Hair salon hygiene rules in New Zealand after the 2025 deregulation

For 45 years, every hair salon in New Zealand lived under the Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980: register the premises with the council, meet minimum shop standards, follow prescribed hygiene and disinfection rules, and expect the occasional visit from an environmental health officer. On 31 July 2025, all of that disappeared in a single Order in Council. No replacement regulations were made.

That has left a lot of salon owners asking the same two questions: what am I still legally required to do, and what should I keep doing anyway? The two answers are very different, and mixing them up is risky in both directions. This guide separates them, with every legal claim checked against the primary source in October 2026.

One honest note on where record-keeping fits into this. The old regime never told you how to track clients, and the new one certainly does not, but the practical backbone of salon hygiene is still a good record: which colour service a client had, when, and any reaction noted afterwards. A free online booking system with a built-in client database keeps that history attached to every appointment at no cost and with 0% commission; it will not make you compliant with anything by itself, but it makes the habits below much easier to sustain.

What exactly changed on 31 July 2025

The Health (Hairdressers) Regulations Revocation Order 2025 (SL 2025/143), made on 30 June 2025 under section 117 of the Health Act 1956, revoked the Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980 in full, with effect from 31 July 2025 (Health (Hairdressers) Regulations Revocation Order 2025, legislation.govt.nz, checked in October 2026). The order's explanatory note is unusually blunt: the obligations in the revoked regulations are no longer legal requirements, and hairdressing is no longer regulated under the Health Act 1956 at all.

Concretely, the following national requirements are gone:

• Council registration of the premises. The old regulations made it an offence to run a hairdresser's shop unless it was registered with the local authority under the Health (Registration of Premises) Regulations 1966 (Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980 as revoked, legislation.govt.nz, checked in October 2026). The Ministry for Regulation's review put annual registration fees at NZ$140 to NZ$495 depending on the council and whether it was an initial registration or a renewal (Hairdressing and Barbering Industry Regulatory Review, final report, May 2025).
• The prescribed minimum shop standards on things like surfaces, basins, lighting and seating.
• The prescribed hygiene and disinfection duties, including the legal requirement to disinfect appliances and equipment. The review itself flagged this as the key public-health requirement being forfeited, and noted that environmental health officers reported poor cleaning and disinfection as the most common issue they found on inspections.
• Routine council hygiene inspections specific to hairdressing.

Nothing replaced these regulations in law. The review recommended revocation be supported by updated voluntary guidance on health and hygiene, developed with the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand, plus a report back to Cabinet two years after revocation on whether risks are being managed under the new regime (Hairdressing and Barbering Regulatory Review, regulation.govt.nz, checked in October 2026). As of October 2026, Christchurch City Council's guidance page still describes that national guidance as being prepared, so do not expect a rulebook to land in your inbox.

The change was not universally celebrated. When it was announced in May 2025, Hair and Barber NZ told RNZ its bigger concern, that anyone can work as a hairdresser in New Zealand without a qualification, had not been addressed at all (RNZ, 28 May 2025). And months earlier, RNZ found many hairdressers did not know some of the old rules existed in the first place (RNZ, December 2024), which says a lot about how lightly they were enforced.

The law that still applies to your salon

Deregulation removed the hairdressing-specific rules. It did not touch the general law every New Zealand business sits under, and the review's final report lists these frameworks explicitly as continuing to apply.

Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

As a PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking), you owe a primary duty of care to keep workers and anyone affected by your work, clients included, healthy and safe so far as is reasonably practicable. That duty covers the classic salon hazards: chemical exposure, cuts, burns from dryers and straighteners, slips on wet or hair-covered floors, and skin conditions from constant wet work. WorkSafe is the regulator, and its introduction to the Health and Safety at Work Act is the right starting point (checked in October 2026). Unlike the old regime, nobody inspects you proactively; WorkSafe acts when something is notified or reported. That makes your own systems more important, not less.

Hazardous substances and colour chemicals

Professional colour, lighteners and perm solutions are chemicals, and storing, handling and disposing of them falls under the hazardous substances framework that sits alongside the Health and Safety at Work Act. The practical basics have not changed with deregulation: know what you hold, keep safety data sheets accessible, store products as the manufacturer directs, ventilate mixing areas, use gloves, and never decant into unlabelled containers. WorkSafe's hazardous substances hub covers the duties and has tools to work out what applies to the quantities a salon typically holds (checked in October 2026).

Consumer law

The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 guarantees that services are performed with reasonable care and skill, are fit for the purpose the client asked for, and are done in a reasonable time at a reasonable price where none was agreed (Consumer Protection, Consumer Guarantees Act, checked in October 2026). A chemical burn or a colour disaster that proper care would have avoided is a consumer-law problem regardless of what hygiene regulations do or do not exist.

Privacy, building and water rules

The Privacy Act 2020 applies to every New Zealand business with no small-business exemption, so the client records you keep, colour formulas, allergy notes, contact details, come with legal obligations; our guide to client records and privacy for NZ hair salons covers them in detail. The Building Act 2004 and Building Code still apply to the premises, and councils still enforce water and trade-waste rules: Christchurch, for example, points out that salon and hairdresser sinks are classed as a high hazard to the public water supply under the Building Code's water supplies provisions, and that connecting and discharging into the water and wastewater network still requires the usual permissions.

