A salon owner opening your CV assumes the trial will show how you cut. What she wants from the page is narrower: which services you can take on in your first week, at what level, and whether a client is safe in your chair. A strong hairdresser CV answers that between two appointments.
What salon owners and chain managers check first
Two kinds of reader open these applications. The owner of an independent salon often reads on her phone while a colour develops, and she is asking whether you can fill the column she has empty. A chain manager works down a list instead: qualification level, services on the menu, hours that need cover, and whether you can slot into the group's own training.
Neither wants a paragraph about your passion for hair. Put these near the top of the page:
- Your title and level, in the wording salons use, such as junior stylist or senior stylist
- Your qualification, with the level stated
- The services you do without supervision
- Your availability, including Saturdays and late evenings
Availability earns more space than most people give it, because a salon's busiest hours are everyone else's time off. If you can do every Saturday and one late night, that sentence belongs in the top third of the page, ahead of any list of strengths.
Qualifications and services: say exactly what you can do
Name the qualification the way a salon would recognise it. In the UK that is often an NVQ Level 2 or Level 3 in hairdressing, and in other countries the label changes, so anyone applying abroad should add a plain description beside it. The level matters because it tells an owner how much supervision to plan for. Give the college or training salon and the date, then add short product courses only if they match the job. Once that list grows, our piece on where certifications go on a CV helps you decide what to cut.
Then describe services by how independently you do them, rather than as one long line of skills. "Colouring" tells a salon very little. "Full head and partial foils, balayage and toners unsupervised; colour correction alongside a senior" tells the owner what she can book you for today and what still needs someone beside you.
The same goes for everything else on your menu:
- Cutting: restyles, clipper work and fades, curly and textured hair
- Finishing: blow-dries, occasion hair, bridal trials
- Technical work: perms, extensions, smoothing treatments
List only what you would happily demonstrate at a trial, because you may be asked to. Skin tests and consultations deserve a line as well. Requirements differ by product and country, but saying that you carry out allergy alert tests and keep client records is worth more than another adjective.
Photos belong behind a link
Don't paste photos into the file. They inflate it, and they can vanish when an application system strips the layout. One link to a gallery or a professional Instagram account is enough, as long as the work shown is yours and the clients agreed to appear. For the balance between the two documents, read what a CV still has to prove next to a portfolio.
Client book and rebooking: only figures you can source
A number about your clients is useful only if you can say where it came from. If the salon's booking software shows your regular clients or your rebooking over a period, you can quote it and name the source: "around 70 regular clients over 12 months, from the salon's booking system." An owner will ask, and that sentence survives the question.
If you have no system to read from, leave the figure out and describe the work instead. "Built a regular column over three years at one salon" is honest and still says something. A rounded guess from memory is the line most likely to fall apart at interview.
Never suggest that clients will follow you. Any owner who has lost a stylist reads "I can bring my clients" as a warning about what you would do to her, and in many countries employment contracts include non-solicitation clauses, so read yours and check the rules where you work.
Employed or renting a chair
Salons need to know which arrangement you were in, so state it on each line: "Stylist, employed" or "Self-employed, chair rental." Rental means you ran your own bookings and supplies, which is a real point in your favour. Going back to an employed role raises a fair question, though, about whether you will accept the salon's prices, rota and product range, so answer it in one line.
Employment status rules differ between countries, so describe what you did and avoid legal labels you are unsure of. For the wider question of presenting self-employed work, see our freelance CV guide.
Beauty therapists: same logic, different menu
A beauty therapist resume follows the same reasoning, and the reader is often the same kind of person: a spa manager or a salon owner with a treatment room to fill. Lead with your level, which in the UK may be an NVQ Level 2 or Level 3 in beauty therapy, then group treatments so they can be scanned:
- Skin: facials, peels where you are trained to perform them
- Hair removal: waxing, threading
- Hands and feet: manicure, pedicure, gel
- Eyes and brows: lash lifts, tints, brow shaping
- Body: massage, spray tanning
Named product training matters here, since a spa that stocks a particular skincare brand would rather not train you on it from scratch. Some treatments need a separate licence or specific insurance in some places, so check the rules where you work and mention what you hold.
A full example
Here is a complete CV for an invented stylist. The person, salons and figures are fictional.
Maya Holloway
Senior stylist, Leeds. maya.holloway@example.com. Portfolio: gallery link goes on this line.
Profile
Senior stylist with seven years in busy town-centre salons. Colour specialist, unsupervised on balayage and foils, available every Saturday and Thursday late night.
Experience
Senior stylist, employed, Fern and Thread Hair, Leeds, 2021 to present
- Run a full column of cuts and colour, with around 70 regular clients over 12 months, from the salon's booking system
- Train two apprentices on consultations and colour application
- Carry out allergy alert tests and keep client records for every colour client
Stylist, employed, The Copper Comb, Wakefield, 2017 to 2021
- Moved from assisted colour to a full colour column
- Became the salon's first contact for bridal trials
Qualifications
- NVQ Level 3 in Hairdressing, Wakefield Training College, 2017
- NVQ Level 2 in Hairdressing, Wakefield Training College, 2015
- Advanced colour correction, two-day course, 2022
Services
Balayage, foils, toners, restyles, curly hair cutting, occasion hair, bridal trials.
Notice what is missing. There are no star ratings for skills and no claim about clients moving with her.
Before you send it
Read the page as the owner would, and check you can answer "where does that number come from?" for every figure on it. Then match the services at the top to the ones in the job advert, and test your portfolio link on a phone. If your history already sits on LinkedIn, Postulit can turn that profile into a CV draft, and you can then rewrite the services section by hand using the levels above. Send it with one line saying which days you can start a trial.