Beyond the Chair

09/21/2026

A New Beauty Standard is here.

Whether you’ve been following Beyond the Chair for a while or you’re just discovering our work, we’d love to have you join us for our FREE Virtual Town Hall.

If you’ve ever wondered:

• What is Beyond the Chair?
• Why does this work matter?
• How can I get involved?
• What’s next for the beauty and barbering industry?
• Who else is interested in building something different?

We’ll share who we are, why we started this work, what we’re seeing across the beauty and barbering industry, and where we believe we can go together.

We’ve also planned a fun group activity to get everyone thinking, participating, and engaging with one another. It’s designed to work best with a group, so the more people who join us, the better.

SO BRING YOUR SALON BESTIE!!

Come ready to participate—you might learn something about yourself, the industry, and how we work together along the way.

SAVE THE DATE

🗓 Sunday, September 6
🕖 7:00–8:30 PM ET
📍 Zoom

Bring an open mind, your questions, your ideas, and your curiosity.

Meet the people behind the work. Meet others who are ready to go beyond the chair.

We’re looking forward to meeting you.

09/02/2026

Do you know your labor rights?

Whether you’ve been following Beyond the Chair for a while or you’re just discovering us, we want you to know what you’ll find on our website.

Beyond the Chair is building a resource hub for beauty and barbering professionals to better understand the industry, their rights, and the different pathways available to them.

Explore resources on labor rights, independent contracting and booth rental, cooperatives and employee ownership, apprenticeships, education and training pathways, and more.

Our goal is simple: make information more accessible so beauty and barbering professionals can better understand their options and participate in building a stronger industry.

Visit beyondthechairco.org to explore what we’re building.

09/01/2026

"Your rent has probably gone up — maybe more than once. You didn't get a real explanation. You just saw a new number at your lease renewal. At the same time, maybe the building feels less maintained. Maybe it's harder to get management on the phone. Maybe your lease renewal came with terms that felt more one-sided than before.

That's not random. And it's not just your salon."

Your rent has probably gone up — maybe more than once. You didn't get a real explanation. You just saw a new number at your lease renewal. At the same time, maybe the building feels less maintained. Maybe it's harder to get management on the phone. Maybe your lease renewal came with terms that fel...

08/28/2026

What does the economy have to do with your salon? More than you might think.

Your rent doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Interest rates, commercial debt, private equity, ownership structures, and investment decisions can all shape the financial pressures that eventually reach the people working inside these spaces.

So who actually owns your salon or suite building? And what happens when the economy slows down?

In our latest video, “The Economy at Your Chair,” we follow the money—from government borrowing and Wall Street to private equity, salon ownership, and the rent you pay to work.

We also explore why the shift toward independent suite rental can leave beauty professionals carrying more of the risk themselves—and what cooperative and community-owned models could look like instead.

Watch the full video on our page.

And while you’re there, tell us: Do you know who actually owns the building where you work?

08/28/2026

What does the economy have to do with your salon chair? More than you might think.

Your rent doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Behind the suite, the lease, and the monthly payment is a larger financial system—interest rates, commercial debt, investment firms, ownership structures, and the people who ultimately profit from the space where you work.

And when beauty professionals are increasingly working as independent operators, we’re often carrying the risk of that system alone.

In this video, we break down the connection between government borrowing, private equity, salon ownership, rising costs, and the financial vulnerability of suite renters.

We also ask a bigger question:

What would the beauty industry look like if the people doing the work had more ownership, more stability, and more control over the places where they work?

At Beyond the Chair Co., we believe the answer requires more than individual hustle. It requires understanding the structures around us and building better ones.

Know who owns your building. Know how your business model works. Know what you’re signing.

The beauty industry isn’t separate from the economy.

We are the economy.

08/24/2026

We’re reposting this video because the conversation around federal accountability standards for beauty schools—and the potential removal of the primary accreditor from accessing federal student aid—is finally reaching a wider audience.

As this conversation grows, we’ll continue breaking down the policy, asking hard questions, and helping professionals understand what these changes could mean for their careers.

The future of this industry should serve the people who work in it—not preserve the systems that brought us here.

08/09/2026

I had the pleasure and opportunity to be a guest on the S**t I Told My Hairdresser Podcast—a hairdresser podcast that is unfiltered, hilarious, chaotic, and brutally honest about what really happens behind the salon chair.

My own path out of the salon—and into advocacy and policy—started with a simple realization: many of the problems we treat as individual failures are actually structural ones.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Why commission stylists can be misclassified and left without basic employment protections
• What the data actually tells us about student debt and outcomes in cosmetology education
• How federally recognized apprenticeships can provide a different pathway into the industry—allowing people to earn while they learn
• Why worker classification can determine whether beauty professionals have access to collective bargaining
• How worker-owned cooperatives can create an alternative salon business model
• What we can learn from Mayday Salon in Nashville and its worker-owned cooperative model
• Where beauty professionals can go to better understand their labor rights and available resources

One of the things I appreciate most about conversations like this is the opportunity to connect the lived experience of working behind the chair with the systems that shape the industry: education, labor law, occupational licensing, business structures, and workforce policy.

If you work in a commission salon, rent a booth or suite, own a salon, or are simply interested in where the beauty industry goes from here, I hope you’ll give the episode a listen.

And thank you to the S**t I Told My Hairdresser team for making space for this conversation.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6jTHvFJ9Hm7xGp7j9yKKbi?si=E0yPfFiiQdae6l62S1kDpA&utm_source=copy-link

S**t I told my Hairdresser · Episode

08/07/2026

The industry is changing, and we are excited to see high school cosmetology programs being reintroduced in communities. Programs like these can create pathways into the profession, allowing future beauty professionals to enter the industry with less student debt.

One important point raised by some who have shared this post is that students should learn to work with all hair textures, including straight, wavy, curly, and coily. Comprehensive education benefits both future professionals and the communities they will serve.

If these elements are not already included in the curriculum, Beyond the Chair would be happy to support the Southern Indiana Career & Technical Center in identifying resources and best practices to help ensure students graduate prepared to work confidently with all hair textures.

08/07/2026

The industry is changing, and we are excited by these types of high school programs being reintroduced within communities that will allow people to enter the industry unburdened by debt!!

07/31/2026

If you’re curious about being Beyond the Chair or have wanted to get involved, attend our Town Hall this weekend. From 7 to 8:30 PM Eastern time, we will be hosting a free virtual event to help you learn more about Beyond the Chair and meet other like-minded individuals who believe the beauty industry can be equitable, sustainable, and worker-centered—an event about building community and solidarity.

We hope to see you there.