salon or barbershop is a personal service setting under Ontario Regulation 136/18, made under the Health Protection and Promotion Act. The regulation's first move is yours, and it is a notice, not an application for permission: every person who intends to operate a personal service setting shall provide notice, in writing, of the intention to the medical officer of health of the health unit in which the personal service setting will be located at least 14 days before commencing the operation, according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. The notice must include the name, if any, and location of the intended setting, your name and contact information, and a list of the personal services that will be provided, on the same page.

Find your health unit first — the one that covers your address is the one you notify. Every health unit runs its own intake form, but the 14-day rule and the contents of the notice are provincial. Do this before you open, not after: the health unit needs the lead time to review your information, give guidance, and schedule an inspection. The same 14-day written notice applies when you add services later, and when you reconstruct or renovate while the salon is closed; if services continue during a renovation, notice must be given before the work starts, on the same page. In Toronto, the notice goes in writing to Toronto Public Health at BodySafe@toronto.ca at least 14 days before opening, with the premises name, complete address, full legal names of all owners, all services offered, expected hours and opening date, a copy of your Personal Service Setting licence if available, a copy of your Ontario business name registration if available, and contact information, according to City of Toronto, About BodySafe.

3. Clear the municipal licence layer before you sign a lease

Ontario has no province-wide municipal licence for salons — licensing is a city decision, and cities differ. Toronto is the worked example because it licenses personal service settings explicitly. In Toronto, every owner or operator of a personal service setting shall obtain a licence and, at the time of application and at each renewal, obtain a separate endorsement for every class of personal service provided or offered at the premises, according to City of Toronto, By-law No. 629-2013. Hairstyling is one of the defined classes, alongside aesthetics, body piercing, electrolysis, manicure and pedicure, and tattoo and micropigmentation, on the same page — so a salon that later adds nails needs a second endorsement, not just a note on file. Every licence application and renewal goes to the Medical Officer of Health for a report, and that report is considered in whether the licence is issued, renewed, refused, or conditioned, on the same page. If you change the classes of service you offer, you must notify Municipal Licensing and Standards and the Medical Officer of Health in writing at least 30 days before the change, on the same page.

Two Toronto steps sit before the licence itself. First, zoning: make sure you obtain a zoning review for a business licence from Toronto Building for home-based businesses before applying for your Personal Service Setting licence, and applicants in commercial locations are referred to zoning through the licensing application, according to City of Toronto, About BodySafe. A home-based salon needs zoning approval before you request a health inspection or apply for the licence, on the same page. Second, the licence must be posted conspicuously in the business, on the same page. Outside Toronto, do not assume the same structure. Some Ontario cities license personal service settings, some rely on zoning and the health-unit inspection alone, and some add their own by-law conditions. Check your municipality's licensing page and its zoning by-law for your address before you sign a lease, and confirm in writing whether a municipal licence applies at all.

4. Build the salon to Ontario Regulation 136/18

The regulation sets the physical standard every Ontario salon must meet, and it is what the inspector measures against. Every operator must ensure the setting is free from every condition that may constitute a health hazard or adversely affect sanitary operation; floors, walls, ceilings, fixtures, and furniture must be in good repair, easily cleanable, of a smooth and impermeable material, and maintained in a sanitary condition; and the setting must not be a room or part of a room used as a dwelling, including for dining, sleeping, or preparing, selling, handling, eating, or storing food, according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. The setting must be equipped with potable hot and cold running water under pressure, and there must be at least one sink used only for hand washing within the premises, conveniently located to the work area, accessible at all times, and continuously supplied with potable hot and cold running water under pressure, with soap in a dispenser and single-service hand drying or a hot air dryer nearby, on the same page.

The reprocessing-sink rule is the one place a hair-only salon gets relief. A setting where reusable equipment is used must have a sink, other than the handwash sink, capable of immersing the largest piece of reusable equipment, with potable hot and cold running water under pressure, adequate counter space, not located in a room with a toilet, and sufficiently separated from where services are provided to prevent contamination, on the same page. But that requirement does not apply to a setting that only provides hairdressing or barbering services and reprocesses reusable equipment before the beginning and after the end of each business day, on the same page — so a hair-only salon that cleans and disinfects its combs, scissors, and clippers at the start and end of each day may not need the second sink, while a salon that adds nails or waxing loses the exemption. Work surfaces must be of a form and material that can be readily cleaned and disinfected or sterilized, there must be adequate storage, lighting and ventilation must be sufficient for sanitary operation and safe provision of services, and waste — including biomedical waste — must be collected and removed as often as necessary to keep the setting sanitary, on the same page. Animals are prohibited in the setting except service animals and live aquatic species displayed in sanitary tanks, on the same page. In Toronto, the same points appear as general requirements: a separate dedicated handwashing sink on each level where services are offered, furniture, floors, fixtures, walls, and ceilings smooth, in good repair, and impermeable — including in waiting areas — and premises offering only hair and barbering may not be required to have a designated reprocessing sink, according to City of Toronto, About BodySafe.

