Salons Need Employees/Employees Need Pay

18 Jan 202218 Jan 2022 ~ Joseph Kellner

I Have been a Hairdresser/Makeup Artist in the Beauty Industry for 30 years now. And I have never, ever seen a industry that takes advantage of there employee’s before in my whole professional life. The sit and wait policy is still going on in the industry. Which means you will wait for a walk-in client and get no pay what so ever. Not even a salary for someone first starting out in the profession. Owners will ask you to answer the phone, fold towels, sweep the floor, dust the retail shelves and all sorts of free labor they can get out of you. It’s called taking advantage of a human being. Getting what they can for nothing. Is the usual norm in the Beauty Industry. Look at Great Clips they are a tip based company and nothing more. You are required to clean the salon, answer the phone, fight with others for a walk-in customer, dust shelves, do laundry and close the store for only tips. And they will say they give you $9.00 a hour which if you go through your payroll check you are just getting tips. If they gave you $9.00 a hour plus tips you would be getting something to at least pay for your gas and electric bill.

In no other professional industry are you required to work for free. And they are expected to do free labor. Employee’s need to stop this way of abuse. With the Covid Virus running throughout the United States a lot of Beauty Industry Professionals decide to sit and wait it out and receive federal and state unemployment. Which for some was close to $800.00 biweekly. Finally receiving a decent wage for once, they took the time to really look at re-training and moving into a better profession. Having taken the time to see value in there work and taking professional responsibility in there training and advanced training. What more could a employer ask for. In the beauty Industry to a employer it means nothing. How can a person go to work worrying about there rent, insurance, daycare, food, etc. Beauty Industry owners do not care, they have to over head to worry about and will categorize you a a commission employee to stay away from tax’s. But will expect from the employee to do the responsibility’s of a paid employee.

So having a commission employee means nothing to a salon owner, they have to pay no salary, and will not worry about YOU. Even if you have to pay for your mortgage or buy groceries. The salon owner simply collects profit from the hair dresser. Simple scheme. And if you are going to get a salary you will be doing everything and even see your hours cut. And probably let employees go. The times need to change for all.

If you go on Indeed.com you will see a abundance of Beauty Industry jobs posted by Sport Clips, Great Clips, HairCuttery, JCPenneys, Regis Corporation, Hair Masters. They are on a constant basis asking for Stylists, Asst Managers and Managers. WHY? Because they do not pay there employee’s at all. Not even nickels and dimes. Stylist have gotten wise to the profession and come to the conclusion you cannot make a living in it anymore what so ever. Maybe 30 years ago but not anymore. And if you cannot afford to take care of your employees, don’t open a business you will not last long. Restaurant Corporations have become wise now, Hourly wages and higher benefits are abundant, Just look at Target, Walmart, Aldi’s they start there employees at $13.00 hourly now. And if you need a job they are “HIRING” signs all over.

Job’s are plentiful for all now. Wages are better now. But don’t count on making living in the Beauty Industry. The corporations are in control of it all. And they have completely raped it of everything.

LOreal Misleading Again!

13 Nov 201413 Nov 2014 ~ Joseph Kellner

So Many hairdressers in my industry use LOreal hair color and there products. And so many don’t take the time to really find out that they are in competition with there manufacturer. Who will pledge allegiance too you and will send the “Best Snake Oil Salesman”, too you to inform you on the usage of there color and products that you can buy on the internet. You don’t really understand the how good these company’s are doing you wrong and also to the beauty industry.

Here is a good tidbit to chew on and to really think about how these company’s work behind the scenes to squeeze out every nickel and dime from there products. Advertising can be very misleading to the professional and to the consumer. Go ahead and click on the link first for the complaint and read about the case filed in court.

