10 Hair-Raising Tales of Haunted Salons

Wherever you visit to dye your hair, you had better make sure nobody has died there. If they have, they might still be hanging around. Hair salons seem to be a popular haunt for mischievous spirits from beyond. Here are 10 ghostly sightings at spooky salons which are sure to make your hair stand on end.

Related: Top 10 Famous Haunted Landmarks You Didn’t Know Were Haunted

10 Michael’s Hair Design

Michael’s Hair Design in Nailsea, UK, experienced some spooky goings-on during the decades since Michael Pearce took it over. The salon, based in a 200-year-old cottage, is the setting for the unexplained disappearance and moving around of items, as well as a mysterious chill in one of the rooms. The ghostly mischief persisted long enough that a medium was eventually asked to attend and shed some light on strange activities.

The medium confirmed what locals had long suspected, that the salon was, in fact, home to a ghost. She claimed it was a sad little boy. Michael retired and closed the salon in 2022 without ever seeing the ghost. It is unknown whether the little boy still haunts the new occupants.^[1]

9 Nokes’z Hair

Nokes’z Hair is a hair salon in Northfield, UK, which has been the location for plenty of paranormal activities. In 2017, it was featured on the YouTube channel of paranormal investigators Dale Makin and Justin Cowell, where a video showed an eerie black mist forming and changing shape inside the salon.

This was only one of many reports about this hive of haunted activity. A customer was also said to have seen the mist some years earlier. Staff also report seeing a ghostly face watching them in the dark, vases and mirrors being stacked up, items being thrown, hearing strange voices, and appliances switching on by themselves. Nothing about the ghost is known, but a coin from the 1700s once appeared on the doorstep, which some believe may hold a clue to the mystery.^[2]

8 Halo Salon

There is nothing angelic about the events Amanda Kist has experienced in the years she has run the Halo Salon in Robbinsdale, Minnesota. A possible poltergeist has been playing games in the salon, throwing pictures off of walls and chucking baskets out of the washing machine. Despite electricians confirming everything was in order, Amanda’s stereo suddenly turns off each day at the same time.

Eventually, Amanda invited a psychic to a Christmas party in the building who sensed the spirit of an old man named Charlie. Charlie was said to own a watch repair business in the area. After asking local historians about her building’s history, Amanda discovered that there used to be a run-down old watchmakers shop nearby.^[3]

7 The Barbers

Charlotte YD Hale, the owner of The Barbers salon in Frodsham, UK, claims her business is being haunted by her own mom. Her mom died from illness four years before Charlotte bought the salon but still seemed to be able to track her down. Charlotte believes her mother wants to feel like a part of the business, as she never got the chance while she was alive.

Charlotte initially saw the spirit while checking her cameras. She captured a picture of a ghostly woman in one of the mirrors and claimed to know it was her mother from the way she held her head. Also, she would notice the smell of burned buttered toast occasionally, which she says was her late mother’s signature scent.

Ghost hunters from Paranormal Investigations UK agreed the salon was haunted and were unable to find any other explanation for the spirit, so they believe it could be her mother. Charlotte is not spooked by the spiritual presence and considers herself lucky that her mom is still around. She hopes for more visits.^[4]

6 Sally Montague

You would think ghosts would be bad for business, but Sally Montague has proudly embraced her salon’s title as Derby’s most haunted. In fact, both salons she has run in the English town in her 40 years as a hairdresser have been haunted. Sightings have been made in her salon of a little dog and some marching soldiers. Rumor has it the soldiers relate to some underground tunnels in the old English city, which may have been dug or used by the military.

As for the dog, it is believed to have died after falling ill but had shown up to visit its owner, who was a customer at the salon. Sally heard a sound like a dog’s bark, and her customer claimed to be able to see a dog by another customer’s feet. Sally could not see it, but her customer claimed to have a history of supernatural encounters and explained that some people cannot see ghosts.^[5]

5 A Touch of Claas

Missouri salon owner Linda Claas operates out of her 92-year-old home. From the outside, it looks perfectly ordinary, but from the inside, nothing could be further from the truth. Claas and her employees believe the old house is haunted. Besides the spooky signatures of moving objects and appliances apparently switching themselves on, Claas claims to have encountered orbs.

