Guide
Text message rules for salons and barbershops
The short answer
You need permission before you text, an obvious way to opt out, and a clear statement of who you are. Appointment reminders to existing clients are treated very differently from marketing, and mixing the two is where most small businesses get into trouble.
Texting clients is the most reliable channel a shop has, and it is also the one with real legal exposure attached. The rules are not complicated, but they are specific, and penalties in the United States are calculated per message. This is a plain-language summary of what applies to an appointment-based business.
What the rules require
1. Get consent before the first message
Someone giving you their number to book an appointment has consented to messages about that appointment. They have not consented to promotions. Marketing needs its own clear opt-in, worded so the person knows what they are agreeing to, and you need a record of when and how they gave it.
2. Honour opt-outs immediately and permanently
STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, END and QUIT must all work, and the person must stay off the list. One confirmation message after they opt out is allowed. Anything beyond that is a violation, including a message months later from a different campaign.
3. Identify yourself in the message
The recipient should be able to tell who is texting without guessing. Your shop name in the first message of a conversation is enough. An unidentified number asking someone to confirm an appointment reads as a scam, which costs you both compliance and replies.
4. Respect quiet hours
Marketing messages are generally restricted to daytime hours in the recipient's own time zone, commonly taken as 8am to 9pm. Transactional messages the client triggered, such as a booking confirmation they just requested, are treated differently, but scheduled promotional sends should respect the window.
5. Keep your records
If consent is ever questioned, the burden is on you to show it existed. Keep what they agreed to, when, and through which form or checkbox. This is unglamorous and it is the single thing that resolves a complaint quickly.
Where shops get caught
Treating a phone number as permission to market
The most common mistake by a wide margin. A number collected to confirm a booking is not a marketing list, and importing your client database into a promotional campaign is exactly the pattern that generates complaints.
Buying or importing a list
Purchased numbers have not consented to hear from you, and consent cannot be transferred from whoever collected them. This is both the clearest violation and the fastest route to having your number blocked by carriers.
Making opt-out difficult
Requiring someone to call, email, or reply with a specific phrase you invented does not satisfy the requirement. If STOP does not work, you have a problem regardless of what else you offer.
Assuming a small business is not covered
The rules apply regardless of size, and enforcement is frequently driven by individual complaints rather than by regulators noticing you. A single annoyed recipient is enough to start it.
Common questions
- Do appointment reminders need consent?
- A client who gave you their number to book has consented to messages about that booking. Keeping reminders strictly about the appointment, meaning time, date, changes and confirmation, keeps them in that category. Adding an offer to the same message does not.
- Can I text a client who has not been in for a year?
- If it is about an appointment, generally yes. If it is a promotion, only if they opted into marketing and have not withdrawn it. Long gaps do not void consent by themselves, but they do make complaints more likely, because the person may not remember agreeing.
- What happens if someone replies STOP by accident?
- They stay opted out until they opt back in themselves. You cannot message them to check whether they meant it, beyond the single permitted confirmation. If they book again in person, ask them to opt in again at that point.
- Do these rules apply outside the United States?
- Most countries have equivalents with the same shape, being consent, easy opt-out and sender identification, but the details and penalties differ. The habits described here satisfy the common core almost everywhere; the specific thresholds do not transfer.
This is a plain-language summary for shop owners, not legal advice. Rules change and enforcement varies by jurisdiction, so check with a qualified professional before building a messaging programme on it. MIRA captures consent and handles opt-outs automatically, but responsibility for how you message your clients remains yours.