 Okay, finally talking about this. Hey guys, welcome back to my channel or welcome if you're new. For those of you who don't know me, my name's Sam. I'm a professional hairdresser and today I'm sharing a story with you about the worst salon hands down I ever worked at. I've been dying to talk about this for so long, like especially when I first left there. But I don't know, I didn't want things to be awkward. I didn't want to be on bad terms with anybody or start any like drama. But now I'm like, you know what? It's been so many years and I live 600 miles away. So I'm gonna share. And not only do I hope this will be entertaining for you to listen to, but I also hope that it will be helpful, especially to those that are still in beauty school or maybe newer stylists are looking for a salon to work at or maybe you currently work in a salon and maybe some of the things I'm gonna talk about will resonate with you and maybe make you realize, okay, this isn't normal or this isn't acceptable. So yeah, I was sitting down a couple days ago trying to like take notes on everything I could remember about this place. I have several pages of notes. Everything that I'm gonna talk about in this video happened years ago back in early 2018. So literally five years ago. So I don't know if things at this particular salon have changed since then. All I know is my own personal experience. And if you are watching this and you happen to know exactly what salon I'm talking about, please don't say the name in the comments. For the sake of the video, we are keeping it all anonymous. This salon that I'm gonna be talking about was actually the second salon I ever worked at because the first salon technically I assisted at while I was still in beauty school. But this was the first salon where I was actually taking clients of my own and working as a full-time stylist. To give you a little bit of like backstory because when you start to hear like a little bit more about this place you might be thinking like, well, why the hell did you even wanna work there in the first place? I was still in cosmetology school at the time but it was like the last few months I was almost done with school. And I started going to this girl to get my eyelash extensions done. And the salon was like a salon and spa. They did a whole bunch of different services and this girl in the back of the salon had her own like separate private room where she did eyelash extensions. So throughout my time going to her, we would talk and you know, she knew I was in cosmetology school and the one day she asked me if I had plans after I graduated like if I already had a job set up at a salon. The salon that I was assisting at the time I knew like they offered me a chair there but I knew I didn't wanna stay there because I was like very hungry for education and for experience and that particular salon everyone there was really nice but the clientele they had there was very specific. It was all like middle-aged white women that wanted highlights that had just like straight hair you know and I feel like I'm coming out of school like I wanna be somewhere where the clientele's more diverse where I can like just learn more. I don't wanna just get stuck doing like one specific thing on one specific hair type you know and in cosmetology school we really didn't learn like I feel like I got a pretty good education compared to most people that go to cosmetology school but it was definitely lacking when it came to different hair textures. Majority of the people that were coming in to get services done were white or you know people who had finer hair, soft smooth straight hair we didn't get a lot of women of color we weren't able to get much experience on textured hair on ethnic hair. To me I felt like how can I call myself a professional and say I'm a licensed cosmetologist I am a professional hairdresser if I can't do everyone's hair work on all hair types. Anyway this salon where I was getting my lashes done at they had a pretty diverse clientele and actually majority of the clients that went there were either like Hispanic, Latina or black so it was exactly the kind of experience that I was looking for and even though I knew like this isn't really a salon that I am gonna probably want to stay at long term because it definitely gave like an old school kind of vibe even from the way like the decor was like the stations in there looked very outdated very like 90s early 2000s I could kind of tell and found out later on that like they weren't really like keeping up with their education we'll talk about it but it really was more for her like about quantity over quality like I don't care I've been doing hair for decades I'm not gonna change how I do things I'm just gonna keep everything the same and just try to get clients in and out as quickly as possible basically. Majority of the people that worked there were all older like 40s and up so like definitely gave off old school vibes but I was like that's fine like even if this isn't gonna end up being the place where I thrive later on in my career but this is the kind of experience and practice that I want and I feel like there's a lot for me to learn here so anyway the last girl who's also the daughter of the owner of the salon said oh well you should totally work here like you know I told my mom about you and I feel like you would be a good fit here I was like okay well it's kind of a win-win because this is the kind of experience that I am looking for and I mean she's offering me the job basically so it takes out the pressure of me having to go and apply to different salons and all that and like I already got my lashes done here I already know the owner's daughter like we've kind of become friendly so yeah why not? Everybody there seemed really sweet and nice and I loved that it was like a family owned place so shortly before I graduated I met with the owner we did an interview she offered me the job it's so funny we're