Becoming a hairstylist

2019.07.27Hair stylists

Becoming a hairstylist

Sorry but no drastic hair changes or new color trends today, just the harsh reality of becoming a stylist from an assistant.

Personally, I have always had sort of an admiration for Japanese hairstylists due to the way they are portrayed on Instagram. You see all the cute hair tutorials. all the fashionable pictures they post and all the smiles with customers. However, the road to debuting as a hair stylist was a rough one, or so I heard.

I’ve asked some of our Artnoise stylists how it was like for them as an assistant, and well here is what I got.

The hours were long, and I am talking more than 12 hours every single day. This is because assistants arrive at the salon a few hours before opening and stay back a few more hours after the salon closes to practice. Despite them having graduated from beauty school, it takes a few more years of practice to become a stylist.

During these years, they practice in the morning, shampoo customers’ hair, blowdry customers’ hair, create colors for stylists, assist stylists with rebonding and perming, clean up after the stylists etc. Basically, assistants can do anything but cut a customer’s hair. Just practicing to be good enough to cut a customer’s

hair can take up to a year or two.

Learning the basic skills of being a stylist is no walk in the park, as not all stylists will be willing to kindly teach you the skills that you need. This may no longer be the case due to the lack of potential stylists in the industry, but in the past when supply of manpower was plenty, it was every man for themselves. If you are unable to maximize the time you have assisting a stylist by learning with your eyes, you may not get the chance to do so again. Some stylists may be willing to teach you before and after work but it may come with a huge attitude and some verbal abuse. Or if you are lucky, you do get a nice stylist who is willing to guide you patiently.

A reason that I heard why stylists used to be nasty to assistants is because one more stylist in the salon means more competition. Due to the large number of potential stylists in the past, it was not a big deal when one or even ten assistants decide to quit. However, now the industry lacks manpower and salons can’t afford to lose assistants.

Another struggle with being an assistant is the low salary that they get despite the long hours they work. It has not been specified how low their salaries are but even stylists in Japan do not get paid as high as they would overseas. With that low salary, some assistants have to fork out money to buy their own wigs for practice and still have enough for day to day expenses.

So after years of being an assistant, how do they actually graduate from being an assistant to a stylist. Well, this comes as no surprise, but they have to take a test that includes all the skills they should have gained in order to become a stylist. They will have to perform such tasks on hair models that have been scouted for this test, and they will be graded by the other stylists. If they were to fail this test, they will have to practice and retake it again, just like any other test.

The beauty industry is no easy path, and most of the stylists who have made it have been a stylist for their whole life and nothing else, which is a huge commitment and requires a ton of perseverance which I think is worth applauding.

I hope this has shone a new light on our stylists here at Artnoise and other salons as well!

Anyway for those of you are reading and understand Japanese, you may want to check out this Instagram page which gives you some insight on being a stylist and what goes through their head.

We look forward to receiving your appointments!

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