November 2013: A federal judge denied final approval of a class-action lawsuit against L’Oréal USA, Inc. The complaint, originally filed in April 2013, alleged that the company misleadingly markets professional hair care products as only available for purchase in salons when the products are actually available for purchase in major retail outlets. According to the settlement terms, the company agreed to remove the misleading labels from the product packages for a period of five years. The Court rejected the settlement because (1) the salon-only purchasers and the retail outlet purchasers had different interests and so the class certification, a requirement for settlement, was inappropriate; and (2) the settlement was not fair, reasonable, and adequate because the company only agreed to stop the misleading labeling for a limited time and the class received no monetary award. (Richardson et al v. L’Oreal, Case No. 13-cv-00508, District of D. C.).

You the professional LEGALLY HAS the full liability of the products you use in the salon. You purchase them, you bought them, there yours. Once a product is purchased you have hold full liability. Take the time to know your salon products, color line, hair care line. Know everything about the distributor, and also the manufacturer. And of course in my Beauty Industry there are organizations such as the (PBA.com – Who says they are the legal eagle of the industry). (Behind The Chair – This is the Sears & Roebucks of the Beauty Industry), (Hair brained.com – Which basically is what it says it is Hair brained), (Salon Galaxy.com – Which is a copy cat of all the others mentioned). These sites could take the time to influence and to teach there subscribers but have taken the course of self advertising and stimulating there own agenda. So sad! there will come a day when the whole industry is controlled by one or two manufacturers and then don’t say I did not warn you! Wake up sheeple!

Don’t be hood winked.!!!!!!!

Joseph Kellner

2013 In Review For the Real Hair Truth Organization/Jotovi Designs Inc

11 Jan 201422 Jan 2014 ~ Joseph Kellner

The blog (The Real Hair Truth)/organization (Jotovi Designs) did well this past year. The “TRUTHFUL” voice for the industry will always be here on this page. The truth of the industry will always be written and told by me. Even though you will not find it in Modern Salon, PBA, Salon Galaxy, Hairbrained.me, ETC. And my films will voice the truth of the industry, ‘The Real Hair Truth, The Beautiful Lies”. Thank you everyone for your support the last 7 years. We have did it on our own without the help of industry magazines, websites, or cosmetic brands.

We have funded our books and films on our own and will continue to do so. Jotovi Designs Inc. is not looking for any help financially from any beauty/cosmetic industry brands and will continue to do so! The organization continues to help professionals in the industry and will continue to do so! This year will be the release of the second documentary called “Beautiful Lies”. I thank everyone for their continued support and may all have a wonderful New Year!

Best Regards

Joseph Kellner

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 19,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

L’Oréal Hair Product Class Action Lawsuit Settlement. Burn In Hell!!

25 Dec 201322 Jan 2014 ~ Joseph Kellner

As usual in our industry, See no Evil, Hear no Evil, Speak no Evil. None of the So-called industry websites, comic books, or fan clubs will do no reporting against no major manufacturer in my industry. It is common knowledge for manufacturers to supply the latest and greatest to the industry sheep. For the purpose of increasing the financial pyramid for themselves. No longer is there a honest approach of informing the beauty industry of news about class action lawsuits for the betterment of the industry. WHY YOU SAY? Because industry giants sustain the beauty industry and give financial backing to the comic books, websites and fan clubs. If one of the three prior mentioned “bite” the hand that feeds them there would be no existence for that website, or magazine or organization. So in general you will not know who, what, where in this industry. You will be led unless you do any investigative work by yourselves.

L’Oréal USA Inc. has reached a class action lawsuit settlement over claims it falsely marketed shampoo, condition and styling products under the Matrix, Kérastase, Redken and Pureology brand names.Under the proposed settlement agreement, L’Oréal will modify the labels of these products to remove certain misleading language.

The L’Oréal settlement will resolve a class action lawsuit (Richardson v. L’Oréal USA Inc.) that alleges L’Oréal misled consumers into believing they could only purchase the Matrix, Kérastase, Redken and Pureology products exclusively in professional salons, when consumers can purchase the products in major retail outlets.

L’Oréal denies any wrongdoing, but has agreed to a class action lawsuit settlement to resolve the litigation.

