i had been going to a sleb hairdressers exclusive salon for the last 10 years, i used to see the senior stylist but I started having cuts and highlights with his junior because they were so fantastically talented, i saw her by accident and she did the most amazing job on my hair, from then on i booked with her - we got to know each other quite well and she told me she was on minimum wage despite him charging £500 for a cut for a cut with him.... or £1000 for a colour with him - i only ever paid about £40 for a cut or £80 ish for a cut and colour, but she had to flog herself to earn anything like a decent wage as he paid min wage with a small commission for every person. This meant she had to get as many people through her station as possible to make a decent living. She had also modelled some of his products (she is beautiful) and has never been paid for that either despite owning the rights to her own image. The senior stylist had not had any kind of pay rise for the last 8 years. again they are on min wage with commission for every client they see. When they asked about a pay rise there were told to see more clients and so up their commission.
i was disappointed to find morale among his staff terrible. The manager is a souped up idiot with an over inflated ego and sense of importance who bullies those he thinks are a threat. He invaded my privacy once by calling me at home to justify something he had said that had offended me. it was veiled as an apology but wasnt. He was loudly telling the entire salon what idiots the police are because he had been stopped for not wearing a seat belt. He was loud and annoying - i sat there with gritted teeth resisting the temptation to tell him what i did for a living and how many people i had scraped off the road following accidents, i felt i was paying good money to sit and listen to this numpty, hardly what i wanted on my day off.
the young lady i saw had coiffered the locks of the likes of holly willoughby, fern cotton, etc. she is a brilliant hair dresser. She left the profession and went into something completely different that pays a decent wage. (about 22k. twice what she earned at the sleb hair salon)
since she left i decided not to go back and emailed mr sleb to tell him why.
i wonder if it would have been too much after 10 years to expect some kind of reply.
shame on mr sleb. i admit i am shocked at the reality - i thought mr sleb would look after his staff.