Difference Between Salon and Saloon

Salon vs Saloon

Does your wife often go to a beauty salon or a beauty saloon? Do you intend to buy a salon model or a saloon model of car for your family? It seems like I have managed to confuse you. One is bound to be confused if both spellings are being used to refer to same type of establishments these days, and it is not difficult to find a hair salon alongside a hair saloon. Let us take a closer look and found out differences between salon and saloon (if indeed there are any).

If one looks up a dictionary, he finds that a saloon is a room or establishment, where alcoholic beverages are served over a counter. On the other hand, a salon (as in beauty salon) is a shop where hairdressers and beauticians work and, where people go to avail beauty treatments and other services. Saloon is also a word that is used to describe a type of car. A saloon in US means a sedan.

Between the two words, difference is just of one letter ‘o’ that is suggestive of the words coming from a single source. In fact this is the case as both salon and saloon come from the French Salon that refers to a large room. Some say that these words have come from Italian Salone that also means a large hall. For a long time to come, both salon and saloon were used interchangeably to refer to a large room or hall. It was in the 19th century that Saloon came to be reserved for a public bar while salon was chosen to refer to a shop or establishment for hair and body care. Thus we came to have hair and beauty salons and the word is still in vogue for beauty parlors.

In brief:

Difference between Salon and Saloon

• Both words salon and saloon have the same origin, and they come from French Salon meaning a large room

• People in earlier times used the spellings salon and saloon to refer to a large room where alcohol was served over the counter

• Soon there were salons where people went for beauty treatments

• Saloon is also used to refer to a particular type of enclosed car