After thirty years in this industry — a good chunk of it running salons in New Hampshire — I can tell you that the hardest marketing problem a salon ever has isn’t the work. The work is usually great. The problem is that nobody outside your four walls ever sees it happen. Well, here’s something I’ve watched work in a few communities lately, and it costs exactly nothing: pitch yourself to your local media.
Local media is still hungry for stories — especially visual ones
I know what you’re thinking. “Local paper? Does my town even have one anymore?” More of them are hanging on than you’d guess. Community weeklies, regional lifestyle magazines, town Facebook news pages, and local TV morning shows all share the same problem: they need interesting, local, visual stories every single week, and most weeks they’re scraping for them.
A salon offering a genuinely new service is exactly the kind of story they look for. Not “salon exists” — that’s not a story. But “local salon adopts a new tool that’s replacing foil highlights” — that’s a story with an angle: new technology, a local business investing in itself, and a sustainability hook, since reusable tools mean less single-use waste going in the bin. Editors love a story that lets them show something readers haven’t seen before.
Why highlighting services make great television
Here’s the part most stylists underestimate: color services are visual. A reporter can’t do much with a picture of a bottle of shampoo. But a highlighting service in progress — sections going up, color developing where you can actually see it, and the reveal at the end — that’s a before-during-after story that practically shoots itself.
This is honestly where ColorShells have an unfair advantage as a media hook. They don’t look like anything a viewer has seen at a salon before. Clear shells clipped into the hair instead of folded foil, color visibly developing inside them, then opened, rinsed, washed, and stacked to use again. When a camera pans across a client mid-service, it reads as “cutting edge” in about two seconds — no explanation needed. I’ve now heard from a few salons that got real local coverage this way, and the visual novelty was exactly what sold the producer on it.
How to actually make the pitch
You don’t need a publicist. You need a short, friendly email. Here’s the shape of it:
Find the right person. For a paper, that’s the features or community editor — their email is usually right on the website. For local TV, look for the morning or lifestyle show’s story submission page. For regional magazines, the editor listed in the masthead.
Lead with the angle, not with you. Two or three sentences: “We’ve become one of the first salons in the area to replace disposable foil with a reusable highlighting tool. It changes how the service looks, cuts single-use waste dramatically, and clients are loving the results. Happy to have you in to see a service in progress.” That’s it.
Attach one great photo. A real one, from your chair. Mid-service, good light, shells visible. One photo that makes them curious beats ten that don’t.
Offer the demo. Invite them to film or photograph an actual appointment (with a willing client — most clients think it’s a hoot). Media people say yes to things that are easy. You’re handing them a finished story.
What a feature actually does for your book
One local story does things paid ads can’t. It positions you as the forward-thinking salon in town — the one that invests in new techniques. It reaches clients who never scroll past a salon ad but read every word of their community paper. And it gives you content you can reuse for months: “as featured in” on your website, the clipping framed at the front desk, the TV segment pinned to the top of your page.
And the sustainability angle keeps working after the story runs. Clients increasingly ask what their salon is doing about waste. Being the salon that got covered for ditching disposable foil is a very comfortable answer.
Start with the tool, then make the call
If you’re already using ColorShells, you have the story — go pitch it this week. If you’re not yet, the shells themselves are the easiest first step: reusable, easy to clean, and they make every highlight service look like something worth filming. You can pick up a set at the ColorShells shop and be running “cutting edge” services by next week.
Has your salon ever been featured in local media — or is there a story sitting in your chair right now that your town paper would love? Tell me about it in the comments.
