Uh oh...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sheila Fernandes on February 12, 2012 at 6:23pm

dislike!

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on February 12, 2012 at 11:37pm

I'm sure that none of us like the prospect of more competition nor lower prices Shei.

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Permalink Reply by Sheila Fernandes on February 13, 2012 at 7:25am

Ofcourse not that's why i don't like the part of lower prices when everything else is going up. I agree that i don't know any hairstylist that has retired.

 

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on February 13, 2012 at 11:47am

Hairstylists don't retire because salon jobs do not have retirement benefits like many other jobs, this is just one of the reasons that hairstyling is a bad career choice...
Hairdressers rarely have enough money to quit working, this is not likely to change any time soon, in fact it will get worse as chair-rental grows, which it will. Retirement is easier in other occupations which offer those benefits, many jobs include plans in which the employer kicks-in two dollars for every dollar that the employee puts in their own retirement fund, some offer matching dollars. A few years ago a large and well known salon chain approached me to manage their salon, I asked about their retirement plan and was informed that for every dollar their employees put into a fund the company would put in twenty-five cents. I thought I had heard wrong so I asked the salon director to repeat it. When she did I said it was insulting and I said thank you and left.

I'm writing an article for a hair publication which explains why hairstyling is not a good career choice and I'm directing it at potential beauty school students, there are good reasons why such a small number of them enter the field after school and I believe that if they knew the realities before they ever spent the money and wasted their time it would be better for everyone concerned, but not of course, the beauty schools.

The most important reason not to get into the hair business is because of the low wages.
I expect some people to disagree with this, and while there are some people who do very well financially in the hair trade one need simply look at the US Labor Department website to see exactly what hair trade workers earn annually. It's among the lowest earnings of any field, certainly not enough to save for retirement.

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Permalink Reply by Li Murillo on February 20, 2012 at 5:21am

That's one of the reasons why hairstyling is a great career. Retirement is overrated. What better job old one have in their golden years than to provide services to, by that time, people they love who are part of their lives. And earn a living doing it. One can work as much or as little as one needs. What will you do when you retire? Sit on the porch and rock? Think about it. Life is what we make it, so is our career. Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on March 4, 2012 at 4:56pm

Your perspective is interesting Li however from your photo I surmise that you are a young person?
Perhaps a few decades of standing on your feet every day will give you another, different perspective on the physical limitations of fixing' hair.

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Permalink Reply by patty gibbons on February 12, 2012 at 6:50pm

hopefully 20% will retire by then

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on February 12, 2012 at 11:38pm

'Hope springs eternal in the human breast' is the phrase I believe?
However, I have never actually met a hairstylist who retired.
Has anyone?

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Permalink Reply by Blu Luc on February 12, 2012 at 7:17pm

Mitchell-

 Your attitude compass seems to be perpetually pointed south. Though you do provide some thought provoking questions, it would be great to see some positivity coming from your direction.

As Mark Twain said: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."    

Although I may consider such information, I seldom set my clock by it.

-Luc

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on February 12, 2012 at 11:43pm

First Luc, I'm not a cheerleader, I'm a realist.

Your critisism is neither warranted nor welcome. It's negative and contributes nothing to the discussion other than for you to make a point about me, not the discussion itself...Let's leave personal criticism out of this discussion and deal with the reality.

If you want 'positivity' perhaps you might supply that yourself?

Maybe you've heard the expression 'don't shoot the messenger?' 

Second, Mark Twain wasn't a hairstylist, if he had been he might not have made light of what seems to be perfectly plausible information from the US Labor Department. If you are suggesting that they are damned liars then perhaps it's you who needs your own (negative) compass readjusted?

I have no reason to doubt that the 'statistics' which you decry are correct, in a time of high unemployment among licensed Cosmetologists,(there are currently 250,000 licensees who do not work in the field), the pace of beauty School enrollment has never been higher, in my area a new beauty school has just opened and the existing one is advertising on the backs of buses and on bus shelters, both places where low-income people who are prime candidates for the hairstyling 'factories' will see it.

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Permalink Reply by David "Buster" A. Boyd on February 13, 2012 at 2:54pm

I'm really starting to think that the bubble is about to pop.  Schools have been "selling the dream" and I think that potential students are starting to figure out that the jobs and money isn't exactly as schools portray.  I think that big commercial schools have peaked and that education will start to move, slowly but surely back into salons under apprenticeships.  Fingers crossed. 

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Permalink Reply by mitchell on February 13, 2012 at 9:07pm

I'm not sure that the potential students actually know that the jobs aren't there nor that the money certainly isn't...I

If potential students were shown a chart of their probable lifetime earnings before signing- up at school I think many of them as well as their parents, who most often foot the bill, would decide against it.

I was in a high-school classroom recently and there was a chart on the wall showing the potential lifetime earnings of a person without a high- school diploma through those with a doctorate degree.
The difference innearnings between those with a high-school diploma and those with a college degree was about a million dollars over a lifetime career, those with advanced degrees were about two million over a career...

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