How to prevent burnout behind the chair!
Hi! I’m Jae, & if you already knew that, welcome back to my blog!
If you didn’t already know that then welcome to my blog!
I am a ‘Mini Salon’ owner, and educator with Pulp Riot. I have been in the beauty industry for 10 years.
Now lets diveeee in! 🌊
As you know, we are living in very digital times, and most people don’t book an appointment [ANYWHERE] without doing some serious internet stalking. 💻 This means as a stylist your online presence needs to be on point! ✔️
We as stylists have to do so much more than “just hair”, throw in being a suite owner, salon owner, or independent stylist on top of that and holy cow is that a lot of stuff to do. We have to be stylists, therapists, social media managers, cleaners, accountants, chemists, and so much more, ALL WHILE wearing a smile. Well that long list of jobs that are apart of my career (which i love) really started to take a tole on me & my body. I would go home at night so exhausted & unhappy even though I was doing what I loved to do. Once I realized that my career choice wasn’t wrong, I knew I had to change somethings about the way I was running my business.
About halfway through my career I made a huge change. I started my career as a braider who did some color, but my main income was braiding. I realized 5 years in that braiding wasn’t for me and decided to specialize in color. I moved to a more high-end salon with a color clientele. I took some color classes and never turned back! I ended up leaving that salon to start my own salon suite. I loved the freedom of doing what I wanted when I wanted. Once I had control of my own schedule, I started working 7 days a week, which as you can imagine, lead to burnout. After 2 years of working 7 days a week, unless I was sick or unbooked, I decided enough was enough!
Below is a list of things I did to help me stop feeling so burnt out begun Behind the chair.
TAKE SOME TIME OFF:
I’m not about to get up here and make it seem like taking time off is easy, ESPECIALLY if you run your own business, but what I WILL tell you is that tAking time off is necessary! Keep in mind I worked 7 days a week for YEARS! Yes, you read that right, S E V E N days a week. In other words I was tieedddd! (My southern way of saying tired) Overworking will lead you to burning out super quickly, so let me tell you what I did that worked for me.
I sat down after work one day & looked at my books for the whole month (which wasn’t much because I didn’t have very many prebooking clients at the time). While looking at my books I determined how many clients I would need to take & how much money I would need to make to comfortably take an entire week off. I went to social media and posted a special to get people in the door (I chose to offer a free cut with color service since a cut will use the least amount of product), then I made a raffle where the client can purchase a raffle ticket, or multiple, & they would be entered into and they could win a huge prize, like free haircuts for a year. This got me booked with enough clients for the month that I scheduled 7 days off in in the following month for a much needed break!
GET A WEBSITE:
Social media is great and all but having a great website really solidifies your business. When you come across a business with no website, how do you feel? I personally feel left wanting moreeeee! Tell me moreeee!
Some pages I like to have on my website are an ‘About Me’, ‘Contact’, ‘Gallery’, & ‘Frequently Asked Questions’.
ONLINE BOOKING:
This is a B I G one.
Currently you can do almost everything online, from shopping, to paying bills, to booking appointments. I, for one, do not like talking on the phone and do ALL of my appointment booking online, both for my own salon & for when I’m booking a service elsewhere for myself. My personal favorite online booking system was Square, you can schedule clients & process their payments all on the same app, & it integrated beautifully into my website. At some point a few years ago I was unable to get my Square to integrate into my Squarespace website. I love Squarespace so much that I was not willing to change website platforms. Acuity Scheduling and Squarespace joined forces so I switched to Acuity. I will still say Square is my first choice but Acuity gets the job done.
Once I had online booking I sent all my clients the link and changed to a [TEXT ONLY] salon. This has saved me so much time!
OUTSOURCE:
Whatever you can afford to get someone else to do, get someone else to do!! Cleaning your space, some aspects of social media, your website, your photos…whatever you can think of/afford, OUTSOURCE! You will feel so much better when your down town is actually down time instead of running around doing everything else time.
REDUCE YOUR SERVICE MENU:
Are there any services you can’t standdddd doing? Every time this service pops up on your books you dreaddddd it? As long as these services aren’t your bread and butter, STAHHP doing them! Don’t even have them available to book! A simple “I no longer offer that service, but I do offer XYZ service, which will give you XYZ results”. Any clients you lose will be replaced with new clients that will want to receive the services you want to offer!
