Unpopular Industry Opinions and Pet Peeves of 2024

All right, my friends, I know that somebody listening to this is going to get upset with me. I'm a little nervous to record this, because I know that, uh, this is gonna piss somebody off in one way or another. I'm gonna be talking about my unpopular opinions and pet peeves of the industry in 2024. These are gonna be very relevant to right now.

I could go on and on and on about all of my pet peeves and unpopular opinions, but this is particular to what I keep seeing in today's day and age. Now, disclaimer, none of these are that serious, all right? I'm coming into this with, like, a light-hearted attitude, and, you know, some of them, I am a little bit passionate about, right? And some of them, I have a lot of experience in, and so I'm gonna be sharing with you that information passionately.

But at the end of the day, w- you and I, we do not have to agree. The entire industry does not have to agree with each other or me, and some of these are gonna be kind of just, like, silly, and some of these are gonna be a little bit more serious. But just know that I understand there are nuances to everything, 'cause you have your own individual experience and circumstance and opinions, and so do I. So all of it's gonna differ, and we may clash, but that is okay.

So don't hate me if I say something that triggers you after this, all right? Um, don't hate me. I am just coming into this to have fun and, um, to hopefully relate with you a little bit if you've been seeing the same things that I have. So, if you wanna see if you share the same opinion and pet peeve with me, then let's get into it.

Let's go. What's the tea, friend? My name's Hunter Donia, industry business educator for hairstylists, but my friends just call me Hunty. Whether it be growing your clientele, making more money, or automating and streamlining your systems, in the next 20 minutes or so, you'll be hearing realistic, actionable strategies to create a beautiful career for yourself behind the chair.

So if you're ready to get into it, welcome to the Modern Hairstylist podcast. Okay, this first one is definitely gonna be one that pisses people off. I'm so sorry. But it's one that I genuinely, like, it just...

It's just a cringey thing to me. It's not even that I feel too deeply about it at all. It's just, like, a... I see it and I'm just like, "Ew."

Like, this is just such a waste of time, all right? Which is people detesting statements such as "baby stylist," right, or quote-unquote, "charge your worth," right? A lot of people have said, like, "Oh, like, don't call people baby stylists, 'cause it's demeaning," or, "Don't say charge your worth, because your worth as a human being has nothing to do with your business and your prices," and all that stuff. And it's like, yeah, I get it, but like, w- w- w- i-...

We get what you're saying. You know what I mean? Unless there was, like, a stylist who's out of the gate who you're calling a baby stylist and they, like, expressed that they really didn't like that, absolutely, we should respect that person and what their wishes are. But, like, generally, is this discourse really necessary?

Like, w- it's really not that deep. I mean, language, I understand and believe, carries a lot of weight, but there is a whole lot of other language in our vocabulary as an industry and as a human being, as... In- in- in- in the world, that I think we should be focusing on, and there should be... there deserves to be a lot more attention on than these little weird debates about these, these terms.

Like, it's... Uh, we get it. Like, we're char... When we say charge your worth, we're encouraging you to charge your worth around the services and the techniques and the education that you've taken and the demand on your time.

Like, we get that. We... Oh, the majority of the industry already stan- understands that, and I don't think that we have to have these weird conversations around it, or discourse around it. Nonetheless, it's just kind of cringey to me.

I... It's just like, ew. Like, can we just focus on something else that's more important? The second one that I have for you is people...

Oh my God, we have to stop doing this. This one is a little bit more serious. Jumping so quickly to charging your cancellation fee. Dude, over the past couple years, I've been saying it for the...

from the very beginning. I've been saying this for a long time now. Over the past couple years, we have, as an industry, are really trying to regain our power and reclaim our power as a, as an industry, right? And what that looks like is, is putting policies into place.

It's setting boundaries. It's putting up systems and having our clients respect us in one way or another. And, and, it's, it's raising our prices, right? And what is happening, and what I've warned people of for so long, is that with all of this push to do so and this liberation that we're going through of all of that, we need to be super careful about still continuously, um, protecting our professionalism, and protecting our reputation as an industry.

