Are You Ready to Style Hair at Home?
Photo by Karen Newman
For millions of stylists in America, starting a home salon seems like a shorter, cheaper path to owning their business, but many don’t realize what all goes into opening a salon. And a home salon brings its own set of unique complications. Between finding the right salon equipment to fit in your home and the complications of adapting any room in a house to meet state regulations, you will quickly find yourself drowning in preparation. So it’s important to take a step back and really consider if working from home is worth the trouble, and if you’re ready for it. To help you along, here are a few reasons you probably aren’t ready for it.
1. You Will be too Stressed
It’s a tantalizing prospect. You don’t have to drive to work or rent an extra space so you’ll save money. Every break and lunch can be spent in the comfort of your own room or kitchen, and you’ll never have to worry about forgetting something at home. But your now your home is your work and there is no easy escape. If you thought your job was stressful before, just wait until your bed is only 20 feet away from your salon chair. It will affect your sleeping habits and your eating habits. Your emotional state will shift toward anxiety in almost every facet of your life.
2. You Don’t Have the Discipline
Working from home creates a dangerous compromise between professionalism and relaxation. Every time your lie back in your pajamas to watch tv, you’re doing it at work, and every time you put on an apron and pick up a pair of scissors, you’re doing it at home. It becomes very easy for the lines to blur to the point that your time at home becomes too professional, and even worse, your work becomes too relaxed, and you’re never really working or playing to your fullest potential.
3. Decorating Your Salon Means Decorating Your Home
There’s a lot of silver lining here since a salon is meant to be a beautiful, well decorated place anyway. But maybe your not so big on keeping your home as clean as your work, or you really like movie posters in your home but that doesn’t really fit with your salon’s classic aesthetic. And even if you successfully put up a solid divider between work space and living space, the outside of your home takes second priority to the outside of your work. You need to take pains to keep your yard manicured and your holiday decorations tasteful (according your salon’s image, anyway). Unless you already have a relaxed image and know all your clients well, you lose a lot of freedom, because everything must be decided with consideration to your clientele.
4. You’re Working with a lot Less Space
In general, a home salon will be a tighter fit than any other option. Whether you’re converting the garage or the living room into your salon, it means you not only have to find a new place to keep the car or living room couch, but you’re also working with less square feet for your salon than you would have by just renting out a studio somewhere else. It takes a lot of careful planning to work out the ergonomics of fitting salon equipment like a styling chair and a shampoo unit into 120 square feet of space while also finding a place for your regular home furnishings.
But…
It’s absolutely possible to make a home salon work. And if it’s what you really want, or if it’s just the only option you have, you will find a way to make it work. Pessimism is a safe mentality. It operates by avoiding the possibility of failure, but you will only ever accomplish anything through the ambition inherent in optimism.
A small space is an opportunity to innovate and make the most out of what you have. If you love what you do you’ll find the discipline and creativity you need to make work and home mix well enough to keep pursuing your passion. Just keep in mind that this is not a frivolous decision. A home salon is going to be an insane amount of work and stress, but hair artists are nothing if not dedicated problem solvers. If you can figure out how to take a brunette ravaged by three years of box dyes and turn her into a smooth silver fox you can work out how to fit an all purpose chair and a color bar in the second bedroom.