advice from anyone working as a beauty therapist/massage therapist

[iva555]

I have a friend who is thinking of starting a course in beauty therapy NVQ level 2. As I have no experience in that sort of area could any of you mums help me out on this one. Any tips, advantages and disadvantages for this kind of job. She also has interest in massage and aromatherapy. What can I advice her? thank you all

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i know that a friend of mine decided to do this...spent a couple years in school for the training and spent 6 months actually being a beauty therapist. she got soo annoyed with the attitude her clients had towards her she's now going to lawschool. but then again she needed something that was tough to challenge her.

Don't know anythign about NVQs or much about beauty therapy but if she wants to do massage/aromatherapy then she needs to make sure that she does an ITEC valid course.
She must also do a course in anatomy and physiology as part of that or the training is hardly worth it.

Beauty therapy vs. massage/aromatherapy - well, depends on how much she wants to be waxing really, or whether she is just after doing the massage. Mostly you end up working for yourself, either from home, going to people's houses or in some kind of clinic/ salon.
Working in clinic/ salon involves rental agreement (hourly rate or percentage of takings) but provides more clients; working from home good once you have clients but less secure until you know them plus you have to have your own massage table (outlay);
going to people's houses is quite heavy going in terms of massage because you need to take your own table, beauty therapists generally have less heavy equipment.
this might be useful on beauty therapy and this for massage/aromatherapy.

HTH

forgot to mention that I am a practising deep tissue massage therapist and have been for 8 years now - still enjoy it and have many loyal regulars.

thank you very much to both of you I guess she will have to do a lot more research before embarking on any kind of course.

ive just completed VTCT level 3 holistic therapies course covering aromatherapy, swedish body massage,reflexology, IHM and holistic facial. it was mre work than i'd anticipated, but i enjoyed it!

Sorry to lead thread off on a tangent but I have a question...

Thumbwitch - Is deep tissue massage the same as lymphatic massage or similar? Does it help to relieve water retention and bloating after surgery?

i did a vctc facial massage course in september, it was a 16 week course, i am starting a year coure in reflexology and an 16 week course in indian head massage, tell your friend to check our her local collage, most will offer part time evening courses in most holistic therapys such as body massage, they will most likely be done in single courses so she can pick and choose the treatments she wants to learn and not have to do the treatment she doesnt enjoy which she will have to do if she does the full nvq. im doing it this way because the thought of doing waxing, nails and make up bores me but i love all the relaxing holistic therapys. hope this helps. xxxx

dh's cousin did a beauty therapy course, she stuck it for a year.

Mil is an aroma therapist and she successfully ran her own business for 10 years before giving it up to relocate to Devon.

The one thing I'll say about the aroma therapy/massage business is that it can be very difficult to get off the ground, because it's a very sensitive thing to advertise and you will get some very dodgy enquiries (mil used to get calls from men asking if they did groin massage/extras... you get the picture). After a couple of years she had regular clients and would only take referrals, ie friends/family of clients so no longer had the need to advertise. But when she moved she decided that getting a business off the ground in a new place would be very difficult and she didn't want to go back to that.

Plus if you run a business from home (mil did, and had a room adapted) you need to be careful as you really don't know who is coming round for a "massage".

She loved it though and her business did very well.

Amandoh - no, deep tissue massage is a very intense massage designed to release tension in muscles. Lymphatic drainage massage is very light and specific, designed to aid the delicate lymph vessels to drain and thus relieve bloating. Anyone recovering from surgery would not want a deep tissue massage as it can be quite uncomfortable.
If you can't find someone who does lymphatic drainage, sometimes reflexology can work wonders in relieving bloating (don't ask how, it's one of those "it just works, we don't understand how but it does" things)
Aromatherapy massage is generally lighter in touch and some of the oils can help in reducing bloating so that might be another option, but depends on what the surgery you're talking about was for - some of the oils are not to be used in certain health conditions.

HTH

Following on from wannabe's post: If your friend chooses to go into massage, it is wiser to go into a clinic at first to avoid the dodgy clients - even there you aren't immune from it, I had a couple of "interesting" near misses with clients who had misunderstood the nature of the clinic - it wasn't a problem because there were always other people in the building who could have come to my aid if necessary. A good clinic receptionist will usually manage to weed out the dodgy blokes.

Since having DS 6 1/2 months ago, I have been working from home for the last 4 months BUT only seeing very few regular clients who I know pretty well. I wouldn't dream of taking on anyone new at home. Apart from personal safety issues, (& DS safety issues), it wrecks your insurance.

Any decent massage training course will give some kind of "setting up your own business" training as well, which will cover these issues. NB Decent training courses can last for about a year and cost more.

Thumbwitch - Thank you for taking the time and trouble to reply. It was most helpful.

I work in a local college and i'm sure like ours her local college would offer a range of PT & FT courses. Or alternatively she could think about doing an apprenticeship where she would be based in work 4 days a week with 1 day a week at a college, we do this for Beauty but not Holistics but others might. If she rang up her local college i'm sure they'd be happy to send her out a course descriptor or prospectus for each course which would go into detail of what is involved on each course to help her decide. She could also do both possibly, one full time and one in the evening.

thank you all very much for your help.I spoke with her this morning and seems like she is pretty well informed about the choices of courses out there. she mentioned something about the London College of beauty therapy or something. Well she is doing a degree full time but also wants to learn some vocational skills.Would you say that it is worth it going into the beauty industry like pay wise I mean and how easy it is to find a job?

the beauty therapists I know are all self-employed and work in clinics. It's a matter of checking in local clinics if thye have room rental space. Income is dependent on how many clients they get, which can take a while to build up a good client base. The more treatment options offered, the broader (and therefore bigger) the client base.
They can be employed in salons/ health spas but I don't know how good the pay is; probably similar to hairdressers in similar situations?
LSBT will definitely give business training, I'm sure.

sorry for the direct question thumbswith but would you say you are satisfied with your job -emotionally and financially?

aha, now there is a question..
I am satisfied emotionally definitely because I love what I do and have a great rapport with all my clients - those I didn't have such a great time with didn't repeat visit. We have great chats about all sorts of things, from health to politics, and always have a laugh (best medicine).

Financially - I made the decision that I personally couldn't cope with the uncertainty of being fully self-employed; not knowing whether I would be making enough to cover the bills would have driven me nuts, so I also have a part time employment in a nutrition college, as a lecturer/ administrator, 3 days a week. Before having DS, I used to work in a clinic 3 half days a week too (Saturday morning inc.) and the combined income was sufficient. It also meant I didn't have to work myself into the ground doing the massage, which is quite a physical job (especially the way I do it! ) just to make ends meet.

I can't say that your friend would get a similar level of satisfaction from beauty therapy - it is a very different kettle of fish as the clientele are often very different and I can see why some people who have been mentioned in posts here would give it up. Without wanting to come across as too judgmental, beauty therapists can be seen as being on the airhead side (even though many of them aren't!); probably because, by the very nature of the job, there will be lots of conversations about hair, nails, fake tan, make-up, skin care, bikini lines, wrinkles etc. and some people might view this as frivolous and shallow (thanks to WAGs and BB)

HTH; and I don't mind answering direct qus

thanks thumbwitch, I personally have thought about it few years back but decided that i wouldn't enjoy waxing people's hair or doing nails because i simply don't have much patience.I didn't want to advise her though as you see I personally wouldn't have liked it.I love massage but if someone does it on me