Technical time and station time
The technical time of a blow-dry might be twenty minutes. Station time includes the welcome, the wash, the conversation at the mirror and the finishing, and easily reaches forty. The diary is built on the second, because that's what really occupies the chair.
The gap between those two numbers is why some salons are always late despite working fast. It isn't about speed: the diary only counts the technical part and ignores everything else, which happens anyway.
When a client books two services the question becomes how to add them up. Adding the durations is almost always right; what doesn't get added is the free time before and after, which stays one at the start and one at the end even if there are three services.
What an hour of station time contains
The chart is qualitative and shows how much each part weighs in the time the station stays busy.
How to add services up
The table explains what adds up and what doesn't when a visit includes more than one.
| Element | Adds up | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Service durations | Yes | The total is the sum of each line |
| Free time before | No | One only, at the start of the visit |
| Free time after | No | One only, at the end of the visit |
| Break between services | No | They run back to back in one visit |
How to set them
Time the station
From sitting down to the chair being free.
Measure on busy days
That's where hidden minutes show up.
Configure the free time
One before and one after, not between services.
Review every few months
They change with team and techniques.
How to fix them
- Measure station time, not technical time.
- Add the durations, not the free time.
- Review durations every few months.
Measure on the most frequent services and on busy days, not on a quiet Tuesday. Busy days are where the hidden minutes show up — the wait at the basin, the handover between colleagues — and they're what creates the end-of-day delay.
When the team changes, durations change. A new person takes longer on the same services for the first months: allowing for that in the diary avoids dumping the delay on whoever is learning, which is the fastest way to make them work worse.
Durations that add up the way reality does
In Saloria a visit lasts as long as the services the client chose add up to, with free time before and after — general values, with per-service overrides. No breaks are inserted between services in the same visit. Published availability accounts for all of it, so it never promises slots that don't exist.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use the price-list durations?
No. The price list gives technical time; the diary needs the time the station stays busy, which is longer.
How do I work out a visit with several services?
By adding the service durations, with a single block of free time at the start and one at the end of the visit.
How often should durations be reviewed?
Every few months, and whenever the team changes: a new person takes longer on the same services.