Complete Guide to Salon Staff Interview Questions 2024

If you want to bring the best stylists and staff members onto your salon team, you’ll need to ask the most important salon staff interview questions and make every interview count. Indeed, the interview stage is arguably the most important part of the hiring process. This is when you get to really sit down and talk with prospective candidates, finding out about their experience, skills, and character, too.

Before any interview, it’s important to plan and prepare properly. Many experienced salon owners prepare for interviews by making lists of stylist interview questions to ask. But what are the best stylist interview questions? Well, this guide will cover some of the key questions you can bring up in your future interviews to help you make sure that every job in your salon goes to the right candidate.

Jump to The Section You Like

1. Salon Interview Tips
2. General Salon Job Interview Questions
3. Hair Stylist Interview Questions
4. Salon Manager Interview Questions
5. Salon Assistant Interview Questions
6. Salon Receptionist Interview Questions
7. Questions Not to Ask During an Interview
8. Conclusion

Salon Interview Tips

Before we look at what questions to ask during a salon interview and some of the key interview questions for hair stylists and salon manager candidates, let’s look at some simple tips to make every interviewing process as effective as possible.

• Make sure that the job description you share with candidates is detailed and informative. This will help to inform the candidate about what is expected of them and ensure that both interviewer and interviewee are on the same page.

• Begin the interview with a few general topics or even some light small talk to settle the mood and help the candidate relax, as a lot of people are nervous or anxious at the start of job interviews.

• Try to use open ended questions, as these kinds of questions will give the candidate an opportunity to speak and share their thoughts and opinions.

• Navigate the conversation as it flows organically. Don’t feel like you need to follow a set formula or structure; you can adapt your questions and follow-ups depending on what the candidate is telling you, asking related questions and discussing related themes to keep the discussion flowing.

• Be aware of the candidate’s personality. Remember that skills can be taught over time. Personality is something that is more cemented, so you’ll need to consider if you actually like the person’s character and can see yourself working with them.

• Look for things that are important to you and your brand, such as the person’s fashion sense and hair style, whether or not they arrive late, how clear and comfortable they are at communication, and so on.

• Try to avoid interrupting candidates as you listen and hear their answers. If you interrupt, they’ll be more likely to close up and provide shorter, less informative answers later on. Let them speak and give them the full chance to express themselves in each answer.

Aslo check out our post on how to hire a hair stylist, to learn more about succesful recruitment process in your salon.

General Salon Job Interview Questions

Now, let’s look at an example list of questions you can use in general salon job interviews. These questions aren’t specific to any particular role or duty, like hair styling or managers, so you can use them on a general basis. They focus on various aspects of a candidate’s approach, experience, character, and so on.

1. Tell me about yourself?

2. What credentials/degree do you have?

3. Why did you decide to apply for this job?

4. Why are you interested in working with us?

5. What do you think you can bring to this role?

6. What makes you stand out compared to other candidates?

7. What are some of your biggest strengths?

8. What is your biggest weakness?

9. Tell me about your previous work experience?

10. What did you like best about your former job?

11. Why did you decide to leave?

12. Do you like to work in a team?

13. What are your work plans for the next five years?

14. What sort of relevant experience do you have for this role?

15. What has been your career path so far?

16. Tell us about a time you overcame a tough challenge at work.

17. What sort of working environment do you do best in?

18. What hours are you used to working?

19. Tell us about your time at school and educational qualifications.

20. Do you consider yourself a positive person?

Hair Stylist Interview Questions

Next, let’s look at some key things to ask when hiring a hair stylist. How do you interview for a hair stylist position? Well, hair stylist interviews need to contain some of the general questions from the list above, so that you can get a general feel for the candidate’s approach and ambition.

But when it comes to how to hire hair stylist, you need to include some more specific, technical questions to ask a hair stylist in an interview that can help you find out how much experience and knowledge the candidates have in terms of hair styling skills and techniques. Let’s look at some key hair stylist interview tips and hair stylist interview questions and answers.

1. How would you create a personal relationship with a client?

   This question should help you learn more about the candidates’ approach to customer service and customers in general. They should be able to build bonds and connect with clients in order to raise customer retention at your salon.

