Hiring new stylists can be a bit like dating. The stylist and the salon owner must get to know one another, present their best selves and then find something in common.

Fiona Tolunay, co-owner of Vanity Salon (with mom Glennis and brother Rory) in Houston, Texas, knows just how to make her business irresistible to potential stylists.

“We have a beautiful facility,” she says. “We’re always looking for our next area to remodel and ways to stay current.”

She also feels being family-owned is a plus. “A new hire sees the interaction—my mom still works behind the chair three days a week and my brother and I are co-managing the salon. We work really well together.”

But before she can wow them with modern decor and a family friendly environment, Tolunay has to get new stylists in the door for an interview in an area that’s very competitive for Aveda salons.

Hiring Smart

“We heavily recruit from the Aveda Institute in our area,” says Tolunay. “I was also a graduate of the Institute, so I have an established relationship with educators who know me and what caliber of stylist I want to hire at Vanity,” she adds.

“They will e-mail me and let me know if they have someone ready to graduate that they want to send my way,” she says.

“However, it’s an hour north of our salon and some stylists don’t want to move or commute.”

Also, hiring students right out of school doesn’t always fill all of Tolunay’s available positions. So she has found other ways to lure great staff members to Vanity.

Word-of-mouth has been a great tool that often yields good hires. Vanity boasts a high retention rate, which lets potential new stylists know current staff members are very happy—some have been with the salon since it opened 17 years ago.

“We also go to career fairs and even occasionally hire more seasoned stylists who’ve moved to the Houston area and found us by Googling Aveda salons in the area,” says Tolunay.

Training to Retain

The Vanity Salon Team

Once stylists make it through the interview process, they start in an apprentice role at Vanity. During this time, they work next to an educator, who keeps a close eye on their work to determine what level they will start at. Although many start as new talent, some seasoned stylists start at a senior level.

“New recruits start out with a mentor named Joe,” says Tolunay. “He goes through the journey with them and explains the importance of numbers, trains good habits and behaviors and instills a strong culture in them that parallels with Vanity’s.”

This mental preparation for being a hairdresser has proven to be just as valuable as the technical education, which new stylists do once a week on their day off.

“They’ll start with methodology/terminology,” says Tolunay. “Next they study tools, then blow drying, cutting, color and updos. Each class builds upon previous classes.”

While most stylists take a year to complete the program, everyone is different—some can finish in six months. But as the salon has grown, most apprentices go through the program together and then test out in a staggering fashion.

Once they pass the blow drying portion of the in-salon education, they can start offering guests the “apprentice blow dry” at a discounted price.

“It’s great for them because they interact with guests,” says Tolunay. “Then the guests remember the apprentices and book with them instead of senior stylists, who are harder to get into—a great way to start building their books.”

Fashion Forward Graduation

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Vanity’s in-salon education is the grand finale of testing out.

During their training, new recruits learn 10 to 12 haircuts. To demonstrate their new skills, they must recruit 10 to 12 models to recreate the haircuts in an in-salon fashion show.

They are allowed to work on their models during salon hours, and two weeks prior to their test-out date they get the models done and graded (they must pass eight out of 10 haircuts to move on). The only thing left is the main event.

“They pick their theme, models, music, dress code—everything,” says Tolunay. “We generally hold the shows on a Sunday in the early afternoon.”

Friends, family and the salon team come to watch the show and lend moral support.

“They also do a live cut and tell us what they are doing (what products, sectioning, etc). We are allowed to ask the stylist any questions to see how her wheels are turning.”

The fashion shows usually happen once a year, in the first quarter, and each individual has his or her own show.

While the fashion shows continue to be a much-anticipated aspect of graduation and training, Tolunay knows the recruiting and training process is always evolving.

“Once recruits go through, we look at our program and revamp based on whatever happened,” she says. “For example, now we’re going to start incorporating color into test out. We used to let them do color if they felt like it, but now it’s going to be a requirement.”

Weekly meetings with Joe keep new recruits on target, and questionnaires with honest feedback give Tolunay insight to making changes to the program.

“We’ve also found a training hand book to be really valuable and important to us,” she says. “It backs you up. If they wonder why they have to do something, it’s written down and part of our culture.”

Tolunay advises owners who don’t have a recruiting/training program to research what other salons are doing, then build on that.

“Find what you like and go from there,” she says. “And know it will always evolve.”