Do you feel like you were meant to have a kick-ass career as a hairstylist? Like you got into this industry to make big things happen? Maybe you’re struggling to build a solid base and want some stability. Maybe you know social media is important, but it feels like a waste of time because you weren’t seeing any results. Maybe you’ve already had some amazing success, but are craving more. Maybe you’re ready to truly enjoy the freedom and flexibility this industry has to offer. Cutting and coloring skills will only get you so far, but to build a lifelong career as a wealthy stylist, it takes business skills and a serious marketing strategy. When you’re ready to quit just working in your business and start working on it, join us here where we share real success stories from real stylists. I’m Britt Siva, social media and marketing strategist just for hair stylists, and this is the Thriving Stylist podcast.
What is up and welcome back to the Thriving Stylist Podcast. I’m your host, Brit Siva. And today we’re talking about what the heck is going on with Ulta and the shakeup that’s happening in the industry. This has been a really interesting couple of weeks. This is one of those stories that’s very much breaking in real time. I have been sent so many TikToks and a couple of Instagram reels about this topic in the last few weeks, and it’s been very interesting to see kind of all sides. I’ve seen sides from Ulta stylists. I’ve seen comments and posts from clients who have experienced services at Ulta, both good, bad, and indifferent. I have seen posts from stylists who don’t work at Ulta and are having thoughts and feelings about this. And I think it’s worth talking about everything that’s going on at scale so we can understand what’s happening and the impact it potentially could have.
So in case you missed it or you haven’t seen it, in early October 2026, as far as I can tell, that’s really when things started to kick off. There started to be chatter, primarily in the black hair community, around how challenging it had become to get your hair done and that Ulta might be this amazing salon opportunity that people have been sleeping on. Like let’s give it a shot. And a few different influencers or even ju – maybe not even influencers, maybe just like average everyday women went to Ulta, got their hair done and were blown away by the service experience and also the cost. But beyond that, the structure and the system and the efficiency and all of these different things that they hadn’t been experiencing before with the stylists they were seeing previously. And that conversation caught like wildfire because it sounded like the answer to so many challenges.
And what started off as really a TikTok trend ultimately made its way to more mainstream media. I sourced articles from the Griot and The Root. I saw Substacks. There’s a lot of independent blogs that are talking about this and it’s, it’s really creating buzz. And it’s not just Ulta. I think that Ulta is like the main character in the storyline, but JCPenney’s salon is getting quite a few nods as well. And when you look at what clients are saying about why they’re considering leaving independent salons or independent stylists, and for a lot of these clients, they’re saying, “I used to have a stylist come to my home.” Like that’s the ultimate convenience. But what they’re saying is when I choose to go to an Ulta or a Penny’s instead, what I’m getting is better for whatever their criteria is, and we’ll talk about the criteria in a minute, than what I was getting from my previous provider.
And at least for now, they’re saying, “I’ll never look back.” From a client’s perspective, there’s a TikToker who goes by Jaxie Cole_Momlife who said that clients are leaving stylists because stylists kept calling clients broke. And when we think about some of the very popular types of content in 2023, 2024, 2025, sometimes I even see posts like this now in 2026, it was almost that our clients were annoying to us, that they were causing us a bunch of headaches and that they were making our life so much harder and my prices are my prices. And if you don’t like it, you can go elsewhere. And so they’re going elsewhere. This industry created that narrative. And you know me, I, I’m all about charging the appropriate amount for the services that you are rendering. I don’t believe in broke stylists at all. That being said, a lot of the messaging was not coming from the right place or the delivery didn’t land.
And so clients just felt like, “If you don’t want me in your space, I’ll find somewhere else where I’m welcomed.” And that was kind of the landing for some of these clients who were like, “I’d rather go somewhere where my hair can be done well and somebody actually wants to see me in their chair.” So when I looked at the clients who were posting, there was four primary reasons why they were saying they were leaving an independent stylist or an independent salon in favor of going somewhere like an Ulta or JC Penney. The first being booking hoops. I though this was very interesting. Clients were saying jumping through a million hoops to get into somebody’s chair, applying, waiting to get back, deposits, hard time scheduling, I can’t figure out what services you offer. If there’s too much friction just trying to get on your books, they’re not going to spend 10, 15 minutes trying to figure out how to book an appointment with you.