5. Set the infection-prevention routine your inspector will test

The regulation's hygiene rules are short and testable. Every operator must ensure every person who provides personal services practises good personal hygiene and refrains from smoking while providing a service, and that, as often as necessary to prevent disease transmission and at least before and after providing a personal service, every person providing services cleans their hands in a manner that removes visible soil and kills transient micro-organisms, according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. All equipment must be maintained in good repair and in a sanitary condition, in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions where available, and all reusable equipment must be cleaned and disinfected or sterilized as often as necessary to prevent disease transmission, and cleaned and disinfected or sterilized between each use — or covered with a single-use disposable cover discarded immediately after use, where the equipment cannot readily be cleaned and disinfected or sterilized between uses and is not introduced into the body, on the same page. Equipment designed for a single use, or made of material that does not withstand cleaning and disinfection or sterilization, must be discarded immediately after use, on the same page.

Disinfectants must carry a Drug Identification Number or Natural Product Number assigned by Health Canada and be used as per the manufacturer's instructions, except chlorine bleach, on the same page. Toronto adds that intermediate and low-level disinfectants, except chlorine bleach, must have a Drug Identification Number or Natural Product Number, that United States EPA or FDA numbers are not recognized in Canada, and that high-level disinfectants must be approved by Health Canada on the Medical Devices Active Licence Listing, according to City of Toronto, About BodySafe. Buy only disinfectants with a Drug Identification Number or Natural Product Number on the label. Products generally must be stored and dispensed in a manner that prevents contamination, according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. Two prohibitions apply to every personal service setting, salons included: no person shall sell, offer for sale, or provide ear candling or coning, or any personal service involving live aquatic species, including fish pedicures, on the same page. Do not offer them, even as a promotion.

6. Keep records, post the result, and stay inspection-ready

The regulation requires three record sets that apply to a salon: sterilization records, where a sterilizer is used (sterilizer name and type, date and time of use, equipment sterilized, maintenance and repairs and whether the sterilizer functioned properly afterwards, and check or test results); disinfection records (disinfectant name, concentration, preparation date if applicable, and discard date if applicable); and records of accidental exposures to blood or body fluids (date, service being provided, body part exposed, provider, action taken, and the exposed person's details), according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. Records must be stored at the setting in a secure location for one year or until the setting ceases to operate, whichever is earlier, and retained and kept readily available in a secure location for at least two years after that; they must be provided to a medical officer of health or public health inspector on request, on the same page. Toronto's by-law requires five-year retention with the records kept at the premises for the first year, according to City of Toronto, By-law No. 629-2013 — in Toronto, keep five years and both rules are satisfied. Toronto also requires a record of all body piercing, electrolysis, tattoo, and micropigmentation services performed, on the same page, which does not apply to a hair-only salon but does apply the day you add one of those services.

All health units in Ontario must conduct a health inspection of personal service settings and follow up on complaints, and the process ensures owners and operators operate in accordance with Ontario Regulation 136/18 and Public Health Ontario's Guide to Infection Prevention and Control in Personal Services Settings, according to City of Toronto, About BodySafe. In Toronto, the inspection program is called BodySafe, and an inspection is likely conducted once a year by a public health inspector; a re-inspection follows if infractions are found, likely within 48 business hours if the establishment is not closed, on the same page. Results are issued as Pass, Conditional Pass, or Service or Establishment Closed, and the inspection notice sign provided by Toronto Public Health must be posted in a place clearly visible to the public, at or near the entrance, on the same page. The regulation itself requires every operator to ensure the results of any inspection are posted in accordance with the inspector's request, according to Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings. Treat the first inspection as the real opening date: do not book paying clients until it is done. The operator must also undertake any health and safety training related to personal service setting operation and maintenance, including training in practices that prevent or reduce disease transmission, if required by a medical officer of health or public health inspector, on the same page — ask what training your inspector expects at your first contact rather than at your first inspection.

Figures this guide does not state

• Toronto Personal Service Setting licence fee. Third-party guides quote a fee, but the City of Toronto page states no figure, so none is printed. Check the Municipal Licensing and Standards fee schedule on toronto.ca before you budget.
• Licence fees outside Toronto. No municipal fee figure is stated on an official page for any Ontario municipality other than Toronto, so none is printed. Check your own municipality's licensing page.
• Certification status of nail technicians and estheticians in Ontario. Whether any compulsory trade certification applies to nail or esthetic work is not stated on an official page, so none is stated here. Check with Skilled Trades Ontario before hiring for those chairs.
• Salon or barbershop startup costs. No official source states them. Price the lease, chairs, wash stations, and fit-out from quotes for your salon.
• Health-unit inspection timing outside Toronto. Toronto's once-a-year pattern is stated on the BodySafe page; other health units inspect at least once a year under the provincial protocol, but no per-unit schedule was verified, so none is printed. Ask your health unit when you give notice.

Related guides:

How to Start a Hair Salon Business in Canada, How to Start a Nail Salon Business in Canada, How to Become a Hairstylist Apprentice in Ontario, Compulsory vs Voluntary Trades in Ontario, and How to Register a Business in Ontario.

Sources

• Government of Ontario, O. Reg. 136/18: Personal Service Settings — 14-day notice, setting and sink requirements, hair-only exemptions, hand hygiene, disinfectants, records, prohibited services —
• Skilled Trades Ontario, Hairstylist — compulsory trade, Registered Training Agreement and Certificate of Qualification, Public Register, annual renewal, 3,500 hours —
• Job Bank, Hairstylist in Canada — hairstylist and barber certification compulsory in Ontario —
• City of Toronto, About BodySafe — BodySafe inspections, notification contents, zoning review, reprocessing-sink exemption, disinfectant numbers, annual inspection, risk levels —
• City of Toronto, By-law No. 629-2013 — Personal Service Setting licence and per-service endorsements, 30-day change notice, five-year records —