Class Members of the L’Oréal class action settlement include all consumers nationwide who purchased the L’Oréal products for personal, family or household use on or after August 30, 2008. There is no monetary benefit for Class Members. Instead, L’Oréal has agreed to remove from the labeling of these hair products the following “claims”:

“for sale only in professional beauty salons”;
“exclusive salon distribution”;
“exclusive to Kérastase consultant salons”;
“only professional”;
“only in salon”;
“sold exclusively in salons”;
“available only at fine salons and spas”;
“available only at fine salons”; and
similar claims in English or other languages which may be read as suggesting availability for purchase exclusively in professional salons.

Since there is no monetary benefit for Class Members, there is no claim filing deadline. If you wish to object to the L’Oréal product class action settlement, you must do so by September 11, 2013.

Will the industry inform you about this?

NO THEY WONT, MY FRIENDS.

THEY WILL NOT!

Because the industry is L’oreal, And they do not want you to know any wrong about these companies. God Forbid they would reach out to you and explain the particulars of this lawsuit and tell you how to apply for claims.

Gerard Scarpaci, Joshua Flowers, Javier VanHuss Show there true professionalism on Hairbrained.me!

2 Sep 201317 Sep 2013 ~ Joseph Kellner


My dear friends please excuse the language from these individuals this is a editorial about my first documentary, “The Real Hair Truth” from a blog called Hairbrained.me.

Reply by Javier VanHuss on December 6, 2010 at 6:27pm: the only real hair truth here is that you are probably one of those dudes who has a couple buttons missing from the top of your shirt, peddling your industry “know how” through whatever book or dvd it is that you cooked up.you dont know anything about my payment formula, my in salon education program, or much else for that matter.this industry is much like the railroads of america, built on cheap labor that helps everyone for the greater good. sure, im using young kids fresh out of beauty school instead of chinese immigrants, but thats neither here nor there.the only thing really bringing me down right now is fuckdumps like you who try to tell everyone what the “real truth” is, when you probably dont have a fucking clue yourself.eat shit.

Permalink Reply by Michael Sean Georgianni on December 9, 2010 at 4:42pm

When I started just eight years ago, I assisted for two years with two to three other jobs to pay my bills. I did this just so I could get a better than school education. I’m just now opening my own salon from scratch. People booth rent mostly because they want to scam on their taxes and not take any responsibility as a group. As far as education goes, it’s your responsibility when you take a job, to see if it’s really being offered. I still buy food and everything else just the way it was first made up.So why shouldn’t I have the same payment structure that has be working for this long? Even before lazy, crying stylist who can’t promote themselves. It’s called business and if you can’t do it then shut it. It is very hard to get the proper training to be a great hair stylist and it’s very hard to own your own business. So the real hair truth is man up and get yours with pride. Just like the rest of us.

Permalink Reply by nicole ely on December 10, 2010 at 6:45am

I am sure there are lazy crying employees not matter where you work. Sometimes they are lazy and sometimes they are crying because of work organization and conditions. Wow! it is sad to realize that this seems to be the common thought about stylists on this subject. Hopefully, this is a statement of a few and not the majority.

I think sylists attitude can be directly related to their environment, pay structure and lack of benefits. Some salon’s take a large percentage of the ticket plus a large service charge on top of that. How this is managed is directly related to how attutdes are in salon’s. Why should syslists not push for the highest pay, best benefits and a well run business. Do we strive for this? No, it’s commission we want. Why not get the added benefits if offered? Some are offering and the one’s who can afford it are organized, successful work environments. I have felt first hand the struggle of a new business owner to get employee’s to work for little to nothing. In reality something appealing has to be offered, because the competion for good hairstylists is great. Don’t forget the noncompetes and lack of access to client info in case you decide to go elsewhere.

It seems desperate to make the statement that stylists are lazy freeloaders just because they don’t want to go into a businesss (that they don’t know) and be expected to build the business for nothing or on the hope they might get one of their three walk in’s a day.

