Incorporating air brush tanning in my salon

[SouthBeachSunWV]

I have Mystic Tan, which is becoming increasingly unreliable and unsatisfying, so I was thinking about doing air brush tanning by appointment instead.

Which equipment is best and where do I get the proper training?

I guess a big issue too is that I'm a male owner. Would women not want to have me air brush them since I'm a male?

Sunless is becoming increasingly popular at my salon, just don't want to miss out on a market.

[wjonestn]

I'm a male owner as well and do all of our sprays you just have to be professional.
You could try to hire someone to do it.
It take lots of practice when I started we ran an ad on craigslist and myspace gave them away.Thats the best way to do it free practice. Be sure to let ppl know you will be the one spraying them.
Most ppl don't care.
Just get a good HPLV system you can find them used on ebay.
The solution is what makes it.
Good Luck

[SouthBeachSunWV]

What would be a good unit? What would be a good solution? I've just now started researching this. What should I get to have a complete set up. How is your room set up?

[wjonestn]

Using Norvell, and Tan Inc solutions best colors so far
Norvell has a good system.
tcp global sells a good one 2 min turbo tan
3 M makes all of them i think
just research is all you can do
good luck

[SouthBeachSunWV]

Is the Norvell Overspray Booth worth looking at purchasing?

[wjonestn]

norvell is well worth it if you want to spend that much money
we use a tan tent right now (from ebay) it was cheap

[eyecandytanning]

i am a female owner and do all our sprays. it is hard to get peeps to feel comfortable around me, so i can imagine it would be hard for a guy. i get the constant apologies...ie i am sorry i am not thin etc. i am awesome at making them feel comfortable and once i start they are fine.

I have sprayed some peeps that have been sprayed in tan tents...customers view it as unprofessional...but this is what they tell me after seeing my set up. so who knows

[Bronzer]

Do a search for solutions and equipment. Most have been discussed. Get lots of samples. You need to find what YOU like. Also, search for room ideas. If you are handy at all you can go to home depot/lowes and do a nice one for couple hundred dollars.

[wjonestn]

We are looking into building a spray room, wasn't really sure how well spray tanning would do here is why we started with a tent.
It's hard to invest alot of money into something you aren't sure about.

[dcjjp1]

Go to Lowes and get 3 hollow core doors and 2 piano hinges. stain or paint doors, buy box fan and a 20x20 air filter, three clamp shop lights to clip on each panel, done.

That's what I did. Looks industrial.

[wjonestn]

Wow the 3 doors sounds like a good ideal.
what did you use to cover the floor?

[dcjjp1]

[dcjjp1]

I use a towel that I would use for my mystic, and we have a steam shark cleaner and use that after each client.

[Kathe]

We've been doing HVLP sprays for about 3 years now. As eyecandytanning said I'm not sure how women we spray would take having a man spray them. I would think you might be setting yourself up for some liability. In a closed room with a naked/partially naked woman.

Anyway. Sprays do very well for us. We use the Cal Tan bronzer 4000 and have 2 solutions the premium gold and premium dark - both tinted. It allows us to give the customer a choice in shades. They are quite sticky right after spraying the but finished color looks very natural so it's a good trade-off. We get the majority of our new spray clients from referrals. They've seen someone we've sprayed and want to look like them.

I do the majority of the spraying since I work 6 days and my girls who work Saturdays have been working for me as long as we've had spray so they are good at it as well.

When bringing spray in, just bring in everyone you know and give them a free spray. It won't take you long before you are an expert. And people love getting free sprays so you'll have a lot to practice on.

Also, we put complete pre and post instructions on our website so when someone calls to book an appointment we can direct them to the site so they can prep properly. That is half the battle in achieving a good spray result.

We have the Cal Tan backdrop and two fans, one extractor fan in the room. The floor is ceramic tiled and the walls are painted with a glossy paint which washes down easily. We put fresh large sized bath towels all over the floor every morning and they are washed every night. Keeps the room pretty clean and looking professional. We have a table with rubber bands, hair nets, rubber bands, baby wipes for the customers to use.

Hope that helps.

[Bronzer]

I love the look,Jeff. Nice bright lights. I doubt you paid much but it looks very nice.

[bash0918]

Originally Posted by dcjjp1

this looks nice. where did you place the fan & filter?

[SouthBeachSunWV]

Kathe,

Thank you so much for that information. I'm going to let you lead the way for me. I have the room built, but need to install a ventilation fan, and acquire some type of overspray booth. Is an overspray booth really necessary? Do you have them just stand on some towels or on a box or something?

[Kathe]

My husband built a platform that is 7" in height, 36" long and 18" wide. He just made it out of scrap wood and it's very sturdy. Doesn't matter what it looks like because we cover it with a dark green bath towel for them to stand on. We have an extractor fan on a thigh-height table off to the side. We put extra dark green towels on the floor behind and in front of the platform.

If someone is really tall we can spray the legs with them on the platform and then have them step down on the towel in front to do the rest of them.

Once they've been sprayed we turn on the regular fan and turn the extractor fan around to dry them.

You don't need to have an overspray booth if you just want to build something instead to keep your walls clean. My hubby built a backdrop out of pvc and brown tarps which pretty much over the two side walls (we have the platform in a corner of the room) and then we have the Cal Tan backdrop in front of that. Those wipe off easily and it looks great.

We used to just have the Cal Tan backdrop but it doesn't cover enough and we would get a lot of overspray on the walls. Just meant more cleaning between clients. This way it doesn't show at all and we can just clean at the end of the day.

[dcjjp1]

The doors are from Lowes like 75 for all three, the hinges were cheap, two lights on the sides are Ikea for like 5, the middle is just a clip on as the 2 on sides wasn't enough going to replace with same as side for cohesiveness.

I put my airbrush on a metal rolling cart with supplies and the fan on the bottom shelf (looks built in) and roll it to the side while she airbrushes. put it back in the corner when she is done. I have another fan (really powerful) for drying.

[dcjjp1]

Sorry for the dirty filter...