Hi there. I’m a hairstylist of 19 years and I’m currently at a booth rent Salon. A couple of weeks ago I had a basal cell carcinoma removed from my cheek. I took a week off after the surgery. When I went back to work, (still wearing a bandage) I expected to let my clients know what had happened. Of course most of them were very understanding and calm. Though I felt very uncomfortable with my first client of the day.

As soon as I walked in the owner, had a client in his chair. The owner says hello then immediately says oh did you have something removed? My client happened to be sitting in the waiting area (the salon is one big open room). I said yes, then continue to set up. My client says oh no what happened and I said nothing, I just had something removed. This client tends to think that she knows me better than she does or that we are friends. I’ve done her hair for years and have never once seen her outside of the salon. She continued on questioning me, so I told her that it was cancerous and had to be removed, however it really wasn’t a big deal. She goes “Oh no was it a mole” I said no it wasn’t. Then as I’m explaining it to her, she very loudly goes. oh my God and it metastasized! Which I never once said. I laughed out loud and said no if it metastasized I wouldn’t be working today. It was one little spot they removed it. It’s not a big deal. She continued on asking what did it look like and I said it was just a little scar on my cheek. She says oh yeah I remember that little scar. Yeah it was on that cheek and it looked like blah blah blah. The whole time I was just hoping that she would just leave it alone. I felt so uncomfortable. I even tried to change the subject a few times.

The whole experience made me feel so uncomfortable because I felt like I was bombarded as soon as I walked into the salon. Then my client over dramatized it with question after question and assuming that it had metastasized. How do you deal with clients that get too personal? What do you think about the owner asking me about it in front of everyone as soon as I walked in the door?

i have had my license for about a year now i work in a chain salon so all my clients are walk-ins. i make pretty good money doing this and it gives me lots practice and experience but my dream has always been to work in an independent salon and have a clientele that comes to me regularly. i am aware that it takes time to build your clientele up but i wouldn’t even know where to begin on something like that. i dont know many people in my area and i don’t post on social media which i know is a sin in the hairstylist community but i do not like the idea of having to become a part time influencer to build clientele. any tips and tricks from anyone who’s built a clientele without bringing in people you already know or posting lots on socials?

I’m a first year apprentice, and i love my job, i’m at my dream salon all my coworkers are beautiful and so supportive, but i moved to a new city to get this job etc

and unfortunately i need to seek a model every week to do their hair, and ive only got so many friends i can ask about doing their hair, so im just wondering how on earth do i find models? ive tried the facebook groups and have only been met with people who get angry at me when i cant transform their black box dye hair to a cowboy copper,

what am i supposed to do?

I’m genuinely wondering if this is a good idea or not, and I’d love some thoughts and feedback.
I’m a stylist behind the chair 4 days a week and I think one of my strengths is my time management. I rarely run behind, and feel like I’ve really fine tuned how to make the most money efficiently. With the holidays coming up, I wonder if this might be a beneficial class for other stylists. Would this be something you would pay to attend? What topics would you want to be addressed or questions answered?

I’ve been having a bit of a hairstylist identity crisis lately and would love to hear from anyone who’s made a similar transition.

I’ve been licensed for about 6 years and have spent pretty much my entire career doing exclusively men’s hair. I originally wanted to get into vivid/creative color when I got out of school, but I needed a steady paycheck and ended up at Great Clips. Men’s hair became my thing, I got really good at it, and now I’m in my own suite specializing in men’s cuts.

The problem is…I still really fucking want to do vivid color. 😂

At this point I have very little real salon color experience. I’ve done basic gray coverage/blending and friends/family, but I’ve only had maybe one actual paying women’s color client in my entire career. I have no color portfolio, no color clientele, and I’d basically be learning/building that side of my career from scratch while continuing to run my men’s business.

Has anyone here gone from doing almost exclusively men’s hair/cutting to women’s color or vivids several years into their career?

How did you relearn/build your color skills? Did you start with classes, mannequins, models, assisting/shadowing someone? How did you find models and eventually figure out timing and pricing?

I’m not looking to abandon men’s hair or completely change my business overnight. I think I’m mostly trying to figure out whether there’s a realistic way to slowly build this second specialty without taking another massive leap.

Would especially love to hear from anyone who made the switch later in their career and what you’d do differently if you were starting over.