The rise of the unqualified

[Panoramic]

Well as the title says.

We all moan about people getting their hands on pro products but the reason why is simple - lack of proof!

I signed up for a popular nail fixing treatment (no names mentioned) and when I rang up the company she asked me about my qualifications etc. I told her and instantly I had access to the products.

I could have been anybody.

The same was for a well known hybrid polish supplier. Once again a quick phonecall and a couple of certificates (taken from a distance and slightly blurred) sent via email.

So maybe if suppliers became a bit more aware then the non pros would fade out.

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[Balance Andover]

Well as the title says.

We all moan about people getting their hands on pro products but the reason why is simple - lack of proof!

I signed up for a popular nail fixing treatment (no names mentioned) and when I rang up the company she asked me about my qualifications etc. I told her and instantly I had access to the products.

I could have been anybody.

The same was for a well known hybrid polish supplier. Once again a quick phonecall and a couple of certificates (taken from a distance and slightly blurred) sent via email.

So maybe if suppliers became a bit more aware then the non pros would fade out.

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To buy Swissdermyl I had to prove that I was qualified and insured.

 

[HelenT59]

Doesn't head in! Amazes me how little regulation there is...I literally started a similar thread last night re:unqualified staff

 

[virtues2011]

Unfortunately it's like anything these days. If you want it you'll get it. I'd borrow your certificates and call myself your real name and give out my address. It's not hard. Unless you have a face to face interview with pictures and passport, certification with certificate numbers and call the companies to ensure they are genuine, (what company is going to do that). I don't know how this can be prevented. Considering more than half the staff in these companies have difficulty spelling their own names, they'd have to look up the meaning of 'attention to detail' ... somehow!

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[HelenT59]

Unfortunately it's like anything these days. If you want it you'll get it. I'd borrow your certificates and call myself your real name and give out my address. It's not hard. Unless you have a face to face interview with pictures and passport, certification with certificate numbers and call the companies to ensure they are genuine, (what company is going to do that). I don't know how this can be prevented. Considering more than half the staff in these companies have difficulty spelling their own names, they'd have to look up the meaning of 'attention to detail' ... somehow!

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True but doesn't make it right...if only something could be done about it

 

[virtues2011]

There isn't a lot that is right these days. It would cost too much money for the bigger companies trying to 'catch out' people that want to spend money with them. Why would they. Very little is down to moralistic reasons. It all boils down to money.

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[HelenT59]

There isn't a lot that is right these days. It would cost too much money for the bigger companies trying to 'catch out' people that want to spend money with them. Why would they. Very little is down to moralistic reasons. It all boils down to money.

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Money money...not my greatest want! But that's just me!

 

[missellie]

If a Company sells from the stand, seems anyone can buy at shows too, as they let consumers in or someone comes along with 3 mates..
No one asks for certs they just sell
Many Companies say we sell to pros only but they don't.
A non pro could get stocked up for 6 months ahead, twice a year and never call a Company to buy.
Double standards really, but is it the shows fault for letting anyone in maybe they should only let pros in, but they want the numbers to look good.

 

[Biljana]

I go to ABA and Spa Esthetique yearly and each time I have to scan my certificates, my drivers license and insurance papers to send before I can buy my tickets to the show.
I buy from CosmoProf. My local supplier, I had to bring in all required docs, fill out an application form and wait 24 hrs for approval. Each time I go to buy I have to bring my Cosmo Card along with my drivers license to prove it's me before they will sell.
The fact is, even though they have these measures in place, if a non qualified person wants something they will find a way. Can't tell how many times I see ppl in the aisles looking lost or trying to ask me for advice in products on the shelf. Meaning that whoever brought them in will use their account to purchase for their friend.
We just have to go on about our business and not concentrate our energies on things we cannot change.

Cleen Cheeks Spa

 

[missellie]

The brands like to try to or be seen to be doing the right thing but in reality they don't all the time and say they can't police it. Shows are not monitored much to keep numbers up, so stands re book and visitors keep going.