It’s too hard, it’s too much, it’s too complicated. Versus going through more of a corporate structure, it’s more streamlined and more simple. The second reason, unclear pricing. So noted were add-on fees for length or hair type. Consultation fees was a big one. So it just felt like everything was a starting at, everything was we’ll wait and see. Everything was, it might be this or it might be that. Or some things were just come on in and we’ll let you know what the price is when you get here. And clients are left feeling like that’s a little bit too big of a risk to take. Number three, I though this was interesting. Policies that only protect the stylist. So deposits that are kept if a client cancels, but often there’s no repercussion if the stylist cancels on the client, like it doesn’t go both ways. And that’s something that we talk about in Thrivers Society too.
Like if you’re gonna have a cancellation policy, it has to go both ways. Otherwise, it starts to feel like the company is biased towards the provider and the client is just at the mercy of whatever the provider wants to do. And I know that we can say like, well, a lot of businesses are run like that. We have to understand we’re in the service industry and we are in the beauty space and the expectation and the energy is just different. And I certainly don’t want stylists to be taken advantage of. We have lots of podcasts on how to make sure you’re not taking advantage of, but I think the pendulum swung a little bit too far and it became like to book an appointment with you, I have to agree to 19 rules before you even want to see me. Like it just starts to feel a little hard and a little heavy.
The last is this accountability piece. So when you think about how when somebody books an appointment with a more corporate structure, they don’t worry that they’re gonna show up and the stylist isn’t going to be there or the stylist is gonna move them around. Like they show up, they know they’re gonna check in, they know that somebody’s gonna greet them, they know what haircare lines are available. Like they, there’s so much to anticipate. And then for the person who’s providing the service, there is a service expectation. There’s a service standard. We know that when people work corporate, they’ve gone through a certain level of training. It feels less risky. In the article from the Grio, there was a really impactful conversation or an interview, I should really say, with Pecola Riley, who is the former diversity strategist from Ulta’s beauty team. She was with them for five years from 2018 to 2023.
And her take on all of this I thought was really interesting. Now she’s no longer with Ulta. She’s a stylist and has been for a long time. She has her own extension line right now from what I could find. But her take on what this means and why this is happening I though was so spot on. She said, “What I believe that Ultra is representative of is the recall and the reset of salon culture where we uphold each other to a standard of accountability. When you’re in a salon setting such as mine or an Ulta Beauty that has structure, there is great accountability. And so you’re seeing sometimes better behaviors that you don’t see in independent settings because no one is regulating those independent settings.” So essentially what she’s saying is clients are choosing like the sure bet. They’re just not interested in running the risk anymore of paying two, three, four, five, six, seven, $800 to get their hair done after paying a deposit and a fee and agreeing to all these rules with somebody they’ve never even met before and hoping it goes well.
For some of them, they’d rather go to a corporate salon where they just know there’s a different level of guarantee. So we hear a little bit of this and it feels disruptive. And I actually saw there was a stylist who made a video. I think it was on Instagram Reels. Honestly, I can’t be sure right now. It was one of the videos that somebody sent me. And it was a stylist who doesn’t work at Ulta and was like basically speaking to clients and was like, “It’s really frustrating to see so many clients who are considering leaving an independent artist and going to see a corporate stylist because what Ulta is able to do and is able to provide, we can’t compete with.” And was talking about how Ulta is able to pay their stylists the way that they are because they’re part of a major retail line and, you know, the relationship has changed between retail lines and independent stylists and was stating all these facts about how the industry has changed and how it’s hard for an independent to compete against a big brand.
