hair stylist

cosmetologist

salon manager

multi-unit leader

ios developer

Hair Cuttery

Hair cuttery in Uncasville ct is a fast paced walk in only salon with minimal room to advance as an employee.

It is a great place to start out and gain experience, but do not expect to be able to build a big appointment book or retain many clients. 

With the ever changing appointment policy it is hard to keep up, and hard to explain to our customers. You are not able to take appointments over the phone, unless it is for the salon leader or assistant salon leader. A lot of the time you do not have both ASL and SL and sometimes you have neither. You can only rebook chemical clients, and only Monday through Friday. You can not sign people in if they call, you can not book hair cuts, so it is very hard to maintain a steady book. 

The appointment policy changes every 9 months or so. Clients get discouraged and end up stopping their appointments and just walk in and request you, if you're available. Very frustrating.

There is a constant revolving door of leaders in this shop, as to nobody seems to want to work under the district leader. The district leader has a condescending, vindictive, belittling attitude towards the stylists that work for her shops. She has very little people skills and you can tell who her favorite people on the shop are because she promotes them as she sees nescessary, not in accordance to the company policies. 

There are steps to leadership positions that are supposed to be followed, a "road map to leadership" that she will have certain people follow in vain, only to give leadership positions to her friends at the shop. The district leader used to work specifically for this shop so she has friends (and enemies ) here and lets her PERSONAL OPINIONS of people reflect how she treats them as an employee. 

Along with leadership, there are shift leads and keyholders and a master stylist position. These are the only opportunities for advancement. 

As a shiftlead/key holder you have the added responsibility of opening/closing and figuring out the days numbers, being loosely responsible for the staff kn your shift. With this you get zero added compensation. But it is a good thing to add to a resume. 

Master stylist is obtained when you hit a certain percentage of requests. Your prices go up slightly, you can take appointments of those specifically requesting you, and you are able to set your schedule as you see fit.  This position in this particular shop is hard to obtain only because of the heavy flow of customers who are not specifically requesting anybody. It is doable, but it is hard. Your prices only increase slightly and only once.   

Compensation for this job is a comission vs hourly rate. You get comission rates between 46 and 48%. That is pretty generous and if you bring in a lot your paychecks will be decent. The comission changes based on your retail sales and rate of production. If you are out of comission, be prepared to make minimum wage. Luckily that rarely happens here. 

A lot of the time there are too many stylists working at once making it difficult to keep everyone busy and making a higher compensation.

Salon prices are very low, so you need to really work to bring in a good paycheck 

The healthcare offered at hair cuttery is a JOKE. Century Healthcare is what they provide and most places do not accept it or even know what it is. They pay VERY MINIMAL leaving you with intense bills. 

The vision plan (VSP) on the other hand is fantastic. The dental seems fine, I have had routine cleanings and have not had to pay more than 20 dollars out of pocket.

If there is a blizzard or snow storm, expect to be at work. Your district leader makes the call if we close or not, and since she "loves driving in the snow" she expects her staff to as well. It is more important for upper management to have stylists risk their safety to come in for the possibility of getting one or two clients than it is to close when the roads are bad. 

If the management was more appreciative of their stylists this might be a better place to work.

If the appointment policy was not so confusing this might be a better place to work. 

As it stands right now, this is not a good place if you are looking for an environment that has respect from upper management with room to grow. 

You will learn a lot of technical skills and gain speed. Good luck and be cautious.

This company is badly broken.
The lack of leadership is disconcerting.The many years I have worked there, left the salon without a manger for years.
The salon was run by he stylists.Open,closing the salon,banking,balancing the drawer multiple times a day,ordering supplies.
At random times there would be terribly unqualified “multi unit” salon leaders.
This usually meant that they wheren’t actually present at any one of those salons because they couldn’t be tracked down during their work hours.When questions about that arouse,the answer always was that they had to be in meetings.For stylists it is hard to prove that wrong.
No manager means there is no one there  who could diffuse difficult situations.Fights between employees,stealing money and products,customer complaints.
We where told that no retail returns over $20 could be made without manager’s approval.Tough if you see our “manager”maybe once every two weeks for a brief moment.
Made for extremely unhappy clients,we had to deal with.

This is only the tip of the iceberg without going into all the sordid details.
The last two managers  where lying,backstabbing,egotistical and narcissistic individuals.
Playing coworkers against each others seemed to be a favorite past time.The young stylists where favorites with them,unprofessional attitude towards the older ones. 

There was also a big turnover with district leaders.
All of a sudden DMs where people hired away from retail stores without any knowledge about the hair industy.
These individuals had no idea how to treat long term,talented stylists.

Someone  who has a huge client list,amazing talents and has spent a lot of money on their education is not just a warm body to cover a shift.

We the stylists make a salon what it is,these former retail employees thought that you can treat someone like this the same as a cashier at a retail store.

They had no idea about the hair industry,the amount of work we put into our work place,the challenges stylists face every day.
I really resented to be treated as a warm body,not as a valued long term employee.

It’s really frustrating that you can’t count on anyone to help you with anything.
You will never get a single thank you,you will get lousy shifts,they will change your hours so you have to work the shifts their friends don’t want.

Getting time off is extremely difficult there.Our salon was always extremely overstaffed,but you still couldn’t get time off.
If anything,they staffed even more people on federal holidays,spring break,summer,before Xmas,not to mention after Xmas,New Years Eve/Day.
There is no way an employee there can have quality family time or go on vacation when the kids are out of school.

There are multiple interruptions when you are doing a hair service.
You will have to play receptionist,answer the phone non stop,greet,sign in people ring up clients,book appointments for yourself and others.
Cleaning duties include scrubbing the toilet,taking the trash out..

Super stressfull,not enjoyable,overworked and underpaid for all that.There are no benefits to speak of,things you don’t think about before you have worked in this hellish work environment.

You can build a clientele rather quickly there,even if they don’t spend a lot of money,it’s a reasonably good income.
Some clients are extremely generous,where others are cheap.
It balances out because of the sheer volume of  clients you serve.

It can be fun at times,my recommendation is to never even try working for Haircuttery,instead go to a higher end salon.

What was once a relatively good company to work for is not anymore.

Please do not waste your time or talent with this company. They do not care about you. They will never care about you. All they care about is how many haircuts you can do in a day, and even more so how much retail you can push and sell. It is never about quality but always quantity. I worked 3 out of my 5 days with appointments, which were always booked for me. The appointment system was ridiculous as I could not make "same day appointments" for last minute clients. I was never promoted to master stylist becuase I did not sell enough retail, even though i had a 80+% request rate and was booked in advance. Constantly being asked to clock in from lunch break to take a walk in. They will constantly tell you that you cannot leave when your shift ends because there are still people waiting to be served. They will call you in early and make you stay late. They say they are family oriented and have flexible schedules and hours but that is a lie. I have a family outside of working here and that was constantly infringed upon by me having to stay late. For some reason they always scheduled 6 people to open in the morning, and only 2 to come in for the late shift, which left them for dead to try and take care of the busy client flow at 5pm when all the openers went home. We ran out of color and products which made it nearly impossible to have a correct color formula for clients. When asked about out budget for color we were told that in order to get more peoduct we have to sell more retail. I was working in a high volume salon where we had a huge number of walk ins. We also had no reception and they won't hire desk help... we all had to take turns to answer the phone that literally rang one call after the next, and answer the desk multiple people came in all at once. I will NOT leave my client period to go answer the phone and play receptionist. I am a stylist, not the salon assistant. If I am not being compensated for reception services then I will not be providing them. Finally after my so called "Leader" got tired of hearing the phone ring, and since everyone was with a client, she proceeded to pick up the phone walk over to my station where I am working with a client and put the phone down on my desk and told me "Maybe you should try to answer this next time". Extremely rude. Unbelievable. I quit that night. The management is an absolute joke, they play favorites and do not help out with any of the responsibilities around the salon. We are all expected to pitch in a chore at the end of our shift, and most people didn't, so that meant that the closers got chewed out in the morning for things not being done. Please do not waste your time, I cannot stress this enough.

As a salon leader, you are expected to constantly build and train the staff. Meanwhile, you will be expected to find the time to do all the management of the business AND build your own business while being paid $1.00 over minimum wage. No leadership or follow through for serious situations with staff. Broken down stations, filthy working conditions. Many stylists are paid more per hour than the management, due to doing whatever they need to to hire people all the time. Huge turnover. You will work non-stop all day and barely earn $60 in commissions. If you can live on poverty wages, go for it. It will take you years to make a living wage, and that's if you work at a location with a budget to have the proper products in stock to upsell. Very understaffed all the time, so expect to have your schedule change day to day to fill in.
 No leadership available the entire time I worked there. Overuse of the word "opportunity". There is no "opportunity" when you do 90% men's clipper cuts for $18 all day long. 
Zero accountability. I was the salon leader for months before I was offered any training or meetings with district leaders, which was "put on hold" and rescheduled 4 times. This company could be great if the disctrict and regional management actually worked with those of us who were the bread and butter of how they make money. 
Be prepared to never have a break, learn to fix plumbing, stations, washer/dryer and computers. You will have to work off the clock to perform management duties or you will go over 40 hours. You will as a stylist, be doing $18 haircuts mostly. You can expect the staff to be written up countless times and never be held accountable. It's next to impossible to be fired from here, because they are so understaffed and have such a turnover. 
Benefits- it's not real health insurance, so don't waste your money. You will not get PTO or be classified as full time until you have worked there a year. 
The products/retail they carry are sub-par and they use liquid Redken color gels from the 80's. You will not get proper grey coverage and the decolorizer carried is extremely damaging and out dated. 
You will make minimum wage or very close to it. Make sure if you choose to work there, that you have a second income or move back in with your parents, because you will need it. 
I had staff on government assistance, while they worked full time. There's a reason!

A typical day of work at Hair Cuttery in Indian Harbor Beach would be to come in, sign into the computer. Check your books to make sure you have your appointments lined up and then. As you turn your back, you have other stylists. Taking your appointments off your book and putting him on yours, so you have to make Sure, you're paying close attention to your workload. There are plenty of things that you can learn from other stylists.When other status are willing to train you and not act shady toward you. One of the most important things you should know about management is they are touch-and-go. They have more bad days than they do. Good days They do complain a lot about scheduling people's attitude and things that they really shouldn't have to worry about. So please put your guard up and pay close attention. One of actually, the great things about hair cuttery is workplace culture, there's something always different different styles, different tastes different aesthetics, and the creativity that they allow you to give to your other co.Workers and clientele is actually amazing. As far as the hardest part of the job, it's the constant meetings, personal development meetings, meetings that mean and do absolutely nothing management never follows up to see how your progress through your pdm throughout your next three months of service. The most enjoyable part about working at Hair Cuttery, is the clientele. You never meet the same type of person. Once everybody is unique and cultured and styled, everybody has a wonderful conversation when you are able to talk about something that they allow you to talk about on the floor. Case note, do not talk too much about your own personal self ,Because when you do that, you will get written up.

As a stylist you will be told the company supports your growth and building of a clientele, that you will make more money working for Hair Cuttery than anywhere else, the reality is you will be asked to change your working hours on a daily basis, accept coupons as high as 50% off, deep clean the salon, sell sell sell retail, help recruit new stylists, open and close, attend required classes off site, listen to required pods weekly, deal with some of the cheapest and rudest clients out there, and work ridiculously late on the weekends. You are the receptionist as well as stylist. All this for a starting pay of 45% commission.
As a manager, you earn your paycheck behind the chair working on commission but can bonus if you hit monthly goals. These goals are hammered at you in emails texts and phone calls every day and are set at unattainable numbers for a lot of the salons. Expect to work 40+ hours a week, attend required all day meetings off site every month, attend a minimum of 2 conference calls a week that can last an hour long each, do your own recruiting by following instructions given by district managers and regional managers that are embarrassing to say the least such as cold calling other local salons to try and talk their stylists into working for you, deal with being short staffed, deal with customer complaints, deal with loud rude cheap customers who expect free services, deal with being questioned by district managers about schedules daily, changing schedules to accommodate what the district manager and regional manager wants even though they are not working the salons in person but are looking at numbers remotely. Most salons have no receptionist, if girls call in expect to work open to close 12 hour days. Health benefits don't start until month 9. The list goes on and on. To say the job is stressful is an understatement. In a nutshell, every manager above the salon managers are not licensed stylists and have no real idea of how to get results from hardworking creative hairdressers so they push and push in all different directions while saying they are the Love company.

Unrealistic expectations, poor leadership, and a toxic environment made it impossible to thrive or feel valued as a Salon Leader.

I worked at Hair Cuttery as a Salon Leader, and while I appreciated the opportunity to grow professionally, there were several challenges that ultimately led me to resign.

Pros:

The brand offers quality products and services, which was a great foundation for building client trust.
My team of stylists worked hard and were supportive, striving to meet guest expectations.
The location I worked at had a lot of potential to attract a loyal clientele.

Cons:
The management culture often felt unsupportive and unmotivating. Meetings tended to focus on criticisms, for not meeting retail goals, which I found counterproductive and discouraging.
The pay for the Salon Leader position did not adequately reflect the amount of stress and responsibility required, especially when dealing with employee-related challenges and operational duties.
There was little acknowledgment of valid concerns raised by employees. For example, unprofessional behavior from coworkers or the strain of additional responsibilities often went unaddressed.
Scheduling practices were inconvenient, with meetings frequently set on off days or early mornings before late shifts, which disrupted work-life balance.
Overall, I would recommend Hair Cuttery to stylists who are passionate about the craft and looking for a place to grow their skills. However, I feel the company could improve by offering more support to leadership roles, fostering a more positive workplace culture, and addressing employee concerns with greater empathy.

I started at Hair Cuttery right out of cosmetology school, and I learned a lot with the company. I stayed in one location for a little over a year and transferred to another for 7 months. Hair Cuttery offers free education, benefits, salary and commission, all things a beginning stylist would want. At my first location, I was commuting over an hour to just sit there and barely make commission. I had a horrible Salon Leader that did whatever she wanted and never ordered the products we needed, as well as lazy coworkers that did no work while I did everything. The second location started off great. I met fellow stylists that helped me grow as a stylist to work smarter, not harder. I was told to apply for the assistant salon leader role (assistant manager) as I was being consistent with clients, selling retail, and actively promoting the salon on social media to bring in more clients. I finally was interviewed for the position 3 months after I applied and got no response or feedback which was annoying. Hair Cuttery's main product line used is Redken, one of the best beauty brands in the industry. However they only carry about 25% of the whole Redken color/product line which means - NO 100& gray coverage, NO icy blonde (only warm tones), and NO extreme colors (they carry pravana but only a couple of colors). As a stylist, Hair Cuttery gives the illusion that you can reach for the stars, but only so high up. I reached a limit after I couldn't get desired results for my clients with the products given, the same classes being offered every month, working like a manager without the title/benefits, and being told I must do certain clients 'or else'.



I accepted a Salon Leader position because of the opportunities that were presented during the hiring process. Initially, the pay structure was manageable, but after the training period ended, my hourly rate dropped to minimum wage while my responsibilities remained the same.

As a Salon Leader, I was responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the salon, completing weekly coaching and development meetings (PDMs), handling administrative tasks, ensuring the salon was clean, dusted, and maintained, leading the team, and still spending significant time behind the chair.

I also felt pressured to book high-ticket services on my own schedule before anyone else. If I only generated around $300 in service sales for the week, I was paid only minimum wage for my 40-hour workweek, despite carrying all of the leadership responsibilities. To earn enough to survive, I felt like I had to consistently produce at least $1,500 in services while also leading the salon.

Work-life balance was another challenge. During the holidays, if your regular day off fell on a holiday, you were expected to work or risk being written up. In my experience, it often felt like expectations were different depending on your position, and opportunities seemed to depend more on who you knew than on your performance.

This has been my personal experience, and unfortunately, I cannot recommend this position based on it. I'm grateful for what I learned and the relationships I built, but I'm now looking for an employer that values leadership with fair compensation, consistency, and a healthier work-life balance.


I liked working at Hair Cuttery because of nice coworkers, always getting payed, and the client traffic. However, it’s a good job if you’re starting. Your commission actually turns into an hourly pay. So if you do anybody for the day, you still get paid minimum wage. But you have to aim for your commission that needs to meet the hours you work which can be hassle if you do not have clients or walk in traffic is slow. I would constantly edit my hours, take away hours at the end of the week, to meet my commission. In other words, if I worked 30 hours, my commission had to be equivalent to making 19 dollars an hour minimum to meet the company’s commission requirements. For example: if you work 5 hours a day , you have to do at least 95 dollars in services to make your commission that day. So if you work 25 hours in one week, you need to make at least 475 in services. If you make anything less, you are out of commission. The company will excuse you for one year of employment. But after one year, you MUST meet their commission requirements so that you are not getting paid hourly!  If you do not meet the commission , they will fire you! I was able to get away with it because, I constantly edited my hours to meet my weekly commission. Other than that if you exceeded the minimum 19 dollars per hour in services, you make decent checks!  I honestly, would not work for them again. However, if you do work there, I would just build my clientele , and move forward like renting a chair elsewhere or opening up a studio. But that can take a good 3 to 5 years to build depending on your skills, customer service, work pace, and you converting haircuts into possible colors, keratins or any other service that can get you extra money and returning clients.

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