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Transcript of Hairdressing podcast

In this podcast a Careers Scotland adviser looks at opportunities in hairdressing

How exactly do you get into hairdressing?

When you are looking at hairdressing there are two things to think about here - because there's hairdressing for women and perhaps you might think about it as barbering for men.

And there are 2 main entry routes into this - one might be to apply to college and do up to three years at college, or the other is to go into a salon and work as a trainee.

And what's the difference between the two?

If you're going to go to college as an option then you'll find you're doing a mixture of classroom-based work as well as practical work. many colleges now have salons on campus and they invite students, and students invite friends and family into the salon itself.

Initially students on the course find they are working with dummies and wigs and as they build up their skills and confidence they'll move onto working with real live clients.

Also as part of the college course you may find that you'll go out on placement at some point.

If you decide to go down the salon route you'll find probably that you're working 4 or 5 days a week and going on day release to college. Some salons will also be expecting you to do some evening training perhaps following their own course or learning some of their own skills and styles. If you're working in the salon to start off with you'll do basic tasks like helping with appointments, cleaning the salon and brushing up hair and maybe watching other stylists at work.

You'll build up to washing hair and then start to do some training in colouring hair, cutting, styling and dressing hair, perming etc.

And do you need any particular qualifications?

We find that hairdressing's quite flexible in terms of what they're looking for and often you don't require any qualifications at all but you should be aware that if you're going to go into hairdressing you should be a confident communicator, quite happy to chat away to people you've not met before.

You should also be good with computers. Many salons now have electronic booking systems and they keep records of clients, their appointments, what treatments they've had etc., so entering data into a computer can also be useful. Another thing to think about is maths skills. If you're preparing solutions for perming hair or for colouring hair, you're working with volumes of liquid (100 millilitres, let's say) and you may have to work out what's 20 per cent of that for peroxide, what's 80 per cent of that for colour and how many millilitres that would be for each thing - so your maths skills can be useful there.

You mention talking to customers. Presumably personality is quite important?

Yeah - I think there's a number of things to think about here again. You've got to be reasonably outgoing and confident to talk to people you've not met before. And if you've been to a hairdressers yourself you'll know that they're quite chatty, they ask you questions and keep the conversation going. The work's also quite practical - you're using tools, if you like like combs, brushes and straighteners, hairdryers etc. and it's actually quite a physical job. There's a story that one hairdresser has a sign 'Stage door' on the back of the staff room door, before you go into the salon, reminding staff that when you go out there you've to be happy, you've to be good with the customers; you're kind of putting on a performance for those people you are going to be working with.

You should also be aware that you're going to be in very close proximity to clients - you're going to be leaning across them, working round them, so good personal hygiene's going to be important.

You talked about the work being quite physical. Do you have to be quite fit?

Working as a hairdresser does require you to be on your feet a lot of the time, although many salons now provide stools for stylists to sit on whilst they're working with clients; but you are reaching for items, using equipment, so you should have reasonable stamina for this kind of work. And also remember - talking to people can be quite tiring if you're keeping it up for five or six hours a day and that can take its toll on people too.

I would also suggest that if you suffer from skin allergies, skin conditions, anything like that - you should check with your doctor about whether this work is suitable for you.

Remember - you're working with hot and cold water, perming and colour solutions, shampoos and conditioners and they can irritate the skin and some conditions. I've noticed that some stylists wear gloves in order to protect their skin, so if you're not sure it's best to take some medical advice from your doctor.

And finally...how do you get started?

In order to find out if hairdressing is suitable for you, you may want to think about doing a work experience placement, say if you are still at school or getting a Saturday or part-time job. If you're thinking about getting started already, you may find that a number of salons locally have vacancies available, so you might want to approach them direct or check your local newspapers of Jobcentre Plus to find out about local jobs

Many colleges offer hairdressing as an option, so you could check your local college's website or prospectus and request and application form from them.

There's a lot of information on hairdressing on the Careers Scotland website and you can also contact your local Careers Scotland centre to find out more.