Treatment swaps (and how to do them fairly)?

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Mooey

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I rent within a hair salon and am constantly faced with the recurring problem of treatment swaps with the hairstylists & how to do them fairly.

I will usually do Shellac for the girls in return for them doing my hair but they feel they are entitled to more than one treatment per hair service... some are asking for 2 or even 3! This is because the price of a Shellac service is less than that of a hair treatment. Understandable. But in terms of cost it actually costs me a lot more to do them the treatments as I'm self employed, pay for products, rent, and of course could have paying clients in that slot. The stylists are paid hourly (so won't lose out there) don't have to pay for products and so it's just costing them in commission.

Am I alone in thinking it should be calculated fairly by looking at treatment costs as opposed to the price of the treatment on the menu?

I'm getting so stressed out by this recurring problem I feel to go elsewhere & just pay!

Any experiences, opinions & suggestions welcome :)

Apologies for the semi-rant :)
 
In general I do a discount with the stylists at work, I give them 25% off and get the same back. They're all employed so it's actually the owner that's giving me the discount but the girls loose the commission.

Having said that, if there's something new I want them to showcase to their clients, nails, tans or whatever, I get them in to do it for free when I'm not busy. They in return will do me a blowdry or whatever if we've both got downtime.

Works really well and everyone's happy with it. Maybe that could help you
 
Sorry I'm confused hon, if the stylists are still getting paid while doing your hair, and not paying for products then who is? I take it the salon owner-are they ok with that? As it seems they are the bigger loser, apologies if I've got that wrong!!

What about as a solution you and a stylist swap treatments in your own time that way you can both work out more easily the costs of your treatments (no treatment time lost for you). I personally swap my hairdresser colour & cut for mani & pedi (acrylic/shellac/minx/ rockstar whatever) but we are mates and just have a girls' night in. I don't know the answer but I can see the stylists' pov on this one xx
 
I'm struggling with this one, to be honest - normally its easy to see both sides.

The girls are employed? So won't be paying for products and will even be getting paid for their time, only losing their comission?

If your treatment were a massage, would they happily give you a few cuts to the one massage? Your massage costs wouldn't amount to *that* much but could cost more to clients than their hair service.

Surely a treatment swap is a treatment swap, not a 'we'll work It out to the penny based on the cost to paying clients'? That kinda goes against of the whole treatment swap thing, in my eyes.

It seems like a case of the gimme gimmes to me.
 
I treatment swap with my hairdresser and usually her nails need doing more often than my hair, thats fine by me as she refers me to other clients when they see her nails.

A swap is a swap
 
Thanks for your replies ladies :)

In the first hair salon I rented at I did the salon owners nails and she did my hair - whenever we needed it, and it worked out really well. Most of the time (like someone else said) her Shellac would need doing more frequently than my hair. But I didn't mind at all.

Then when I started renting at this hair salon I started doing 25% off for stylists and just do treatment swaps with one of the girls, that worked out nicely but now she's on maternity leave.

I've done treatment swaps with 3 of the other girls now and most of them are fine to go by the rule 1 swap = 1 treatment. It was just this last girl who wants 3 lots of Shellac done.

I don't feel this is entirely fair so may just offer 2, or say we'll set it up as an ongoing thing where we will sort each other out as and when (which usually works out fair!)

Thank you again for your replies x
 
Thanks for your replies ladies :)

In the first hair salon I rented at I did the salon owners nails and she did my hair - whenever we needed it, and it worked out really well. Most of the time (like someone else said) her Shellac would need doing more frequently than my hair. But I didn't mind at all.

Then when I started renting at this hair salon I started doing 25% off for stylists and just do treatment swaps with one of the girls, that worked out nicely but now she's on maternity leave.

I've done treatment swaps with 3 of the other girls now and most of them are fine to go by the rule 1 swap = 1 treatment. It was just this last girl who wants 3 lots of Shellac done.

I don't feel this is entirely fair so may just offer 2, or say we'll set it up as an ongoing thing where we will sort each other out as and when (which usually works out fair!)

Thank you again for your replies x

I see your original point now! I'd phrase it as you have done above - most of the other girls are happy with 1 for 1 - sort of a "it's kinda how we do it". Would that work? Or just say no,that doesn't work for me! Xx
 
I see your original point now! I'd phrase it as you have done above - most of the other girls are happy with 1 for 1 - sort of a "it's kinda how we do it". Would that work? Or just say no,that doesn't work for me! Xx

Thanks Pixie xx
 

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