If you are on TikTok right now, and you get hairstylist content, right, you will see the general public just, like, going ham about how hairstylists are just ridiculous nowadays, and I honestly agree with them. I am s... This is coming from somebody. I am somebody who teaches all about policies, boundaries, and how do you take, take care of yourself, and to raise your prices, all those things.

I preach to all those things. But I do it in a way in which I am still ensuring the best case scenario for every party involved, including the client, right? Because the entire point of our industry is to serve other people and to serve ourselves, and there is a world where you can have the best of both of them, okay? Truly.

And I've seen it with my students, the way that they implement things, the way that they reduce their last-minute cancellations and no-shows instead of focusing so much on ha- on charging the person instead. Like, truly, there is a way that you can have boundaries, take care of yourself, and get clients to respect you without tarnishing your reputation and the entire reputation of the industry as a whole. Because when you're just charging people non-stop, right, or you're posting to your stories about last-minute cancellations and how much that pisses you off, you're truly, like, putting a stain on the entire industry, not just yourself. And you're putting a really bad taste in cli- in clients' mouths, and it's not cute.

Right? So, just, like, you don't... Like, give somebody a chance. Like, we're all human beings, and I would rather, instead of just getting the 50% of what that service would've got me, right..

Instead of getting the 50% and risking losing that client forever, I would rather give that person a one-time free pass and then be- have that person continuously come back to see me over time, and reduce the last-minute cancellation no- and no-shows by being proactive with my policies versus reactive. I have plenty of other episodes about that. So, that's my tea about jumping so quick to charge people the cancellation policies. We need to chill, bro.

We need to chill. Like, relax a little bit. Complaining about retail demand being stolen by big box brands. Here is the thing.

I personally am very passionate about this. I, like, I hate brands that go and build their brand off the back of hairdressers and call themselves professionals, and then sell out big to general public. Like, there's nothing more that really makes me upset, truly. However, it is inevitable.

We are in capitalism, and this is just the ladder. People are gonna see that opportunity, and people have shareholders that are m- uh, f- pushing them and forcing them in that direction. It just is what it is. Aligning yourself with a brand who, uh, who you believe in, who you have great core value connection with, who, who, you know, addresses these things and has open conversations about these things, I think is really important when, when we com- when it comes to combating this.

But the thing is, them going public, them being available in the grocery store, on the Amazon, et cetera, et cetera, there is still no excuse for you to still not be killing it with retail sales in the salon. I promise you. The products that I have sold have been on Amazon my entire career, and I have an average retail per client of $35, which is very high. I can send somebody home with a bottle of shampoo and then some like a piece of cake, because I understand sales strategy, right?

And if you are having a difficult time with your clients not taking retail home, we should stop blaming everything on everybody else, and that's what we m- majoritively do with everything in our business and our lives. And when, when we blame somebody else, we take away learning opportunities for us, uh, to self-reflect and grow and evolve, and to take matters into our own hands, right? And so, instead of focusing so much on what your brand is doing or what- how Walmart is selling your shit, why don't you focus on how you can make the most out of the situation in your own circumstance, right? Because I promise you, my friend, you can still sling some retail sales.

I promise you, I promise you, I promise you. I don't care if you're selling Redken, which is like the most sold-out professional brand on this planet. If you're selling Redken, I promise you, you could get your client to take it home from you for a premium price, I promise you, if you understand sales psychology. Okay.

Freaking out about tech failures. Some of you guys have seen me complain on my Instagram story about this, particularly when your booking system or your POS goes down. But I'm gonna talk about tech in general, okay? Here's the thing.

I understand relying on technology can be really scary, and a lot of people don't rely on technology because of this circumstance, because of this- of the, the inevitable circumstance of your tech possibly failing on you for a temporary amount of time, right? Here's the thing. No matter what method you are doing to accomplish a process, whether that be booking people, checking people out, whatever it may be, measure your color even, no matter how you're gonna do it, there is inevitably going to be a hiccup in one way or another. Whether that's human error or whether that's the technology failing, there is inevitably going to be something that fails.