coming up on the anniversary I remember Valentine's Day was my first day there and I had just graduated beauty school the day before that oh and actually before my first official day they were throwing a party at the salon and I can't remember oh I think it was maybe like the anniversary like of her opening like I don't know how many years they had been in business at that point but I think that's what it was I think it was just like a party to celebrate you know them being in business for X amount of years and they were telling me about this party they're throwing and they were gonna have like all this food and all these different areas set up and I think they were gonna have like other little vendors come in too and it was gonna just be like a good way for people to come in and like socialize and learn about different services and they could get like little mini services done on them so she wanted a couple style list there doing like little quick hairstyles and then a few other people doing like quick makeup applications so she asked me if I could do makeup at this party and I was like okay sure mind you at this point I don't know I was just still like young and naive and my personality was just like different than what it is now like at first she told me about this party and invited me to come and I thought like oh okay cool I'm getting invited to just like be there to like hang out but then she asked me if I could do makeup on people so I was like wait so you want me to work? I haven't officially started yet are you gonna be paying me for this? We hadn't even done like paperwork stuff at the time and especially now looking back it was just very, it felt really sketchy but yeah so I was at this party not fully knowing what to expect but like she had me working the whole time at this party it was never clear if she was gonna be paying me for that or not and I don't think and again like me now I, oh my God I'm so different I would have never, I would never like work for someone if it's unclear whether or not I'm getting paid and how much I'm getting paid and all of that but like I had no idea if I was getting paid if so how much and the way she would pay people it was all very sketchy it was like pretty much under the table I think like if the IRS were to look into them they would have a field day she would just pay everyone with like a personal like she would just hand write a check to everyone so we weren't getting detailed pay stubs and there was really no way to check if you were getting paid the correct amount unless you were really like keeping track every single day of like everything you were doing which I should have done like now 100% I would but at the time I was just like fresh out of school didn't know what the hell I was doing I had never worked in a situation like that before so I didn't really know how that stuff all worked but to give you an idea of like the dynamic of this place so the owner was a hairdresser then she had another guy that specifically only did hair then she had a woman that barely spoke any English she only spoke Spanish she was the sweetest lady she did hair and also did nails and they all were older then there was another girl that got hired a little bit before I did and she was around my same age I think a little bit younger than me and she mostly did hair but she also did makeup and eyelash extensions and she would do nails sometimes like she kind of just did it all and then she had a massage therapist that I think also did facials maybe her daughter was like the main lash girl and then there was another girl that started out as a makeup artist that then also ended up doing lashes then they also had a receptionist that I think was in school full time so she was only there sometimes like in the evenings during the week and then on Saturdays and then this really young girl that was in high school that would help out as an assistant and would like clean and stuff like that but again she was only I think on Saturdays and occasionally in the evenings during the week so that was everybody that worked there just to give you an idea another thing about the salon which I didn't realize when I originally got the job there because even though I had been getting my lashes done like I said the last room was in the back of the salon and it was kind of separate from the rest of it and she would always just play her own music well I didn't realize that this was a Christian salon which like okay whatever that's fine personally I'm not religious myself but like that you know that's whatever it's fine but this woman would play Christian music only but it was the same album every single day and I worked there not for a very long time it was from February until the end of May but the entire time I worked there it was always the same handful of songs just on repeat it never changed ever it drove me crazy because I'm sorry even if it's like my favorite songs in the whole world if I'm hearing the same ones over and over and over all day long every single day for months I'm gonna grow to hate them like it's gonna drive me insane now when I interviewed for the job I told her exactly why I wanted to work there specifically and I told her that hair was the thing I wanted to do I had no interest in doing nails I maybe would be open to learning eyelash extensions down the road but like hair was my thing that I loved and that's what I wanted to practice the most and learn the most and especially hair color like that was my thing and she had told me that she would pay me commission I think it was gonna be like 40% commission on services that I do and then because I'm brand new and I don't have a clientele yet in between clients when I didn't have anybody to work on I could help her and work as like an assistant or work reception at the front desk like I could find things to do in the salon and she would pay me hourly in between which is great when you're brand new and you