hair stylist

stylist

salon manager

barber/stylist

commissioner

Regis Corporation

I began this job when I was fresh out of school. I knew I could not afford booth rent since I did not have any clientel and this is a perfect place to gain that since we are in a high traffic area, inside Walmart . I liked my job enough. I knew that I would be paid every 2 weeks, and I got to do what I enjoy doing; hair. The first location I was at was in a smaller town and most of the color clients were already going to the other stylists. Doing color services are my favorite! I worked at that location and transferred to another SmartStyle when my husband and I moved to another town. My manager at the first location suggested the SmartStyle I work for now because she and my current manager hit it off at a meeting they had a few months before. I spoke with the new manager, and she seemed nice, so I went with my old managers suggestion. For the first 3 months it was pretty great. Did more colors and made more money than the last location, and started to build clientel. But then these last 3 months have been grueling. The other stylists I worked with were flakes, theft from the drawer happened almost like clock work, whenever a certain stylist would work, we would be short, by $5-$50. This stylist was supposed to be fired because of the short drawer, how rude they were to clients and to other stylist, and the constant out-lashes to our manager. This stylist would come to work high. Bring his stash and hide it in the back room, complain constantly about everything and everyone because this stylist has been licensed longer than all of us working with this stylist. This stylist caused a salon fight, essentially, and called and threatened another stylist over the phone because "she was stealing the other stylist's hours". Right before this co-worker of mine was allegedly supposed to be fired ( we had a lawyer or my manager said we did, in on this issue with this stylist, and we were also waiting on the green light from our district manager), two of our stylists quit for personal and health reasons, and one was fired. So that left our already busy salon with 3 stylists. The only pro out of that was my paycheck getting substantially bigger. The one who should have been fired, was still employed, doing the same stuff. To add to this giant issue of a stylist, instead of being fired when we get a new or a few new stylists hired to the salon. this rude stylist is going to be transferred to another SmartStyle location and is said to be picking up a manager position!!!!!!! I take what this person says with a grain of salt, but my manager did say this person would be transferred. . .
And now to get to my manager. As I said, liked my manager when I first met her, but now, oh boy, I think I am really seeing her true colors. There have been days where she was flustered, usually by this other non compliant stylist, she has said in one way or another "Do not mess with me or I will ruin your career." Everyday we have a mandatory meeting, it is on MY day off. It is never on hers or the rude one's, always mine. I brought it up one day, so she thought about making it on a Saturday where all of us were working, well since the rude one left already for the day, the rude one did not want to come back for the MANDATORY meeting, so there wasn't one. She also scheduled a meeting on another day, another one of my days off, go figure, and I show up to the salon, and she has a dumbfounded look on her face and asked why I was there. She had forgotten the meeting!!!! And when she is mad at us stylists, she cuts our hours, or switches our schedules. Lucky I came in on that day of the scheduled meeting, it was a Thursday, because I had written down that I worked a mid-shift on
Friday, but no, she was upset with me for who knows what and I was now the opener! If I would not have seen that, I would not have come in time to open the salon, thus getting us a huuuuuuuuuuuge fine!!!! She never really reprimands the rude one, she says she is afraid of this stylist. There are so many things that have gone on in this salon that I cannot even count. The things listed were just off the top of my head.

I am so flustered and confused on what to do about this experience with this region of Regis Corp. I would love to find a new stylist position elsewhere, but the only people hiring besides booth renters, whom I cannot afford or have the clientel just yet, or GreatClips, which do not offer color services, are owned by this same company. This experience at this location has left a bad taste in my mouth that I am fearful to even try another salon owned by Regis Corp. And seeing that most of these reviews with poor management or high turn over rate with management is instilling me with more anxiety with this job. I am a VERY compliant stylist. I DO NOT want any bridges burned since I am so new to the industry, but this has become ridiculous. I have a panic attack almost every day before work now and it started about 2 months ago. I never get any recognition for the good I do in the salon. I am kind to even the worst customers. I really try to keep combo percentages and Insider percentages on target. I never call off unless I am sick. I do not want to have a bad name for myself in this industry and I fear for it even more when my manager has comments like about to say about someone else' career. I should not dread my job every day, I love being a stylist, but this job has drained me of my happiness. But I feel utterly trapped, because of the other places of employment and my managers threats.

