Building Your Portfolio

Posted on February 13, 2013 by alex

Pictures are a perfect way to network–portfolios are your best friend as a beauty professional and they’re just a blast to create. Building a portfolio can be taxing but immensely rewarding and are a cosmetologists secret weapon. If you really want to stand out in an interview, they’re the perfect tool. From the beginning of hair school you should have your camera in hand and document EVERYTHING. Whether it be the memories with your fellow classmates or that incredible feeling when you successfully create a design you’ve always wanted to learn–you won’t want to forget a thing. Portfolios should be neat and professional, but don’t hold back on throwing your own personality into them. Gather all your images together and organize them into categories to give the viewer a sense of fluidity. Showcasing your talent will get you ahead within an interview, especially if you attend a group interview where you will essentially be competing with other potential employees. Remember, when you’re getting your first salon job your work does not have to be flawless. Salon owners understand that with a new stylist comes providing them an education, they simply want to see your drive, passion, and personality.

What you need:

A scrapbook (found at your local arts & crafts store)
Sheets of white or black paper
Laminated pages (usually contained within scrapbook)
Resume
A personalized “Cover page”
Scissors
Glue or Tape

Run over to your local art supply store and pick up a simple scrapbook; black or white works best but don’t be afraid to get a little creative with it. They come with some different designs but again, keep it fun yet professional. Here’s mine:

I went for the simpler approach when it came to my chosen scrapbook, I saved all my flare for my title page and how I went about organizing my individual sections.

Title Page:

Creating your title page is the first thing (other than your resume) that your portfolio should contain. I created a template on Word that had pictures surrounding the text and just wrote a small paragraph of when my career began, where my education took place, some of the competitions/extracurriculars I participated in, and where my work has been featured. Don’t worry if you don’t have all of those things under your belt instead give some insight of who you are as a person and as a professional. Here are my first 2 pages within my port:

All you need to do now is organize all of your work into sections: Updos, Cut & Style, Color…etc and just throw it all together either picture by picture or maybe you can come up with a type of collage? Have fun with it. This doesn’t need to be as sleek and professional as a resume. It’s the perfect tool to showcase your talent and creativity. Be creative with it! If you have an interest in make up then attach another section showcasing some of your work, you never know if the salon your looking at also has a type of make up program.

That’s all you’ll need! Keep your portfolio in mind while you’re still in school, think of how you’ll appear on paper. Make sure to document everything…chances are you can throw it into your resume and portfolio. Start your career in beauty today!