Every ad you run for an aesthetic treatment — website page, Instagram post, leaflet, Google ad — is covered by the UK Advertising Codes, written by CAP and enforced by the ASA. The core rule is simple: you must hold documentary evidence for any objective claim before you publish it, and you must not make medical claims for a cosmetic treatment.
Most salon owners have never read the CAP Code and have no particular reason to. But aesthetics is one of the sectors the ASA looks at closely, and the complaints that stick are almost never about something exotic. They’re about a caption written in thirty seconds on a Tuesday.
Correct as at July 2026.
Please read this first. Contour Group provides general information, not legal advice. The authoritative sources are the CAP Code and the ASA’s published rulings and guidance. CAP also runs a free Copy Advice service for non-broadcast ads — use it. If a complaint is made against you, take your own legal advice.
What counts as an ad
Wider than people expect. The non-broadcast Code covers your website, your social media posts and profiles where they market your business, paid ads, emails, leaflets, posters, and content posted by an influencer or client you paid, gifted or otherwise incentivised.
Two things follow from that. First, “it was just a story, it disappeared” is not a defence — screenshots don’t. Second, if you gift a treatment in exchange for a post, that post is an ad and needs to be obviously identifiable as one (#ad, clearly and up front, not buried in a hashtag block).
The rule everything else hangs off: substantiation
If you make an objective claim, you must hold documentary evidence to back it up before the ad runs. Not after a complaint. Before.
An objective claim is anything a reader could test: “reduces the appearance of unwanted hair by up to X%”, “clinically proven”, “the most effective device in the region”, “results in three sessions”. Subjective puffery — “we love this treatment” — is treated differently, but the line is narrower than people assume.
In practice this means:
- “Clinically proven” needs clinical evidence — sound, relevant to the device and the treatment as you deliver it, and available on request.
- A manufacturer’s marketing brochure is not automatically substantiation. If a supplier hands you a claim, ask what evidence sits behind it and whether you can rely on it. We take that question seriously when customers ask us; you should expect any supplier to.
- Comparative claims (“better than”, “faster than”) need evidence and must compare like with like.
- Superlatives (“the best”, “the UK’s leading”) need evidence too, and are hard to hold.
No medical claims for cosmetic treatments
This is the one that catches good, well-meaning salon owners.
Acne, rosacea, melasma, eczema, hirsutism, PCOS and menopause are medical conditions. Advertising a cosmetic treatment as something that treats, manages or improves a medical condition takes you into different territory entirely — potentially into claims only a suitably qualified health professional can make, and potentially into medicines and medical device advertising rules enforced by the MHRA.
The safe route is appearance-based language:
| Don’t say | Say |
|---|---|
| “Treats acne” | “For the appearance of blemish-prone skin” |
| “Clears rosacea” | “For the appearance of uneven skin tone and redness” |
| “Cures unwanted hair permanently” | “Reduces the appearance of unwanted hair; results vary” |
| “Removes scarring” | “For the appearance of scarring” |
| “Fixes hormonal hair growth from PCOS” | “For unwanted hair. If you have a health concern, speak to your GP.” |
Where a client’s reason for coming in is medical, signpost their GP. That’s not just compliance — it’s the right thing to do, and it protects you.
Results claims, and the words to drop
Three words to strike from your marketing vocabulary: permanent, guaranteed, cure.
For laser hair removal specifically, “permanent hair removal” is a claim that would need to be substantiated to a very high bar, and the honest position for most devices is a reduction in the appearance of hair that varies by individual, hair colour, skin tone, hormones and course completion. Say that instead. It’s more accurate, and clients trust it more.
Any results-adjacent statement should carry “results vary” or “individual results vary” — visibly, not in six-point grey text at the bottom of the page.
Before-and-after images and testimonials
Both are allowed. Both have conditions.
Images must be genuine, must be of your own work unless clearly labelled otherwise, and must be representative of the results a typical client could expect. Matching lighting, angle, distance, pose and make-up between the two shots isn’t a nicety — a “before” taken under harsh overhead light and an “after” under a ring light is misleading, and that is exactly the kind of thing the ASA rules on. Say how many sessions the result took and over what period.
Testimonials must be genuine, and you must hold documentary evidence of them — the original message, email or signed form, on file, with contact details, held with the client’s permission. A testimonial does not substitute for substantiation: if the testimonial makes an efficacy claim, you still need evidence for that claim.
There’s a separate consent dimension to photographs of identifiable clients under UK GDPR, which is a big enough topic that it has its own post.
Prices, offers and finance
- Quote prices honestly and completely. If “from £X” is genuinely the lowest price for the smallest area, fine — but the treatment at that price must actually be available.
- Time-limited offers must be genuine. A “48-hour flash sale” that runs every fortnight is a problem.
- Don’t create false urgency — “only 2 slots left” needs to be true.
- Consumer credit is separately regulated. If you offer clients finance for treatment courses, promoting it is a financial promotion under FCA rules and needs the right permissions and wording. Don’t improvise this one.
The same principle applies at the trade end. Machines are five-figure, consultation-priced purchases, and where finance is part of the picture it is subject to status with a full representative example shown properly rather than a monthly figure floated in a caption.
A ten-minute check before you post
- Does this claim state a fact? If yes, do I hold evidence for it today?
- Have I named a medical condition? Rewrite in appearance language.
- Have I said permanent, guaranteed, removes or cures?
- Is “results vary” visible next to any results claim?
- Are the before-and-afters mine, genuine, matched for lighting and typical?
- Do I hold the testimonial on file?
- Is the offer genuine and the price achievable?
- If someone gifted or paid, is it labelled as an ad?
The short version
- The CAP Code, enforced by the ASA, covers your website, socials, leaflets and paid ads alike.
- Hold your evidence before you publish, not after a complaint.
- Never advertise a cosmetic treatment as treating a medical condition — use appearance-based language and signpost a GP.
- Drop permanent, guaranteed, cure; add results vary.
- Before-and-afters must be genuine, matched and typical; testimonials must be held on file.
- Free CAP Copy Advice exists. This post is general information, not legal advice.
If you want a supplier who can tell you what evidence sits behind a machine’s claims — and what you can and can’t repeat in your own marketing — that conversation is part of what we do. Have a look at the machines we supply or get in touch and ask us the awkward version of the question.
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Written by Janice Hilton, founder and managing director of Contour Group and a former salon owner. Janice helps salon owners add treatment lines with the training, paperwork and support behind them.