There are pros and cons to everything. I would rather take the convenience and the pros that that technology offers me and the minor, small, every rare, rare, every now and then inconvenience that tech has over having to do things, uh, manually or choose a different tech software that doesn't offer the same functionality, right? And even then some, if you are, if you are upset with a technology because there's errors every now and then, I promise you, you're gonna have the same situation with another technology in one way or another. Like, I guarantee you that.

How I've come to this and, uh, is, is people freak out when their POS system goes down, or their booking system, and there's so many solutions to making it so this does not have to be the, the end of your life, right? You can still write things down and charge people later, right? You can reach out to clients and, and sh- explain to them the situation. There are so many workarounds and everything is figureoutable, and freaking out about, uh, about one small hiccup in circumstance that a tech company has is really, really a waste of time.

So, instead of, like, freaking out and being like, "I'm leaving," right, unless it was like a super consistent issue, like if it's every couple months, like, that's really not that often, right? Then, then l- let's chill. I'm just saying let's chill and let's pull out our, our, uh, problem-solving skills, right, and our critical thinking skills, and focus on the solution rather than the problem. All right.

This is one that is relevant to now and has been relevant for years. It's announcing prices- price increases on social media. Girl, uh, I ju- it's just like, you don't have to do this here. You don't have to do this here.

There are so many better ways, guaranteed ways that your client will receive that information, and receive it in a much more positive way. I think we lose sight of the purpose of the platforms that we frequent and visit and utilize as business owners, and when it comes to social media, announcing anything, complaining about anything, rolling out whatever is just not the place to do it. And the reason why is because the main point of you being on there is marketing. It's to get butts in your chair.

It's to get clients to come to you and to come back to you, right? So-What does announcing your price increase on social media do for growing your clientele? Literally nothing, right? So, I recommend that when it comes to announcements such as this, that it's done on an internal basis, and that you have a proper website that has all of your current pricing listed out, and that you email with really awesome verbiage and possibly cool techniques, such as, like, a video announcement as well, to, to make everybody aware all at the same time, um, without just, w-without making your social news feed, uh, more busy and hurting your algorithm, by the way.

Because the more content that you put out that people aren't gonna react well to, the less Instagram's gonna wanna push your stuff to your followers and to the, to the, to the masses, right? So, it's just a waste of space for you to be announcing really anything. Uh, this goes for vacations. This goes for new policies.

It's a very, um, ineffective way of, of explaining and rolling out those things. Not to mention, I see all the time too, I mean, this is just a pet peeve of its own: raising your prices and apologizing, or over-explaining it, t-talking about how you're raising your prices because cost of goods have gone up, or whatever it may be. It's just so not necessary, s- especially on social media. Charging people credit card fees.

This is very much, like, a personal opinion. Like, I just personally just don't think that this is, like, cute. Like, I just think that this is really not, doesn't look good on you as a, as a business professional. I think you nickel-and-diming anybody for anything, including, like, you know, multiple a la carte services, it just doesn't look good to the client, right?

And it just creates a weird feeling in a client. And so, charging people credit card fees I just think is, like, so unnecessary for so many different reasons. And the main reason is, it is just, like, I just think it looks tacky. But also, I'm gonna be actually diving deep into this topic in next week's episode and talking about how you can combat this, um, like those credit card fees, and how to approach this, and the legality of it all and stuff like that.

So, if you wanna dive deep into that topic, then tune in next week. But just know right now, this is a big pet peeve of mine. And I just think that it is corny and tacky, and it's just not cute. Again, personal opinion.

Don't take it too deeply. If you're doing this right now, I don't say this to shame you. I say none of this stuff to shame you. I'm just sharing with you my own personal opinion.

