Vancouver Salons & Services: What Things Cost and Where to Go
Updated 01 August 2026 · FanVancouver Local Desk
Illustration — we do not publish photographs of individual businesses.
Metro Vancouver has thousands of salons, studios and clinics, and almost none of them publish a price where a visitor can find it. This hub fixes both halves of that problem: what things cost, taken from the price lists businesses publish themselves, and where they are, with addresses, hours and phone numbers for 773 places across the region.
Cuts, colour, balayage and blow-dries, from East Van chairs to downtown colour rooms.
264 listed
Cuts, fades, beards and hot-towel shaves — who takes walk-ins and what it costs.
97 listed
Gel, acrylic and pedicures — with the hygiene checks worth doing before you sit down.
89 listed
Shop minimums, hourly rates, deposits, and the health rules that protect you.
39 listed
RMT or spa? The difference decides the price, the tax and the insurance claim.
73 listed
Facials, brows, lashes and waxing, and what the price difference actually buys.
211 listed
What things cost in Metro Vancouver
Every figure below is the lowest price the business publishes for that service, collected from their own websites in July 2026 and pooled across dozens of price lists. Treat them as the floor, not the average bill: length, density, an event weekend and a senior practitioner all move the number up.
| Service | Typical starting price | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Men's haircut at a barbershop | $28–$50 | $40 |
| Skin fade | $28–$34 | $31 |
| Beard trim | $15–$33 | $20 |
| Women's haircut | $33–$60 | $45 |
| Balayage | $150–$250 | $180 |
| Gel manicure | $25–$46 | $40 |
| Pedicure | $40–$46 | $45 |
| 60-minute massage | $60–$105 | $92 |
| Facial | $65–$100 | $94 |
| Brow wax or shaping | $15–$24 | $20 |
| Lash extensions, full set | $20–$100 | $84 |
Tax and tipping, so the bill holds no surprises
Personal grooming services in British Columbia carry 5% GST and no PST — a $45 haircut rings up at $47.25 before you decide on a tip. Retail products you take home (shampoo, polish, aftercare) are a different line: those carry GST and 7% PST. Treatment by a registered massage therapist is the exception in the other direction — it is a health service and carries no GST at all.
Tipping runs 15–20% on the pre-tax total, and it is genuinely expected here. Round up rather than down for a stylist who fixed someone else’s colour, and tip the assistant who washed your hair separately if there was one — $5 in hand is normal. Card terminals will suggest 18/20/25%; the middle button is the local default, not the minimum. Cash is still welcome and, in small independent shops, still preferred.
How this directory was built
Addresses, phone numbers, opening hours and websites come from OpenStreetMap contributors under the Open Database Licence, extracted on 31 July 2026 and filtered to businesses with a street address and at least one way to contact them. Municipality was assigned by matching each location against official municipal boundaries rather than trusting a typed-in city field, which is why a studio on the Burnaby side of Boundary Road appears under Burnaby.
Prices were read from the businesses’ own published price lists — no aggregator, no estimate, no invented figure. Where fewer than five salons published a price for a service, we leave it out rather than pretend the sample means something. Tattoo studios almost never publish rates, so that page explains how quoting works instead of inventing a table.
Where the region’s trades cluster
Metro Vancouver is not one market. Downtown, Yaletown and Robson price for convenience and same-week availability — useful if you are here for four days and staying near Canada Place. Mount Pleasant, Main Street and Commercial Drive are where the independent shops are: the same standard of work, noticeably lower prices, and stylists and artists who build a following rather than a chain. Kitsilano and West 4th lean toward blonde work, skincare and yoga-adjacent wellness. Richmond, especially around Aberdeen Centre and No. 3 Road, is the region’s centre for Asian hair specialists, threading and Korean-style skincare, often open later than downtown. Burnaby’s Metrotown mirrors it at slightly lower prices, and Surrey’s Newton and Whalley areas hold the largest concentration of South Asian salons and threading studios in the province. On the North Shore, Lonsdale is compact and walkable; New Westminster and Port Moody are quieter, cheaper and rarely booked out.
Language is a real filter here
More than half the region speaks a language other than English at home, and salons reflect that directly. Cantonese and Mandarin are the working languages of much of Richmond and east Vancouver, Korean around Robson and Coquitlam, Farsi across North Vancouver, Punjabi and Hindi through Surrey and Delta, Tagalog along Joyce and in New Westminster. If precision matters — a colour correction, a first tattoo, a treatment plan — booking with someone you can speak to in your first language is worth more than saving ten dollars.
When the region is busiest
Demand is seasonal and predictable. May and June book out for graduations and weddings; the two weeks before Christmas are the hardest appointments of the year to get; and the first warm week of spring empties every waxing and pedicure slot in the city. Lash and brow technicians are busiest on Thursdays and Fridays. If you are flexible, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are the least contested hours anywhere in Metro Vancouver, and some studios quietly discount them.
What a visit actually costs, end to end
The price on the menu is not the number on the terminal. A $45 haircut is $47.25 with GST, and $55 to $57 once you tip the way people tip here. A $95 facial lands near $115. A $120 tattoo hour is $126 before the artist’s tip, and tattoo deposits are almost always non-refundable and deducted from the final total, not added to it. Registered massage therapy is the one service that does not carry GST at all, and the one where nobody expects a tip — a $110 hour is $110.
