The 2026 Salon Consumer Behavior Survey Results Are In

It's very easy to think that something is the truth just because an influencer said it on social media, or because your best friend or family member was like, "Wow, you do that at your salon?" Or, "You're thinking about that price increase? I don't think you should do that." Right?

Or, you have one of your actual clients tell you one thing, and that all of a sudden makes you believe it's the entire truth of your business. I see this happen all the time. I cannot tell you how many times I've gotten on calls with hairstylists just like you, who are like, "I had this one client give me this piece of feedback, and so now I think I need to change everything." And I'm like, "Okay, well, have you heard this from anybody else?

Have you- h- what's the majori- uh, uh, is this 20% of your clients? Is this 80% of your clients? Like, how many times are you hearing this? Is this actually a problem?

Is this actually affecting you?" And the majority of the time, it's very much not. The majority of the time, first off, if it's from your client, maybe we should take it a little bit seriously. Maybe we should dig deeper into it and see if there's actually a problem or consistency across more clients with that same feedback.

Or, if it's not your client, your clients- your- your clients are the ones who are paying you, right? So your husband, your sister, your best friend, your, uh, influencer that you follow, the hair influencer that you love following who, you know, teaches people how to do highlights, whatever it may be, they do not pay your bills. And if you know anything about me, I love me some data and surveying and feedback. I love data-driven research and decisions in business.

It is, like, so important for me as an individual who wants the highest probable positive outcome. Okay? And so with that, I run a client experience survey every single year. Or a consumer behavior survey, rather, every single year.

And up until this point, we've run it to anybody who visits a boutique salon in the United States, basically. So if you visit, like, not a chain, but, like, a small business owned, uh, salon, then we've asked a couple of questions that allude to what is going on in, in that year. What is that person feeling? How is their expectations of salons changing and their preferences changing, and what do they prefer right now?

And this year, I wanted to run this again, but I wanted to do it a little bit differently, because yes, having a broad range of opinions and, uh, expectations to learn from is interesting. But I think that if you're listening to this podcast today, my friend, I think that you're somebody who would like to grow your clientele with more ideal clients and services. And I would assume that you believe that there is possibility for you to be charging even more than you are now, or maybe you already are charging a lot, and you're more concerned about what a high-paying client would have to say versus somebody who would maybe chase a discount or just any salon client off the street. Because there is a difference, and there's a difference in a way that that person shows up for a salon and what they expect from them, right?

And so what I did was I kind of got some of our Mastermind members together. Our Mastermind, uh, members are all people who are doing 100K or more in their business, and they all obviously have clientele who are higher-ticket clientele. These are all people who are probably the most expensive in their market to see, and they all tell me all the time that they love all the clients that they're doing. And I wanted to hear from their clients instead of just anybody random.

So I got them all together, and I actually had them send out this year's survey on our behalf, and we got some really, really cool results. I'm gonna be sharing with you a sneak peek of some of those results here in this podcast today, and then I'll be sharing with you how you can get the entire survey results at the end of this episode. So make sure to stay tuned, and I'll share with you exactly where you can get those. But before we get into it, I wanna just say hello to Jodi Brown, and I love having Jodi Brown in- on these conversations about our survey results, because we both nerd out about them.

Uh, and I think that she really helps me make a lot of sense about them, and also helps me bridge what we get to learn about them to you guys. So, hello Jodi Brown. How are you doing today? I'm so good.

How are you, my friend? I'm good, thank you. I'm excited to get into these. Where do you think we should start?

Let's start with, we've kind of gotten some of the most surprising, I guess, results from this survey, so let's just get right into it and share w- we picked out, like, the top three. So I think we just start with number one. Okay. So number one, our takeaway is that generic extras in the client experience are forgettable, and personalized ones are actually memorable.

Now, the client experience is a- is probably the most important part of your business, because it bleeds into so many other things. Furthermore, when we talk about how a business should prioritize its departments, so we have a marketing department, we have an operations department, we have a client experience department, I think it's very important to consider that you could have the best marketing in the world, you could have the smoothest automations and systems set up on the back end, right? Great. You get a client, it's all automated, it doesn't take you a lot of time, but then they have a poor experience, right?

