After Beauty School, How Hairdressers Make Money

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After Beauty School, How Hairdressers Make Money

Published: December 14, 2007
by Rosanne Ullman

Upon graduation from beauty school, many of you will become hairdressers. You’ll be in charge of your own cosmetology career and able to set the goal of how much money you want to make. Let’s say you decide that your minimum yearly earnings should be $40,000. How to get there depends on your prices and your commission.

Plan Cosmetology Career Earnings after Beauty School

Plan Cosmetology Career Earnings after Beauty School

Now for some calculation. Even if you don’t like math, counting your money is fun, so stick with me! Let’s assume you charge $45 for a hair cut and $55 for a color service, and you earn 40% of every service. That’s realistic, even modest, since some beauty salons pay commissions of 50% and more.

Now the math. Each cut-and-color client you do brings in $100, which earns you $40 in commission. If you do one every two hours, in an eight-hour day you’ll make $40 x 4 clients, or $160. In a week, you’ll earn $160 x 5 days, or $800. In a year, you’ll earn $800 x 50 weeks and reach your goal of $40,000.

Many beauty salons also pay a 10% commission on retail cosmetology products, so selling half your clients a $10 bottle of shampoo or conditioner adds $500 onto your yearly paycheck.

With some double-booking and a shampoo assistant, busy hair stylists can do twice that number of clients and earn $80,000 a year. Or, you can work at a higher-priced beauty salon. Add a couple of perms, straightening services, party updo’s and professional make-up applications, and you can become a real money machine. I’ve seen tons of beauty school graduates do it!