By this I mean GReat Clips.   I am currently working at one for a few months now.  The reason I took a job there was b/c I moved to a new area and just wanted to work while I search out the UpScale/Full Service Salons.  Back to the DARK SIDEhere is a list of why no one should ever work at these types of salons:

1.Most of them are owned by non-stylist who only look at the numbers that they print out every month to "review you".  They have no idea what the mental and physical work it is to be a stylist.

2.The haircut prices are sick ($5.99 coupon starts next week)

3. The stylist that work there can do a descent haircut/but thats it. (You are discouraged from offering other services, like a shampoo or a style b/c this takes away from the 13 minute haircut time)  They think that cannot make the money anywhere else that they make at Great Clips.  Which is $8 hr plus an avg of $2 tip per client.  Then if you can whip out a cut in 13 minutes then you make more tips and this thing call PRODUCTIVITY.

4. They expect you to do a good hair cut 13 minutes?????? Is this possible?  It is if you don't talk to your client, don't style or even blowdry, and don't recommend any product.

5. These places make our industry a joke!!!! "I had a customer walk in (he was a proffessional something) anyways I was explaining about the cost of my education that I invested thus so far, $20,000 + and he says FOR WHAT? I told him that I invest in con't Education to improve my business and career.  But when you work in a chain salon that charges $12/$10 for a "Cut" you get very little respect they put you in the same catogory as a fastfood worker. ( I think I am going to be sick).

6. These girls that do manage to pop out a dripping wet "good cut" in 10 minutes are suffering from hand and wrist injuries at only 2yrs in the biz.

7.  All this good money that they make at Great Clips qualifies all the stylist who have children to receive welfare from the state.

There is so much more I could go on for ever but just search the threads for Great Clips and everything that is reported is TRUE! This place is a disgrace to the Service/Artistic oriented stylist but if you like working in a factory it will be heaven.  Whew! I feel better.  If I can save one stylist from this trap it will be all worth it.

I worked at Great Cuts for a while when I was starting out. It was sheer slavery!

I became the regional trainer for the company and quit the week after my first training. I really wanted to make things better by actually training the new hires how to cut hair. The big bosses didn't want me to do that, they wanted me to teach them only how to use the big comb and cut a long layer in four sections. How to run a clipper up the side of the head beyond the flat and "blend" the cut with a flat topper. How to square off a hairline so it looks neat, even if it looks dumb.

They want the haircut to grow out poorly, it keeps the clients coming in every three weeks! (and yes, that is actually part of the reasoning. even if no one will admit it.)

You can't do a good haircut in the time they expect. They don't care if you perform a good service, they want you to perform a quick and cheap service. The clients that go to those salons expect the same. I always joke that I could put them out of business if I opened a flowbee salon with no stylists and made it a dollar cheaper. 

The guy that was suprised on about your career investment in education was suprised for a reason. You are over-qualified. It is fast food hair! Those chains are an embarassment to our industry.

You would be better off and make the same money as an assistant or a junior stylist in a real salon. Keep your dignity and get out now!

You are so on the money girl!

Don't worry I will be gone soon, Just working on my resume right now.  I was wrote up yesterday b/c my haircuts take 29 minutes and I have to bring the time down to 13-18 minutes by next week.

  Even though I sell on avg 30% retail but this does not matter.  I dress nice and treat every client like gold, i give wonderful shampoos when they want to splurge the $3 to get one. (Sometimese I insist that they get a wash b/c they haven't done it themselves in days!!!! Yuck!!!  These people have never received a neck massage at the shampoo bowl before!!! 

 It is just sad that these corporate type vanilla people can have a so called salon business.  They are brain washed by the Great Clips Franchise to think that they will be the only type of salon in the area by putting all other salons out of business!   This is just really sad and there should be a underground union to get all stylist on the same page or go on to something else.

Right on Sista!

