Who’s Qualified To Be A Hair Stylist Assistant?
It is prevalent to have to hold a cosmetology license to work this role, but that is not always the case. You could be a student attending professional hair school or someone who has a passion for the hair industry but does not have a cosmetology license. This factor will come down to the person or salon hiring and what they are looking for in their salon assistant.
What Does A Hairstylist Assistant Do?
Let us first touch on this question, What do hair stylist assistants do? This question has many answers and depends on who you work for and where you work. A hair stylist assistant can have many different duties that vary from actual work on hair to running errands for the staff. The most common responsibilities of a hair assistant are assisting in washing the client’s hair, blowing out the client’s hair, cleaning the salon, prepping hair color. Pretty much a salon assistant is a master stylist’s right-hand man or woman. Keep reading to find out the benefits and reasons why being an assistant will help build your career as a hair professional.
Boost Confidence
When attending professional hair school, it can be not very comforting when thinking about working behind the chair at a salon after graduation. Sometimes a cosmetology school graduate does not necessarily feel well enough prepared to hit the ground running, which is ok. There are options for the students and graduates who think this way. Working as a hair stylist assistant is the best thing a student or graduate can do for their confidence and career. When working alongside a seasoned salon professional, the assistant gets to slowly but surely navigate their way into working on their own. It gives them time to build confidence and learn more salon techniques. Confidence is essential when working behind the chair, so a salon assistant is a way to go!
Learn Salon Techniques
Students learn the basic techniques and skills to become hair professionals in a salon properly when going to professional hair school. While learning the basic skills and techniques is excellent, the real world is a little bit different. There are many ways to go about doing hair, and some of them do not get taught ins school, so working as a hair stylist assistant, the assistant gets to learn all of those specialized salon techniques and various ways to do hair. The salon assistant also gets to become more comfortable in the salon environment and gives them a chance to get acquainted.
Build Your Book Of Business
Most of the time, a graduate will not leave the school with a large book of business. It is a new career and a fresh new start; to make money as a hair professional, having salon clients is vital. Money can be a huge variable ere, and when you assist at a salon, it gives you the chance to still make money without relying on customers walking in. Assisting allows the assistant time to build their book of business until they can entirely go out on their own.
Learn Marketing Techniques
Marketing and social media are taking over the hair industry. A lot of times, a hair stylist assistant will run the social media pages for their employer and learn their marketing and social media techniques. Taking great photos of hair is a skill that is also required to become dominant in the social media world. Working as a salon assistant allows for time to learn these techniques and get proper training on how to take the photos, when to post and how to maximize social media usage.
Get To Know The Salon Clientele
The topic here also goes along with building a book of business. Working as a salon assistant allows for time to get to know the customers. If the person you are working for has an overflow of customers, they will enable you to work on those salon clients when they cannot take them on their books. Being an assistant allows time for those customers and the stylist they are working on getting comfortable with them.
Being a salon assistant to a stylist has many benefits, from confidence building to learning new techniques. There is no downfall to assisting a salon professional. Being able to make money while learning and growing as a stylist is fantastic. Before deciding to become an assistant, talk to some local people. Look around at local salons and barbershops to find out which salon or barbershop you could see yourself working at and try to get a job at that location. Getting a foot in the door is critical when you are fresh out of school or trying to get more comfortable behind the chair.