Okay, I know you're gonna get pissed at me for this one. And I, you know, I kinda go back and forth on this, because I'm definitely guilty of it, I guess. But stylists complaining about rising costs, but then I see their Instagram story or their social media content and they're purchasing expensive pretty foils, right? Like, you could have gotten the same brand that you prefer without the l- the, the logos and the, the designs on them for a lot less money, yet you chose the pretty ones.

Yet, you're going to complain about how your cost of business is higher than ever, right? Here's my tea. Here is my tea. I'm all about you investing in, in, in cool stuff that makes your job easier, better, and more fun.

And I mean, it's even possibly helpful for your social media content, 'cause it's more eye-catching, right? Totally all about that. But if you are, like, in the negatives in your business, like, if you really need to be cautious about how you're spending money, is that really the way that you should be spending money, right? Like, if you have to decide what you need to cut out of your business as far as expenses go, right, are those pretty foils really something that, like, that, like, you should be spending your money on right now?

And then, like, uh, y- y- save that money, so that way you can invest that money into other things that are actually going to, actually gonna grow your business. So, then eventually one day, you can just buy those pretty foils without even having to think about it, right? And it's not even a j- a dime in the bucket, right? So, yeah, stop complaining about your rising costs if you're s- buying pretty shit that you don't need.

Because truly, like, at the end of the day, in order to offer an excellent client experience, in order to do your job effectively, do you really need to have a design on your foils, right? Or do you need a cute comb even, like a f- or a cute claw, uh, uh, claw clips, you know? Like, we really don't need to be doing all that. Again, oh my God, these are gonna piss some people off.

I'm so sorry. None of these, none of these I'm like... I understand that all of these, like, th- everybody has their own personal experience and opinion. And all of these I could be convinced otherwise, you know?

For the most part. Some of these, like the charging people cancellation fees and, like, is like, eh. But a lot of these I'm just like, don't take this too deep, okay? My last one is everybody becoming an educator or a coach.

Dude, I open Instagram and every day, m- there is somebody new calling themselves a coach or an educator. Just the word coach is so cringey to me. I don't know why. It's just me.

This is personal opinion. Here's what I'm gonna disclaim this with, is that I think that, um, more education, the better. I think that the more people innovating, pushing the envelope, wanting to support other hairstylists, right? And, and to, um, revolutionize our industry together, I think that the more the merrier.

Truly, I love that for us. What I don't love is people getting into it for the wrong reasons. There's a lot of online marketing nowadays, online marketers that are selling you the idea of passive income, of s- uh, creating digital courses, memberships, et cetera, et cetera, and creating this dream like you're not gonna have to put in the work to make it work. And, and then that seems like an, a sexy idea to a lot of people, especially our industry, because our, our industry is so labor-intensive.

And so, to be able to work from home and to be able to create that type, type of business for yourself that's like you just hang out and put your hand, uh, uh, feet up, you know, and just make money while you're sleeping, like, that stuff is just marketing bullshit. And I promise you from my own experience and tons of other people's experiences, creating a digital course and, and making it actually work and becoming an educator within it, th- within this industry in general, it takes a shit ton of work. Like, it is no joke. It is not passive.

It is consistently pivoting, adapting, changing, planning, growing, learning, all of the things if you actually wanna make it work. Not to mention-If you're getting into this because of the money, then you're gonna have a really difficult time actually getting people results, because you're not focused, first and foremost, on the impact, right? That's my... I...

That's the whole reason I got into this, into education in general. I've been educating for five, six years now. I educated for a brand from a very young age. I teach in color.

And I got into it because I just loved the light bulbs and the transformations that I was able to have as a student, and to be able to have the privilege to give that to another hairstylist, it means a lot to me, and that's what keeps me going nowadays. I never want anybody to feel as if they're not equipped with the tools and the mentorship and community that they need to continue on in this industry that has given me all of the gifts and the, the beautiful life that I get to live, right, and possibly them as well too, and so that's why I keep going. And I truly believe that the passion that I have and the true why behind this, and not it being about the money first and foremost, is why I've been able to make it successful, and I think that people end up getting i- into it for the wrong reasons, and with lack of experience and requirements as well too, and qualification. For example, I was a brand educator for years, for years, right?

