Abu Dhabi Salon Requirements: Health Rules and Inspections
In Abu Dhabi, salons and beauty centres are checked for hygiene by Abu Dhabi City Municipality's Public Health Department, which runs regular inspection campaigns and issues warnings to places that do not comply. Its published checklist covers hand hygiene, sterilised tools and chairs, clean razors and blades, lidded bins, towel storage, staff hygiene and cosmetics that are identified and in date. This guide turns that checklist into plain steps you can follow yourself, before an inspector arrives.
Note: Every requirement below comes from Abu Dhabi City Municipality's own published announcements (18 July 2023, 12 June 2024 and 14 August 2024). Those releases are not a licence checklist, and ADDED's licensing page lists no fees, so this guide does not give a licence cost. Confirm current rules and fees with ADDED on TAMM and the municipality.
Who Checks Salons in Abu Dhabi?
The municipality's Municipal Services Sector, through its Public Health Department, runs inspection and awareness campaigns aimed at owners and workers in women's beauty centres, men's salons and children's salons. Three campaigns are on record:
| Date | What happened |
|---|---|
| 18 July 2023 | Campaign across the municipality's areas; expired and unidentified cosmetics confiscated |
| 12 June 2024 | Campaign before Eid al-Adha, inside and outside Abu Dhabi Island; several warnings issued to non-compliant establishments |
| 14 August 2024 | Three-day campaign across Abu Dhabi Island and areas including Khalifa City, Mohammed Bin Zayed City, Al Raha Beach, Yas Island and Al Reef |
Source: Abu Dhabi City Municipality news, July 2023, June 2024, August 2024.
Notice the timing: the June 2024 campaign came just before Eid al-Adha, when salons are busiest. Expect more checks around holidays and peak periods.
What Does the Municipality Check?
The municipality lists the specific health conditions owners must meet. Here they are in plain English, with what to do about each:
| Official requirement | What it means for you |
|---|---|
| General hygiene and following health guidelines | Keep the whole premises clean every day, not just before an inspection |
| Protective coverings while servicing customers | Staff wear the right covering for each service |
| Washing, cleaning and sanitising hands before and after each client | Put a hand-wash point and sanitiser where staff can reach them without leaving the floor |
| Sterilising service chairs after every use | Spray with an approved sterilising product after each client |
| Sterilising equipment for tools, available and working | Have a working sterilising unit, and check it is switched on |
| A lidded bin with a bag, emptied and cleaned daily | One lidded bin per station is simplest |
| Cleaning razors and replacing old shavers | A new blade for every client |
| Towels stored in designated areas; disposable towels | Separate clean and used towels, and use disposable towels where you can |
| Staff personal hygiene | Clean uniform and clean hands |
| UV interior lighting, with the sterile beam on in the tool box | Keep the UV tool box on and working |
| General maintenance of the facility | Fix cracked chairs, leaking basins and peeling surfaces |
| Checking the suitability of materials used | Only use products meant for the service you are doing |
Source: Abu Dhabi City Municipality, 18 July 2023.
How Long Should Sterilising Spray Stay on a Chair?
The municipality gives a specific number: after each use, spray the chair with an approved sterilising product and leave it for at least two minutes, or for as long as the product's own instructions say. Read the label on your sterilising spray, and set a timer for busy days so nobody wipes it off early.
Where people get stuck: wiping the spray off straight away to save time. Build the two minutes into your booking gaps instead.
What About Tools, Razors and Clippers?
The 2024 campaigns were pointed about this. Inspectors emphasised the risks of using nail clippers, hair-cutting tools and shaving instruments without proper sterilisation, and the importance of:
- regularly opening and cleaning all shaving machines
- using effective sterilising devices and solutions in the facility
- replacing old shaving tools with new ones
- checking that your sterilising equipment actually works, since inspectors verify its quality
A practical routine: one clean, labelled tray per client, tools into the steriliser straight after use, and a weekly deep-clean of clippers and machines on a set day.
What About Cosmetics and Products?
In 2023 the municipality confiscated expired and unidentified cosmetics that did not meet Abu Dhabi's standards, and checks for cosmetics without identification cards and expired products. In 2024 it also warned against filling or mixing cosmetic products in unhealthy ways or under inappropriate conditions, especially if they are unknown, lack the required product identification, or are not licensed by the authority responsible for licensing such products.
Three habits keep you safe:
- Check every product for an identification label and an expiry date when it arrives, and again monthly.
- Keep products in their original containers. Do not decant into unlabelled bottles.
- Throw out expired stock immediately instead of keeping it "for staff".
What About Your Staff?
The municipality's campaigns also examine the staff working in these centres and promote wearing the prescribed uniform. Brief every new hire on hand hygiene, uniform and the sterilising routine on their first day, and write it down. Salon staff in Dubai need regular occupational health screening; see our guide to health cards and screening for Dubai salons and restaurants. Check the Abu Dhabi process with the relevant authority, since we have not verified it.
Checklist: Be Inspection-Ready Every Day
- Hand-wash point and sanitiser at every working area
- Lidded bins with bags, emptied and cleaned daily
- Tool sterilising equipment working; UV tool box switched on
- New blade for every client; clippers and machines cleaned
- Chairs sprayed after every client; spray left on at least two minutes
- Clean towels and used towels stored separately; disposable towels available
- Every product labelled, identified and in date; nothing decanted into unmarked bottles
- Staff in the prescribed uniform with clean hands
- A signed daily checklist kept on file
What About the Licence Itself?
You apply for your business licence through ADDED's eServices on the TAMM portal, and ADDED's public pages describe the licence types available. Check with ADDED on TAMM which approvals apply to your activity and what they cost. We do not give a figure here because we could not trace one to an official source, and we only publish figures we can. For how costs and rules compare elsewhere, see our guides to starting a salon in Dubai, the Sharjah salon licence and Abu Dhabi vs Dubai for your service business.
If you are weighing a salon in the capital, our guides to salon staff salaries in Abu Dhabi and salon marketing in Abu Dhabi cover the staffing and customer side.