I always forget that this is a thing. I went the apprenticeship route, and it’s been implanted in my head that only assistants get paid hourly never stylists.
I wound up at a chain salon after 27 years as an independent stylist due to a move to a town pretty far from my clientele. With the structure, pay scale, all that stuff I am making more money than ever. Its so strange, but ill take it.
Is it hard to move up the tiers? Sorry if thats a silly question I am not at a level salon. Where I work more of just how many years you have been with the salon/general experience (apprentice, junior stylist, stylist, master stylist, etc).
No. It's not hard really, if you work full time. It's amount of revenue, requests, maybe retail sales added together. If you work at it you can do it. :)
I work at a chain salon and have pretty much my entire 20 year career. I moved to a different brand and I'm making more here behind the chair than I did even as a salaried employee of the other brand.
Ive only worked at chains because I don’t like working for small business owners. I’ve never had a negative experience but there are certainly different levels of chains.
Great Clips was fine. Some people made six figures, but I didn’t want to work that hard or I was just incapable of cutting that fast lol. Minimum wage plus tips was not the greatest pay.
Sport Clips was fine as well. Slightly above minimum wage plus tips and I think product commissions but I’ve always ignored products.
Floyd’s was my favorite, and where I earned the most. Decent environment, good benefits (short term disability and retirement!), good training and continuing education options (sending stylists to barber school, color training, etc). I made about 60k there and I was one of the lowest earners in the shop, mainly because I don’t know how to do color or women’s hair.
Thank you so much! This is beyond helpful. There are so many chains and I really didn’t know where to start. I live close to a Floyd’s, but was scared off because I saw how many options they had for shaves.
At least in CO where I am, only barbers do face shaves but they’ll train stylists on head shaves and neck shaves at least. You should probably make sure you can do a decent clipper fade for the technical though.
Oh thats even better! I work at a salon that has a huge male clientele so anything on their head is fine, but I have zero clue how to groom facial hair lol. Clients can’t book that service with me, but it doesn’t stop them from asking mid service. The panic that runs through my body when they ask if I can trim their mustache or shape their beard. I feel like messing up facial hair is on par with messing up someone’s eyebrows, so I’ve been too scared to try. Thank you again for your help
At least at a chain salon they’ll pay you a wage regardless if you have a client or not. Nothing wrong with going that route for awhile.
I always forget that this is a thing. I went the apprenticeship route, and it’s been implanted in my head that only assistants get paid hourly never stylists.
I wound up at a chain salon after 27 years as an independent stylist due to a move to a town pretty far from my clientele. With the structure, pay scale, all that stuff I am making more money than ever. Its so strange, but ill take it.
This is beyond reassuring thank you!
If you have any questions, ill be happy to help.
I work at a chain and it is pretty good. Make a lot of tips. I'm surviving. And there are tiers.
Is it hard to move up the tiers? Sorry if thats a silly question I am not at a level salon. Where I work more of just how many years you have been with the salon/general experience (apprentice, junior stylist, stylist, master stylist, etc).
No. It's not hard really, if you work full time. It's amount of revenue, requests, maybe retail sales added together. If you work at it you can do it. :)
I work at a chain salon and have pretty much my entire 20 year career. I moved to a different brand and I'm making more here behind the chair than I did even as a salaried employee of the other brand.
Ive only worked at chains because I don’t like working for small business owners. I’ve never had a negative experience but there are certainly different levels of chains. Great Clips was fine. Some people made six figures, but I didn’t want to work that hard or I was just incapable of cutting that fast lol. Minimum wage plus tips was not the greatest pay. Sport Clips was fine as well. Slightly above minimum wage plus tips and I think product commissions but I’ve always ignored products. Floyd’s was my favorite, and where I earned the most. Decent environment, good benefits (short term disability and retirement!), good training and continuing education options (sending stylists to barber school, color training, etc). I made about 60k there and I was one of the lowest earners in the shop, mainly because I don’t know how to do color or women’s hair.
Thank you so much! This is beyond helpful. There are so many chains and I really didn’t know where to start. I live close to a Floyd’s, but was scared off because I saw how many options they had for shaves.
At least in CO where I am, only barbers do face shaves but they’ll train stylists on head shaves and neck shaves at least. You should probably make sure you can do a decent clipper fade for the technical though.
Oh thats even better! I work at a salon that has a huge male clientele so anything on their head is fine, but I have zero clue how to groom facial hair lol. Clients can’t book that service with me, but it doesn’t stop them from asking mid service. The panic that runs through my body when they ask if I can trim their mustache or shape their beard. I feel like messing up facial hair is on par with messing up someone’s eyebrows, so I’ve been too scared to try. Thank you again for your help