The 13-Year Glitch | Why Longevity Isn’t the Same as Doing it Right

Welcome to the industry where we treat a cosmetology license like it’s vintage wine that just gets better by sitting on a shelf. I recently sat in on a round table discussion about the state of the natural hair industry, and I nearly pulled a muscle, adjusting my chair and rolling my eyes. The conversation was obsessed with credentials and the number of years someone has been holding a pair of shears, as if simply surviving decades in a salon automatically makes you a subject matter expert.

We need to stop equating longevity with competence.

Staying in a building for 20 years just means you know where the light switches are. It doesn’t mean you aren’t out here giving people botched pixie cuts and calling it a vibe.

This reminds me of my very first management gig as an associate director for a mental health non profit. I was fresh out of grad school and had to fill out onboarding paperwork for new hires. Since I actually care about doing things right, I asked my supervisor for help. This woman had been with the agency for thirteen years and in her respective role for a few years, so surely she was the oracle of HR forms.

I submitted the paperwork only to have an HR assistant call me to say it was a disaster. When I told her the veteran supervisor showed me the ropes, the assistant laughed and told me that my supervisor had been doing it wrong for over a decade, but was too stubborn to accept feedback. She told me I actually seemed open to learning, and taught me the right way. I ended up going into the main office for a full in-service training because I’d rather be corrected once than be wrong for thirteen years.

The beauty industry is desperate for this level of self-awareness. We have stylists walking around acting like their start date is a shield against criticism. Doing something for a long time doesn’t mean it’s done correctly, especially if no one is over your shoulder cross-checking your work the way an instructor cross-checks a student’s haircut.

This brings me to the modern phenomenon of YouTube, which is simultaneously a curse and a blessing. It’s a blessing because it provides infinite "how-to" information. However, the curse is that it leads people to confuse a how-to with education. A how-to teaches you a mechanical skill; it’s painting by numbers. True education offers the why behind the how-to, and that requires a foundational level of training to understand the nuanced variables that determine if a technique actually works.

Successful stylists are seasoned, but their value comes from the years they’ve spent doing it correctly, seeking the why, and welcoming feedback, not just the years they’ve spent taking up space.

BLOG | JULY 2025  

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