don't have a clientele yet she also told me that I could choose my schedule and what hours I wanted to work the salon was supposed to be open I believe from nine to eight I wanna say like Tuesday through Friday and then Saturdays I think they were only supposed to be like nine to four or something like that and also mind you I lived an hour away from the salon but I figured okay she's telling me that I can start whatever time I want considering I'm an hour away I think I originally said I want my shifts to start at 11 during the week and I'll work like 11 to close or whatever so I was doing that for the first few weeks or so and then all of a sudden she said that I need you to be here when the salon opens and not only at nine o'clock but you need to be here at least 20 minutes before the first client so actually you need to be here by like 8.40 and that was really annoying because I was like well you originally told me that I could start whenever I wanted and now all of a sudden you're telling me nevermind you don't have a say in your schedule at all I need you to be here from open to close even though you live an hour away not to mention that she was like very money hungry they would get a lot of walk-ins at the salon which was good for me like trying to grow my clientele but say the salon's closing at 8 p.m. someone could literally walk in at 7.45 and want a full head of highlights and she would take them and she would make us stay late to do the service like she never would say no to anyone and listen I understand there are certain things when it comes to like owning your own business and running a successful business and growing and all that all that like the customer is always right and you never wanna turn away business and da-da-da whatever but like this was already an established salon like they were very busy at some point you gotta have some boundaries there were just certain things that I felt were just kind of unreasonable and ridiculous she would also change the dress code just randomly like multiple times within the few months I worked there when I first started she had like a little handbook of like the salon's policies and the dress code and whatever I think it started out that we could wear whatever we wanted as long as it was professional and we were covered and then oh now you have to wear all black one time I swear I was in the car pulling out of my driveway on my way to go to work in the morning and she texts our group chat and says hey I want you all to wear all black starting today like that's our new dress code I'm already dressed and ready for work I'm already in the car on my way to work and I'm not in all black like you can't just do that literally an hour before we're supposed to start working it was just very chaotic she had so many rules and she was so like particular and weird about things and then she would just constantly be changing those rules so it's like you never knew like what you were supposed to be doing also like I said I told her during my interview I made it very clear that hair was my passion it was what I wanted to do as a cosmetologist it's like an umbrella field so with my license technically I'm allowed to do waxing I can do nails, I can do facials, lashes pretty much anything in the beauty field I'm allowed to do with a cosmetology license like from a legal standpoint and in school they teach you a little bit of everything but the main thing you learn is hair and she had asked me like well would you be okay doing services other than hair when you're first starting out cause like if you aren't busy and you don't have clients but someone comes in wanting a different service like would you be able to like jump in and do that and I was like yeah sure cause also like I'm interviewing for a job and I don't wanna say no like I want her I want her to give me the job and I want her to know that like I'm a hard worker but I made it very clear that hair is what I wanted to do primarily well apparently I became a nail tech working there even though I had no interest in nails I really didn't learn much in school about nails I think we spent a week on nails and majority of that was just learning about the parts of the nail I think we practiced on our classmates like one time and that was it and I have a separate video where I share that whole experience and I read some of the bad reviews that I got from people whose nails I had did it's a really entertaining video I'll link it down below it's from a few years ago majority of the time that I worked there I did more nails than anything else and it was I was miserable because I felt like the whole reason like I could have worked at that other salon and I could have been doing highlights at least the whole reason I wanted to work here was so that I could do textured hair like I don't wanna be doing mani-pedis I'm not good at it and I very much felt like I was thrown to the wolves like she never trained me she knew I didn't feel comfortable or know what I was doing she didn't care that's not how you run a business either like you should want to be giving your clients the best service possible like if you have this person who's supposed to be doing a service and they're telling you I don't know how to do this and you know that they're not gonna do a good job that's not right to like have people paying for something the other thing too is that she loved to use Groupon so all of the mani-pedis I was doing were people coming in with Groupons and the way it works with Groupon at least back during this time I don't know if it's different now but say you're like oh I'm gonna put a Groupon special for a $20 manicure well Groupon takes 50% of that cost so if they're using a Groupon they're coming in for a $20 manicure well you as the salon you're only getting $10 out of that 20 once you're splitting that 60-40 with the tech that's doing the service you as the tech are only getting $4 from that Groupon service so