Repeated efforts to unite the beauty industry have centered on collaborating, not competing with each other. That sounds good in theory, but more often than not licensees can’t overcome their distrust and differences to form a cohesive, representative group, even within the same specialty. We tend to operate within silos, isolated according to ethnicity and other variables that distinguish us from others in our profession. Beyond our specialties, the prospects for collaboration dim further because licensees, salon owners, beauty school owners, manufacturers, distributors and others don’t share the same interests, priorities and opinions. For all the purported symbiosis, interdependence does not lead to consensus.
Sometimes, it’s the simplest concept that divides us.
Who deserves to be called a beauty professional? Anyone earning money, including individuals working unlicensed and licensees lacking competence or engaging in illegal practices? Should they be welcomed as colleagues, or treated as competitors? How do we reconcile their behaviors with our own?
When merely aligning with immediate colleagues proves difficult, how do we form a coalition across the entire industry?
Nearly fifteen years ago, the Professional Beauty Association (PBA), the industry’s largest trade association, announced its “Take the Pledge” campaign: “In order to ensure and promote integrity in the professional beauty industry, PBA expects all members … to abide by the standards which are reflected in this Code of Ethical Practice.” For licensed professionals, the code included the following statements:
1. Promote positive awareness of the professional beauty industry and encourage the highest level of integrity.
2. Provide high quality professional beauty services to the consumer.
3. Treat all customers, clients and co-workers with respect.
4. Maintain the integrity of products and materials produced, sold and/or used in the provision of professional beauty services.
5. Ensure all advertising and sales promotions are truthful and factually accurate.
6. Uphold lawful contractual agreements and commitments, with particular attention to agreements affecting product distribution and management.
7. Keep all licensing and/or registrations current as required by Federal, State, and local authorities.
8. Accurately report tips and income, as required by law.
9. Keep insurance current as required by Federal, State, and local authorities.
10. Follow safety and sanitation guidelines.
11. Proudly represent PBA, its positions, policies and support fellow PBA members.
As a licensed professional and longtime PBA member, I understood the intent to “create a uniform standard in the way we view and act as an industry.” I’m already committed to compliance, and believe that everyone should behave ethically and operate legally. Ultimately, however, I chose against taking the pledge because it wouldn’t make me any more “professional.”
If there’s power in numbers, licensees haven’t figured out how to use it.
Our industry portrays itself as one big, inclusive community consisting of diverse individuals and businesses devoted to promoting beauty products and services. But despite our shared purpose, we don’t share power equally. In fact, it’s far out of proportion. While vastly outnumbering salon owners, manufacturers, distributors, school owners and others in the “professional-only” sector, beauty pros have resigned themselves to exerting the least amount of influence.
Giving up power makes us more vulnerable to misinformation, misrepresentation, manipulation and coercion from both inside and outside our industry.
Instead of providing strength, our numbers provide opportunities for fragmentation and discord. From the beginning of our careers, we identity according to specialty: hair, skin or nails. Licensure and corresponding scopes of practice define our work, framing hierarchies for our relative position within the broader sector containing all beauty pros. Emphasis belongs on the word “relative” because hierarchies limit how we relate and connect to each other and marginalize those who occupy the bottom positions.
Striving to distinguish ourselves from our colleagues, many choose to specialize within a specialty, branding with preferred products and techniques and marketing to a targeted clientele. Things get even more niche when considering work status: employer, employee or independent contractor; full-time or part-time; salon, suite or mobile? That’s aside from being categorized, whether formally or informally, by demographics regarding race, ethnicity, language preference, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disabilities, income, education, age, religious or political affiliations, military service, etc. How does fragmentation impact your experience in the industry?
Compartmentalizing and competing with each other distracts us from collaborating and exercising our power.
Focusing on differences rather than similarities, it’s no wonder beauty pros have differences of opinion and very little consensus. We lack leadership and organization at the grassroots level. Dismissing colleagues as potential partners, we don’t support others in our industry as we could. In protecting our individual interests, we might discover allies or organizations that align with our values and priorities, if we knew where to find them. More often than not, organizations find us through targeted ads on social media. Sometimes, temporary alliances form if only for convenience to advance a particular cause or react to a specific threat.
Before taking a position, no matter how apparently obvious, do your research and ask yourself:
• Who decides what should be protected and what counts as improvement or progress?
• What compromises or sacrifices will be made, and who will make them?
• Who stands to benefit most?
Most important, beware insincere calls for “unity” or performative activism or philanthropy.
“The greatest power is not money power, but political power.” – Walter Annenberg
With all due respect, it’s not easy to rally industry-wide support. Consider the PBA”s decades-long effort to lobby Congress for the FICA Tip Tax Credit, which finally passed in 2025. The PBA had done an admirable job explaining that salon owners should not be responsible for paying taxes (7.65%) on tip income paid to their employees. That being said, how many beauty pros knew about the proposed legislation before this year? How many contacted their federal legislators to express their support? Sadly, I suspect that most knew nothing, or chose to do nothing because it didn’t affect them directly. That’s ignorant and selfish. In a more organized industry, we’d support each other, especially those with the least power, for the greater good.
An earlier version was published by Beauty Cast Network.