esthetician

salon receptionist

logistics associate

guest service agent

guest experience manager

Urban Waxx

I've worked at Urban Waxx for the past eight years. Before my time at UW I worked with another waxing salon in the Bay Area for five years, then for myself another year, so I've had plenty of experience in the industry outside of UW.  I can 100 percent state that Urban Waxx is the best employer I've ever had. It's hard to choose where to start with all the things I love about my job, but I'll give it my best go.
UW has provided a foundation for me where I've felt job security, listened to, and valued. This allowed me the space to start working on myself. I was able to fully get out of debt, start a retirement through UW, get health care through UW, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and build a substantial savings. 
The management team is so straight forward and professional. In our industry there will always be moments where customers aren't happy with your work and I've never once felt like a bad review has put my job at risk. Management has always come to me with curiosity on the situation, never judgment,  and together we've worked to make a plan for me to be better in the future. I've felt listened to, understood and they've always made it very clear that they have my back and that they want me to be the best waxer I can possibly be. We have yearly reviews where we evaluate our performance and set goals for what we want to work on moving forward. These reviews have always felt really constructive and help me refocus on the areas that I want to improve on.
My waxing skills have improved so much in my time with UW. They have an amazing training program when you start so you aren't thrown in with guests before you're ready. Even as an experienced waxer when I started at UW, I still found this training to be hugely beneficial. 
I love the group of women I work with. There are tons of fun group bonding activities that help bring us closer. For example we do a week long activity once a month where we work together as a team to answer a bingo board of questions for each other and if every team member answers a question and you get them all done you win a small prize. Then if you do all the bingo boards you win a party where your team votes on what they want to do. Last year we went bowling and they paid for the entire experience. We also get bonuses twice a year. When we get our bonus checks they throw us a big party where you can win prizes according to how well you did in different categories. In the winter there's generally an event with a dress up theme like prom or red carpet and in the summer we also have a park style event where we do an activity like kickball. 
They recently rolled out new benefits where they automatically give us our birthdays off if we want, a ten day sabbatical, and they pay for our vacations periodically depending on a few factors. I'm using this to pay for my honeymoon next year!
The day to day at my job is fun and fast paced. You do stand a lot so shoes with good support are a must. I work three 10 hour shifts and one 5 hour shift. I get two 15 minute breaks and one 45 minute lunch break. The time passes before you know if and then I have 3 days off. 
I've never had a hard time getting time off. You just have to get your shifts covered. When my grandpa unexpectedly passed away and I had to help with that for a week I never felt pressured to rush back to work and they were nothing but supportive while I grieved. 
To sum this all up, I literally can't find anything bad to say about UW. Getting this job has changed my life for the better and I'm so grateful to work for such an amazing company. I consider myself to be extremely lucky to be a part of the Urban Wax team. 

I’ve worked for urban Waxx about a year, during my time there I’ve witnessed high turn over rates, lack of support for employees, and broken systems and policies. When I first started out within 3 months of working here, I’ve seen around 10 employees quit. They have a very strict attendance policy. If you are someone who has other obligations such as children, I highly don’t recommend working here. Once you start working it is very hard to get a schedule change or schedule time off.  There’s very little room to grow or reward for hard work, there is no commission for retail sales. And if you’re not the top 5 out of 65 you won’t get much of anywhere. Most employees I’ve worked with including myself felt stuck at our commission rate. During meetings over write ups or attendance issues, I personally felt there was no trying to resolve the issue. Which leaves the impression that there is a lack of support and  appreciation for their employees. It’s great training and experience, although I wouldn’t be there longer than a couple months. My advice to management would be to get back into the field, to relate to workers more to better a work life balance, work culture, etc. As well as possible HR training, looking for better ways of communicating and understanding their employees.

As a newly licensed esthetician I was thrilled that Urban Waxx got back to me right away after I applied through indeed. Right off the bat I was so impressed with both their organization and communication skills. Usually applying to a job is a long drawn out (and stressful) ordeal, not the case with Urban Waxx.
 
I  was also so grateful that they took a chance on me even though I am a rookie waxer. I felt very supported during the entire interview process and felt like they were excited for me to be my authentic self!  Now that I have worked for Urban Waxx for several months I can say that I still feel so much support and appreciation.  The training I received was AMAZING and now I really feel confident in my skills. 

But even more importantly about working here, is how wonderful our guests are. Our clients really open themselves up to you. Most services feel more like catching up with a friend over coffee, rather than work. Every day I am amazed by the connections I get to make and the fact that I get paid to do so! It helps my shifts go by so fast and it makes me look forward to going to work!

Oh, and as a skincare nerd, the wonderful discounts we get on the products is pretty sweet too ;)

Come work with us!