I was promised advanced education classes paid for by the company, but since we are so short staffed I could not go to any of these classes, and we still only have the 3 stylists now ! I pay out of pocket from the paycheck I make to get a higher education and to have more experience under my belt so I can booth rent. And yes, I know that the world is filled with all kinds of people, but since we are in Walmart, we carter to some of the rudest, and craziest, in a literal sense, of all people. Not all of them are that bad, but I would say 8 out of 10 are. I have never been cussed out so many times in my life over a wait time in the salon because I was the only stylist present with an hour or so wait in front of them. And since we sell retail, occasionally the product price will change and we won't get the new tags for them for a while, and when we aren't busy we can usually catch the price difference when it is scanned on the computer and let the customer know ahead of time, but when we are busy and short staffed in a high traffic area and cannot have over time with out getting in trouble with the company sometimes those things won't be caught. I have had women threaten me over the counter over $.30 before, because it rang up just that few cents more she freaked out of me, nearly grabbed at me over the counter while I was bleaching another clients hair. I also had an elderly woman come back to SmartStyle 5 days after she purchased her products to get a refund of $.60 and it was $.64 with tax. I must add that she lives on the other side of town, and she left Walmart after she got her $.64 back. She spend more money in gas to get to us for her refund than the actual refund itself. These kind of people are a regular thing. People call to complain about you even if you did nothing wrong, just to get their money back. We had a woman fool the rude one and myself saying she just got her hair done by our manager, and it needed to be layered more, so the other stylist fixed it when they were alone in the salon, made the stylist take her before the other clients, then the next day she did the same to me saying it was lopsided, come to find out my manager had not cut her hair in over a month, but she gave us false information to look her up in our systems so we didn't know. People are ruthless, and since we are inside Walmart, and their low prices, they expect us to be terrible stylists, or not licensed, our products are counterfeit, that we use the box color sold inside Walmart, you name it or think it, it has been said. I do not get paid enough to deal with these types of ;people.

I am not saying every client that comes to us is out to get us, the clientel I do have are amazing people, and I would have never met them if I worked elsewhere, and that is essentially the only reason I like my job. You bond with your clientel in a way most job settings won't allow, but that is just the industry we are in as hair stylists, not from working for SmartStyle.

I believe that with the right management and the right stylists the hardships dealing with many greedy, rude, incompetent clients you have to deal with, especially in SmartStyle, would be an ideal working environment for a new stylist, either to the profession or to the area. This is not what I have experience working for the company thus far. I hope it is just a stroke of bad luck with this salon.

I could probably write a novella on what I have seen and dealt with here, but I feel those reading this will get the main points of my struggles of SmartStyle.

