The Datum Report

Occupation 6221 · Caring, leisure and other service occupations

Hairdressers and barbers

Half of full-time hairdressers and barbers in the UK earn more than £24,279 a year, and half earn less.

Hairdressers and barbers shampoo, cut, colour, style and treat hair.

How people enter it

There are no minimum academic requirements for entry, although some colleges require candidates to possess GCSEs/S grades. Training is provided Off and on-the-job and lasts up to three years leading to the awarding of NVQs/SVQs at levels 1, 2 and 3. Apprenticeships leading to an NVQ/SVQ at level 3 are also available.

What the work involves

• discusses customer requirements, analyses hair condition and other relevant features to define and advise on hair style
• washes, conditions, bleaches, tints or dyes hair and provides any necessary basic scalp treatments
• cuts and trims hair using scissors, clippers, razor and comb
• combs, brushes, blow-dries or sets wet hair in rollers to style or straighten
• shaves and trims beards and moustaches
• collects payment, arranges appointments and cleans and tidies salon
• maintains client records and keeps up-to-date with new products, styles and techniques
• ensures hair products are stored and used appropriately and observes relevant health and safety factors
• demonstrates, sells and recommends hair care products to clients and advises them on hair care

Also called

Artistic director (hairdressing) · Barber · Colourist (hairdressing) · Hair designer · Hair stylist · Hairdresser

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for hairdressers and barbers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 9 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Beauticians and related occupations