Hairdresser Strong: The Road Not Taken

There is a path for everyone, or is there? Some stylists and owners want to work in a tight hairdresser family that strives to be the best. Best at their craft, best customer service, coolest or most high-end brand; however, others want the same, but solo in a Suite! Then, some see the suite as a studio to create, make money, and use as a platform to build a brand, teach, and travel! There are paths for many, but are there any paths uncharted or not yet known?

Throughout my career, I have met and talked to many hairdressers.  While we vary so vastly, we have so many similarities and things in common. I mean, how could we not?  What I have seen is that there is a growing desire and effort to discover other ways of doing business, training & education, and having a community in our industry.  I have also had an amazing opportunity to understand a variety of desired career paths and lifestyles.

Some of us want to show up to work 5 minutes before our client and leave 5 minutes after.  Others of us want to run the show, but just for ourselves with 1 or no other hairdressers involved.  These two paths have different business models for them.  The first is the w2 commission/salary-based employee.  The second is a suite or loft.  There is another model called the booth rental or chair rental model.  So, you can work for someone else and let them do all the work which is the w2 employee commission/salary salon, or you rent a suite and have your own single-person salon.  In a suite, you do all your appointments, customer conflict issues, inventory management, bookkeeping, cleaning, shampoos, etc….or you pay people to do all of it for you, but that can be pretty expensive.  Finally, you can rent a chair in a salon.  You still have to do everything, but you can be around other hairdressers.

These models can vary slightly all over the place, but there are very, very few people running their business differently from these models. Maybe because there are no other models that are repeatable for mass adoption.  Usually, new ideas in this part of our industry rely on a single person to maintain them.  Spreading becomes hard to do when the business requires the owner to be there all the time.  Only tried-and-true business models stand the test of time and are spread around the world.  

Now, I present my argument: The impact of cultural changes and technological advancements to business, life, money, and governance create changes that are akin to global warming causing arctic ice melting which is opening new shipping lines that could change our world forever. We can only begin to imagine what these changes will be or how they will impact us.

And now, I ask my question: How will this continue to change our current business models, what new business models will be born, and how does our community evolve?

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.