These are bright circles of light that paranormal investigator Hector Lugo believes transport spirits, much like what the good witch used with the bubble in The Wizard of Oz. He described the spirits as being friendly and childlike, although who they are and what they want remains a mystery. Claas believes they might be people who visited the house in the past. Some of the spirits were apparently once captured on camera by a realtor in Claas’s kitchen.^[6]

4 Thomas Hardy Salon

In 1903, a saloon fight resulted in a man being knocked through a glass window. Decades later, the owner of the Thomas Hardy Salon in Ogden, Utah, and her son would hear shattering glass at the same time. Each would believe the sound came from a different floor since the owner was down in the basement and her son was upstairs. Neither would ever get to the root of the racket. This is just one tale of many from the Thomas Hardy Salon.

Others include a ghostly girl who appears in the mirror and the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs when no one is there. Also, in 1903, those same stairs were the site of a tragic accident in which a drunken man fell down the stairs and broke his neck. Could the dead man’s spirit be returning to wreak revenge on the building which caused his death? Or is he warning others to keep away from the steep staircase? Either way, the staff are said to be so spooked they refuse to enter the basement.^[7]

3 Exquisite Styles

Exquisite Styles, based in a 175-year-old Pennsylvania farmhouse, was eerie enough to convince even the owner’s skeptical son. Mocking his mother and her staff’s reports of mysterious activities, the 18-year-old and his friends were startled when they felt a sudden chill while drinking just outside the farmhouse before some lights and a fan turned on by themselves. The owner, Melissa Schafer, had witnessed many such incidents in her time running the salon. She believes the phantom could be John Cooper, a former soldier and possibly a former owner of the farm.

Descendants of a former owner called Cooper claimed to have seen the ghost of a man in a Civil War uniform in the basement. Historians would later confirm that a local by the name of Cooper was indeed in the military, although it is unclear whether it is the same person who owned the old farmhouse. This is another case where cameras have been able to provide some evidence too. Over the years, video cameras have caught mysterious, spiny white rods manifesting themselves in the air and swirling around the room.^[8]

2 Total Bliss Salon and Spa

Massage therapists may claim to rid your body of negative energy, but did you ever wonder where that energy goes? Nancy Carroll, an Arizona salon owner, thinks they stick around for a while in her storage room. She reports feeling the presence of another person when walking down the hallway, even though there is no one there. She occasionally glimpses another person in the corner of her eye.

One persistent spirit she named Lola. Lola was apparently very friendly and made those who encountered her feel happy rather than haunted. Another witness to the ghostly goings-on was an employee, Jim, who saw a woman in a long white gown walk between him and Nancy during a conversation.^[9]

1 The Ghost Barbershop

This last tale is a little different. In this case, the salon was not the setting for some spooky events, but its very existence was the eerie event itself. Aaron Levinson was wandering the streets of San Francisco with an old friend when up a steep dark street, he spotted a shop window that seemed out of place. It was a small barbershop with red leather chairs. The lights were still on, and the barber was inside. A sign in the shop window offered $5 haircuts, which Aaron thought was surprisingly cheap.

However, the next day, when he went back to that street for a trim, he could not find the shop. Asking an old man for directions, he was informed the last barbershop on that street had closed several decades ago. The man walked with him to its location, the same spot where Aaron had seen the barbershop the night before, but all that was there was a house.

What makes this tale all the more intriguing is that Aaron was no true believer in ghosts. The son of an architect who hosts a bimonthly discussion of scientific topics, Aaron considered himself a “scientific agnostic.” Now, he’s someone who favors evidence but is open-minded about improbable things like disappearing barbershops returning from the past.^[10]