Episode 2: Setting Healthy Boundaries for Hairstylists

Setting Boundaries with Clients to Prevent Stylist Burnout | The Sustainable Stylist Ep. 2

Jen Alden introduces The Sustainable Stylist podcast and, in episode two, shares how setting healthy boundaries with clients can improve hairstylists’ workload, mental state, and longevity behind the chair. She discusses overcoming people-pleasing and fear of saying no, protecting days off, and limiting client communication to weekday business hours using a separate work phone. Jen explains why she no longer double books (except quick bang trims), noting the stress, burnout risk, and reduced service quality that can come with splitting attention. She also emphasizes setting boundaries during consultations by knowing your skill limits, saying no when hair condition or requests aren’t suitable, and referring out using a trusted stylist list, supported by clear marketing on social media. She previews her seven-week course, The Sustainable Stylist, launching September 30.

00:00 Podcast Welcome

00:41 Why Boundaries Matter

01:55 Saying No Guilt

02:34 Days Off Protected

03:50 Work Phone Rules

05:26 Stop Double Booking

07:40 Consultation Limits

08:50 Market Your Niche

09:54 Course Announcement

11:47 Final Thanks

Join the Waitlist for the Sustainable Stylist! https://www.theholistichairstylist.com/the-sustainable-stylist-waitlist