I worked at smart style for 6 weeks. My manager was awesome she was very willing to help me out whenever I needed and more than willing to teach me new things. I had awesome co workers all were really nice and they all worked great together. The salon had some really fast paced days (Thursday, Friday's, Saturday) which were awesome in the sense you don't stand around bored but not in the sense you were in your feet all day and breaks were very short or didn't happen (depending on the hours you worked that day 6 hours no mandatory break, 7 or more mandatory break). The pay for me was minimum wage so I worked an hourly basis about 30 hours a week I usually worked with my manager. Tips were okay for me had three instances were I was tipped 10 by three different clients which was awesome, however some clients are dirt cheap and don't tip you after the service or tip you poorly. For example my manager did this awesome haircolor for 3-4 hours and she was only tipped 4 dollars she did a really cool alternating color with blonde and magenta color. Being fresh out of votech it was hard to be thrown out so quickly (cosmetology school only teaches you the state board). My manager was always willing to help me however I found it rather discouraging to have to ask her to check it in front of clients because then the clients would doubt you and get nervous/wouldn't want you to continue the haircut. I found it to be embarrassing having to ask someone to check the work I did (most people don't realize school doesn't teach you everything).  Being so young too (I worked there when I was 18) it was frustrating people not taking me seriously because I was "too young" people weren't always willing to give me a chance.  Some days we hardly had any one which wasn't awful but there's only so much cleaning to do so those days went by slow. I found selling retail to be the hardest part of it all, they really push you to sell retail. I would try and sell retail to clients but most would not be interested or would tell me how they had no money really. I'm not a pushy person so if you say no or don't seem interested I won't keep pushing it so it was difficult in that aspect. I had one training class I went to it was a haircolor class we got paid for it, we got pizza and had soda to drink. The training class was showing a star shape haircolor technique. The other class I went to was a security training class there was plenty of snacks and drinks the class was late and about an hour we went over ethics and how to make more money and pricing services right. Both classes were helpful because I was new and fresh out of school. Some clients were nice others were not. Many clients there are "on the fence" with how they're feeling and if you don't do want they want (even though you try to) they get all angry and are pretty rude to you that happened to me a lot being new, if they weren't satisfied be ready for them to rip you a new one. It was kinda like you're the deciding factor if they're going to leave happy or angry (which was a lot of pressure for being out of school with no experience). My manager has the thickest skin ever I was there a few times were people were just god awful for no reason other than they're bitter. The main reason for me leaving was that it was a lot more overwhelming to work here (school does not prepare you adequately), dealing with rude clients even though you tried your best to do what the wanted. I totally get if you get a haircut that you don't like or is screwed up but in my case my manager had told me my problem wasn't cutting hair it was the consultation (not being on the same page a 100% with what the client wants close but not exact). Most people are just plain terrible I'm not saying to shower me with love just don't be a jerk  there's a way of being tactful which most people can not do. I had two really bad instances where I tried to do what the client wanted and they were displeased and ended up getting pretty rude to me. So I decided to quit shortly after that the clients there are not the best. Don't get me wrong my manager had some very awesome regulars who were more than welcoming to me but they are essentially a diamond in the rough. They were rare ACTUALLY kind people. The company can be great or bad depending on if you have good management/good coworkers/not short staffed,hit retail goals, the clients are 50 50 some are good some suck.

I worked for this corp for 9yr.s and four of those were as a manager. It went from ok to worse. When I first started it was commission based and you actually had a chance to make 50% if you hit the right goal which they would continually raise if they thought it was becoming too easy for you. Then they switched from that to minimum wage.With a chance to make a quarter an hour more if you hit a curtin service per hour goal on a sliding scale and went up about a quarter when ever you did a little more per hour. Giving the illusions that you might make some actual money. (I was grandfathered in on the commission.) However the stylist I hired received the new pay rate. The only problem was if after so many months they weren't making more then minimum wage no matter how slow the salon might be, we were to write them up and threaten their job if they didn't bring their service sales up and when the stylists would start doing well we were encouraged to hire more. Which made it almost impossible for the stylist to keep their numbers up. And if they weren't able to keep their numbers up we were told to cut their hours. Which may not seem bad but for someone who just went through $18000 worth of schooling and with that much if not more to pay off it's devastating. I decided after four yrs of this I no longer wanted to be manager and stepped down as manager. Which would have been fine except after 9 yrs they decided that they would give my schedule to someone who had been their less time then me by more than half. When I confronted my area manager about it she tried to brush me off. So I told her if I can't have schedule I've earned then I'd give my two weeks notice. She said will that be as of today. It didn't even take me a second to think about it if that's the way I was to be treated after the work I put in for them. Then "Yes that'll be as of today." This company does not care about anyone and if it was the last salons on earth I would sooner work in a manure factory collecting the manure with my own lips. At least I would know where the next pile was coming from. Ps I made more then 1/3 of that salons profits a month for them when I left. Out of a total of 5 stylist. I checked. ;-)

At Regis (Smart Style inside Walmart) I was told that I was being hired for a position in the town I lived it,(which is where I interviewed) but that they didn’t have any immediate positions available. However, there would be in a couple of weeks. They said that another store was needing assistance and asked if I was willing to make the 1 hour commute, until I was officially transferred to the salon in my home town. I agreed. I was also informed that pay was minimum wage, or commission.. which ever was greater. Long story short... several weeks went by and I was not able to transfer, as my home store had already hired a new stylist without asking me to come down. Second... as far as pay. They led me to believe that hitting commission was extremely likely and that my paychecks would be worth my time, however this was so far from the truth. Several new stylists were hired. Because of this, and the number of hours the manager was allowed to schedule... we were all working part time hours. When you work for commission, your hours make a huge difference. If you’re not there, you can’t make sales. Meaning, I was working my hours, but unable to hit commission because of i didn’t have enough time to make decent sales. So they have you working minimal hours, for minimum wage. I was getting a semi-monthly check of about $300 while spending about $100 a week in fuel and adding 2 unpaid hours to my work day for commute. 

