We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mallory Wehrung a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mallory, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

After making the hard decision to become an independent hairstylist, one of my first concerns was wondering if I would ever teach again. After 15 years with one company and over 13 of those being in some form of education, I was feeling grief for a big part of my identity in the beauty industry. Covid changed so much about our salon life, but it also halted education for a significant period of time.

When I was still in my position as an Education Director, I noticed the newest generation of stylists coming out of school with a very different attitude about their “5 Year Plan”. They didn’t see the value in a 1-2 year long assisting program the way myself and many others had almost 2 decades prior. The rent was ‘too damn high’ and the world was saturated with fresh online education post-covid. This was making it hard to justify making minimum wage + tips for over a year just to receive education in turn for long hours and no daily hands-on experience. There had to be a new way.

Luckily, the owner of the new salon I chose to work with shared this concern and also wanted to get education back in his salons. With my co-worker and colorist counterpart, we discussed our perspectives based on our owner’s background in business and ours teaching at various levels. Our vision was a hybrid of booth rental and assistant programs with the good from both without the bad. This new program would offer the flexibility and write-offs of an independent business owner with the safety net of a team behind you for weekly classes, marketing and constant client building.

Interviewing together helps to find highly motivated individuals who want to work hard, learn quickly and build a book of clients in the process. There are no longer only 2 paths to becoming a busy stylist. Whereas previously a booth-rental stylist would be on their own to find (and pay for) advanced education, they now have free classes and the opportunity to assist any of our 3 salon’s staff to learn. At the same time, a stylist looking for an assistant program isn’t beholden to an employer’s work schedule and program timeline in order to start building their own book of clients (and making real money). Though our model is a only few months old, we are already seeing the massive success in our first 3 candidates.

As the candidates join and become Junior Stylists, we assess their current strengths based on our combined program outline and begin booking them, at minimum, with Shampoo + Blowdrys until they begin to add more services to their books. Each week in class we assess their work on models with consultations, hair color. haircutting and styling. The goal is for each Junior Stylist to feel confident in their abilities on multiple occasions with every technique before offering that service to clients. We are already seeing their confidence soar, books become busier and the passion to learn increase more and more. Moving forward we hope to influence other salons to take this approach in their own Education Programs.

Mallory, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My business is Mallory Wehrung Hair and I work at Hair Drezzers on Fire at Bay Park. I started my career 18 years ago at Paul Mitchell the School San Diego and have been a haircutting specialist, educator and stylist ever since. When I first started in the industry it was common to specialize in either haircutting or color and I have always gravitated towards the geometry and architecture of classic haircutting. I later trained in New York with Bumble and bumble to learn Razor Cutting, Bb.Curl, Advanced Styling and became a Regional Educator. I spent 12 years training and teaching with Bumble and had the opportunity to work backstage at New York Fashion Week in 2016.

The following year I became a mother and had to find a new version of work/life balance. Having a child definitely opened my mind to becoming an independent stylist for the first time. I worked at the same salon for almost 16 years and couldn’t imagine walking away, until my son needed me to be more flexible. Last year I made the move and started my own company which was both the scariest and most rewarding choice I have ever made. Though there is always loss of clients in any transition, I am happy to say that I am busier than ever (on my own terms) and I am still able to see my family every morning and evening.

In addition to teaching, I am always grateful to have a full book of clients. I specialize in cutting curly hair, razor cuts, shags and styling for all occasions. My favorite part of working with clients is consulting before each appointment to determine their current needs, frustrations and hopes for their hair. I always want to create a relationship built on trust within our first meeting so that we can map out a hair journey in the coming months. I am proud of my ability to connect with each person in my chair and really listen to their concerns.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I love using referral cards in the salon to encourage clients to pass my information along to friends, family and anyone that compliments them. The cards offer a $20 off promotion for the new client’s first appointment with me and the existing client will receive $20 off their next service. I find this double benefit gets people super excited to take cards home and I see such an influx of new bookings!

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Personally, I find organization to be a big key to success when managing a team. As an educator, setting expectations for my students allows transparency throughout the program. This way everyone knows they are being held to the same standards and know what to expect moving forward. In addition, I find checking in weekly with each staff member keeps morale high and communicates where they stand in the program.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mallorywehrunghair.com/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/mallorywehrunghair
• Other: https://booking.mangomint.com/257283?staffId=19

Image Credits
Mallory Wehrung