TowelHub Blog

Most towel problems don't show up at opening. At a busy tanning salon, they show up around 5 o'clock, when the after-work crowd lines up at the desk and the lunch load still has 20 minutes on the dryer. It's tempting to blame the order size. Usually, though, towels just leave faster than the laundry brings them back, which shows the moment you put numbers on your daily towel usage.

A salon that washes its own towels should keep about three days' worth on hand, plus 10 percent, rounded up to the nearest dozen. That keeps a clean towel supply on the shelf even on a packed Saturday. If a laundry service does the washing, add a day's worth for every day the towels are gone.

What Are Tanning Salon Towels?

Most of what is stored on the towel shelf at a tanning business includes hand towels and washcloths. Clients use these items to remove sweat and lotion following their tanning sessions, while staff members pick up the same items to clean the counters and booth walls.

These items are typically between 15" x 25" and 16" x 28". The size allows for drying of the client's face and arms while allowing the item to clear a complete load quickly.

Towel Use In UV Rooms

UV rooms are the easy part. One towel covers most sessions. Long sessions and heavy bronzing lotions call for a second, hence the 1.5 below. Our 15x25 color hand towels suit this spot. They're light, double-stitched at the hem, and quick out of the dryer.

Heavier Use In Spray Booths

The spray booth is where you can disappear. Clients will wipe their hands prior to the session, and the tech will wipe away the overspray from the floor after the session, so you're using at least 2 towels per client; maybe 3. Also, spray solutions have bronzers in them, which give a client a "temporary" tan look to show they have been covered completely. 

However, these bronzers leave orange-brown spots on light colored towels that are very difficult to remove. Most owners end up with a dark set of towels that remain in the spray booth at all times.

Daily Towel Count For A Tanning Salon

You need last week's appointment book and about 10 minutes.

Counting Towels Per Service

Count what actually left the shelf for each service over seven days, not what should have. Divide by seven for your daily towel usage on an average day. The busiest day matters more, since that's the one your stock has to survive. Paper towels for wiping beds are a separate line on the wholesale tanning salon supplies order, next to the disinfectant.

The Three-Par Method

Hotels plan linen in pars. One par is a day's worth of towels, and a salon with its own washer and dryer needs three. While one set is in use and another is in the wash, the third sits folded on the shelf. Add roughly 10 percent for towels that get ruined or wander off in a gym bag. Then round up to the dozen. Bulk towels for salons, our tanning towel collection included, come that way.

Here's the math for a salon with eight UV beds and one spray booth on its busiest day.

Item	Busy Day Count
UV towels (60 sessions × 1.5)	90
Spray tan towels (10 sessions × 2)	20
One par	110
Three pars	330
10 percent buffer	33
Stock target	372 towels (31 dozen)

That's 31 dozen, your salon towel inventory target. Count against it at closing a couple of times a week, and losses show up early.

Laundry Turnaround And Timing

Three pars only work if yesterday's towels are clean and folded by morning. Fall a few hours behind each day, and the slack is gone by Thursday, which is usually when towel shortages start.

On-Site Wash Schedule

One huge load after closing is the common habit, and the worst one. Set your towel washing frequency by the booking sheet instead (a load at 11 a.m., another at 2 p.m.), and the evening rush walks in to find dry towels.

Wash our Standard Premium colors cold and the 16x27 premium pus towels warm if you like. Skip fabric softener. It coats the loops on commercial salon towels, so they smear lotion around instead of soaking it up.

Outside Laundry Pickups

If the van takes towels Monday and brings them back Thursday, they're out of play for three days. Add a par for each of those days. Skip that, and the clean towel supply looks thin by Wednesday.

Tanning Salon Peak Season Planning

A count worked out in October won't survive March. In many markets, bookings climb right after New Year's and hold through spring break and prom. Wedding season then keeps the spray booth busy into summer. A salon towel supply sized for fall traffic won't stretch that far.

So redo the count with your busiest spring week and order the difference in early January, along with lotion and the rest of your wholesale tanning salon supplies. March rush orders usually cost more and add straight to salon supply costs. 

An early order also leaves time for the first wash. Some of our towels ship compressed, and our washing instructions cover breaking them in with a white vinegar soak.

Buying Tanning Salon Towels Wholesale

Price per dozen is what everyone checks first. Still, a towel stained by week four gets replaced early, and over a year it can cost more than a pricier towel.

Towel Size And Weight

Heavier sounds better, and in a spa it might be. For tanning, weight mostly means dryer time. A plush 16x30 heavyweight adds minutes to every cycle, and a dozen 16x27 Premium Plus towels at about 3 pounds clear the dryer sooner. If you buy salon towels for business use, judge them after a month of regular washing.

Colors That Hide Bronzer

For the spray booth, go dark. Deep shades hide bronzer in a way white and pastels never will. Our 16x26 Bleach Shield towels are colorfast and stain-resistant, so they take hot water, plus a cold bleach wash when a mark won't budge. They're also made to last three to four times as long as standard salon towels.

Replacing Worn Tanning Salon Towels

Every towel wears out, so compare your options by cost per wash. Divide the price by the washes it lasts. A $1.00 towel that survives 60 washes works out to about 1.7 cents a use. A $2.00 bleach-proof towel lasting three times as long comes in at around 1.1 cents. Track it for a few months to see which grade actually lowers salon supply costs.

Pull a towel once a stain survives two washes or the hem starts to split. Hems nearly always go first, and our post on why towel edges fray first covers the laundry habits behind it. Keep towel replacement stock on its own shelf and hand it out only as old towels retire. When that shelf drops below one par, reorder bulk towels.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Towels Does A Busy Tanning Salon Need?

Take the towels used on your busiest day and multiply by three if you wash in-house. Add 10 percent and round up to the next dozen. A salon going through 110 towels on a peak day needs about 372, plus a day's worth for every day towels spend at an outside laundry.

How Often Should Towels Be Washed In A Salon?

Every towel goes in the wash after one client. Plan your towel washing frequency around the day's bookings, because one big load at night leaves the afternoon shift short. Damp towels left in a hamper overnight also start to smell, and our post on why towels smell worse once they get wet explains why.

What Color Towels Hide Spray Tan Stains?

Black, charcoal, and dark brown all hide spray tan marks well. If you're ordering salon towels for business use, pick bleach-proof versions so you can sanitize them without patchy fading.

Can You Use Bleach On Tanning Towels?

Use it only on towels made for it. Regular colored commercial salon towels fade fast in bleach, and even plain white cotton weakens if you bleach it every wash.

How Often Should A Salon Replace Its Towels?

There's no fixed schedule. Check the shelves once a month, pull anything stained or fraying, and top up from towel replacement stock in the same size and color.

Planning Your Next Towel Order

Once the number of peak days and when you will do the laundry has been documented, then you should be able to predict towel shortages. You can pull the previous weeks' bookings tonight and perform the three-part math calculation to determine whether or not your salon has enough towels.

When you are running low on inventory, make sure to place your order prior to the busy period, not while it is occurring. TowelHub offers wholesale towel sales to tanning salons (in quantities of 12) available in white, colored, and Bleach Shield grades, and they ship their products nationwide to all tanning salons.

Get your salon towel supply sorted while there's still time to wash it before the first busy weekend.