So I learned facilitation. I understood my impact that I made with my words. I understood creating curriculum instead of just creating a class that people watch and then they go home and they don't know how to implement themselves, right? Like, Ashley Norman said this in an interview the other day, and I just thought it was so brilliant.

She is fucking awesome. I love her. She was talking about the difference between an actual educator and just an influencer. Influencers will do a demo for you and you'll go to a salon and you'll, uh, you'll go to their tour and you'll watch them do a head of hair and do some really cool highlights.

An educator has a curriculum that is repeatable, that you are able to take and learn and understand and get hands in and be able to go home and do yourself. That is the difference. And there are too many people out there who are selling shit that people cannot replicate at home, or people... Or, or that people ha- are having a really difficult time actually understanding and attaining because the educator has not gotten the training to understand how to facilitate and how to create that type of curriculum that actually makes an impact.

So again, I'm totally down for you to become an educator or whatever it may be, but just understand that in order for you to actually make it work, it's a shit ton of work. It is not passive, number one. Number two, you should be in it for the right reasons, because people will be able to smell the bullshit miles away, I promise you, and that's what's gonna keep you going, because shit's gonna be hard. And sometimes you're gonna have moments where you're like, "Fuck, this is really difficult."

Consistently strategizing and pivoting and planning and changing and updating and communicating and dealing with all the shit and growing a team, it's a lot. You're gonna need a strong why behind why you do it, right? And make sure that you j- have some sort of facilitation training, some way somehow that you understand how to present a topic and teach it in a way that will deliver results, because if you don't, you're gonna ruin the, the, the name of education for all of us. That's what I see a lot happening right now, is people are so burnt from the education that they've taken because we have people who are unqualified to be teaching it, and people feel ripped off, and now people are just not into education anymore, right, because of their terrible experiences.

And that just hurts all of us. That hurts hairstylists and the educators and the brands and everybody alike, because education truly is the foundation and the core of this industry, right? All right. So, those are my unpopular opinions of the industry in 2024.

Now here's the tea. Here's where I wanna start off before you head out of here. If you do any of what I shared, or if anything that I shared applies to you in one way or another, I want you to know that it's not to sh- that I'm not saying any of this to shame you, and that you should be kind to yourself, and who cares what the hell I think, right? And maybe some of the things that you're doing are things that work for you and that you love, and that's totally okay.

Like, freaking do it. Who cares what I think? Who cares what anybody else thinks? That's the beauty of being your own business owner and your own human being.

You have autonomy. So who cares what I think, right? And e- if you listened to what I said and you were like, "Oh my God, he's right. Oh my God, I've done this in the past," it's okay.

We learn, we grow, and you get to decide how you move forward, and that's all that matters, right? So, so much love to you. A whole lot of love and no judgment to you whatsoever. Another thing I wanna share is, if you hated something I said, if you are triggered, if you think something I said is problematic, right, um, whatever it may be, I'm open to having a discourse or conversation with you, um, and hearing you out, truly, honestly, over DMs.

Do not leave me a bad review on the podcast. That is fucked up. Do not do that. Reach out to me in the DMs @hairbyhunty, H-U-N-T-Y, so I can hear what your thoughts are and we can have a good conversation about it, and maybe you can change your mind.

Like, a lot of the things that I shared today are things that I'm not, like, super strong stanced about, um, so just make sure that you, uh, reach out to me if you have any, uh, conversations or wanna debate about anything. Again, all of this was, uh, was with fun, my own personal opinion, and I hope that you were cool with me keeping it real with you today. Thank you so much for tuning in to the podcast. So much love to you, my friend.

Peace out, girl scout. Bye-bye.

End of transcript. © 2024 Hunter Donia LLC.