What does a hair stylist do?
A Hair Stylist's role is to provide services such as haircuts, treatments, coloring, styling, and even maintenance. Most of the time, the clients choose which style or treatment they would prefer, which is why a Hair Stylist must have extensive knowledge and keep up the current trends in Hair Styling. Moreover, a Hair Stylist can also recommend styling and treatments that would suit the client, even sell Hair Care products. Aside from providing quality service, it is also essential for a Hair Stylist to build rapport with clients to ensure customer satisfaction and have a robust client base.
Hair stylist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real hair stylist resumes:
- Manage beautiful hairstyles with the use of flat irons, curling irons, blow dryers, and other hair products.
- Manage product inventory for cosmetology products, place product orders, maintain the inventory.
- Commission stylist, assist other stylists as well as cleaning and greeting guests.
- Work extremely quickly and efficiently as a hairstylist to reach sales and productivity goals while maintaining exceptional customer service
- Bleach, dye, or tint, using applicator or brush.
- Specialize in braids, sew-ins, glue-ins, dreads, wraps, twist, and curls.
- Bleach, dye, or tint, relax, straighten, or perm using applicator or brush.
- Input customers into great clips computer system.
- Keep workstation clean and sanitize tools such as shears comes clips and brushes.
- Assist former U.S. Vogue stylist on set for editorial shoots and advertising campaigns.
- Used curling irons, flat irons, blow dryers, pressing combs and hair product.
- Design styled hair cuts, color, perms, relaxers, sew-in weaving and bonding.
- Cut, color, and style haircuts for a variety of customers from kids to adults.
- Provide services such as relaxers, perms, color/lightening, weave/extension, and blow outs/silk press.
- Shape eyebrows and remove facial hair, using depilatory cream, tweezers, electrolysis or wax.
Hair stylist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 31% of Hair Stylists are proficient in Cosmetology, Clips, and Kids. They’re also known for soft skills such as Creativity, Customer-service skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Hair Stylists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Cosmetology, 31%
Complied with South Carolina Board of Cosmetology sanitation and safety guidelines for a more sustainable workplace environment.
- Clips, 20%
Provide customers with information about Great Clips products and services to generate additional revenue through cross-sell/up-sell opportunities.
- Kids, 7%
Greeted/checked clients in/out with point of sale system, Washed/cut/styled kids, teenagers/ men and woman's hair.
- Makeup, 6%
Performed makeup artist techniques that included wardrobe suggestions for magazine and local newspaper editorials.
- Retail Sales, 5%
Promoted salon-exclusive products to increase retail sales and customer satisfaction.
- Cleanliness, 4%
Maintained overall cleanliness and work station according to company regulations and standards.
Common skills that a hair stylist uses to do their job include "cosmetology," "clips," and "kids." You can find details on the most important hair stylist responsibilities below.