Permalink Reply by nicole ely on December 6, 2010 at 2:37pm

One thing I found out about myself is that I was alot better hairstylist than owner and manager. That is why there are hair salon’s on every corner. Just because you are a good hairstylist does not mean you should own a business. There are so many out there starving for hairstylists and assistants. Not all of us are going to be an Arrojo and so on. If you are unable to get people to work for you at commission only, and you can’t pay people to work for you. You are paying an enormous amount for booth rent. 😦

Permalink Reply by Todd Phillip on December 6, 2010 at 7:14pm

It really comes down to what kind of a business you run.If you are a new business and have little overflow of new clientele, with under capitalized business funding for PR and Marketing which would bring that flow to the table…I would have to say there would be no way to provide a “base guarantee”…I would never use the word salary as it is separate from a commissioned employee.With that being said the simple answer to such an applicant would be you would feed him when you can but he would need to be proactive in self-promotion and you as a business owner would need to give a better percentage on the commission…but no guarantee as that would be needed for business cost and development.
As for the statement said that the salon is responsible for 20% of the clientele,..It sound out of proportion but then again there are different business structures..if that is the case and the stylist is providing 80% of the clientele then it would be likely that the stylist would have a high commission percentage, and vis/versa

Permalink Reply by Javier VanHuss on December 7, 2010 at 1:10pm

so, what IS the % of clientele that a salon owner is responsible to provide? if the answer is above 50%, then whats the point of urging stylists to promote themselves?i opened a salon for one reason, because i couldnt find a place to work. bottom line. i never wanted to be an owner, and to tell you the truth i struggle with it. but im doing the best i can in a cut throat industry, where i literally have 6 competitors within walking distance.my initial question was because i am encountering a LARGE amount of applicants from Paul Mitchell The School (a couple miles down the road), who don’t even feel like they need to assist (a whole other discussion) and who think that they can make 100K in their first year out of school because thats what they have seen on stage.when i assisted, in like 2001-2002, you got hourly as an assistant and then once that was done, you were on your own. i worked for a chain (30+ salons) and that was the way it was in the entire company.
i had never even heard of salary for a stylist until about 4 years ago, when a salon i had previously worked for was paying stylists an hourly wage and that was it. no commission on top of that, and you were basically a slave to the salon. sure, great if you had a slow day/week but not much room for advancement.
the only other place i had heard of an hourly wage was Supercutz, etc.

Permalink Reply by JoshXO Fighting!!! on December 8, 2010 at 10:32pm

BWAHHAAHAHAHA….. wow. I have never seen such blatent Douchebaggery in all my years on the internet. Lets go ahead and break your post down now, shall we?It is very sad to see you profile picture matches your IQ, Business owners like you (wannabee) will not ever rise to the cream of the crop. Your listing on this site reminds me of someone who has to been heard and seen because of your lack of professional knowledge and talent. When did you start to become a writer, maybe you should try something else like cleaning toilettes which matches your mouth’s aptitude.. Well after a quick Google search I wanted to see what kind of work Mr. Kellner “Crusader of Hairdressers” actually does. A person I had never “seen” or “heard” of until he came to my favorite little corner of the internet and started peddling his piece of shit “LOOK AT ME!!!” project. HERE ARE SOME OF HIS HAIRDRESSING GEMS AND SKILLS EVERYONE!

Sir if that is the best you can muster after 24 years of being a hairdresser I suggest you should be the one cleaning toilets. You should fire your photographer even though I like her sweet side pony.

I am an owner of 3 salons, Yelp search came up with 1. Unless you own a couple of Fantastic Sam’s franchises. 2 films ( all that have been in film festivals.) Your years in gay porn don’t count. bachelors degree (marketing), What did they teach you? To go on to community sites and spam every thread with pleas for people to buy your movie? Seriously dude go back and ask them for a refund…. I’ll wait. 24 years of being a hairdresser. It appears your skill set stop evolving after 10 years. It looks like around 1993 you just said “Fuck it. Im gonna do hair this same way for the rest of my life!” Congratulations dude you wasted almost a quarter of a century doing ugly hair. HIGH FIVE BRO!!! head of the Miss Universe pageants. There is just so much to rip on here about this dog and pony show that’s a cut-rate Miss America pageant, But, I think you just stating it made you look dumb enough. Lets move on. If you need to post a question to get the answers to a simple question you need to leave my profession.