That is all true. The challenge is clients just wanna get their hair done. Like we can try and fight our industry frustrations and battles publicly. We can try, but when you look at who is commenting on posts and videos like that, it’s other stylists who are agreeing that it’s frustrating, but what it does is it perpetuates this narrative that our stylists don’t like clients. Our stylists are frustrated with clients. And when we turn on our own clients, we’ve super lost the plot. And what we’re seeing take place in real time is what we’ve been talking about here on Thriving Styles Podcast since 2022. When I started talking about the great divide, if you’ve been a long time listener to this show, you’ve heard me mention it a hundred times in the last four years. We saw this rift in the economy start in 2022. It was just like inklings of it.
Then in 2023, it started to get kinda real. By 2024, it was super happening. And by 2025, stylists were losing their careers. I mean, it was really dangerous. And now in 2026, we’re seeing salon owners walk away. Like it is very much happening right now. What it’s actually called by economists as this has become more formalized is the K-shaped economy. That’s a much more professional way to talk about what I was calling the great divide. I was calling it that because it hadn’t been named yet. This is the first time in US history we’ve had a K-shaped economy. And when you think of the letter K, I want you to picture it as that vertical line going up and down. And then there’s one line that starts at the center of the K that goes up into the right, and then there’s another one that starts at the center of the K and it goes down into the right.
What it is representing when any economist, any marketing expert, any business strategist talks about the K-shaped economy, which we are in, it’s not debatable. This is where we’re at. There is no middle. The middle has been squeezed out, meaning the buyer in the middle class is being pinched. That’s what our economy is feeling right now. So the lower K is the person who doesn’t have excess funds, can’t maybe go on a luxury six-week vacation to Europe, right? They’re not like about to go rent a mega yacht for the weekend. They, they don’t have that level of income, but they’re doing fine, they’re getting by, they’re working hard, and they would love to get their hair done at a place like an Ulta where they can get a good result at a price point they can afford and have it be predictable. Perfect example of the K-shaped economy.
And then we have the upper part of the K, and the upper part of the K is this group of people who have not been negatively affected by the economy at all in the last few years. Haven’t really noticed anything has changed. Yeah, gas prices have gone up, but they’ve got the cash, so whatever. Yeah, flights are more expensive, but they can afford it. So annoying, but it’s not super disruptive. And when we think of ourselves as stylists, you have to choose who you’re going to serve for the next few years. Trying to serve the middle is going to be a challenge. When I look at what Ulta and when I look at what JCPenney’s are doing, they’re getting smart as brands and they’re saying, “Let’s figure out how to serve the client who wants a great experience and doesn’t wanna pay a premium price.” And do you know what?
It’s working. And then when you look at stylists who are really doubling down on branding and really doubling down on brand messaging and market position and pricing themselves properly and all the things we teach in Thriver Society, they’re doing great too. I’m seeing stylists and salons grow faster than I’ve ever seen before right now. But you do have to pick a side. Marketing to the middle is where things are getting crunchy, and that’s where a lot of the frustration is coming from, is for those who are stylists in the industry who work hard. I’m not saying you don’t work hard, you do. You work super hard, but you’re not necessarily marketing to anybody specific. It’s not the person who really wants to be super well cared for and is willing to pay for all of the extras, and it’s not for the person who’s looking for affordability.
You’re trying to reach something in the middle and the middle is squeezed out in this K-shaped economy, and that’s where the pressure is coming from. Now, Pecola Riley, who I was quoting earlier, who had served as the diversity strategist for Ulta, quoted, and I agree with her, “This will not replace one or the other. And this doesn’t mean the independent stylists are greedy.” I, I completely agree. Neither side is bad. Everybody’s trying to survive in business and it’s not going to eliminate one or the other. What we’re watching happen in real time is the industry have to reposition itself in order to serve this new K-shaped economy. It is a survival strategy for businesses on all sides. Now, I’ve also seen some really interesting TikToks, specifically from Ulta stylists, one named JVZ on TikTok, who was very thankful for all the new business that she’s gotten in the last few weeks.
