Getting Your Foot in The Door: Hair School and Salon Schedules
The deeper I dive into the Gen-Z vs. Salon Owner topic, the more I realize there are some other major factors at play creating challenges for Gen-Z starting their careers and Salon Owners hiring, training, and retaining them. A new challenge keeps coming up in my conversations with all levels of the industry. It is two-pronged: 1) either cosmetology school students do not see the value in the concept of “Get Your Foot in The Door” and/or 2) the structure of the school schedule is not conducive to providing the opportunity for a cosmetology student to “Get [Their] Foot in The Door”....Let’s dive in!
Once you finish reading, I want you to leave a comment below. I want to hear from you because that is how we solve problems…talk about them and hear each other out! (and remember: there are different solutions for different folk!)
Let me first identify the parties I am discussing. We have the Salon Owner, the Rising Stylist (currently in school), and the Schools.
I interviewed or spoke privately with all parties and derived these opinions from those conversations. If you have something to add or know someone I should talk to for added value to this topic or a differing opinion, please leave your thoughts and/or recommendations in the comments below!
Alright, I want to start with Salon Owners. Salon Owners have taken risks by putting up lots of money and/or their home to start their businesses. No one should be surprised that they will not let anyone work at their salons. Think about it; if you put up your life savings or put your house up for collateral to open your salon, would you give any stylist a salon client who you have not seen, with your own eyes, that they will be able to service said client? To be sure that the stylist will not hurt your business by screwing up someone’s hair and leaving a bad Yelp! or Google review, you would probably, want to make sure the stylist can deliver good service and technical execution. The trick is that if someone books for balayage and come in to find out that they are not a balayage client, but a foil highlight client and the stylist only does balayage, then you could find yourself with an unhappy client. This would not be good business. So, Salon Owners require some level of training/apprenticing of new stylists, especially those straight out of school. I do not know one salon owner who would put a recent hair school graduate directly on the floor (exceptions apply, but not for 99% of stylists)...
Okay, great, Robert, this totally makes sense, so what's the problem?
Great question; glad you asked! This is what I surmise from industry conversations and personal experience:
Salon Owners, rightfully so, want to make sure that their stylists will be able to deliver consistent, desirable, and predictable results on each client before they allow that stylist to take clients. However, many Salon Owners have rigid and archaic ideas about HOW that should happen. The amount of Salon Owners who say, “Well, when I was a Rising Stylist, I…” is astounding. Expecting the next generation to take the same steps as you did to get to where you are is ridiculous! Technology changes, what clients & employees want changes, and culture changes…The most common factor of successful businesses that continue to perform and grow through such change is that they adapt and pivot constantly. Think Blockbuster not adapting and being crushed by Netflix and other streaming services.
Salon Owners make their schedules based on when their clients want to get their hair done. Therefore, they should not be expected to change these hours unless they can make the same or more money by doing so. This is not a problem, per se, but it does present a challenge. School schedules and salon schedules conflict greatly. Thus, preventing Rising Stylists from pursuing the opportunity to “Get [Their] Foot in The Door” at a salon while in school. The opportunity to work at a salon while in school enables Rising Stylists to get a jump on their training/apprenticing discussed above, shorten the time they spend doing this, and gets them building their clientele behind-the-chair even faster! Not only this, but more importantly, to Rising Stylists, they have more time and less pressure to find the salon they fit in best at BEFORE graduating!
Remedy?
Training and apprenticing should be individually tailored to allow greater flexibility to focus on ability and not time spent training. Some salons put their apprentices behind-the-chair for the services they are good at one or two days per week, and the other days they apprentice. Other salons are moving them onto the floor as soon as they execute on live models, specific looks on various textures. Some apprentices have completed this and moved onto the floor in as little as 4 months.
-Additionally, greater flexibility in the number of days and hours expected to work is an absolute must. Rising Stylists are not going to want to work for you if you insist they work a full 5-day week. 3 or 4-day weeks are much more desirable to Gen-Z. This generation is ages 10-25 as of 2022, which means another 8-10 years before the next generation is knocking on your door…and who knows what they will be like?!