So you just wasted all your time and energy in marketing and operations, and then they come in, and then you lose that client, right? That definitely ******* sucks. Yeah. So tons of time and energy and money wasted, right?

So, client experience is super important, as we know.And the interesting thing here is, is 62% of clients who talked about their salon visit to a friend mentioned the client experience, not the hair. So, I think that it would be very easy to assume that if somebody was going to be talking to their friend or family member about how awesome you are, that they would talk about the results that you're delivering, when in actuality the majority of them are actually talking about the client experience. And I would assume that if it's both, then the experience still shows up a lot.

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But we also asked an open-ended question about what really makes a salon experience worth paying for, right? And 20% of people specifically called out personalization as to what made an appointment feel worth it. So, I've been saying this for eons, since the beginning of when I started teaching this, and I think that we are very much well past a point in which a really next level client experience includes all the amenities, right? Like, if, if we do the scalp massage, if we do the hot towel, if we do the really fancy drinks and snacks, um, if we have the essential oils, if we, uh, are- are kind and friendly and we greet them at the door, like if we do a thorough consultation, like all of that stuff is the bare minimum now, right?

Particularly as education just becomes more and more and more accessible. And you, my friend, we're in a different caliber, right? Like, we're in a different type of market here because we are high performers, right? Like, we are people who have built a pretty damn good business, and we know that if you're not growing, you're dying in one way or another.

And so therefore, for you to be able to keep up with this standard, if everybody else is doing the same thing as you, how do you actually go above and beyond if all of your amenities are already capped out? Like, if you're already doing all of this stuff, what the hell else could you do And I don't rem- recommend that you start to add a 24-karat gold under-eye mask or a hand massage into your client experience. I j- I don't think it's necessary. Do I think it's luxury and awesome?

Yes. But I don't think it's what truly makes the difference here. And as the survey shows us, it's the personalization that makes it so that client experience is special enough to actually be referable, in my opinion, and to be one that's actually memorable and one to talk about. Yeah.

I think the language is really important here too because so much of what we talk about is, you know, when you do get into that, like, luxury market essentially, is making sure the value exceeds the cost. And so the language here is this unprompted is what they called out as making the appointment feel worth it, and these are luxury services that we're talking about, right? And so I do think that's, like, kind of something to underline here is that what is it that is making clients see the value in one in five of those people feel like that personalization is directly impacting that value? Yeah, dude.

I love that you brought that up 'cause it's sp- I mean, I know that if I'm spending a lot of money for a service, I expect it to be tailored to me, right? Like, I don't want to feel like I'm in a factory and I'm just, like, going, you know, I'm just another number, right? I want to feel like, you know, I'm g- the- the service or the business is truly making an experience that's curated to me. And I've been teaching how to personalize the experience for eons now, and unfortunately, personalization is something that is not scalable, right?

It's something that is- it- it is very difficult to create that really curated experience for every single client every single time uniquely without a ton of manual effort. And how we teach you how to go about it is actually in, uh, the most automated, streamlined, systematized way possible. So, you can do it easily, consistently, but still offer that personalization. And when you offer personalization, you are legitimately, by definition, offering something that nobody else is offering because it is specifically for the client, and that is the type of level that you are trying to reach if you want to keep up with what a high-paying client's expectations are in 2026.

So, I thought that this was a super interesting survey result here. The second one is when you're not talking to your client, somebody else is. So, 64% of clients follow other stylists on social media. And I thought this was interesting because...

I feel like, you know, we as hairstylists, like, we're in our own bubble, right? And we follow a bunch of other hairstylists. So of course, for us, we always see hairstylists on our feed. I would assume to the general consumer that they have a lot of different or other interests than following other hairstylists, but apparently that's not the case.

And so every single second that you are not showing up in that feed, or showing up not even just in the feed, in other places, in between the appointments, someone else has the opportunity to grab that person's attention, right? This is not just another hairstylist. This could even be a brand or a influencer who is teaching your client how to do their own hair at home, right? Or something like that.