Choosing a studio when you do not know the city
Two checks do most of the work. First, the health inspection: every personal service establishment in the region is inspected by its health authority, and the reports are public — Vancouver Coastal Health covers Vancouver, Richmond and the North Shore, Fraser Health covers Burnaby east to Langley. Search the business name before an appointment that breaks skin: tattoo, piercing, waxing, extractions.
Second, look at who does the work rather than the studio’s own gallery. Individual stylists, barbers and artists here keep their own portfolios on Instagram and their own booking pages on Booksy, Fresha or Vagaro, and the difference between chairs inside one shop is usually bigger than the difference between shops. Booking “any available” at a well-reviewed studio is the most common way visitors end up disappointed.
Getting to the main clusters
Everything in this directory is reachable without a car, and that is usually the cheaper choice — downtown parking runs $4–$8 an hour and metered spots have time limits shorter than a colour appointment.
- Mount Pleasant and Main Street — Broadway–City Hall or Main Street–Science World station, then a short walk; the 3 and 8 buses run the length of Main.
- Commercial Drive — Commercial–Broadway station, then the 20 bus north.
- Metrotown, Burnaby — Metrotown station on the Expo Line, 20 minutes from downtown.
- Richmond and Aberdeen — Aberdeen or Lansdowne on the Canada Line, about 25 minutes from downtown; the mall salons keep later hours than the city.
- Lonsdale, North Vancouver — SeaBus from Waterfront to Lonsdale Quay, 12 minutes across the harbour, and the whole strip is walkable from the terminal.
- Surrey Newton and Whalley — King George or Surrey Central station, then the 96 B-Line down King George Boulevard.
Fares, day passes and the Compass card are explained on our getting around Vancouver page.
Hours, closures and the walk-in question
The single most common wasted trip in this city is arriving on a Sunday or a Monday. A large share of independent salons and barbershops close one or both of those days, and many that open on Sunday run a short afternoon. Statutory holidays — BC Day in August, Labour Day, Truth and Reconciliation Day on 30 September — close most independents entirely, while mall studios in Metrotown, Aberdeen and Richmond Centre stay open on mall hours.
Walk-ins survive mainly in barbering and in nail studios. Hair colour, lashes, tattoos and massage are appointment-only in practice, even where a shop says otherwise, because the chair time is booked out. If you are here for a short trip, book before you fly: a week’s notice gets you the person you actually wanted.
Practical notes for visitors
- Book online. Most studios here run on Fresha, Vagaro, Booksy or Square, and online slots are usually the real availability. Phone lines go unanswered mid-appointment.
- Prices climb toward downtown. The same work costs noticeably less in Mount Pleasant, on Commercial Drive or in Burnaby than on Robson Street, and everything is inside 20 minutes on the SkyTrain — see getting around Vancouver.
- Cancellation policies bite. Twenty-four hours is standard, and no-shows for long colour, lash or tattoo appointments are commonly charged in full.
- Carry the tax in your head. Add 5% GST and 15–20% tip to any quoted price and you will not be surprised at the terminal.
Frequently asked
What does a salon visit cost in Vancouver in 2026?
Starting prices published by Metro Vancouver businesses centre around $40 for a men's haircut, $40 for a gel manicure, $90 for a 60-minute massage and $95 for a facial, before 5% GST and tip.
Is there PST on personal services in British Columbia?
No. Haircuts, manicures and similar services carry 5% GST only. Products you take home carry GST plus 7% PST, and registered massage therapy carries no GST at all.
How much should I tip?
15 to 20% of the pre-tax total for hair, nails, beauty and spa work. Registered massage therapists are not tipped.
How much is a men's haircut at a Vancouver barbershop?
Published starting prices cluster around $40, with most shops between $30 and $50. Kingsway, Whalley and New Westminster hold the cheapest reliable cuts, often under $30; Gastown and downtown chairs run $65 to $85.
Can a Vancouver salon gift card expire?
Generally no. British Columbia's consumer protection law prohibits expiry dates on most gift cards, so a studio telling you the card has run out of time is usually wrong.
Which salons take walk-ins?
Mostly barbershops and nail studios, and mostly in East Vancouver, along Kingsway and on Commercial Drive. Hair colour, lashes, tattoos and massage are appointment-only in practice — the chair time is booked out days ahead.
Where do these addresses come from?
OpenStreetMap contributors, under the Open Database Licence, extracted in July 2026. Prices come from the businesses' own published price lists. No listing is paid.
Where this data comes from. Addresses, phone numbers, opening hours and websites are from OpenStreetMap contributors, licensed under the Open Database Licence (ODbL), extracted 31 July 2026. Prices are the lowest rates published by the businesses themselves on their own websites, read the same week; they are starting prices before 5% GST and tip, and they change. Opening hours change too — call before you travel across the region for a specific shop. We take no payment for a listing and accept none: nothing on this page is an advertisement. Spotted something wrong? Tell us and we will fix it.