I first started the job excited but nervous. Training was so in depth and truly makes you a better esthetician. Within my first year I started rebooking so many guests. People who trusted me with the skills given by Urban Waxx. My waxing became fast and thorough. The management team all have their specific roles and it's works so smoothly. Everything is basically taken care of for you and you just show up and perform. The workplace culture is set with some great morals we all believe in. My favorite is Waxx happy. It's sentimental for me because I'm moving states and I don't think I would've left this job if I wasn't relocating. Waxing happy is truly what I did daily. I was so taken care of that my happiness reflected to my clients.  I got to have my dream schedule (work/life) balance. There isn't any necessarily "hard part" of the job because there are so many supportive co workers there for you. The most enjoyable part of the job is your clients and watching them smile after they leave, trust you with their waxing/skincare needs, and watching your co workers grow into successful estheticians. 

I was really excited to start at Urban Waxx. The training was great and they really made sure they set you up for success. The culture is wonderful and my co-workers were amazing. Their compensation was pretty nice with lots of opportunity for raises that were easy to obtain. I felt valued, until life events happened. They pride themselves on work/life balance and how supportive they are of it, but I found that was not the case. Several times a week you are called to see if you can cover a shift even if you're marked as unavailable for being on-call. While the extra hourly compensation is great, it doesn't necessarily make up for anything. If you have a family emergency or life event that happens and you need to call out for the day it does not matter to them in the end NO MATTER what the situation is. It will be held against you. I understand that work and home life need to be separate. But sometimes that's just not possible. If you call out, you will be seen as unreliable and not stable enough. They don't truly care about your well-being even though they say "we are family." Work/life balance and understanding/support? I don't think so. Look elsewhere if you value yourself.

Loved working there but moved. I miss the atmosphere, fellow employees and their pay system so much. The pay is fair and in your hands like no other salon I have worked for. They reward you for your hard work and they don’t make you do two peoples jobs to earn a good living. Bottom line… they pay really well compared. They also don’t shove numbers and product sales down your throat. They have monthly bonus opportunities for top 5 in sales. The products they have are actually great quality. They get how waxers have to move around the room a lot and have our supplies on carts! So much easier! They also have 3 different waxes for the best possible wax on any given body part you are waxing. Training is absolutely 100% on point. And their trainer is so good at her job. The bosses/owner/management are the best in the business. They communicate well and they have realistic expectations. They love their employees and celebrate with big parties and big prizes twice a year. The people that work there, for the most part, are genuine and kind. I miss this establishment dearly. 

I've been employed by Urban Waxx for several years. It has definitely evolved over that time but always for the better. I love the people I work with and the culture. It's been fun being able to establish such great relationships with my coworkers and guests at UW. We do regular culture check-ins with management on Zoom so we get to see them pretty often! Even the founder joins the check-ins, you don't get to have facetime with the owner of a larger company very often so that's pretty cool! All my interactions with management have been positive, it seems like they really care about employee success and happiness. 

They also try and make things fun & engaging. Every month or so we do a spirit week where we play a bingo board for prizes! There is another platform we use for other perks like getting points to get gift cards or items.

I was really happy first working at UW. It had stable consistent hours, the pay was great, they offered benefits, etc. the only thing that drove me away was the hours. They cut your hours drastically to avoid the company falling down. It didn’t seem that way, but they did this with every employee. There was nothing we could do about it. It drove me away since I couldn’t afford to live off the little hours they gave. The dress code sucks- we could only wear 3 neutral colors, no jeans, and no fun colors. You stand the entire time. There is no chair allowed. I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who is unable to stand for 5-8 hours at a time. You do get breaks, but it doesn’t justify that you’re standing at the desk the entire time. I was in need of something new. The culture is great. I agree with some parts of it, but it’s millennial based, It’s run by adults yes, but they are based off today’s society and greatly support that. That’s why I would say it needs work.

love the clean upbeat environment in the salons. all waxers and receptionists are so sweet, the only real issue here is management. upon being hired i was super excited to work for a team of supportive women, but it became obvious over time that they unfortunately were not supportive and that all employees here are highly replaceable. as time progressed i felt increasingly unheard and blatantly disrespected by management, fortunately my coworkers had my back. incredibly complicated time off request system, training is intense but doable, expect to stand the entirety of your shift. good benefits for full time employees, but it is difficult to work full time as a receptionist due to lack of available shifts. love the free waxing and discounted products. could be a great company with improved managers!

I have loved working at Urban Waxx. The people really make the place. Everyone is kind and you feel like a team when you are at work. I had not been a part of the beauty industry in the past, but I caught on quickly. From what I have heard from other team members, Urban Waxx is a lot different than other salons in the Portland area in a good way. Getting time off is relatively easy, but you do have to get your own shifts covered. If I have a hard time finding someone to take my shift, I reached out to management and they helped me find coverage. Overall, I am really impressed with the culture and the team environment; I really enjoy the people and our work. It's repetitive in nature and there is a lot of detail involved, but it's a good job for someone in college or fresh out of school. It has taught me a lot about customer service. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Esthetician 14 salaries reported	$81,143 per year
Salon receptionist 5 salaries reported	$16.55 per hour
Logistics associate 1 salary reported	$18.40 per hour
Guest service agent 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour
Guest experience manager 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour

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