Popular Hair Salon Chains vs Locally Owned Hair Salons

Why go to a popular chain versus locally owned hair salon? The decision is yours, so make sure you know what you are getting for your money!

Popular Chain Salons:
These chains are great and I have no complaint with the service they provide. I personally don’t use them from past experience and also because as I get older I have higher expectations of the overall experience and a little more money in the bank to pay for the extra privileges. The first thing you should know is that these salons are not owned by stylists or people who are educated in doing hair at all. A lot of the time they are just investors that purchase a franchise opportunity from a larger corporation. You want to know why you should care about that, and I will tell you. When the owner has absolutely no experience doing hair, they don’t understand the nuances of the salon environment. Their solutions to potential problems generally come out of a handbook and things are run according to the parent company’s guidelines. The salons are for the most part lucrative, but the experience you will have while there may be more sterile and less personal. If you don’t care about that, then go on in! The stylists are really very nice people and work hard at what they do. Another thing that keeps me away is that these stylists are paid very low hourly rates and then they make a percentage of each haircut or service. The amount for each service isn’t necessarily that much, so the more they can pack into each hour, the more money they will make. That means if I go in for a haircut, the stylist will be done with me in less than fifteen minutes on average. For a lot of guys I know, this is a bonus because they just want in and out anyway. If you have a more complicated haircut, this is a problem. They can’t possibly do a consultation with you, do the overall cut and then put in all the finishing touches to polish off your haircut in that amount of time, and oftentimes there isn’t enough time for a style so you leave with whatever your hair looks like when it dries. Again, if you’ve got naturally fabulous hair this isn’t a problem. My hair is a little psycho without products and heat so this is a problem for me. One more thing that differentiates these salons from the locally owned variety is that they charge extra for shampooing and styling because if they are going to take that extra fifteen minutes for each, that’s two other haircuts they are missing out on. If you add both things in, your fifteen minute haircut became a forty-five minute process that costs you pretty close to what you would pay in a salon but might not look quite as finished or polished. Do I think that stylists in these salons are sub-par? No way! A lot of them have so much experience doing cuts, it’s crazy. They just aren’t given enough time to do the job 100% in my opinion. Very few have the speed it takes to get an insanely fabulous haircut in that amount of time.

Locally Owned Hair Salons:
I say support your local economy, first of all. It’s better all around. That said, there are lots of reasons I love a local salon. I’m not really all that into gossip, but if your town is small enough, the salon is a great place to get it! Okay, that may be a silly reason, but it’s sometimes fun so don’t knock it too hard. The service you will most likely get at a local salon is much more personal. You become a friend instead of a name and number in the system. You may be offered beverages and a nice place to sit if you have to wait. The stylists are generally paid just a little bit better and because prices are higher, they make more and can spend more time on you without feeling the time crunch. The owners a lot of the time are stylists who have been in the business for decades and value education and training. The chain salons do as well, but are more limited to what the corporation assigns them to do and their stylists don’t make enough on average to be able to afford extra training classes on their own that costs hundreds of dollars for just one day. Local salons have more fun with their design. If you’ve noticed the chain salons, you know that they all have a common theme or design. This makes them instantly recognizable to the consumers, but doesn’t allow for much artistic freedom. The feeling in your local salon will – design-wise – be a lot different than the chain. Is that important to you? If you’ve had a long stressful day and go in for a hair or skin service, the environment sets the mood. White walls aren’t calming so your salon will have some type of color on their walls that sets the mood they want for their environment. Another perk is that in the chain salons, you can’t get a facial before your haircut because they don’t offer them. At your local salon, they probably have an esthetician on staff that can do that for you and sometimes they make package deals so you aren’t spending as much. Chain salons have to comply with corporation specials and coupons. Local salons get to do what they want. If they are having a slow day, they may offer half-price brow waxes (which you couldn’t get at all last time I checked a chain salon) or a $10 haircut with any color service. They have the freedom to do what is best locally instead of what works in a larger city on the other side of the country.

From the content of this article, you can tell where I get my hair services done. I don’t think you should choose to do what I do because I do it. You should make the choice to go to a salon that fits your needs. If you need something quick and aren’t picky about the end results, the chain salons are a great and inexpensive solution. They are friendly and try to give you what you want, but their hands are tied. Local salons have a little more flavor and offer a greater variety of services but will hit your pocketbook a little harder. Take into account your lifestyle and personal maintenance level when making the choice.