And what she said was, “I was a booked and busy stylist before this, but now I’m booked out for four weeks.” She was like, “It’s been such a blessing for me and my family. I’ve worked really hard to get here.” And what it sounds like is she’s a more experienced Ulta stylist. She’s been there for a while. And what she said in, in one of the TikToks I saw was something I think is important for every client to know is that not everybody here at Ulta is gonna be able to do a more complex or detailed service. Like the Ulta stylists are just like any other stylist. Some have been working there for one month, some have been working there for 10 years. And so when you see somebody who’s more educated or more trained or more experienced, you are gonna get a stronger result.
And what she was saying is, you know, we’re now starting to see some TikToks where clients come in and they’re underwhelmed because they felt like, “Oh my gosh, Ulta’s like this magic place I’m gonna go and I’m gonna get a stellar service for a fraction of the cost.” And she was like, “I mean, you can. That is totally possible, but you still have to do your research because, you know, talent comes in all shapes and sizes and, and not everybody might be so experienced in the service that you’re specifically booking for that day.” So she was trying to explain how it’s important to do research on who you’re seeing so that you are confident they can achieve what you’re looking for at the price point that feels reasonable to you. Now, the other thing on the flip side of that is I’m watching a lot of clients who are making TikToks back, and they’re lovely TikToks.
They’re not angry TikToks, but they’re like, “Ulta stylists, we wanna support you. Can you please showcase more of your work?” And what I’ll say is I went to the Ulta website and where they’re lacking is where I think that independent stylists and salons, I mean, really become hard to beat because when you look at their stylist directory, when you look at the way the marketing goes, in my opinion, on the Ulta side, it’s very soft. And so if you can do stronger marketing and human connection and, and all of that as an independent artist, that human relationship piece of our industry is still very critical. And it was an area where I was like, “Ah, that’s a great point.” Like I was trying to look up Ulta stylists in my area. I couldn’t even find pictures of a lot of people. There weren’t bios. It was just like a first name and a last initial.
And I was like, “Oh my gosh.” I mean, I don’t know. I couldn’t, I couldn’t figure out anything about their skill level or their credentials or their specialty or anything because there just wasn’t enough information. So things like that I think are still very much in the works. But again, this is like new buzz, new trend. We’ll see what happens from here. The other thing that JBZ brought up that I thought was really interesting was she was saying, you know, one of the things that we would like from Ulta Corporate is better compensation. And what she said in her video, I actually went back and watched it a couple times because I was like, “That’s so interesting.” She was saying that she’s worked at different Ultas in different states, if I was understanding correctly, and compensation is different at different states, depending on… I don’t know if it’s state regulation or if they’re franchise rules.
I, that part I wasn’t sure on. But what I did find was Ulta has a really great careers page, which if you’re in Thriving Leadership Method, I always say you have to have a very competitive careers page. Theirs is competitive. And one of the things that they have is a compensation calculator so that you can see how much you’d make as an Ulta stylist. And it does buy week or biannual. I’m in California, so I was like, okay, for a California stylist, what could they make? California has its own really specific commission laws. That’s why I looked up here. It’s like the most stringent. So it says that the base hourly rate starts at $17 an hour. If you are a stylist who is working 40 hours a week and you do $2,000 in services a week, you’d make $17 an hour and 30% commission on top of it.
It says, “Associates will earn services pay in addition to their hourly pay. Services pay is based on sales.” Then it looks like the annual, and it says that stylist would make $72,000 a year. That’s pretty incredible. Now, if that stylist was doing $3,000 a week, they would be making 60% commission on top of the $17 an hour, and they would make $139,000 annually. I mean, damn. And, you know, you would get benefits and all of these other things. That’s where it starts to be like, “Well, holy cow.” And I was looking at another TikTok, and this was boothyol.blondeguru 2.0 who said… She’s a, uh, ultra stylist and has been for a long time. And she said, “I know a lot of really successful ultra stylists. And one of the things she mentioned was that traffic varies by location, and your mentality behind building it at corporate salon determines your success.” She’s like, “But I see it all the time.
