This post is for anyone working in the beauty industry or anyone thinking about working in the beauty industry.  I’m going to be brutally honest here and tell you the ups and downs of working in the beauty and spa sector.  There is always the good the bad and the ugly of working in any field.  If your a people person there is more good than bad.

Lets start with what could be the bad.  Nothing is that bad there are just some facts to point out in this industry that not everyone realizes are going on behind the scenes.  When your a customer you will not always think about these issues but its a reality in this industry.  Disclaimer here these are things that are coming from both my personal experiences and my opinion.

The Bad

1. Free Services or giving away your time and skill with no pay. An example I would give here is obviously a free nail service or facial or whatever it is in this industry you do for a job interview.  This is a reality.  When you go to an interview you have to show your work and you will have to perform a service with no pay.  Where that can get not so pretty is if your constantly interviewing and having to give services and no one will pay you for that.  I am okay with this in the sense that this is part of the reality of this industry.  Another not so pretty is once you get hired and then you need to train you will be doing more free services.  Imagine if an establishment has 8 different services on the menu.  They want you to learn all the services and be able to perform them well.  So you will be doing lots of services to practice and this is normally at a training rate (minimum wage). Occasionally people can tip you while your practicing.
2.  Insurance depending on where you work you may need to provide and pay for your own liability insurance.  Some companies will allow you to work under their insurance but sometimes you will have to provide and pay for your own insurance.  Why this is necessary is if you have a rare experience or incident with a client (for example the wax was to hot and you waxed a client and their skin ripped and scarred) that client can sue you and you would want to have coverage.
3. Low commissions, tricky pay or an establishment keeps your tips.  When you interview some places are not so transparent and they will offer information about your commissions, percentage and gratuity  in the interview process while discussing your pay.  You can start working and realize they set up the commissions in their favor by their booking process.  Or you can work and I’ve had this happen personally where the establishment charges a service fee and they state on the website in teeny tiny fine print that the service fee is not for your service provider but if you would like to leave an additional gratuity you are encouraged to.  (this is after the client was just charged 20 percent service charge on top of the service price.)  Pretty sure the client is thinking that they just tipped.
4. Do not love product or brand I’m working with.  Another frustration I have had throughout my career is not being in love with the product. Imagine getting hired at an amazing place and having amazing clientele and then the product or brand the place chooses to use you are not in love with.  Its not always that your not in love with the product but you know from your  knowledge and experience that there are better things out there.  Imagine too that your expected to sell that brand and can earn commissions but the product could be a high price point and you do not believe in it.  I have done so many facials where someone will ask me, ” so what do you use on your face?”  You know its not the brand your working with but it puts you in an awkward response of well these products I’m using on you right now are good but for your skin there could be something better.  Always not an easy thing to juggle.
5. Disease and condition of the nails for the nail technicians.  People do not realize that you will be working on fungus on both the nails and the skin of the feet.  Sometimes it smells.  You are responsible for the proper sanitation and clean up after that client.  Hopefully the establishment where you are working has gloves and provides gloves because I’ve had that issue where the order didn’t arrive and now we have this type of client to work on.
6. You become a free therapist.  It has been said that psychology should be a pre requisite to work in the beauty industry.  A lot of people tell you a lot of things.  Some things you could go without knowing.  I’ve been doing services where people can be sharing very intimate details about their life and sometimes you need to know how to respond.
7. The questioning.  Guaranteed you will be questioned everything about yourself and your life.  I have worked in the high end sector with high end and private clients and your trained not to ask them personal questions.  On the contrary they will ask you anything and everything about yourself.  Sometimes I think I don’t know you and I do not feel like answering this question but you kind of have to navigate how to answer with grace as they are a paying customer.
8. Bossy or controlling customers who tell you what to do or how to do your job.  It can happen sometimes where instead of someone coming for a relaxing service they want to tell you how to do the service.  You usually have to tip toe around them as you can never tell if its their personality or they are unhappy with the service being performed.  Or they could be having a bad day and you are the lucky chosen one to receive the brunt of it all.

Even though the bad can seem super negative there are also some amazing positive aspects to this type of career.  I have had way more good than bad and that is why  I have stayed in the industry as long as I have.  Taking it to a more positive note we can explore the good side of working in the spa and beauty industry.

The Good

1. Amazing clients.  You can meet the most amazing people and depending on where you work you can have regulars and once in awhile(no guarantee) they can become life long friends.  You can always learn a lot from your clients too.  Many people that I have done services on have became friends or found ways to stay in touch.
2. Receive services at a discount and do trades.  Always nice when you have extra time to practice services with a coworker and have a little surprise pampering time all while having a little extra coworker bonding.
3. Friendships with coworkers can be amazing.  Normally working in the same type of environment and having studied from the same book it brings a commonality and you can usually find someone in your work space you “click” with.  I have loved working with so many people in all my different spa and salon jobs and have great memories with them all.
4. Back to the amazing clients I have learned so much from my clients.  It has always been interesting when someone has an interesting career choice or owns their own business and talks about it.  Its fun to hear from people and different perspectives and learn something new as your working.
5. Product discounts.  Always a perk when working with spa and beauty products to be able to get a discount or wholesale price.  I have quite an array of spa products in the bathroom but they eventually get used.
6. Staying up with the latest trends. For me personally its nice to be in a career where your getting exposed to the newest trends.  There is always change in this environment and growth.  You can choose to keep it old fashioned and stick to the basic facial styles, or learn the equipment and machine facials.  Its nice to be able to incorporate a little bit of both styles to a facial for example.
7. Trade Shows are the best.  This is what keeps you in the know and its always fun to see the new concepts and trends being launched out in the industry.  Normally bonding with a coworker or two as you attend the trade shows and being able to buy most things at cost as your attending the show with your license.
8. Great pay.  If you set yourself up at the right establishment you can definitely make a great commission and pay rate.  I’ve learned over time what places are good to work for and what commission scale works in the therapist favor.  Note:  I would probably never work for a place that offers either or whichever is greater in a two week period.  That usually pans out to making minimum wage and you do all the work and the establishment gets paid in their favor.  Again speaking from experience.
9. Down time you can give yourself a service.  Always a plus.  Sometimes from working in the industry it gives you the time to pamper yourself too. I have worked in some not so busy places and let me tell you my nails always had polish on them during that employment.

In conclusion working in the spa or beauty service industry can have its ups and downs but as long as you can focus on the booking and the end goal it can balance out to be a rewarding experience with each client and thus a rewarding career.  I have loved working on all my clients and have some great memories through the years of some clients and the things they did or said that stay with me.  I can still remember that special client that would always book a service every Friday for example or my male client that only wanted me to do his manicures and would work around my schedule every 2 weeks.  There is definitely a human connection in this field of work and adding the beauty and benefits of enhancing a persons looks or the feeling of helping someone to feel pampered is a great reward.

Through it all the good or the bad the spa and beauty industry is a service industry that incorporates the power of touch.  We all end up touching and enriching each others  lives whether it be by the touch of a hand or the power of a skincare or body suggestion to enhance your overall feeling of health and well being.  It is a great industry to work in and very personable on many levels.  After over 15 years in the industry I can say that I am very happy I made the career choice that I did.  Write a comment if you want to add to any of the pros or cons of the industry that I may have missed in the comments section.  Also feel free to reach out with any questions per the contact button.