Yassss!
INCREASE YOUR PRICING:
Increasing your pricing is sooooo hard. BUT becoming burnt out in a career you currently love sucks so much worse. Every other industry gets raises yearly or multiple times per year, but for some reason when stylists raise their prices all H E double hockey sticks breaks loose.
The way I did it was I did some research as to what other stylists who’s work was comparable to mine & I realized I was way undercharging. I raised my prices by 5%-10% every 6 months until I got to the price point I was happy with. I did lose some clients but I was 100% happy with the clientele that formed from me raising my prices.
BE PICKY WITH YOUR CLIENTS:
Every client is not for you & you are not for every client, & that’s 100% okay! Some clients are joy stealers, and nobody is allowed to steal your joy. Fire that client that is never happy and move on.
I drafted up a statement that wasn’t too harsh but was also straight forward explaining that I am not the best stylist for them at this time & that I hope they find a stylist that suite their needs. Then…I kept it pushing.
STAND UP FOR YOURSELF
If you let clients talk to you however they want to, they will. They could be disrespectful, not take you seriously, or not believe what you say/take your advice. It’s important to feel respected in your establishment or where you work, & you have every right to refuse service to clients who disrespect you. Being disrespected will quickly make you H A T E what you do, so take back control & demand the respect you deserve.
STOP ALWAYS BEING AVAILABLE
There are many businesses that you can’t reach by texting them at 11pm, & I’m a firm believer that we as hairstylists and salon owners shouldn’t always be reachable. If you have set hours you work, you can choose to only respond during those hours. Other options are to a) only be available for clients to reach an hour before your work day begins & an hour after it ends or b) set specific hours every day (you can choose to omit off days) to respond to clients, they don’t have to have any correspondence with your work/business hours.
HIRE AN ASSISTANT
If you are over working yourself to the point that you can’t take breaks, eat lunch, etc. then its time to hire an assistant. If you cannot afford an assistant even though you’re that busy, then it’s definitely time to *raise those prices*. My assistant helps to clean, do laundry, open the salon, apply color, shampoo, blow dry, style, & more. I recommend hiring an assistant who wants to grow into becoming a stylist behind the chair, they will work the hardest & also be the most eager to learn. Having my assistant has made the largest impact on preventing me from completely burning out behind the chair.
TAKE CLASSES
Its so much easier to do work that you are trained in doing rather than just winging it. I recommend finding all the free education you can. Once you do that, really study yourself and take notes of all the things you could improve on then really do your research in the industry & invest in a really great class that will get you the most money out of your investment. I do this at least 2x a year and have learned so much. You can learn a lot from your favorite stylists as well. Reach out to them & they may be able to help you with any questions you may have.
**Remember, not ALL insta-famous hairstylists are friendly, if you don’t hear back, or if they are rude to you, don’t get discouraged just reach out to someone else.**
TAKE BREAKS
You work better when you’re not completely exhausted, don’t forget to stay hydrated, eat, sit down, use the bathroom etc. You’re nicer when you’re not exhausted as well, when you’re nicer you keep more clients happy. Take your time and actually enjoy your food, stuffing food down your throat is not good for you & can cause long term health issues down the road. We have to take good care of ourselves because the beauty industry is not known for their health benefits! Breaks include days off, even if its one day a week, having a day off where you can relax is very important.
PLAN YOUR WEEK
Social media is hard and takes a lot of work. If you sit down one day each week and plan out your posts on all platforms, it will take stress off you having to figure out what to post each day. Also plan out your clients when prebooking. I personally like to have my draining clients come on the same day of the week so that I know when they are coming & the rest of the week will be more relaxing. Some people like to spread out their draining clients so they can deal with them separately instead of all in one day. Let me know what you think will work best for you.
SET A GOAL
Setting goals and reaching them is an amazing feeling. Whether its a dollar amount, follower count, a certain amount of clients, or whatever you want it to be. Then look back over the goals you’ve set and watch how good it makes you feel to see how many things you’ve crossed off your list.