Councils: registration is gone, but the picture varies

Under the old regime your council was your regulator. Now the honest answer is that each council is working out its own position, and they are not all in the same place.

Christchurch has published the clearest statement we found. Its hairdressers page (checked in October 2026) confirms that the 1980 regulations can no longer be enforced, that new businesses no longer need to register, that the council has stopped processing registrations and renewals and has ended routine hairdressing inspections, and that the 1966 premises-registration regulations no longer apply to hairdressers and barbers (Christchurch City Council, hairdressers and barbers).

Other councils may differ, and the law lets them. The Ministry for Regulation's review openly flagged the risk that local authorities create new bylaws, or extend existing health-and-hygiene bylaws that currently target higher-risk services such as skin piercing and tattooing, to cover hairdressing, and the two-year report back to Cabinet will specifically monitor whether that happens. Councils also keep their general powers under the Health Act 1956 to enter and inspect premises when a nuisance or health issue is raised. We were not able to re-check every major council's current page from Europe at the time of writing, so treat this as a question with a local answer: one email to your council's environmental health team settles what applies at your address. If you are fitting out a new salon, our guide to opening a hair salon in New Zealand walks through the council questions that never went away, planning, building consent and trade waste among them.

Hygiene standards worth keeping, whatever the law says

Here is the distinction that matters: "no longer legally required" is not the same as "no longer worth doing". The old regulations were revoked because they were outdated and barely enforced, not because disinfection stopped working. Clients did not read the revocation order; they still judge your salon by whether the tools look clean and the towels smell fresh, and the Consumer Guarantees Act's care-and-skill guarantee still sits behind every service. These habits cost little and are standard practice in well-run salons:

• Clean and disinfect tools between clients. Remove hair and debris, then disinfect scissors, clipper blades, combs and brushes with a product used as its manufacturer directs. Anything that has broken skin gets cleaned and disinfected before reuse or is disposed of.
• Fresh towel and cape per client. Laundered hot, stored dry and covered. A visible stack of clean folded towels is also quiet marketing.
• Clean as you go. Sweep hair between clients, keep basins and stations wiped down, and keep the mixing area separate from anywhere food or drink lives.
• Cover cuts, handle blood carefully. Gloves for any contact with blood, wounds dressed, contaminated items bagged and binned. The communicable-disease risk from hairdressing is low, which is exactly why the regulations went, but low is not zero.
• Keep patch-test records for colour work. No New Zealand law names patch tests, so be wary of anyone telling you they are "required". They are, however, what colour manufacturers instruct, and a dated note that a test was offered, performed or declined is the kind of record that demonstrates reasonable care if a reaction is ever disputed. Store it with the client's history, alongside formulas and any noted sensitivities, and it doubles as better service at the next visit.
• Look after your team's skin and lungs. Gloves for wet work and chemicals, ventilation where colour is mixed, and taking dermatitis complaints seriously are health-and-safety duties as much as hygiene ones.

None of this needs a certificate on the wall. It needs a routine, and a place where per-client notes actually get written down and found again.

What to tell clients

Most clients never knew the 1980 regulations existed, so there is nothing to announce. But if the deregulation comes up, and it had national media coverage, the useful message is simple and true: the government removed outdated paperwork, nothing about how this salon works has changed, and here is what we do between every client. A line on your booking page or in your confirmation emails about your hygiene routine turns an awkward question into a trust signal. The salons most exposed by deregulation are the ones that treated council registration as their only proof of standards; the ones that gain are those that can show their standards without being asked.

Frequently asked questions

Do hair salons in New Zealand still need to register with the council?

Not under health legislation. The national registration requirement ended when the Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980 were revoked on 31 July 2025, and Christchurch City Council, for example, has confirmed it stopped processing registrations and renewals. Councils could in future create or extend bylaws covering hairdressing, and other council rules (planning, building, trade waste) still apply, so confirm the position with your own council.

What replaced the Health (Hairdressers) Regulations 1980?

In law, nothing. Hairdressing is no longer regulated under the Health Act 1956. The government committed to voluntary national hygiene guidance, developed with the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand, and a report back to Cabinet two years after revocation on whether risks are being managed. General law, including the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, continues to apply.

Is disinfecting scissors and clippers still legally required?

The specific legal duty to disinfect appliances disappeared with the 1980 regulations, and the review acknowledged that openly. But disinfection between clients remains standard professional practice, supports your care-and-skill obligations under consumer law, and is the first thing clients notice. Treat it as non-negotiable even though no inspector will check.

Do you need a qualification to cut hair in New Zealand?

No. There was no occupational licence before the 2025 change and there is none now; the industry body Hair and Barber NZ publicly criticised the reform for leaving that gap open. Qualifications remain a market expectation and a hiring filter rather than a legal requirement.

Are patch tests legally required for hair colour in New Zealand?

No law names them. Patch testing is manufacturer-instructed practice, not a statutory requirement, and that was true before the deregulation too. Keeping dated patch-test and reaction notes in your client records is still strongly advisable: it shows reasonable care, and it protects both the client and you.