The flexibility of Salon Owners to allow a Rising Stylist to work a very small amount of hours while they are in school would be amazing! Both Salon Owners and Rising Stylists would greatly benefit from this. Salon Owners get to see how these candidates fit in their space and culture. They also get to see these candidates' work ethics and understand their priorities. Rising Stylists' benefits are listed above.
-A better solution may be for the schools to structure their schedules to accommodate Rising Stylists having availability during standard salon hours. This sets everyone up for success! If a student has the ability to make their own schedule or does not have class on Thur, Fri, and Sat, this would be a huge deal for creating the opportunity for Rising Stylists to “Get [Their]r Foot in The Door”!
50% or more of Rising Stylists say they plan on being independent after school and not working at a salon. Also, School Owners have brought up regulatory issues that must be reconciled with this proposed schedule change. Therefore, questions remain: Will this actually lead to greater success for Rising Stylists, Salons, and Schools? AND, Can schools change their schedules, or is there more to it than that? Let’s continue by discussing the Rising Stylists and School perspectives.
My conversations with Rising Stylists as guest speaker, during show interviews, and during hiring interviews, coupled with research into Gen-Z hiring and expectations, reveals that they have no desire or intention to follow in the footsteps of previous generations. They are correct to think that their abilities are far greater than any of the previous generations' skills at the same point in their career. I applaud them for being more focused on quality of life. I also applaud them for pushing back on the rigid and militant expectations of business owners. What seems to be missing is any knowledge or appreciation of the risk and cost of starting, building, and running a business. Expecting someone to give you a job on your terms is ridiculous! No one is entitled to have another person risk their life savings and/or lose their home to give you a job! Cost is so much more than losing one's money or home if the business fails. There is also a very high cost of time, energy, and stress that most people of all ages do not seem to appreciate or comprehend. That is where The Hairdresser Strong Show comes in! We hope to create more awareness of the value that Stylists bring to salons. We also want to educate all Stylists on what it actually takes to open a salon and that Salon Owners should be able to make a profit from running the salon…I digress!
Okay, so what I have heard, overwhelmingly, from cosmetology school students is:
I do not want to work at a salon while in school because I want to focus on school.
I cannot find a salon to hire me for 1 day a week or just a couple hours a day because I am in school most of the day throughout the week.
I cannot work as an assistant/apprentice during school because I cannot afford only to make that much money…I have bills to pay, and I have a job while in school paying me more than I will make as an assistant.
I plan on going independent right after school.
I have pretty strong feelings about these perspectives and a lot of empathy. I want to provide thoughts on what Enrolled Rising Stylists can do, what Salon Owners can do, and thoughts for the Schools. I will also include caveats/exceptions and additional thoughts:
Not working at a salon while in school for focus reasons
The idea of “focus only on school” probably comes from the desire to have a greater “work-life balance,” which is not an invalid reason by any stretch! …or is it just laziness? I support work-life balance; I think there are times and reasons in our lives that, for a short-medium period of time, we must make sacrifices based on what our goals are.
In light of this, at the beginning of a career in customer service and as a practitioner of a craft, one must be willing to train for years. If this timeline is not acceptable, then the craftsperson must double up their time and effort commitment by assisting/apprenticing while in school, so there is less post-grad time spent not behind-the-chair.
Rising Stylists who want to work at a salon while in school are rare. So, this is really on Salon Owners to be more flexible. This is also on the Schools to create greater flexibility
…Does anyone disagree that Rising Stylists should work in a salon while in school if even only a little?
Rising Stylists have concerns about how much they will be limited to making as an assistant/apprentice. It turns out that many of these students are working a non-beauty industry job that pays them enough to pay their bills while in school (if they work at all…the rest, I have no idea). They need to know that they’ll probably end up assisting/apprenticing at some point…I guess my only thoughts on a remedy here are that all stylists, influencers, Salon Owners, and the Schools need to be better at managing Rising Stylists' expectations.
Going Independent straight from school is an option, but not one that sets you up for success. Getting salon experience upskills your craft and teaches you customer service, salon etiquette, managing a schedule, juggling responsibilities, and dealing with problems. Not to mention, you get a chance to learn from colleagues.
GET INVOLVED WITH YOUR COMMUNITY, AND VISIT YOUR LOCAL SCHOOLS, REGULARLY!! Rising Stylists need the whole industry to be better about helping them manage expectations.