BE COMFORTABLE
Some outfits work for in the salon, & some outfits do not. I’m not saying dress ugly, I’m saying wear shoes that don’t hurt your feet, wear clothes that you can breathe in, wear things that are comfortable because your body will thank you in the long run. A saddle stool is super helpful to save your back & feet while working in the salon. I like to use my saddle stool to cut, foil, & apply color. It’s also important to have a styling chair & shampoo bowl that work well for your height, bending over too far, or standing on your tip toes doesn’t seem that bad of first but will wear your body down and contribute to burn out. If you are at a salon where you don’t have control over this, you can do things like have your client slouch down for you to see the top of their head (if you’re too low), get a step to stand on behind the chair (if you’re too low), or even have your clients use a pillow or booster seat (if they’re too low).
FIND A PERFECT SALON HOME
Whether you’re in a traditional salon or a salon suite, you need to love it (or at least like it until you find one you love). You are going to be in the space for a large portion of your time and if you don’t like it the days will drag on and you will be so unhappy! So do whatever you can to find/make your dream salon a reality. Mental health is serious & this can impact your efficiency behind the chair
TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH
HEALTHHHHHH! It’s a big deal, whether it be physical or mental, it’s a big effing deal. We listen to other peoples issues all day long and often don’t have anybody else to listen to ours. Therapy is a beautiful thing and also an important thing, a lot of us do not have health insurance and cannot afford health insurance, there are a few resources that offer 1-2 sessions a month for free depending on your financial situation, it does vary from state to state, but if you google ‘income based therapy sessions’ in whichever state you are in, you should be able to find a lot of resources, if you are uninsured you can add that into the search as well. Try to have regular check-ups with your PCP, & if you do not have one or are uninsured, do what you can to take care of yourself. Things like:
at home breast exams
staying hydrated
eating healthy
exercising/stretching
watching your skin/moles
wearing sunscreen
& more.
STAY STOCKED
This is not always possible, but keeping your salon as stocked as stocked as you can keeps you from constantly having to do orders and run to the supply store. Sometimes the supply store may be out of what you specifically need for the day then guess what: you’re SOL! When you keep the salon stocked it takes a lot of tension off you and you won’t have to constantly check your schedule to see what you need to run to the store and grab.
OFFER REFRESHMENTS
Hangry clients are NOT IDEAL!
If you do services like braiding, color corrections, platinum cards etc. Your client could be in your chair for more than 4 hours & eventually they will be hungry or thirsty. I’m not saying keep a full course meal, but water, snacks, wine, candy, and other little things will really make your client happy.
(especially the wine😉)
MAKE YOUR SPACE CUTE/PERSONAL
In a traditional salon you won’t be able to do as much as a suite if you’re commission or booth renting. If you’re allowed to put some cute/nice/personal things on your station the go for it! It’ll make you happy to get to work everyday. If you have your own space, really make it your OWN SPACE. Incorporate your favorite things, add some pictures, do whatever tf you wanna do! I also recommend adding items that bring you peace. ☮️
BRING YOUR PET
So this one is not an everyday thing for me because my dogs are kinda nuts (Chihuahua-Pom mixes), so I bring one every couple months for a couple of hours. This is not allowed in every state, so make sure to check State Board Regulations in your state.
ONLY DO WHAT YOU WANT/SPECIALIZE
This is a BIG one for me. I used to do a lot of braiding and it really wore me out. Now that I specialize in color I love my career so much more. I started slowly, by taking services off my menu one by one until I was happy with what was left, I started this process years ago & I’m still currently removing services one at a time. Don’t worry if you miss doing something, you can always add any services that you miss back later!
DRESS NICE
When you look nice you feel nice. I know its super cliché but it’s so true! You also tend to make more tips when you look nice. We all have our days that we don’t feel like looking nice or styling our hair which is completely understandable. But if possible dress nicely more often than not. It also helps you feel comfortable posting yourself on social media, getting your followers to know you is as important as showing all your beautiful work. When you look nice it makes your clients feel like they want to come back! Which makes it easier for you to retain clients & helps to prevent burnout.
These tips are things that worked for me when I was experiencing burnout. I was at a point where I knew that I couldn’t go on like that any more and as soon as I implemented these things I began to love my career again.
I would love it if you left a comment of any things you have done to help you feel less burnt out behind the chair, any questions you may have, or anything from this post that helped you out!
Talk to y’all next time!
Jae Bee 🤍