These places couldn't stay in business if stylists just wouldn't work there. The owners do not care about you...look how you are treated. BUT....you are still there. And after you quit, there will be many more to take your place. It's a stepping stone for many, but others aren't so lucky. They think that's all they are qualified for, so they stay and take the abuse. Of course, they don't want you doing good haircuts...you'll realize too soon that you don't belong working in a place like that.

I just remember on my first day having a client that smelled so bad that my eyes watered. The guy did not want to pay for a shampoo. His hair so was clumped up with grease (natural, like from his skin) and I could barely get a comb through it. I felt itchy after touching him.  

The assistant manager gave me the advice of the in-salon secret. The "Tea Tree trick". A smear of Paul Mitchell Tea Tree shampoo across your upper lip and you can't smell the clients anymore! 

Why I didn't run out the door that very moment, I don't know. Maybe it was because I was 19 and didn't want to be an assistant anymore.

Anyway, six months later she was gone and I was the new assistant manager.  That shows you something about the company right there. Nineteen years old with two years assisting experience and the assistant manager of the busiest shop in the state! Four months after that I was promoted to regional trainer and then I quit. It just was not getting any better. Plus, I was getting tired of the smell of Tea Tree.

Thanks to my assisting experience, I did have the strongest clientele ever built at a walk in only shop!

Word to the wise: Be an assistant!

I then went to work for Dellaria, the "upscale" chain at the mall. A brand new form of torture. So poor that I was forced to eat nothing but Cinnabon for months. Depressed and pale from the vitamin D deficiency I developed spending countless hours in a completely artificial flourescent environment. 

The clients there were a whole different kind of wierd. To this day, my worst client experience was a walk-in bride at Dellaria. Yep you read that right. She walked in on her wedding day. Seriously. We both cried. I didn't even finish her. I don't think I need to explain anymore.

At least the haircut training was good at Dellaria. Between the assisting at real salons, cutting millions of cheap-o practice cuts at Great Cuts and the Dellaria training I got pretty good.

But I was so beaten down in the process that I decided to go work full time at a local distributor store while working full time at a small shop where I made $100 a week.

The owner of the small shop laid me off a few months later because she didn't need me.  She realized that while I " Did a mean haircut..." that she would never have the clients to build me. She even tried to get me a job at another local salon. She was nice, and I still appreciate her honesty. If it wasn't for her kindness I would have left this business a long time ago.

The C.B. Sullivan store job thoroughly sucked. Long hours, back breaking work and crazy suburban hairdressers looking for rainchecks on Miss Clairol. Boy did they ever get mad when the SoColor 560 was backordered for months on end!  But it was full of charecters and kind of fun for a while. Plus, I learned a lot about different product and color lines.

I then got a job on Newbury Steet in Boston. I was so excited! I hit the big time! 

The owner of the salon decided not to hire me and cancelled the job the day before I was supposed to start . On my 21st birthday. I was heartbroken, but still determined. I printed a resume and hit the street. The first salon I went to hired me and I worked there for seven years and became majorly succesful within the shop. Then that salon started to fall apart. 

Now my average ticket is over $100. My haircuts are $50 and I have a waiting list most of the time. I'm going to increase my prices in the spring, and plan to continue raising them every time I hold a request rate of 80%.

Stick with it. It will get better. Sort of.   

JC Penney is on that PRODUCTIVITY tip too.  I worked there for two years.  Although I had a decent amount of clients per week, I wanted to do more, but Penney's wouldn't allow stylists to do weaves.  Thats where the M-O-N-E-Y  is plus the fact that I'd only had my license for almost a year when I started and I didn't have a lot of experience in cutting and coloring, but thanks to some beautiful co-workers I learned how to cut and color.  I loved the people I've worked with there.  They never made me feel inadequate or less than because I was inexperienced.  Whenever I had a question or needed help they were there for me. 

Other than that, there was no growth potential far as I'm concerned.  I was hungry for knowledge and skill development.  So after two years I left, but I loved working at JC Penney Salon.