Why Does It Seem That Everyone Wants to Become an Esthetician Now?

Because existing estheticians are making the career look so easy and attractive! Just look at those Instagram and TikTok posts; dancing and singing skincare pros showing off their beautiful spas and treatment rooms, handling their smiling, grateful facial clients in a serene setting. I mean, that looks really, really, good! And those cool surroundings must cost a lot, so the estheticians showing them off have to be making a whole bunch of money! Who wouldn’t want a piece of that?

Just last week as we were flying from Boston to California, an 18-year-old female row mate and water polo athlete informed us that she planned to go to esthetics school in the coming year. I asked what attracted her to that career and her answer was about dealing with her own acne and helping others with theirs. When I questioned her about financial expectations and the fact that she’d probably be running a business someday, she went silent. In all my 4-decades of polling estheticians about what drew them to the profession, virtually none of them cited income opportunity. Sadly, only too late does the reality of that question enter and often darken the picture.

So, what from my long experience do I see as the future of the esthetics career? This: a gradual but broadly felt shaking out, the result of service oversupply and the dilution of available customers through every means of selling to them, not the least via online skin analysis and treatment product suggestion. I’ve seen this in so many expressions — the acrylic nail craze, day spa openings, Botox parties, and fast-facial shops. Does anyone remember the .com boom, oxygen bars, water bars, Champagne bars, cigar bars, or that wave of blowout salons? Hot ticket opportunities come and go.

We may not want to admit it, or even realize it, but the facial client is one very rare bird that every esthetician is hoping to capture. Whether it’s age-management treatments, brow shaping, or lash extensions, the percentage of any population regularly buying them is extremely small. I’ve questioned audiences in my hundreds of industry presentations whether they themselves were a regular paying customer of an esthetician before deciding to become one. Few if any hands go up. That right there is the biggest clue — even a large portion of aspiring professionals didn’t buy the services they later hoped to sell.

The message here? Pick the most in-demand services that have survived over many years and build your business around them. Grow and protect your market reputation so that newcomers will find it difficult to lure those rare birds of yours to their fabulous new spas. This is the long game, and the one that produced my own success. So, when the shakeout comes — and it will — you’ll be able to hold on.

Best to your business!

Douglas Preston