Also, Saturday’s are required- say goodbye to family life....and they’re open on Sundays. Open til 8pm. If you are sick and you call in, it is your responsibility to find coverage. And if no one can, you’re expected to come in anyway. And if you don’t, you’re in trouble. You’re not allowed to turn down a customer even if it’s 3 minutes to close, but if you go over on hours, you’re in trouble. You can’t win with this company. 

I did love the people I worked with, and my manager was incredible, but she had to abide by the rules she was given. Which puts her in a bad position. I loved her, but REGIS IS AWFUL! I will NEVER go back or recommend anyone to them.  

I HATED IT!

Manager Pay is underpaid! $11.-$12. per hour, commission for manager is 48- 50%, A monthly bonus of %2 IF you meet your sales goals and or service monthly goal. Hard to reach when the salon is so slow that the services are less then $100 a day! Point Incentives, you wont get if you dont reach your monthly goals! They dont want to pay the stylist and managers a proper wage. District Leader refused to up the pay for stylists and managers. DL frequently would say " gotta show me what ya got first" before I pay anyone any higher! they are focused on rehires and retention of stylists and managers, They cant keep anyone especially when you have higher management with that sort of attitude! Regional Manager made comment " your a manager but your not really managing because their is no one here to manage"! Unprofessional! Like it is the managers fault stylists wont work for smart style.. No one wants to work for a company that doesnt want to pay their staff properly and treat their staff with respect. not once did the district leader praise any management, it was a phone call with you need to do this , this and that. while throwing staff under the bus with the my salon listens surveys! For example, a stylists could not take a client 1/2 hr to closing because they had an appointment coming, the other client who was rude and wanted in, then sent email via my salon listens and said they were told no and couldnt come back the next day. NOT TRUE. recieved call from DL whom was told an appointment was scheduled already at 530 and couldnt take them, DL then responded to the complaining client that DL talked to stylist, sorry you had an issue with the stylist, however we would like to make it right, we can send you to XX salon, ect ect. Not Once did the DL state yes stylist couldnt take you because they already had an appointment.This DL should not even be a DL, throwing the staff under the bus like that!

I worked as a store manager for two years. I had a great area supervisor that contributed greatly to my store in the other surrounding stores. After the company restructured and got rid of great managers in employees in replace of inexperienced uneducated and barely respectable individuals, the morale in a district of 10 stores plus went down in weeks. After having a incompetent  area manager now referred to as a district leader in quotations was putting employees on three hours which is considered illegal in New York State I spoke to the regional director also new, he shrugged me off and insulted me for taking a stand of what together a team of employees thought was wrong. I personally was discriminated and threatened by my new district leader who I will not mention. As a formal store manager,  I advise anyone looking for employment with this company in New York State to run the other way. You will have no benefits and if offered cost extremely gross amounts of money.  There is no good employee relations or internal structure that enforces the balance between upper management in the stylist. Offer management takes no accountability for their part towards the sales both service in retail store, and Winlow towel the stylist that they are going to be fired if they do not increase production with a small amount of time and that they should be working harder when traffic in the store is at a bare minimum most of the time. I was promised promotions into upper management four times while being employed in the company for two years working under paid and even off the clock in being forced to off clock and then threatened if I don't I would lose my job once again. I again in for anyone looking for employment with a Regis owned salon to run the other way esp in western New York.

The morning shift you clock in fifteen mintues before your shift,count the register and print out the salon dashboard. Also make sure the salon is clean and towels are folded. When it's time to open you unlock the door and greet clients with a warm smile  as they come in  and register them into the computer. You take your client back if your not currently busy or give a estimated wait time. You introduce yourself to your client and discuss what services you are performing for them. I performed the service to the best of my abilty. In between clients the phone would ring so you would answer it  but, my co workers and i took turns and if you were by yourself you would have to stop and still answer the phone. Sometimes depending on how busy you are that day you have to multitask.If you had a chance to take a break you would clock out for a thirty minute lunch. Then you would clock back in from break. Towards the end of the day i may have cleaned or done more clients. As it got close to my shift ending i would clean up my station, clock out and ask my manager if there was anything else she needed before i left. My manager did her job well and treated all of us fairly. My coworkers and i got along very well so it made  a relaxed atmosphere. The hardest part of the job is the customer service, multitasking (stoping in the middle of your service to answer the phone or check people in). The most enjoyable part of my job was getting to know clients and developing a friendship with them. It made me look forward to seeing my clients because i would enjoy our conversations which always resulted into laughter. I have learned to deal with people in bad and good situations and i also learned without  clients i wouldn't have a job.