And so- Your favorite, Ashley Madison? Yes, Ashley Madison. What's- Madison Reed. Oh, yeah.

Uh, what- I call- I was calling her Madeline. You really messed that up. I- I was calling her, like, Madeline Reed for a really long time, and I t- and I said it in a class, and they were all like, "Do you mean- do you mean Madison?" I still don't know what the fuck- which one it is.

I don't fucking know. Anyways, that girl, okay? Like, that girl- And you know what? This is what I always say.

No hate to her because who- I don't even know if she's a real person, but that company, they're doing what they need to do. They see a gap, they see an opportunity, and they're showing the fuck up in it because you're not. Right? Like, you as the expert, you as the stylist who has an actual relationship with this person, who knows what the hell you're talking about, that other company with much more resources than you is showing up in those gaps because you are not.

And guess what? There are plenty of opportunities for you to be able to show up in the pre-visit experience and post-visit experience on a consistent basis that don't take you a lot of effort to make it so you are always top of mind for that person and you're always the clear choice even when there's a lot of other noise. Mm-hmm. So, I was excited to get this sur- survey result back because I was really curious about it and I finally got the chance to ask it.

Well, I think this one's important, too, because so often in the- in most industries, but in the beauty industry specifically, we think about marketing as a function to get new clients, right? And we don't necessarily think as much about staying top of mind. And when someone is already an existing client in your business, you have some unique opportunities to, like you said, be able to stay top of mind without necessarily it being a massive, like, effort thing. You can automate so much of this so that they are thinking about you when they're not in your chair and you've got that advantage because you have that relationship.

Yeah. I- I- One thing that you said awhile back when we were talking about a similar topic was, like, w- like, the other companies or even outside of our industry, other companies would kill to have that same type of connection, relationship. I mean, for example, like, Target, right? Like, when you get an email from Target, like, you know it's not gonna be something relevant or you- that's something that you have a relationship with, right?

But I mean, nonetheless, it's still some sort of noise, right? Like the Madison Reed situation. You know you don't have a relationship with this company, but they're speaking really well to your pain points, or your client's pain points, rather. They're filling in a gap and a need, and if you aren't showing up at all, then they only have this to pay attention to, right?

So, they would kill to have the- ha- be- be the one in your client's inbox that they s- actually have a trusting relationship with. So, be that person. Yeah. Take advantage of that opportunity, I think is the real big lesson here.

And if you need help to know how to do that, let me know, girl. That's what I teach people how to do. Number three, inconsistency kills loyalty faster than a bad haircut. We asked people, what was the main reason you would leave your clients?

One of them was, uh, did you- if you got a bad hair result that could not get fixed. One of them was a major price increase. And one of them was an inconsistent experience over multiple visits. And inconsistent experience took the cake out of the main reason why.

So, they'll forgive a mistake, right? They will stick with you through the price increases. One of the actually big things that we learned in this survey was that price is normally not the issue for a high-paying client. Go figure, right?

Go figure. It's that you are delivering on the value that that person is expecting in exchange for their money. The first time a new client comes to visit you, especially if they're high paying, and you deliver this excellent, amazing show for them, you put on this crazy performance because they're a new client, you want them to stick with you. If you don't deliver that the second, the third, the fourth time, then now you are not raising yourself to the standard that that person now has in their brain.

Right. Right? And I know that for me, if I show up to something and I am expecting to get whatever amenity or have the same level of care and attention, and I really enjoyed that experience, and that's what I'm willing to pay for, and I don't even get one of those things the next time, I know I'm going to feel a little bit slighted and I will start to get wondering eyes, right? Yeah.

And I will start to pay attention to the other noise that's out there. I will start to pay attention to the stylist who can show me that they are providing that consistent experience, and maybe it's even better than the one that I was in already, you know? So, consistency is super important. Last episode, when I was talking about having ADHD as a entrepreneur, we were talking about a lot, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, about how systems allow you to do this.

