EP 320: Toxic Salon Secrets: Red Flags Before You Say Yes

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Ever walked into a salon interview excited, only to leave with that sinking feeling something isn't right? Those instincts are worth paying attention to. The beauty industry offers incredible creative opportunities, but also harbors workplaces that can drain your passion faster than bleach lifts color.

Recognizing the warning signs of a toxic salon environment before accepting a position is crucial for your career longevity and mental wellbeing. From deceptive job descriptions that mask chaos as "flexibility" to interview processes that reveal fundamental disrespect, these red flags often appear long before your first day. When salons describe themselves as "like a family" but can't articulate their actual culture, when they're perpetually hiring because stylists don't stick around, or when they expect unpaid work during "trial periods" – these aren't signs of opportunity but warning signals of deeper issues.

The good news? You have power in this process. Come prepared with thoughtful questions about education programs, advancement paths, and team structure. Research the salon's online presence and reviews. Speak with current or former stylists when possible. Most importantly, trust your instincts – if interactions during the interview process make you feel small, invisible, or disrespected, that feeling will only intensify once you're employed there. Remember that seeking a respectful, growth-centered workplace isn't asking too much – it's the foundation of a sustainable career in this incredible industry. Check out our resources for salon education, onboarding systems, and foundational skills that can help you or your salon create the positive environment every stylist deserves. Your career is too important to compromise on workplace respect and support!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have you ever walked into a salon excited for an
interview, only to leave with agut feeling that something just
wasn't right?
You couldn't put your finger onit, but everything in you said
run.
Today we're talking about thosered flags that signal a toxic
workplace.
Before you ever say yes to thejob, you ever say yes to the job

(00:24):
.
Welcome to All About Hair,where we talk shop, share
stories and spill the secretsbehind great hair and a great
career.
I'm your host, denise Kylitz, aformer salon owner, educator and
a lifelong hair crusader.

(00:44):
Whether you're a new stylist,building your book or just
someone who loves learning aboutall things hair, you're in the
right place.
You know the beauty industry isfilled with passion, creativity
and incredible opportunities,but it's also sadly known for
burnout, blurred boundaries andenvironments that don't value

(01:07):
people the way they should.
A toxic salon culture can drainyour energy, hurt your
confidence and stall your growth.
And the worst part, theseplaces often look great on paper
until you walk in the doorspaper until you walk in the

(01:29):
doors.
But spotting a toxic workplaceisn't always easy, especially
when you're eager to get hired,start making money or desperate
to leave a current bad situation.
You might overlook vague jobdescriptions, dismiss
disrespectful interviewers orexcuse poor communication
because you want to give themthe benefit of the doubt.
Let's break down where thosered flags can start showing up

(01:51):
and what they might be trying totell you.
First, let's talk about jobdescription red flags.
When they say we wear a lot ofhats around here or no, two days
are the same, this often meansthey don't have any structure
and you're on your own Pay.

(02:11):
Attention to that.
Another red flag for jobdescriptions that you have
senior level responsibilitiesfor junior pay.
That's a sign that they'reunder-resourced and
over-demanding.
Say you're going in for a frontdesk position and it pays
minimum wage.
Yeah, I don't think I would gothere.

(02:33):
Another red flag no salary orbenefits are listed.
They're likely avoiding somekind of accountability or hiding
pay inequality or they could bepaying you under the table.
Something just doesn't feelright there.
If they're not listing howyou're getting paid, you need to

(02:55):
start asking some questions.
If they use buzzwords like fastpaced, rockstar or we're like a
family, this can actuallytranslate to say you're expected
to hustle hard and sacrificeboundaries.
I really don't like it whensalons say we're like a family

(03:17):
here, because that's not fair.
You don't, you can't fire yourfamily.
You don't.
You can't fire your family.
You're a team and it's aworkplace, so it should be ran
like one.
So just be just yeah, red flag.
And if you see a salon thatthey're always posting, that

(03:37):
they're always hiring, I likethat.
I think salons should always behiring, I love that.
I think salons should always behiring, I love it.
However, but if they're alwaysposting like you see it online,
you see paid ads that's not asign of growth.
It's a sign that people don'tstick around.
So keep your eyes open for that, because if they're going

(03:59):
through stylists left and right,there's probably a culture
problem there, and if they don'tmention any kind of training or
education especially if you'restraight out of school, this is
what you should be looking foris some kind of education.
This just means that they'renot invested in your growth and

(04:20):
you're probably seen asreplaceable.
More than likely, though, itmeans that they just don't have
it together.
They might really want to offereducation, and they might have
the best intentions of doing so,but they just don't have it
written down.
That's where I come in.
Hello, I do have my salonsuccess course, and it's a three

(04:43):
month training program thatgets stylists straight out of
school to behind the chair withconfidence in three months.
If you are working at a placethat does not have education, or
you think that they have adisorganized education system,
tell your salon owner about this.
Or if you're a salon owner andyou're looking for something so
you don't have to map it out,this is so great.

