A recent VTCT Skills survey reveals the evolving needs, goals, and concerns of newly qualified hairdressers entering the professional salon industry. The findings shed light on what the next generation of stylists truly want from their careers—highlighting everything from skills development and workplace support to career progression and personal anxieties.
At SalonEVO, we spoke to leading hairdressing educators, salon owners, and industry professionals to get their reactions to the survey results. What do these insights mean for the future of hairdressing? How can salons, training providers, and brands better support the next wave of talent? This feature explores how the industry can use this valuable data to shape a more supportive and sustainable future for both new stylists and the wider salon workforce.
This week, we spoke to Annette Tattersall, college lecturer at Nelson and Colne College to get her perspective on this recent research.
Q – SalonEVO: Upon reading the results of the VTCTs survey, were there any elements that stood out to you, and my impact the way you approach education and communication with nearly or recently qualified students?
A – Annette: “The element that stood out was that a lot of students are wanting to own a salon. There needs to be some work around how to set up a business, what insurance is needed, and to look at all the information around staffing and product selection and retail training, which is an important part of making a successful business.”
Q – SalonEVO: The survey found that many newly-qualified stylists struggle with confidence building once in the salon, especially in terms of working to a salon-floor ready speed and building up their own clientele. Is this something that is commonly touched on in colleges? What are some things educators/ colleges could do to help ease this adjustment period?
A – Annette: “Most students will benefit from doing Level 3 as this takes the basic technical skills completed in hairdressing Level 2 and provides more advanced techniques, enabling them to problem solve and develop their skill set, ready for the salon floor. Colleges provide public salon classes, where all students have the opportunity to work on clients that they haven’t met before, rather than working on family members. Students have a work placement to enhance their learning with a weekly attendance completed on their study day.”
Q – SalonEVO: Continuing the above question, what do you think business owners can be doing to help the continuing education and confidence boosting for new starts?
A – Annette: “Business owners could come into college and tell their story, how they started a business, and allow students on work placement, to build a column whilst still on their college programme.”
Q – SalonEVO: Many professionals wished for additional training in advanced techniques, including:
- Colouring expertise (mentioned 27 times)
- Extensions (13 mentions)
- Afro, textured, and curly hair techniques (15 mentions)
- Perming (15 mentions)
Do you feel this is a responsibility that the salon owner should take on to help facilitate continuing education, or should there be more of an effort to cover these elements within college courses? Why do you think many students qualify not feeling completely confident in these areas?
A – Annette: “I feel that once you are qualified, it is then that you start your journey, every much like passing your driving test, it is only then, that you begin to flourish and develop skills. The diverse clientele in a salon, gives you a wealth of experience that develops you into a professional stylist, that is confident to work on any client that comes into the salon, and you have the ability to manage clients’ expectations better the more experienced you have.
“Working with extensions might be a unit the college or student decide not to include in their level 3, so would need a private course or salon training to be confident in the application, same with textured and perming. This quite often, is determined by the salon you are at, some will offer all three of the services, whilst others less.
“Sometimes students lack confidence as they just don’t want to get it wrong and spend too much time looking at horror stories on social media, which can be off putting for them.”
Q – SalonEVO: Many newly qualified stylists have high aspirations, whether it is to own their own salon one day, to become an educator. As an industry, how do you think we can better support recently qualified stylists to achieve their goals and form a successful career?
A – Annette: “We support recently qualified stylists, when they are on level 3 at college, as we have a salon manager role where they take turns in managing the college salon which supports them into either becoming a salon owner or an educator. A great way, we have found is to enter competitions, this helps build confidence and raise their aspirations for the industry. We invite ex-students who have qualified to come in and do a talk to new students about their journey and do a demo of something they have learnt.”