Systems, automations, they allow you to give that consistent experience every single time, and for you to make sure that you are showing up consistently, even when you're having a bad day, even when you're tired, because you're a human, you're a busy hairstylist, right? Having the systems in place that make it so it's easy for you to show up and deliver that consistency every single client, every single time, is so, so, so important.Yeah. No, and I think, like r- I remember you saying a really long time ago that the last client of the day needs to get the exact same experience as the first client of the day, and that's hard.

Like, when you are working behind the chair, like maybe you have a really emotionally draining appointment, maybe you're just tired, you've got other things on your mind, like that is something that requires, you know, e- it requires intention in order to make sure that's the case. Yeah. And so I do think that when it comes to documenting and making these things consistent so that you can follow it, so that you're not relying on being motivated in order to create that experience, that really is the only way to make sure that you can stay consistent. Yeah, 100%.

And again, it's like you're only human, you're gonna make mistakes, but at least we should put in safeguards or guardrails to make it so that is mitigated as much as possible. I mean, any industry, any business is going to have its inevitable risks. That is what it is. But we can do our best to mitigate it instead of just accepting it as a problem that's going to happen.

And I can't even tell you how many times I've had really successful stylists tell me that they started to lose clients and their retention started to go down because they went through a rough patch in their life. Again, you're only human, it's going to happen. But we also have talked a lot in modern stylist movement over the years, um, and had really great guest speakers come in about how you can emotionally prepare yourself, set up boundaries, so that way you're walking into those work experiences with each of your clients and protecting yourself so you can still show up with the great energy, both in the chair and also even when you leave and you go home to the people that matter the most and deserve that energy from you. Yeah, absolutely.

And I think too, like one thing that I've seen is when people do get really successful is once they do start to... It's like, you know, you always talk about the fact that what gets you to the certain level in your career is not what's gonna keep you there, and I've seen it happen where it's, like genuinely just the fact that they're now really, really busy and have all these clients and, you know, don't have that downtime as much in between, that's enough sometimes to... It's like, "Oh, I'm really busy now. I'm overwhelmed.

I'm seeing all these clients," and that can start to slip. And so- Oh, yeah. it's like that old adage, like a business that grows too fast can be as dangerous as a business that doesn't grow fast enough, and I- Yep. think that's why.

It's that making sure that you're able to, um, keep up that fulfillment. And again, I wanna like underline the language here, because it's an inconsistent experience over multiple visits. So it doesn't mean that you have to be perfect and never mess up or make a mistake ever, it's the pattern. Yeah, I love that.

Thank you for pointing that out too. Because I was super intentional on the way... W- what, one thing that, uh, you learn when you run these types of surveys is that the words that you use, even like one word can like shift the entire conversation here, and one thing that I think, again, that I'd really like to highlight here is that these are high paying, ideal quality clients, right? These are s- these are, these are from their own mouths, and I would assume that you probably want more of those.

And I would even assume maybe you are booked and busy, right, and maybe you are already at a pretty high price level. I would assume that maybe you would like to grow even more but you feel like you've hit this glass ceiling and you're like, "How am I supposed to charge any more than I'm already charging?" Right? This is how.

It's by following what a high paying client is willing to do and willing to spend money on, instead of just what the general industry statistics are. And so that's what we're sharing with you in these survey results. That's why I did it this way. And I would love to share with you the entire report.

If you go to any of my social media channels and you comment or DM me the word "report," then I will send you over the entire report of all of these survey results. You can even easily go to the show notes of this episode and just click the link right there and then put in your name and email address, and I will send it over your way. And we'll also have some cool little goodies in there for how you can actually take these survey results and actually apply them in your business and do something about them as well. So, I hope that you enjoyed learning about these survey results today, my friends.

Speaking of, uh, the things that you can do with these, we have something very exciting coming up for you soon, so make sure to stay tuned to the Modern Hair Stylist podcast. Check out our next episode that we have coming up and pay attention, because I have something beautiful to share with you soon. So, so much love to you. Peace out, girl scout.

Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2026 Hunter Donia LLC.