I would be doing these mani-pedis and I can't remember how much they cost but it was like ridiculously inexpensive I remember doing the math at one point and I was like this is literally slavery and it was frustrating because I was like I could literally be doing anything else I could be working retail and I could be making more money than this I just spent 20 grand to go to school to get my license to be doing these really sloppy shitty mani-pedis like for what? I didn't learn this in school like my education is just totally going to waste now and mind you I have a college degree too not that you know anyone is above like doing any type of work but like I am in all this debt from my four years of college getting my bachelor's degree now I just went to cosmetology school I got my license to do hair what am I doing here? Scrubbing these busted toenails like no, mm-mm I did get to do some hair most of it did not go well because I didn't feel like I was getting the support or the education or the guidance that I needed and it just wasn't like a very supportive helpful environment I very much got the feeling like she didn't want anyone to like get that good cause she didn't want anyone to be better than her I don't know, I feel like she just kind of like like to keep us down maybe so that way she felt like we would stay there we wouldn't like rise above and eventually leave and go somewhere else where we would get better treatment, you know I just felt bullied and I felt like the owner she came off to people who didn't know her she came off as so sweet this nice wonderful Christian woman no, this woman was immature she was a bully she would talk so much crap behind people's backs clients included there were so many times where like she would be so over the top fake to someone's face and then the second they walked out the door she would say so many nasty things about them it just felt very high school, very clickish it's like if you weren't like totally kissing their asses they kind of would like push you out a little bit it's just typical like mean girl clicks like high school stuff I keep it so professional when I'm at work you will never see me on my phone, texting I'm always gonna find something to do to be productive especially if you're paying me hourly but I also feel like if you're in a salon and it's slow and there aren't really any clients at the moment everything's clean there's nothing that needs to be done that's the perfect opportunity to work on your social media to watch a class online to watch tutorials to practice on a mannequin especially if you're a new stylist and you're fresh out of school because there's always so much for you to learn so that's what I would do she did not like that she never wanted me working on mannequins or doing anything like that she would rather me wipe down the same mirror 100 times that's already perfectly clean than like watch a hair tutorial practice hair the thing I actually want to do which is crazy because it's like the better I can be and especially like the more I'm on social media promoting myself and all of that that's gonna benefit you in the long run that's more business for you she was also really weird about lunch breaks which is ridiculous especially if you want me working 12 hour fucking shifts I should be able to go in the back and take at least 30 minutes to eat some lunch they also had a very high turnover rate a lot of people have worked at the salon but very few have stayed there longer than a couple months oh they would not be professional at all when it came to any kind of negative reviews or any constructive criticism and they got a lot of negative reviews and I mean if you think about it it's really no surprise you have these people that are not trained well enough and you're having them do services that they're straight up telling you they don't know how to do like you clearly don't care about the quality of service that you're giving your customers and like I said, they were very old school like a lot of their techniques like they weren't keeping up to date with their education when it comes to like color applications and stuff like that so yeah they would get a lot of negative reviews and they would respond to all of them and bully the person leaving the review and like just go off on the person and they would go online themselves and leave fake positive reviews or they would have their family members and friends go and leave fake positive reviews to try to drown out the negative ones there was definitely some illegal activity going on there the lash techs for the longest time were not licensed there were three girls that did lash extensions the one was licensed but the other two one of them being the owner's daughter were not licensed and in the state of Pennsylvania like it does vary by state but in Pennsylvania in order to do lash extensions you have to have either a cosmetology or an aesthetics license and then eventually like the word kind of got out about that and I think like the state board finally like started to crack down on it so they both went to esthetician school to get their license well turns out the owner's daughter never actually finished high school so she faked her high school transcripts because you have to at least have a high school diploma or GED in order to go to cosmetology or aesthetics school so yeah she faked that so technically even though she has an aesthetics license now it's technically not even legit she would lie all the time like I remember when I first started she would sometimes have like these homework assignments she'd be working on and one time somebody like asked her something like oh is that you know like what class is that for whatever and she said something about like it was her college like chemistry class or something and then come to find out that was actually high school work she was doing but she never finished it oh they were, oh this is a big one they were so