 

[persianista]

Depends what you call 'qualified' really. It only takes one day to do a manicure course at Capital or Sally's, and your good to go.
Half the posters on this site aren't what I would call qualified therapists or hairdressers, so I doubt if you'll get much support on here.
Companies can't be expected to police the industry. Councils only look at the salons. Employers generally police their staffs certs, but there are some that don't.
Clients don't usually have a scooby. They only care when something goes wrong.
We tried registration, but it didn't work, as the people who trained in alternative ways scream blue murder. The people who trained for years don't want to be lumped in with the one day crowd.
I've got no idea what the answer is.

The fact remains that ours is a cash business that's easy to get into, easy to work part time in, to supplement an office job, often without paying tax.
It's easy to get into when you can't speak English. Easy to do cash in hand, and easy to buy the products needed off the Internet.
Like I said, I don't know the answer. I'd like to say go high end, and top quality, but I fear even that position is still vulnerable.
It used to be that only good hairdressers did extensions, now everyone with access to YouTube calls themselves a hair pro. I still do top end stuff, and specialist work, but I rarely do basic ext anymore. I won't compete with 150 a head jobbies.
I do earn great money from correcting stuff though...

 

[virtues2011]

I would love to understand the changes that have occurred in hairdressing/beauty over the last twenty years. .. For another thread I suppose but so interesting non the less.

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[ch-ela]

As I mentioned on another thread, a qualification doesn't guarantee that you can actually perform the treatment to a satisfactory level. I would not let any of my former colleagues (all with a shiny new C&G cert with distinction) perform even a manicure on me. I can only speak for the college that I studied at, but the standard of education was very poor.

 

[persianista]

I would love to understand the changes that have occurred in hairdressing/beauty over the last twenty years. .. For another thread I suppose but so interesting non the less.

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The biggest change I've seen is the huge drop in wages. Twenty three years ago, as a young stylist, I was taking home around 320 a week after tax. Good stylists were gold dust, and we could take our pick of jobs.
Now it's pretty much minimum wage. That's the biggest change. Therapists are ten a penny, hairdressers vie for salaried jobs.
We used to battle to get juniors, now we're scared to put an ad out as we get deluged.

 

[virtues2011]

The biggest change I've seen is the huge drop in wages. Twenty three years ago, as a young stylist, I was taking home around 320 a week after tax. Good stylists were gold dust, and we could take our pick of jobs.
Now it's pretty much minimum wage. That's the biggest change. Therapists are ten a penny, hairdressers vie for salaried jobs.
We used to battle to get juniors, now we're scared to put an ad out as we get deluged.

Do you think minimum wage has something to do with the drop in wages here? Has the minimum wage introduction had the reverse effect in the industry? I've taken from your post that maybe it seems unlikely that there was an over saturation of hairdressers when you were a young stylist, were the certification and teaching standards the same then as they are today? I think back then pride and attitude were a focus for being the best, these days very few young people have a work attitude at all let alone a good one. Was there more of a stigma attached to the hair and beauty industry than there is today? Has the hair profession inadvertently devalued itself or has society undervalued it as a profession? Credence is not necessarily on paper, but in practice.


The population is ever increasing and not helped so much with immigration issues I believe, we have at least 8 hairdressers in half a mile radius that only service the Polish, do not speak English and do not employ English. Then you have the salons, the self employed, the home salons, mobile, hobbies...there doesn't seem to be enough clients to keep stable, although this is just my interpretation of having to work harder to maintain stability.


Like you, I only service at the high end of the spectrum but in beauty, not the usual waxing, nails, eyelashes although I have a VRQ in beauty I have a list of beauty therapists that have salons in 1/4 mile of my studio all in the same price bracket. I have a small amount of waxing and nail services on my website but in the six months I have been trading I have had one client for nails and none for waxing, however that said I have a very generous and healthy client base for non surgical procedures, this is where my business is as no one around me has these machines, I agree with you when you say how long are the high end services going to stay. It seems every week there are new affordable packages for state of the art machinery and training although at the moment they are still a higher value than a one day course at capital....but for how long.