(05:05):
I use this whole system in mysalons very, very successfully.
The links in the show notes gograb it there.
If you need more information,let me know.
All right, let's get on tointerview.
Red flags.
So you're sitting at theinterview.
You've walked into this newspace.
The salon looks great, um.
So you're sitting down.

(05:25):
You're asking questions.
Remember, you're there tointerview them too.
They're not just interviewingyou.
So here's some red flags duringthe interview process.
Number one they dodge questionsabout team structure or how
people advance.
This could mean that they don'thave a career path set up.
You really need to know how youcan advance in their salon.

(05:47):
You're not just there cuttinghair.
This is a career, remember.
Another red flag is the personinterviewing you shows up late,
they check their phoneconsistently or they interrupt
you when you're asking questions.
If they're like that in theinterview process.
Imagine what they're going tobe like when you're working for

(06:08):
them.
Very, very disrespectful.
One interviewer says one thing,another says something else.
If you're in the interviewprocess and you sit down with
one interviewer and they tellyou one thing, the next person
comes in and they tell yousomething else.
We used to have where you wouldinterview with different people
.
So say, you would interviewwith a manager, then you would

(06:32):
interview with one of the leadstylists, because they are
coming at it from a differentangle, then you would interview
with me, the owner, and if thosethree people are saying
different things, you probablywant to look elsewhere, because
that's a recipe for confusionand conflict and obviously

(06:56):
there's some communicationproblems going on.
Or maybe the interviewer asksinappropriate questions, like
they cannot ask your age, yourreligion or your family plans.
They can't ask you if you'repregnant or if you intend to be
pregnant or if you're married.
They can't ask you that that'sillegal, big, big red flag.

(07:18):
If they say culture fit, butthey can't even describe what
their culture is, I would be alittle hesitant to work there,
because culture is a big wordthese days.
Everybody says, oh, our cultureis so great.
Our culture, well, it takes alot of work to have a nice and a

(07:39):
great culture.
And if they say culturally fit,hey, you don't want to belong
to a mean girls club, okay, justsaying, how about if you're in
the interview and you're rushedthrough with no time for your
own questions, wow, that doesn'tfeel good because you're there
to interview them too.
So make sure you come withquestions already written down

(08:01):
and you're ready to go and thenalso ask about turnover or
morale.
And if you ask about that andthey get very vague or they have
very defensive answers, that'sa huge red flag.
Say you're taking the job andthey're going to make you the
offer to work there.
If you're asked to start withoutanything in writing no contract

(08:25):
, no clarity I might want toreconsider.
You might want to havesomething in writing.
Even contract, no clarity Imight want to reconsider.
You might want to havesomething in writing, even if
it's an email.
You need something in writingthat has, when you're starting,
what your pay is going to be.
Maybe if there's benefits, theexpectations and something in
there that says, hey, in 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, I don't know

(08:48):
, they might everybody'sdifferent that you're going to
look at this again.
You're going to review this.
It's going to be a process.
You need something like that inwriting before you start.
We used to bring people on to doa shadow day.
That's what we'd call it.
A shadow day is just really.
Basically, you're coming intothe salon for a couple hours

(09:12):
maybe and what we want is tojust see how you're going to
interact with people, see howyou're going to interact with
the other team members, see ifyou ask questions, see if you
show up looking sharp, see ifyou show up on time.
It's usually no more than acouple of hours, but that's
really what we were looking for.
We weren't looking for you todo anything.

(09:33):
You might go in there with amodel.
That's happened before.
We've asked people to come inwith a model, maybe do a haircut
or a blow dry If we were, youknow, a little not suspicious
but questioning the skillset.
So say, somebody says they're amaster stylist, whatever that
means in these days.
We kind of want to see that inaction because, believe it or

(09:56):
not, I have hired somebodybefore that said they were a
master stylist at a salon that Iknew of and I knew what that
meant and I didn't go throughthis trial run and they were
awful.
They were awful.
I don't know what the heck Iwas thinking.
So even if you, as a salonowner, if you're feeling pretty

(10:19):
confident in their word and assalon owners, I don't know.
I know I'm not the only one outthere, but I feel like I want
to save everybody, anybody witha passion for our industry.
I want to hire them and after awhile my team said I was no
longer allowed to hire thestylist because I just wanted to
bring in everybody.

(10:39):
I just love it.
However, if you're going to tellthe interviewer that you know a
certain skill, you better beable to provide that so they
might ask you to come in forshadowing.
But if they ask you to come inand do trial work that looks
kind of like real unpaid labor,like you're actually blow drying

(11:01):
clients or shampooing clientsor rinsing color or anything
like that, that's not okay.
You need to be paid for that,okay.
Another red flag in the offerstage before you sign anything
if they ask for any personaldata before you've signed
anything like your bank accountinformation, social security

(11:21):
card, anything like that no, no,no, no.
You do not give that to themuntil you sign something that
says you've made me an offer andI've agreed to it.
If the start dates are fuzzy orthey don't have any kind of
onboarding, that is a big redflag.
Again, if you're struggling, ifyou're a salon owner or if you

(11:42):
work in a salon and they don'thave onboarding, my salon
success system over there has itspelled out in writing from
first day, first week, firstmonth and first three months
what the expectations are.
So again, the link is in theshow notes.
Here's a big red flag.
What if you Google them and yousee high turnover reviews

(12:05):
online?
That, yeah, that's a big redflag.
Or maybe you see reviews onGoogle and it says something
like customer service isterrible, or I don't know.
Check them out, do your duediligence and really investigate
before you decide.

(12:25):
And if you're pressured todecide quickly, like within 24
hours, or if you're guilted forsaying hey, we want you to start
today, tomorrow, something likethat, that's a red flag.
Nobody needs to start within 24hours.
Okay, you can take your time anddecide.
If it's the right place for you, ask more questions if you want

(12:46):
to.
And if they say anything likeoh, we don't really do time off
here, okay, come on now.
You know that you probably runout the door.
People have to have personaltime off.
I mean, a lot of salons thesedays are actually going towards
all the personal time off youneed, as long as the clients are

(13:08):
taken care of.
I know a lot of salon ownersare doing it that way.
Everybody's different thesedays, especially after COVID, so
here's the solution.
So you've gone through theinterview.
Maybe you've seen a couple ofthese red flags.
Listen to your gut, but alsoget strategic.
Okay, before you say yes, youneed to ask the right questions.

(13:32):
Have your questions writtendown before you go to the
interview.
What are you going to ask them?
Are you going to ask them aboutthe education system?
Are you going to ask them abouttheir time off policy, vacation
pay, maybe the benefits?
Do they have 401k?
Do they pay for your education?
If you do outside education,anything like that, what's the
dress code?

(13:52):
What's the expectations in thefirst 30 days?
What's the pre-booking orretail sales numbers?
Or what are you expected to door target or benchmark to move
your career path up and alsotake a look at their career path
.
You want to know what it is.
What's the potential of workingin that environment.

(14:13):
Do your research.
Google them.
Look at them on Facebook, lookat them on Instagram, look at
them.
Just Google them for reviews.
Talk to current or pastemployees If you can.
If you know somebody who'sworked at that salon, reach out
to them and say, hey, I wasthinking about working here.
What do you think?
What?
What was your experience?

(14:33):
What was your experience?
And look at how you felt aftereach interaction.
Were they excited to see you?
Did you feel seen and heard andimportant, or was it like an
uncertain kind of you knowfeeling that you were feeling?
Did you feel small?
Did they make you feel like youwere invisible?

(14:54):
Because, goodness gosh, ifthat's happening before the
interview process, what is itgoing to be when you start
working there?
Just get in your mind that youare not being too sensitive.
You're not asking for too much.
You're just asking for a safe,respectful and growth-centered

(15:15):
space, which is the bare minimumof what you deserve.
The salon that you work atshould be the place you want to
be and the place that you feelrespected and safe.
So, finding the right salon, itmight take a few tries, but
knowing these red flags canreally help you avoid

(15:36):
soul-sucking jobs because we'veall had those and land somewhere
that truly aligns with yourvalues, where you're treated
like a human, where your work isseen, where you can shine and
help your clients shine too.
If this episode gave you someclarity or confidence, click the

(15:58):
link in the show notes.
Make sure that your salon owneror yourself check out my salon
success system.
I also have, if you go over tomy website, I have a few free
downloads that, as a stylist,that you can download.
One is on color mastery and theother one is the foundational
skills that you need as astylist that you can download.
One is on color mastery and theother one is the foundational

(16:19):
skills that you need as a brandnew stylist.
Go over there, check it out,download it.
Good, good information.
Just remember go into yourinterview positive attitude, do
your research, have yourquestions down, you know, look
the part, walk in there, chin up, proud that you're in this
industry and you have a lot tooffer.

(16:40):
Even if you're brand new, youhave a lot to offer your
curiosity, your passion, yourwill do, attitude and you pick
this industry.
I say it all the time we are inthe best industry ever.
So always remember when youknow better, you do better, and
I'll talk to you next week.

(17:00):
Thanks for tuning in to allabout hair.
If you loved this episode, hit,subscribe, leave us a review
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denisekeilitzcom.
Yes, I know it's hard to spell,so don't worry, the link is in

(17:22):
the show notes.
Until next time, keep learning,keep creating and keep loving
what you do.