cheap and like they were doing pretty well you know like the mother and the daughter were driving these nice fancy expensive cars the mom I think had like a really nice Mercedes Benz and then the daughter I wanna say like got a BMW or something like that like they had these nice luxury cars they were always like going on these trips and like they clearly were doing well for themselves financially even though their employees were barely getting paid but she was so cheap about stuff that she would reuse things that were supposed to be disposable like processing caps like tow dividers for pedicures those like disposable flip flops those foamy little thin flip flops that you would put on people's feet when they get pedicures she would reuse those and she would like dump all of these things in the sink in the back room the same sink where people were dumping like you know their dirty dishes and food and stuff like that it was so disgusting one time there was a really really bad blizzard so like I said I lived an hour away from the salon so this salon was more like in a city sort of like a little city and where I lived was like up in the mountains so the weather could be totally different so up by me we got a lot of snow and it was so bad that the power was out for over a week in my neighborhood and for a few days the main road that led up to you know my parents house where I was living at the time was shut down because a bunch of cars like got stuck in the snow and the people had to abandon their cars in the middle of the road so the plow trucks couldn't even get through to plow the road because there's like all these cars all over the place so the road was just closed so there was no way to get in and out like that was that we were stranded mind you I don't have power I also have barely any cell reception up there so I was supposed to work that day and it's early in the morning and I'm trying to like go all around the house I'm going outside I'm trying to get like just one bar of service so I can text them and let them know what's going on down by the salon I think it snowed a little bit but it wasn't nearly as bad as up by me and I explain the situation I'm like look I'm not gonna be able to come in I'm sorry but like it's I physically can't like I'm stuck the road is closed she's like could you come a little bit later though like maybe like could you make it for 12 o'clock honey no, no I don't know that I'm gonna be able to come in at all this whole week and then one of my coworkers one of the lash girls she was like really sick with strep throat and she wanted her to still come in anyway and she told her oh I'll bring you some robotussin first of all like you want her to be sick leaning over a client doing her lashes like that goes to show how much you don't care about people like that you would have someone come in who's sick that you know she feels miserable and you want her to work anyway and also you're willing to risk her getting a client sick to make some money that just goes to show you like their integrity in the kind of place that they were oh and another thing this video is so long I'm sorry but there's just like so much they would give you such a hard time about taking time off too which was very frustrating because in the beginning she said if you need a day off all I ask is that you give a good amount of notice like at least let me know like a week or two beforehand if you need a day off and that's totally fine I never took time off when I was there I never went on any like vacation or anything like that with the exception of that time that there was the blizzard which even still I only ended up taking a couple days off for that because as soon as the road opened back up even though I didn't have any power and I had no way of taking a shower I still showed up at work I went and showered at a friend's house but there were two times when I wanted to request days off one time it was one of my like closest longest like family friends was having a baby shower and I think I asked about it like two or three weeks in advance she told me that no absolutely not I could not have the day off because it was a Saturday that I was requesting I'm sorry what? You never told me that that was never, you know in the policy that's not in the handbook you had me signed when I started then there was another time where a friend of mine's partner passed away and it was like a very unexpected sudden sad thing that happened and they were having his funeral and I talked to them about going to it and they were like trying to talk me out of it I didn't even ask for the day off I think I came in and I was going to just leave early to go to the funeral and they were like oh but it's so far away and oh dude like I don't remember exactly what they were saying to me but like they were basically bullying me into not going and I didn't end up going to the funeral and that is one regret that I have but can you believe that? They're just assholes absolute assholes and I'm sure there's like more stuff that I am forgetting but anyway I got to a point eventually where I was like okay I need to leave I feel like I got everything out of this place that I wanted to you know I got that little bit of experience that I was looking for and at this point I just can't take it anymore this feels like slave labor I don't feel appreciated here I don't feel like this is going to help me in my career at all if anything it's going to like push me backwards if I stay here much longer also I was over the commute like it just wasn't worth it to me I decided to give them my notice and I tried to be as professional and respectful and consider it as I possibly could I could have literally just walked out in the middle of a shift or you know just like told them the day before hey I quit, bye but no I wanted to be professional I didn't want to burn any bridges you could dislike me for personal reasons but I don't want anyone to ever be