These days, Instagram hair stylists are saturating the hair industry and leaving a bad taste in people’s mouths. Those with natural hair in particular turn to Instagram and TikTok to find stylists in their city for wig installations, braids and more, and the stylists that are answering the call are more disappointing than not.
Before Instagram was a thing, and everyone looking for a stylist was in elementary school, it was normal to find a stylist and stick with them. Stylists used to be licensed so they could wash and detangle your hair for you and you didn’t have to come washed, blow dried and pre-parted. These days, braiders and wig-stylists on Instagram aren’t licensed and therefore can’t wash and add product to people’s hair, so they require that people come with those steps already done. This leads to problems because not everyone knows how to wash their hair, and doing any style on dirty hair lessens the length of time the style is going to last.
There is also a problem with professionalism, as people advertising their skills may be talented, but may not have the customer service necessary to run a business. There is an uptick of stories on social media of customers surviving hairstylists that mistreat them and behave in ways unbecoming of people let alone those you’re paying to complete a service.
We need licensed stylists who know how to talk to their customers and are licensed to clean and blow dry their clients’ hair back at the front of the hair community, because the industry will never die. People will always need their hair done, hence why unprofessional stylists think they can get away with subpar work and customer service: because they know they’ll always have customers. If we put our foot down, we can maintain the standards that raised us and ensure we get proper service.
