National Hairstylist Appreciation Day is celebrated every April 30th and appears on nationaldaycalendar.com, a site that tracks hundreds of celebratory dates, weeks, and months. And National Hairstylist Appreciation Day is a day that the industry gets behind in earnest.
This year, for instance, “L’Oréal USA has announced the #SupportYourStylist initiative to encourage clients to donate to the Professional Beauty Association (PBA) Relief Fund and support their local stylists through actions large and small,” on National Hairstylists Day, according to a media release the beauty maker issued this week.
L’Oréal USA Professional Brands has already donated $200,000 to the PBA Relief Fund and is running the #SupportYourStylist campaign to encourage consumers to contribute as well and bring that dollar amount up to $2.5m.
The company’s professional brands—Matrix, Biolage, Redken, L’Oréal Professionnel, Pureology, Mizani, Kérastase, Shu Uemura Art of Hair, Pulp Riot, Baxter of California and SalonCentric—are participating in the campaign and inviting consumers to:
(and this list is taken verbatim from this week’s L’Oreal media release)
- Donate to the Professional Beauty Association COVID-19 Relief Fund probeauty.org/coronavirus
- Share the #SupportYourStylist campaign on social media
- Pre-book an appointment for a future date
- Consider a generous gratuity for your stylist
- Pick up "beauty products to-go" from the salons or their referral links
- Write a review online
A grassroots effort to support beauty pros began in Chicago: #WorldsLargestTipDay
The first World's Largest Tip Day is this Friday, May 1, 2020. “Our industry has been devastated by the impact of COVID-19, which has impacted hundreds of thousands of beauty and grooming services professionals who suddenly found themselves out of work,” says Bredetta Kendricks, a retired nail technician and one of the organizers of The World's Largest Tip Day, in a press release announcing the new initiative.
“But when I heard that some of these businesses are now about to reopen, my heart got heavy,” she tells the press. “If these businesses don't open, the owners can't make any money. If they reopen, it will not be safe for them or their customers or their loved ones—mothers, fathers, grandparents and others who are at higher risk. Every time we go out, we don't know what we're bringing back into our homes.”
The World’s Largest Tip Day is less formal than the L’Oréal campaign, but the asks are similar. The organizers are encouraging consumers to tip their go-to salon service providers directly using their preferred online payment platform or to simply “Just give them a call or text just to check on them. Letting them know that you care about their well-being is priceless,” suggests Santha Dulaney Hughes, owner of N2Skinn Salon, and Co-Organizer of World’s Largest Tip Day.
"Many in the industry,” she explains, “are the sole providers for their families and are in a difficult position because they cannot afford to ask clients to stay home for their safety, although they know it's the right thing to do.”
“Many will not qualify for state unemployment benefits, the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, various grants and privately funded loans or additional funding the government has planned. With The World's Largest Tip Day, they don't have to make that difficult choice and can stay home and stay safe a little longer,” says Dulaney Hughes. Learn more about World's Largest Tip Day online here.
---
Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders.