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Sustainable Stylist, the podcast for hairstylists who want a career that lasts without burning out behind the chair. I'm Jen Alden, and I'm here to share the real lessons on building a business you love, protecting your energy, and creating a life that feels as good as your work looks. Because doing hair should light you up, not wear you down. Wherever you are in your journey, pull up a chair. This one's for you. Hello, my beautiful friend. Thank you so much for joining me on this second episode of my podcast. This has been really fun. I really enjoyed recording the first one. And for this episode, I want to talk about setting boundaries, especially with clients. Because when you set healthy boundaries with your clientele, your workload, your mental state is just so much better. And it's like it's a skill. It's definitely a skill. I think as hairstylists, we naturally are we thrive on pleasing people. We're people pleasers, for sure. We're not just gonna like do hair on someone and just be like, oh well, I don't care if they like it or not. We like live for people loving their hair. And it really feeds our souls to please people. And it's a great high. It definitely is a dopamine hit and it feels really great, but we also need to have boundaries with that. And what I mean is we get so used to constantly saying yes. I know I had a fear of turning people away, of saying no to people, not taking new clients, not because I thought, okay, well, once I start doing that, then the money, then the not the money, but the the clients are gonna stop coming. And I really truly believe that. So I was like, I can't say no to anyone. I have to, I have to take everyone. Anyone, everyone. If a client was like, oh, my mom wants to come see you, oh, okay, I don't have anywhere to put her, but I'll see her on my day off. Things like that. And you can do that to an extent, like if you need some extra money, you know, occasionally that's fine. But it gets to a point where you're letting other people's requests and uh lifestyles dictate yours. And uh taking back that power and being like, these are my days off. I am not seeing anyone on these days, and you need those days off. You need that time to be a human being, go see some live music, connect with your friends, do your laundry, and or maybe just bed rot for a day. I know I need a good bed rot at least once a week just to recover from the overstimulation of being around so many people and serving so many people all week long. I am no way perfect with this, but setting boundaries has definitely, definitely helped me so much with gaining control of my life. So here's what I do. I set my phone actually. I have a separate phone, I have a separate work phone that is only for clients. And that helps with keeping the texts and the calls completely on one phone and away from my personal life. I've been doing this for about five years now, and I absolutely love having a separate phone. So when it's my days off, I put my phone in a cabinet. I do not look at it, I don't answer it. And I also keep the mentality of, well, what do dentists and doctors' offices do? You know, they're open Monday through Friday, and then the weekends, it's like, hey, I'm not available. So I'll wait until the next business day and I'll get back to you. That's kind of my mentality when it comes to setting boundaries with clients. And having the separate phone line is gold. It's amazing. I also only answer texts and calls during the week. So I'll tell my clients Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. I'm available. But after 6 p.m., I don't look at my phone. I don't answer any texts. And that way it's not interfering with dinner time with my family. I can go out and not have to worry about work. I can leave it at the salon. This is huge, huge, huge thing that I do and highly recommend. Another thing that I do, and this is a personal thing, I don't double book anymore. The only thing I double book for is bang trims. I do a lot of bang trims. So if I have a client that's processing for 35 minutes, I'll take a client and do a bang trim. That only takes me like five minutes. So double booking gives me so much anxiety and stresses me out so much. So I don't double book unless it's a bang trim. You might have an assistant that can help you, and that's great. And you can make way more money double booking, but keeping up with that every day, I find is incredibly exhausting and definitely leads to burnout for sure. Double booking leads to lower quality service. My clients they pay really good money to see me, and I want to give them a hundred percent of me. I am not a hundred percent when there's another person there getting their hair done too. It feels like I'm giving 50% to each person. My energy can only handle so much, and I don't know about you, but splitting my energy between two people, three people at a time is just not sustainable. I want to give my clients the best experience, and I want to give them all of me. So double booking definitely robs me of giving them that, and it's not fair to them. And cramming in like 10 people during a day and double booking and doing all this stuff, sure you make extra money, but it really affects your creativity as a hairstylist. And that's like the whole point of being a hairstylist is use your creativity. Now, I'm only saying this from my perspective. Of course, every hairstylist is different. Another thing that I like to set as a boundary with clients is in the consultation, whether it's a new client or it's a returning client. You have to know what your limitations are in your skill set and also with their hair. Like if there's something that they want done with their hair and their hair is severe switched or their texture isn't right, you have to be comfortable saying no. And you also have to know your skill set if they're asking for something that you've never done before or you don't feel comfortable doing, or you don't like doing. It's absolutely totally okay to tell a client, I can't do that for you. But here's what I can do. And also, if it's something completely out of your skill set, you can refer them to another stylist. I like to keep a list of stylist friends who specialize in certain things. Like I don't do vivid colors, I don't do perms. So I have a list of stylists that I trust and know and always keep them on a list so I can refer clients to them. A way to avoid this when they're in their chair and they're asking for something that you can't do is making sure your marketing, your Instagram or whatever platform you're using shows the things that you're really, really good at. That's the best way to ward off any clients that are coming to you fresh and new, and they can see what you're good at and will book you that way. That's one of the main reasons I love social media so much, is it's free and you're putting out there what you want to receive. So only put out your best work of what you love doing. And you won't get people coming into your chair asking for a purple mohawk or something like that. But in the cases that you do have a client, maybe it's a returning client, who's like, I want to do a bright purple or a whatever, you need to get comfortable saying no to them if that's not something you do. So that's a boundary that you need to get comfortable with is knowing what your limits are and saying no to a client. A lot of the things I'm talking about in this episode, I go over in my new course, which is called The Sustainable Stylist. It's coming out September 30th. I will put a link in the show notes down below for the wait list. It's honestly the course of my dreams. I wish somebody had created this when I first started going independent or midway through because I didn't know how to handle the back end of my business. I didn't know how to set boundaries with clients. I just knew how to do hair really well. So this is for those who are on their own and they need a little support with their finances, pricing right, attracting the right clients, understanding their taxes, understanding all the financial back end, and also other ways to make income besides using your hands and being behind the chair. It is a seven-week course, and each module is revealed once a week. And there's also some really great bonus videos in there. I created some meditations and also I created a yoga lesson with my yoga teacher and some body mindfulness with my Pilates instructor for keeping your body healthy behind the chair. It's just all the things that I really love talking about. And I don't see anyone out there talking about these things in the hair industry. So I just decided to make my own course and have all the things in there. And I am very, very proud of it. I've been working on it the last year or so. So I hope you click the link below in the show notes and check it out and get on the wait list. Again, it's coming out September 30th. So that's all for today, folks. Thank you so much for tuning in. And I hope you learned something or took away something from this episode. I will be back in another week with another episode, and I'll talk to you then. Bye.