I worked for Regis at a Supercuts for over two years and overall I had a good experience. I only stayed that long because of the money. With tips some days I could make $15 or $20/ hr but also days where you could do 3 haircuts and make $12 that day in tips. It was good money for being young and right out of beauty school. The hardest part of the job was being pressured to up-sell, dealing with difficult clients, and the company in general. The hours also became a problem for me. After two years of working there I was having less hours a week then when I had started. Business was inconsistent, you could be rushed one day and make good money; the next day you could be sent home early or only do a few haircuts in a shift. If I were to work in a franchise salon again it would be in a much busier location with consistent business. Being sent home at lunch time or afternoon when you were scheduled til 5 or 6 was not uncommon. The company could have been way more professional. Communication was definitely needing improvement. They had managers who did not have a managing license, be managers for years until they cracked down on it. If you were the young person and knew how to close expect to be closing all the time. Managers were suppose to close at least twice a week and would leave extra early and close more like once or twice a month. The management was not great and made me not want to move up in the company. Managers only make $2 extra an hour but have way more workload. Not worth it. So overall I would recommend Regis for a young person right out of school because it was good experience, money and will get you well rounded in skills but not a company I would invest a future in.

Unfair wage practices make it very difficult to make commission,  time spent before opening and after closing counts against your productive hours, even though you're entering tickets, counting money, doing bank deposit, daily audit book, counting coupons, etc., all required to open or close salon as well time spent doing required duties for stylists and managers, yet this all counts against your productivity so you start and end every day twenty minutes in the hole.   You can't service clients until drawer is counted, etc.  How is this a fair and accurate pay system.  Minimum wage on holidays unless your state mandates overtime pay.  Basically whatever the state law requires as bare minimum is what you'll get paid.  As a salon manager, I had three different bosses in three years and they kept changing the schedule requirements.  District leaders can wreak havoc and tell their bosses whatever they want to keep their jobs, lie about the frequency and content of salon visits, and there is no accountability.   When good,  dependable,  high performing employees leave upper management should intervene,  but they don't.   If you're a lazy game-player who is ok with the bare minimum being a two way street you'll probably have a long and successful career here.  If you care about your team, your business, your clients and giving your all, don't bother, whether it's a short time later or twenty years later, you will give your all to find out in the end that you are nothing but a number.
At least my old salon is now having their worst year ever and half my dream team is gone.
Shame on you Regis for how you treat people, you can say you love your stylists, love your guests, blah blah blah.   Regis loves money and  happy shareholders, it's employees are completely dispensible.

When I reached enough hours during cosmetology school to work as a student-stylist I started working for Smartstyle by REGIS. I lucked out and my manager was actually one of my previous teachers from Cosmetology school (shes the reason I loved my job).

Anyways, the company itself isnt' the "best" but it's really not as bad as a lot of these people say it is. Obviously if you sit around waiting for services youre not going to make any money. Thats part of the job as a professional stylist. (duh) If you want to make base pay (minimum wage) then sit around & wait (like, why did you even go to school). If you want to make money then stand up, hand out coupons, advertise yourself, & promote yourself.

It's common sense. Even if you were in another other basic salon you wont make money sitting on your rear. At least this salon pays you a base to "fall back" on. You dont have to pay booth rent or for the supplies you get to use. You have everything already on hand.

So before you jump on all the reasons you dont like this job for the pay youre offered, remember all the areas youre SAVING money. And remember that clientele comes with TIME and promotion. My manager started where I currently am & she makes about double what I make. So it CAN be a sucessful job. Managers dont get paid much differently either. So get off your butts & stop complaining about your job. Make the best of what you have & take advantage of what you DO have. REGIS has had a bad name because of a lot of stylists just being lazy & thats the STYLISTS fault, not the brands.

Or you can always find another job, buy all your supplies, pay your booth rent & so on. Simple.

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