Be honest: What happens when someone with tightly curled hair wants to book at your salon? Is it business as usual, or does everyone start checking which stylist feels confident enough to take the appointment?
It's a fair question. You can be an excellent hairdresser and still have very little hands-on experience with curly hair and Afro hair. Not every training programme covers how differently hair can behave when you cut, style and dry it.
The point of training isn't to jump on the curly hair trend. It's to give your team skills they can actually use.
1. Your team can cut hair. But can they plan the finished curl shape?
Imagine a client asking for a balanced, rounded shape. The length looks fine while the hair is wet. Then it dries, shrinks and suddenly the silhouette looks completely different.
That doesn't automatically mean the cut was bad. It may mean the stylist didn't fully account for natural fall, shrinkage and volume. With curls and Afro hair, you need to see the shape from the front, sides and back.
That's what I want a good training session to teach. Not just “copy this haircut”, but why you're removing length in one area and keeping it somewhere else.
2. Styling isn't an optional little add-on
The haircut and the Wash-and-Go are connected. Once curls group and dry, the overall shape can look different.
Your team needs to understand how product application, definition and drying affect the result. Otherwise, you can have a technically decent cut with a finish that misses what the client actually wanted.
3. What happens on the client's next wash day?
A great after-photo? Love that. But what happens when the client gets home and has no idea how to recreate the look?
Does your team explain why each step matters? Can the client repeat the basics, or is the routine treated like a salon secret?
Questions I'd ask before booking team training
- Will my team learn when Curl-by-Curl makes sense and when combed-out cutting suits the goal better?
- Will they learn to account for shrinkage and cut without unnecessary tension?
- Does the programme connect consultation, cutting, Wash-and-Go styling and drying?
- Will stylists get to practise and talk through their decisions?
And yes, better skills can help you expand your services, build loyalty and encourage referrals. But no, a certificate doesn't magically fill your appointment book. Your team needs to be able to apply what they've learned.
That's why I created Babeyhair Pro, my in-salon training for existing salon teams. I teach my Afrocurls-System through theory and practical work on a training head and live model. Less copying. More understanding.
