Meet LocalPal at Salon International 2026 — Stand T172

An event banner showing Salon International 2026 at ExCeL London on 4 and 5 October, with the LocalPal stand number T172 highlighted.

For two days in October, most of the UK's hair industry is in one building. Salon International — Europe's biggest event for hairdressing professionals — takes over ExCeL London on 4–5 October 2026, with 35,000+ stylists, barbers, colourists and salon owners walking the floor and 150+ brands exhibiting.

This year, one of those stands is ours. LocalPal is at Stand T172, and if you run a barbershop, salon or beauty business, we'd genuinely like you to come and poke at it.

(Can't wait until October? Here's the merchants page — everything at the stand works today.)

Why we're exhibiting

Most of what we do happens over WhatsApp and at shop counters — one barbershop, one café, one salon at a time. That works, but it has a limit: you can't feel an NFC tap through a phone screen.

The tap is the whole product. A customer pays, taps their phone on the reader, and a stamp lands on their card before they've picked their change up. Every shop owner who sees it in person has the same reaction — "that's it?" — and that moment is worth more than any page on this website. Salon International puts 35,000 of the right people within walking distance of the reader. So we're bringing it to them.

What's on the stand

Three demo stations on the LocalPal stand: tap-to-earn with a live NFC reader, wallet passes added in ten seconds, and the merchant dashboard showing customers and campaigns.
The two-minute tour: tap, wallet, dashboard. Bring your own numbers for the ROI part.

The tap, live. Tap your own phone on the reader and earn a stamp in our demo shop. This is the same NFC device that ships to every LocalPal merchant — nothing staged.

Wallet passes, timed. We'll add a loyalty card to your Apple Wallet or Google Wallet from a QR code and you can count the seconds yourself. It's about ten. No app download, no account, no email address.

The merchant dashboard. Who visited, who's gone quiet, which flash deal filled Tuesday afternoon. If you've only ever run paper cards, this is the part that changes how you think about your regulars.

Your numbers, not ours. Tell us your average price and weekly customers, and we'll run them through the ROI calculator on the stand — you'll leave knowing what a loyalty programme is actually worth to your shop, whether or not you sign up.

Stamps and store credit, side by side. Barbers usually pick classic stamp cards; beauty businesses with variable baskets often do better with store credit ("spend £50, earn £5"). Both are the same £25/month — we'll show you which fits your price list.

Who should come

If you charge people for cuts, colour, nails, brows or beard trims, you're who we built this for. That covers the barber with one chair, the salon owner with three sites, and the mobile beautician who wants regulars to rebook without being chased on Instagram.

Come with questions. The awkward ones are the most useful — "what happens when a customer loses their phone?", "what if my staff forget to mention it?", "why wouldn't I just use my booking app's loyalty feature?" We've written about that last one at length in Booking, Loyalty and Deals: Why Barbers Need One Platform — but it's a better conversation in person.

And if you want proof this works before giving us two minutes of your day, read how a Dagenham barbershop put 450 customers on its loyalty list in three weeks. The owner started with the same "that's it?" moment.

The practical bit

  • Dates: Saturday 4 – Sunday 5 October 2026
  • Venue: ExCeL London, Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, London E16 1XL
  • Stand: T172 — no appointment needed, walk up any time
  • Tickets: sold by the event at hji.co.uk/salon-international — £20 at the time of writing, including the live stages

If you want to guarantee a quiet slot rather than take your chances with the queue, message us on WhatsApp at +44 7564 210401 and we'll agree a time.

How LocalPal handles all of this

  • £25 a month, flat. No contract, no setup fee, no per-customer charge.
  • Stamps or store credit — your choice. Switch any time on the same subscription.
  • No app required for your customers. NFC tap, web sign-in, or an Apple/Google Wallet pass in about ten seconds.
  • Push, email and flash deals built in. Reach your whole list without paying per message.
  • Same-day setup. Plenty of shops go live the afternoon they first call us — you don't have to wait for October.

Set your shop up on LocalPal — or come and make us prove all of this at Stand T172.

Two days, 35,000 professionals, one stand where you can tap a reader and watch a stamp land. See you at T172 — or start today and skip the queue.