Like you can be very successful.” And there’s another stylist who commented under her post, this stylist name was Nikki, and she said, “I haven’t made less than 70% c- commission in many years, and I’m on track to do over $400,000 in services this year.” So this is just interesting. I know that I created quite a buzz over the summer when I started talking about salon owners rethinking commission caps and the way that they compensate stylists and opportunities. I’m not saying that to be a jerk, or I’m not saying that to, like, mess things up. I’m saying it as, like, a survival mechanism. We have to evolve the industry forward. We have to understand that corporate investors are approaching salon owners every single week I get DMs about it, asking to buy them out as owners so that they can come in and run a salon from a corporate perspective.
That is going to put so much pressure on independent salon owners if we don’t rise to the occasion and think about how can we run this like a real business? It’s not an option. It’s something that we have to really consider if we are going to continue to be successful as independents. And that was one of the things that Pecola Riley was saying too, was this is a great opportunity for access, for growth, for opportunity, but we have to make sure that the stylists are really well compensated and well taken care of and not taken advantage when the narrative is go get cheap hair done at Ulta. That’s a dangerous, you know, conversation also, and we have to make sure that everybody who’s doing these services… And then looking at these TikToks from these stylists who are pouring their hearts into these clients, they have to be well taken care of in the process.
And, and I think it is a fine line between, yeah, like mass rush to come to these more corporate salons are the people who are now taking on a lot more clients being compensated for it at a rate that really is in alignment with the work in which they’re doing. Now, what else is interesting is this web app that was created by Dr. Diamond Cunningham, PhD. Uh, Dr. D is what you’ll see are called kind of floating through TikTok. Dr. D is a health equity researcher who was totally inspired by this conversation and created a… It’s a web app. It’s not like a full website. It’s almost like a short form website. I found it by looking up Black Ulta Stylist Directory Dr. D. That was the search I used and I pulled it up that way. When I first looked at it, there was maybe 40 stylists on there.
At the time of this recording, there’s over 200 stylists in 30 states, and that’s in just a matter of days. So it’s been really incredible to see this directory pop up out of nowhere and become an index of where clients can go to find amazing services at a price point that they can afford. This is all just worth noting and, and paying attention to. I think there’s been a lot of conversation over the last few years around clients just don’t get it. Our business is expensive. Clients do get it. They just don’t want to be the villain in our storyline anymore, and they want to be well taken care of. Everybody has a budget. The key to attracting a clientele and filling your chair and making the income that you want to make, whatever it is. If your goal income this year is 32 grand or 320K, there is a way to make it happen as a stylist.
Cutting corners and complaining about clients is never going to be the way. And instead, we have to, have to, have to, as service providers, get strategic. I know social media is annoying. I know websites are annoying. I know service standards are annoying. I understand it is the way to make more money. And this movement really proved it. Clients are looking for predictability. They’re looking for clear communication. They’re looking for a simple booking process. They’re looking for seeing a stylist without 100,000 policies to agree to. They’re looking for predictability. They wanna be able to get to know the service provider before making a commitment. And what they’re saying is, “We’re not gonna be forced to do anything. We’re always gonna find the option that makes the most sense for us.” And I think it’s really interesting to see this sway back to corporate salons having a come up.
It’s been years, I mean, probably decades since we’ve seen this level of success at a more affordable price point, and I do think it’ll be a pretty significant market reset. I’ll be curious to see how the industry adapts forward from here. I’ll be keeping a close eye on it. And if you’re in Thriver Society already, keep doing what you’re doing, friends. You are aligned with making sure that you continue to stay competitive and stay a stylist in a salon that those who you already serve wanna continue seeing. All right, let’s keep the conversation going. So much love, happy business building, and I’ll see you on the next one.