2. How do you keep up with hair trends?

   Hair stylist professionals who are truly passionate about their career will have active interests in hair trends. They might read hair magazines, follow certain websites, keep up with hair trends on social media, and so on to be prepared.

3. What would you do if a client isn’t happy with the haircut?

   The answer to this hair stylist technical interview question can show you how good the candidates are at dealing with unhappy clients. Professional hair stylists need to be able to cope with these kinds of difficult situations and should know how to respond to unsatisfied customers.

4. Do you plan to open your own salon?

   If the answer is yes, it shows ambition, but it also shows that the stylist has bigger plans in mind and may not stay with your salon for too long.

5. What service, treatment, and style skills do you have?

   This can help you find out what kinds of treatment and services the candidate will be able to provide, if hired.

Salon Manager Interview Questions

Salons also need to hire salon managers from time to time. The things to ask when talking with prospective managers can be a little different. They need to focus on things like leadership, being efficient and organized, career history, client treatment, and dealing with difficult situations in salons, like an unhappy client or money disputes. Let’s look at some hair salon owner interview questions and questions to ask at a salon interview for managers.

1. How would you deal with an unhappy client?

2. How would you deal with a conflict within the team?

3. How would you boost retail sales?

4. How would you attract more clients?

5. How would you improve inventory management?

6. How would you manage a dispute between employees?

7. How would you keep the staff motivated, organized, and scheduled?

8. How would you cope if an employee called in sick?

9. What is your management style?

10. Tell me about an example of when you had to handle a difficult employee.

Salon Assistant Interview Questions

Interview questions for hairdressing apprentices and assistants mainly need to focus on their ability to work with the team, multitask, and stay organized, as well as their general knowledge and ambitions for the future. Here are some examples to use with your assistant candidates.

1. How do you feel about taking directions from many people?

2. How would you prioritize different tasks?

3. What do you expect to learn?

4. What are your plans for the future?

5. Will you be using study resources or training outside of work?

6. Are you able to take orders and follow them precisely?

7. Are you eager to learn and improve?

8. Are you willing to accept criticism?

9. How do you cope with pressure and can you multitask?

Salon Receptionist Interview Questions

Salon receptionists are also key members of the team. Questions to ask in a salon receptionist interview need to focus on important skills for the job, like computer skills, customer service skills, communication skills, and so on, as well as relevant experience. Here are some key hair salon receptionist interview questions.

1. What software do you have experience using?

2. How would you greet a new client?

3. How would you balance administrative and customer service duties?

4. How would you handle an upset client?

5. Are you an organized person?

6. Could you cope in high pressure situations?

7. Could you cope on busy days?

8. How do you keep your resources and tools organized?

9. Are you passionate about hair and cosmetology services?

10. Tell me about a time you dealt with a difficult client or unhappy customers.

Questions Not to Ask During an Interview

There are also some topics that you shouldn’t bring up during an interview. Namely, you should avoid anything that touches on a personal aspect of the candidate’s life or background. So, there shouldn’t be any questions about things like age, religion, sexual orientation, disabilities, children, and so on. Examples include:

1. Do you have any children?

2. Do you plan to have children in the next year?

3. What is your religious background?

4. What is your sexual orientation?

5. Do you have a disability and, if so, would it have any effect on your ability to work with us?

Do not miss our post on Salon Receptionists Job Description.

Conclusion

Navigating interviews can be a big challenge for any salon owner, but they’re a very valuable part of the hiring process. The interview stage is when you can really start to find out more about each person who wants to work for you, not only seeing lists of their achievements and experiences, but also discovering who they are as people, what ambitions they have, and what they can bring to your business.

That’s why it’s so important to get the hair salon job interview questions right. Whether you’re hiring salon manager, stylist or receptionist, the salon staff interview questions will help you get the answers you need to make the best decisions. We hope that this guide has helped you learn some of the top salon interview questions to ask to carry out a perfect salon hire assessment in every interview you do.

Citations

High-impact interview questions: 701 behavior-based questions to find the right person for every job
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=W342DwAA

How to interview
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1931-04231-000

The active interview
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=u-AvCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg