Hairdressing industry magazine Creative HEAD, in association with The Hairdressing Industry CIC, the National Hair & Beauty Federation, the Freelance Hairdressers Association and the British Beauty Council has released a report titled Making the Cut. The organisations asked 100 salon owners and 100 self-employed hairdressers about their plans to grow and what holds them back from realising their ambitions.

Making the Cut has revealed that before Covid-19 market saturation and rising Minimum Wage costs were devastating traditional salon employment models, leading to salon bosses towards freezing recruitment, reducing hours for existing staff and taking on self-employed chair renters instead of directly employing people.

Key topics in Making the Cut include:

• Hairdressing offers young workers and female entrepreneurs much opportunity and can be important to post-Covid economic recovery in the UK. There is still stigma however around hairdressing as a profession, with teachers and parents believing it to not be a 'serious' career: 51% of consumers regard hairdressing as low-skill and 75% were not told about hairdressing as a career option whilst at school.
• 60% of all hair professionals are now self-employed and Covid-19 will grow that number. 
• There is increasing tension between the government's policy objective of ending low pay and salon owners' capacity to afford to pay higher wages is helping to drive self-employment. 
• Lack of fundamental business skills and awareness of how and where to acquire those skills is hindering growth, particularly among self-employed stylists, who often go from hairdresser to business owner.
• Additionally,  there is a reliance on inefficient technology – 75% of salons still use paper appointment books with only 3% of appointments are currently booked online.

For more information and to read the full report please visit creativeheadmag.com.