Okay, so finally, we have the Schools! The biggest challenges that School Owners have with their business is that they need to compete with other schools and/or reduce the barriers to entry for prospective students. This means they need to be able to offer student loans that are guaranteed by the U.S. government. To do that, they have to get accredited. This means that a company has to do a thorough review of the school, its operations, curriculum, and finances to ensure they meet certain criteria. Without this, success would be very hard, maybe even impossible, in most places.
Okay, so Schools have to meet the criteria to offer financial aid; what's your point?!
Thanks for asking! My point is that there are criteria from the Federal Government and from the State. The criteria say that students must teach a curriculum based on the state board examination and require a certain amount of hours. Some states are better than others, but the reality is that the Schools' hands are tied by regulations. They have less flexibility than anyone can imagine (except School Owners, lol). The Schools do want the best for their students (some Schools are better than others), but they have to be able to make a profit to stay in business, and they have lives too. So, after many conversations with you all, with School Owners, AND from my experience as a Cosmetology School Instructor, the best way to effect change is to engage with your State Board and lobby for changes. I have two items for you here:
Licensing- Why do we want/need licensing? I am assuming consumer protection, but not quality control of the industry. I would be very surprised if anyone out there thinks that our current licensing process ensures a certain level of quality for consumers. Salon clients do not have any expectations that the state is setting a minimum level quality of hairstylists. Salon clients do expect a minimum level of safety during skin-to-skin contact and services using chemicals, sharp objects around their face and neck, and hot tools.
Internships- Why do so few states allow cosmetology students to get hours for work experience? Students get credit for working on clients at the school; why wouldn't they get credit for real-life experience? This is another RIDICULOUS thing, in my opinion. Students should be able to get 25%-50% of their hours from working in a salon, and this would probably solve most of the problems we have been discussing regarding opportunity and flexibility.
Remedy?
I would argue that licensing, since it is really only helping with consumer protection, should be reduced to health and safety. Many states have been dropping the hours significantly, which helps get the students into their careers faster. Still, this does not address the fact that schools are forced to teach things that provide no value to the students' careers and no consistency in quality hairdressers. In the defense of the School Owners and Directors I have talked with, they do an amazing job at producing the best quality candidates they can within their limitations.
Changing licensing, curriculum expectations, and hours may be more or less favored in your state. Another option to help with flexibility and opportunity for Rising Stylists would be to allow them to get 25%-50% of their hours from work experience.
Which one is better? I like this idea, but considering all people, the better option would be to make licensing reflect what it actually is and does: protect consumers in terms of health and safety.
Okay, so let’s wrap this up! State laws must be lobbied to reflect what licensing actually provides and/or accept salon experience hours. Schools must adjust their schedules to consider that not working in a salon while in school is not setting students up for their greatest success (state laws permitting…those are going to change!). Salons should be more flexible in their training programs and work with students' school schedules, especially those who demand assisting/apprenticing before getting on the floor. Salon Owners, Stylists, Educators, Influencers, Schools, and Brands need to step up their commitment to the next generation by engaging on this subject with them from the beginning and throughout their careers. If more Rising Stylists, before getting into school or during the admission process, knew the realities of book building, budgeting, growth, and the expectation to train/apprentice after school to get a job at a decent salon, we would not have this problem of expectation mismatch. Remember, Gen-Z gets their news and information about the industry from social media…that is where the message is needed most!
We at HairdresserStrong.com are dedicated to educating and informing all start-up hairdressers on what it takes to reach their goals throughout their careers through storytelling, advising, workshops, and live events. We are seeing the need for greater dialogue, flexibility, and open-mindedness to change. The industry needs your input and help in keeping the craft alive, helping the next generation succeed, and solving problems…How Do You Help?
We will be discussing this and other hot topics at our next event on February 19th, 2022, here in DC; more information to come. Block out your calendars and get ready to dig into the hottest topics of our industry that require us to think, act, and evolve differently to remain successful!
Robert, a 20-year veteran, has worked passionately, for the bulk of his career to empower stylists, democratize the industry, and shift the power dynamic to be more equitable for the hairdresser.