Creativity. The most essential soft skill for a hair stylist to carry out their responsibilities is creativity. This skill is important for the role because "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must keep up with the latest trends and be ready to try new hairstyles for their clients." Additionally, a hair stylist resume shows how their duties depend on creativity: "manage all aspects of the business; appointment scheduling, record keeping and inventory"
Customer-service skills. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling hair stylist duties is customer-service skills. The role rewards competence in this skill because "workers must be friendly, pleasant, and able to interact with clients to build and retain clientele." According to a hair stylist resume, here's how hair stylists can utilize customer-service skills in their job responsibilities: "complete manual and computerized appointment scheduling; analyze and prioritize customer requests to effectively service all clients. "
Listening skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of hair stylists is listening skills. This skill is critical to many everyday hair stylist duties, as "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must be attentive when clients describe what they want to ensure satisfaction with the result." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "display wonderful work ethics providing effective service by listening to customers and meeting their needs efficiently. "
Physical stamina. hair stylist responsibilities often require "physical stamina." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists must be able to stand for long periods." This resume example shows what hair stylists do with physical stamina on a typical day: "performed physical and chemical services on hair. "
Tidiness. Another common skill required for hair stylist responsibilities is "tidiness." This skill comes up in the duties of hair stylists all the time, as "workers must keep their work area clean and sanitary for the health and safety of their clients." An excerpt from a real hair stylist resume shows how this skill is central to what a hair stylist does: "cut, style, shampoo, and color clients hair salon cleanup and tidiness assist in paying bills"
Time-management skills. Another skill commonly found on hair stylist job descriptions is "time-management skills." It can come up quite often in hair stylist duties, since "barbers, hairstylists, and cosmetologists need to manage their time efficiently when scheduling appointments and providing services." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day hair stylist responsibilities: "worked under deadlines to client satisfaction. "
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Compare different hair stylists
Hair stylist vs. Cosmetician
A child care worker is responsible for providing care and supervision to children while the parents or guardians are away. A child care worker's duty may involve changing diapers and preparing milk for infants and toddlers, devise strategies or fun activities where children can learn, arrange schedules to fit their needs such as nap times, and prepare healthy meals and snacks. Aside from ensuring children's safety, a child care worker must also monitor any sign of emotional or developmental issues so it can be brought to the parents' attention as soon as possible.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between hair stylists and cosmetician. For instance, hair stylist responsibilities require skills such as "cosmetology," "clips," "kids," and "makeup." Whereas a cosmetician is skilled in "merchandise displays," "skin care," "cosmetic products," and "inventory control." This is part of what separates the two careers.
The education levels that cosmeticians earn slightly differ from hair stylists. In particular, cosmeticians are 3.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a hair stylist. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hair stylist vs. Child care worker
A Beautician is a person whose job is to do hair styling, manicures, and other beauty treatments. They work in various trades of the beauty industry, such as hair, skin, or nail care.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that hair stylist responsibilities requires skills like "cosmetology," "clips," "kids," and "makeup." But a child care worker might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "child care," "crisis intervention," "behavioral issues," and "cpr."
Child care workers may earn a lower salary than hair stylists, but child care workers earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $45,837. On the other hand, hair stylists receive higher pay in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $39,653.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Child care workers tend to reach similar levels of education than hair stylists. In fact, they're 0.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for hair stylists in the next 3-5 years?
Charley Sain
Cosmetology Instructor, Program Coordinator for Cosmetology, Esthetics, and Manicuring, Cleveland Community College
Hair stylist vs. Beautician
Nail technicians are beauty specialists that provide grooming services to a client's fingernails and toenails. They are trained proficiently in filling, cleaning, and grooming as well as various nail treatments. They can either work in salons, nail studios, spas, or can be self-employed. Their duties include providing high-quality manicures and pedicures, applying artificial nails, and recommending different nail art and designs to the client. Also, they advise clients on proper nail care and provide quality hand and foot massages. Additionally, they ensure that the nail instruments and equipment are sanitized, and work stations are neat and orderly.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from hair stylist resumes include skills like "clips," "kids," "makeup," and "cleanliness," whereas a beautician is more likely to list skills in "skin care," "beauty shop," "compassion," and "customer care. "
Beauticians earn the highest salary when working in the health care industry, where they receive an average salary of $37,525. Comparatively, hair stylists have the highest earning potential in the health care industry, with an average salary of $39,653.beauticians typically earn similar educational levels compared to hair stylists. Specifically, they're 2.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Hair stylist vs. Nail technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between hair stylists and nail technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a hair stylist might have more use for skills like "clips," "kids," "makeup," and "good communication." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of nail technicians require skills like "spa services," "skin care," "state board," and "scheduling appointments. "
The health care industry tends to pay the highest salaries for nail technicians, with average annual pay of $32,807. Comparatively, the highest hair stylist annual salary comes from the health care industry.In general, nail technicians hold similar degree levels compared to hair stylists. Nail technicians are 1.6% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of hair stylist
Updated January 8, 2025