Ya know broseph, THATS WHAT THIS PLACE IS ALL ABOUT. Maybe your to busy pushing your movie to actually read any of the content. But harebrained is a COMMUNITY where hairdressers should feel comfortable posting questions and having other people CONTRIBUTE with their experience and helpful advice. Something you obviously know nothing about. Here’s a link to all the discussions Kellener has replied to and how helpful He’s been http://www.hairbrained.me/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=lzkxf…nothing but peddling. Also please stop staying “My profession” if I am in “Your” profession I’m just going to start calling myself a racecar driver that happens to do hair.I thank you for your blog post and I will encourage professionals to see the example you portray to young professional, and veterans. I’m sure if they had a choice between being an angry fucked like Jav or an irrelevant hypocrite like yourself they would pick Jav.

And by the way I am laughing all the way to the bank everyday for the worldwide sales of my film Selling the backlog of copies that didn’t sell and were sitting in your garage at a flea market in Tijuana is hardly “Worldwide” We help people we don’t belittle them and we tell the story of the profession the way it is! Wow your original post to Jav is in total contrast to this statement oh the ugly face of hypocrisy.

Cant take the truth? Hit the road asshole. No you’re the one coming off like an asshole. Please get the fuck off the internet your just making yourself look worse. A portion of the proceeds from this Documentary will go to a Non-Profit fund for Hairdressers who cannot afford Advanced Education. Why not just give them a copy of your movie? If its as good as you think it is they could afford their own advance training. Perhaps you should keep all the money to yourself and go back to beauty school. Twenty Scholarships will be given out nationwide for licensed Professionals. Videos. Books, Websites, Laptops, and also Advanced Training courses. Seriously dude now your trying to hard. I really dont think with your education or thought patterns you could compete with this project. I poop out a super lowbudget show 3 times a week FOR FREE that I’m sure people get more out of than you little “Movie”

Best Regards.

Go fuck yourself

Ps Brosef Kellener before you decide to get INFRONT of a camera again may I suggest

Permalink Reply by JoshXO Fighting!!! on December 9, 2010 at 12:54am

Oh yeah forgot this fucking gem

The Really Shitty Hair Truth from a fucking senior portrait specialist.
Love the yellow brassy tones there Broseph. Now I’m reeling LOLing about the “My Profession” thing.
Since when was under processed bleach at all professional?
And when typing LOL i really mean it. Some people just type it in text but when I read what you write then see the hair, I really am Laughing Out Loud. You’re the biggest joke and thank you for making my day!!

Permalink Reply by Jose Raphael on January 15, 2011 at 7:51am

Thanks’ ..”That Was Great!

Permalink Reply by Glynn Cathro on February 1, 2011 at 5:16am

I agree!

Permalink Reply by Javier VanHuss on December 9, 2010 at 1:17pm

yes, you’re right. i AM a “wannabee”. i WANT TO BE a successful business owner, and as such i was asking for some feedback/advice. YOU are the asshole who jumped on the attack from post 1. i hope you have some extra toilet paper for that new asshole Señor Flowers just ripped you.
I don’t give a fuck about your “accomplishments”. people who feel the need to list stuff like that are generally compensating for the lack of something else.
im not looking to be an example to anyone. im trying to build MY business MY way. like Sinatra, or Tony Montana, but less ethnic.
you don’t know anything about my background, my education, or my knowledge. just because i don’t wear paisley shirts or pointy shoes doesn’t mean i cant cut a circle around walking fossils like you. but hey, thanks for trying to “help” someone new to a certain side of the industry. makes you look like a real hero, and totally enforces those “accomplishments”

Permalink Reply by Gerard Scarpaci on December 9, 2010 at 1:37pm

i think the Real Hair Truth is you can’t put 8500 hairdressers together without some sparks flying!

Thank you Hairbrained.me for your kind comments, may god bless you each and every day!

Best Regards

Joseph Kellner

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