able to say that I was unprofessional so it was May that I was going to be leaving the salon and I knew that prom season was around that time and it was going to be very busy I decided to stay an extra few days or an extra week so that I could be there for prom weekend so that I could help them with that and I think that might have been the last day that I worked and I worked on a lot of girls that day and if they didn't have me there like they would have been screwed so I felt like okay you know I'm leaving on good terms I gave them plenty of notice that I was leaving and I told them like my reasoning for leaving was just that the commute was just getting to be too much and I got an opportunity at a salon in my town that was only 10 minutes away from me I didn't even say anything about like my negative experience there I kept it very professional and then even after that I continued to go back there to get my lashes done so like I continued giving them business I even like sent a few people there I still was always like hyping up the lash girls and like I'd be posting on social media so I felt that like we were fine we were on good terms apparently not come to find out they were talking a lot of shit about me it's funny because even though I was trying to give them business and they would try to like steal those clients so like I would send my hair clients from my new salon to the old salon just to get their lashes done and then they would try talking them into getting their hair done there but like they continued to put on that like fake nice persona like yeah we're all cool it's all good it's great and then when I started doing eyelash extensions myself everything changed and it's funny because when I was working there still the daughter who does lashes kept trying to push me to like come do lash extensions and I felt like yeah I'd like to learn how to do them eventually but like I wanna do hair like you're keep trying to get me to do nails I don't wanna do that now you're trying to get me to do something else I wanna like get comfortable doing hair first like I wanna grow my hair clientele and then I'll learn something else eventually but like I don't wanna get stuck just doing lashes full time but then eventually like after I was at the new salon for a while I was it was like the polar opposite experience I was getting tons of education my boss was so supportive I learned so much so quickly there so my new boss paid for me to go take a class to get certified and as soon as they saw on social media that I was starting to do lashes they blocked me started talking even more shit about me hating on me even more than they already were which I just didn't understand it's not like I was a threat to you at all I'm not trying to be your competition my salon is an hour away from yours we're in two totally different areas and it's not like you paid for me to take this class or you taught me this skill and now I'm just taking it somewhere else and like screwing you over you didn't teach me anything when it comes to lashes my new boss paid a lot of money for me to go take this class I have every right to do that I never signed a non-compete and it really wasn't surprising to me because obviously like I had seen their true colors throughout my time working there but it really just showed you can truly try to do everything right and be as professional and civil and friendly as possible and like they're just mean girls actually I'm kind of curious they did eventually unblock me so I'm kind of curious to see what's going on with them and what their work looks like interesting and it still looks exactly the same like still the same outdated decor and everything but yeah it looks like none of the people that worked there when I was there are still there which is no surprise and the hair looks just as bad as I remember and listen I'm not saying that to be a hater but it's like you can't act the way that you do and treat people the way you do and act like your shit doesn't stink and then be putting out some janky ass ugly stripy highlights and working there really taught me a lot it taught me what to look out for and like what kind of place I don't wanna be in if you feel like there's a lot of drama if you're constantly feeling stressed and unsupported and you feel like you're being talked down to a lot and you're not being encouraged to grow then don't stay there the salon that I ended up working at after this bad experience was amazing and I stayed there for many years my boss there was just so wonderful I felt so appreciated there I felt so excited and happy to go to work every day I was able to choose what I wanted to work I was given tons of education she always was purchasing classes for me to watch she encouraged that if it was slow, if I didn't have clients she wanted me taking out mannequins or bringing people in as models to practice on she would send me to in-person classes and she would pay for them and she wanted me to learn and to grow and get better and be the best that I could be and then when it came time for me to move on she was so happy for me and that's how it should be there can be a lot of catty-ness and drama in this industry but it doesn't have to be that way it's okay to be a little picky and yes, you kind of have to work from the ground up earn your keep crawl before you can run kind of thing but don't let yourself get taken advantage of don't be doing any slave labor anyway, I'm gonna end this video now because I have been talking for so long my mouth is so dry I don't even know how long I've been sitting here for I hope that you guys enjoyed this video comment down below and let me know what you think and let me know if you have had a similar experience and what are some red flags that you feel like other stylists should look out for when they're looking for a salon to work at if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe and I'll see you in my next video bye