Male and female beauty salon

[Rob]

Good afternoon geeks,

Very first time on the forums so please take it easy

without boring everyone to death I am currently serving in the Army but will be leaving soon on a medical discharge that will restrict me work wise out in the big bad world (knees).

My wife is already qualified beautician with a successful home salon and we are thinking of making the plunge and opening a salon together offering both male and female treatments.

I will try not to ask "bone" questions as I have seen others do but a little advice and pointers would be fantastic.

from what I have seen the beauty industry is mainly female driven however there is a want out there for male grooming. At if that side is quite to pick up I would like to think given the right training and experience I could help run the books/stock/appointments in the early stages (please advice if this is pipe dream thinking)

I have looked at the following courses with the idea that they could be gender transparent (obviously within reason) and with the wants and needs of the client.

1. Sports massage diploma (3 and 4)
2. NVQ 3 elite Body massage (The Carlton Institute)
3. Spray Tan
4. wet shave
5. Body Piercing (Pierce Artist International)
6. waxing (intimate male)

Any advice on theses courses, the providers or any thing else would be appreciate (already know that working with a partner isn't the greatest idea lol)

Thanks again in advance, and happy Friday everyone!! x

 

[virtues2011]

Good afternoon geeks,

Very first time on the forums so please take it easy

without boring everyone to death I am currently serving in the Army but will be leaving soon on a medical discharge that will restrict me work wise out in the big bad world (knees).

My wife is already qualified beautician with a successful home salon and we are thinking of making the plunge and opening a salon together offering both male and female treatments.

I will try not to ask "bone" questions as I have seen others do but a little advice and pointers would be fantastic.

from what I have seen the beauty industry is mainly female driven however there is a want out there for male grooming. At if that side is quite to pick up I would like to think given the right training and experience I could help run the books/stock/appointments in the early stages (please advice if this is pipe dream thinking)

I have looked at the following courses with the idea that they could be gender transparent (obviously within reason) and with the wants and needs of the client.

1. Sports massage diploma (3 and 4)
2. NVQ 3 elite Body massage (The Carlton Institute)
3. Spray Tan
4. wet shave
5. Body Piercing (Pierce Artist International)
6. waxing (intimate male)

Any advice on theses courses, the providers or any thing else would be appreciate (already know that working with a partner isn't the greatest idea lol)

Thanks again in advance, and happy Friday everyone!! x

Good Afternoon

There is a massive industry for male grooming, increasing yearly. You are probably in one of the better positions with your wife already understanding the industry and practicing. However, do your market research - ask people what they want to see, ask your wife's clients or alternatively ask your wife to ask them, they must have husbands etc. I spend hours on market research you can not make informed decisions by only practicing what you think you should be doing. It doesn't work. Husband and wife teams can work really well - The best of luck.

 

[Afrielaesthetic]

Hi Rob,

Welcome both to the forums and to the industry. I have recently started to gain qualifications in the industry after helping out at my fiancees salon over the last couple of years when off duty from my other job as a nurse. As has been said male grooming is a booming industry however times are still hard in many areas so depending on where you are based you may still have an uphill battle getting them through the doors but the fact that your wife is already established with her salon should be a great help there.

Male intimate waxing is great. Many female therapists shy away from it so in some areas there is a shortage of providers. The biggest problem that you will face is that depending on who you do the course with they will insist that the minimum entry qualification is a warm waxing certificate (many of them want you to have about 6 months waxing experience as well). This can pose problems as in my experience the majority of warm waxing (strip wax) courses don't cater for male waxers. Earlier this year I tried well over a dozen companies who either turned me down flat because of my gender or insisted that they had to contact ALL the other students any one of who could veto my being there and I would have to provide my own model (no one else had to) In the end I was able to find a course that would accommodate me with Elite beauty Training in Manchester. For your intimate waxing course I would recommend Andy Rouillard of Axiom Bodyworks he is world renowned and the training that I did with him was first rate. There is also plenty support after the course and on line listings etc. I understand that he has now started offering a basic waxing boot camp partly because of the problems men have in accessing waxing courses. The only "disadvantage" to this is that is is a 2 day course (most warm waxing courses are 1/2 - 1 day) and this is of course reflected in the price.

Good luck in the industry.

Gareth

 

[Kim Lawless]

Hi Rob. Good luck with it all.

Firstly let me give you my take on intimate waxing. I specialise in mens intimate waxing and have developed my own technique which students and clients travel for miles/hours to either train with me or to get waxed by me. This year alone I've had students come from Japan and Brazil, to mention just two places. Kim Lawless, Wax Queen, Brazilian Waxing Expert

Re running a unisex salon, I think that this could work well as long as you get the decor right. It has to be unisex in look as men generally don't want to sit in a reception area that's too feminine.

Also, my experience is that men are quite private about their treatments and for that reason I don't have a sign outside.

Will you both be treating men or just you?

Afterthought: I think that you should consider continuing to work from home but you doing the men and your wife doing the women. Have you got room to have a room each or just split the time that you share the room?

 

[Jack Dunn]

Rob, I run a male only grooming service and specialise in male intimate waxing treatments, having retrained with Kim lawless her technique has really transformed my business and clients much prefer this method to the previous method I used.

We also offer a range of massage treatments including deep tissue and sports massage treatments which are also very popular.

In all my years of providing male grooming I have never been asked for wet shaving and to be honest we are surrounded by lots of great traditional Turkish barbers that offer a great value wet shave and we could not compete with the prices that they charge.

Waxing is the most popular treatment that we provide and have a well established client base.

Good training, good products and providing a booking system that suits male clients as well as the flexibility to offer more evening appointments are very important and I have to say that having provided treatments for both male and female clients that men can be very loyal clients once they find a therapist they like.

Good luck jack

 

[kaysmith87]

Didn't want to read and run but I think its a good idea. My husband works in my salon occasionally and I wish he would do male clients! Unfortunately he hates it and just does reception when we're busy.

Had a few ladies question it or think they have the wrong number but most are fine and the make clients like the conversation in reception.

 

[Rob]

Sorry for the late reply and thank you all for your advice and support.

I will defiantly do the waxing and intimate male waxing through Kim lawless as I've Hurd nothing but good things.

With regards to the wet shave (and piercing) I feel right or wrong that it would be a good idea to offer as much as I can but obviously try and master one treatment.

The room we have at the moment doesn't lend it's self to be split in two but when we get the premises sorted that was the idea we had.

Again thanks all