How to Make Your Own Fake Beauty Salon for Kids

Plan the Salon

• Plan the salon with your child and figure out how to rearrange furniture to create the salon stations. For example, create a reception area, a line-up of booster chairs for haircuts and a hair washing station with bowls, a table and seats. The lounge can consist of chairs, a coffee table, beauty magazines and a child̵7;s tea set. A table with an appointment book, toy cash register and jar of lollipops can define the salon̵7;s reception desk. If your child is working with doll hair, place telephone books on chairs -- booster seats -- and drape them with colorful sheets.

Gather Props

• Gather a variety of props, including brushes, combs, hair clips, spray bottles, curlers, rollers, handheld mirrors, towels, shampoo bottles, capes and smocks. Blow dryers with the plugs removed and a child̵7;s scissors can be used safely. You can also use a curling iron sans the plug. Use tear-free baby shampoo. If your child wants a nail painting or make-up station, purchase inexpensive nail or face-painting kits for children.

Assigning Roles

• If you̵7;re creating a salon for your child and her friends, guide the group in defining and choosing roles to play. While dolls or manikin heads with old wigs can pose as customers for your child̵7;s beauty salon, the children can divvy up roles, such as the receptionist, hair stylist, hair washer, manicurist, make-up artist and the clean-up crew. One child can act as a floater, circulating throughout the salon and serving tea and cookies. Print signs for name of the salon, a list of haircuts and prices and arrows for bathrooms, and then have your children tape them to the wall to further define the salon space.

Using Craft Materials

• Blend beauty salon play with an arts and crafts project. Gather paper plates, markers, crayons, glue, yarn, cardstock of different colors and bamboo skewers. Have your children cut the middle circle out of paper plates so rims fit like a rainbows around their heads. Ask your children to color the plates according to their desired hair color. They can also cut yarn and then glue it to the plates to form new hairstyles. Have the children cement a skewer, which serves as a handle, to the back of one side of the plate. You can also cut mustaches of different shapes from cardstock. Again, have the children glue a skewer to one tip of the mustache. When you set up the hair salon, your children can trim the hairstyles and mustaches that they have created from craft materials.