 

[persianista]

Yes, I think minimum wage had a big effect.
Back then, we did three years training, then two years improver. Pay was terrible for that part, but when you made it to stylist, you were valuable. Now they're a stylist at 17, with very limited skills. The whole industry dumbed down.
With the CACI thing, I used to have two machines in my salon. The 18 year old therapists hated doing them, even though it was profitable. I'd pay a fortune to send them to be trained, and they'd whine about the travel etc.
All it takes is for that nail bar down the road with the nimble fingered people who run out the back door when immigration show up, to buy a machine, teach each other, and offer it cheap, and the top end therapists are blown out of the water. It happened with laser.

 

[virtues2011]

Yes I completely agree with the CACI comments, my only saving grace here, much to annoyance of others, is I don't have to make a living from it. If I did I wouldn't be here. I couldn't work 70 hour weeks for minimum wage in my 40's. ..I've never liked any job that much. Sitting behind a computer for 20 years has made me very lazy... but sadly I have also noticed standing behind a CACI machine has also made my brain rather numb.

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[little voyce]

I think that beauty is still seen as a soft option for non-academic girls. Now, essentially there is nothing wrong with that. Not everyone should be expected to have A levels or go to university. BUT the introduction of a Level 1 NVQ certainly diluted the gene pool for our industry. In addition, colleges (and this is set by government, not heads of department) HAVE to show progression. Therefore, a level 1 student is directed towards Level 2, and Level 2 towards Level 3 - often regardless of their suitability. This is because you also have to show the Value Added (I love education jargon).

Although the EMA has now been withdrawn, I certainly was aware that there was a number of students who remained at college for this money alone. I also had more students who applied for beauty - and then told me they 'didn't want to touch mankey feet', 'couldn't squeeze spots (extraction)' or take their clothes off in front of anybody. Basically, they weren't really engaged in anything. BUT the situation will not get better as the mandatory age to remain in education rises.

This is NOT a post to slate all our NVQ therapists by a long way. But the lack of real discrimination at the time of application and acceptance into college lies at the bottom of much of our problems...

Could go on. I feel there is a disseration-length post brewing..

 

[xxAmyxx]

The beauty/hair industry is now a joke.

 

[Biljana]

I think that beauty is still seen as a soft option for non-academic girls. Now, essentially there is nothing wrong with that. Not everyone should be expected to have A levels or go to university. BUT the introduction of a Level 1 NVQ certainly diluted the gene pool for our industry. In addition, colleges (and this is set by government, not heads of department) HAVE to show progression. Therefore, a level 1 student is directed towards Level 2, and Level 2 towards Level 3 - often regardless of their suitability. This is because you also have to show the Value Added (I love education jargon).

Although the EMA has now been withdrawn, I certainly was aware that there was a number of students who remained at college for this money alone. I also had more students who applied for beauty - and then told me they 'didn't want to touch mankey feet', 'couldn't squeeze spots (extraction)' or take their clothes off in front of anybody. Basically, they weren't really engaged in anything. BUT the situation will not get better as the mandatory age to remain in education rises.

This is NOT a post to slate all our NVQ therapists by a long way. But the lack of real discrimination at the time of application and acceptance into college lies at the bottom of much of our problems...

Could go on. I feel there is a disseration-length post brewing..

Not sure about the rest of the world but I went to College full time for 2 yrs for Beauty and there was over 300 applicants! Only 28 spots. Entrance exams were not made for non-academic girls as the math/physics/language comprehension equalled that of an entrance exam for an electrical engineer, just an example.
I have to agree with Persianista as well.
Until the government enacts decent forms of standardized education Im afraid we are all screwe@.

Cleen Cheeks Spa