---
title: "Hairstylist"
description: "Provide beauty services, such as cutting, coloring, and styling hair, and massaging and treating scalp. May shampoo hair, apply makeup, dress wigs…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/hairstylist"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Hairstylist

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-5012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-5012.00

Provide beauty services, such as cutting, coloring, and styling hair, and massaging and treating scalp. May shampoo hair, apply makeup, dress wigs, remove hair, and provide nail and skincare services.

Also advertised as: Beautician; Cosmetologist; Hair Dresser; Hair Stylist; Hairdresser; Hairstylist; Stylist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,790 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.21/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,040 to $71,190, with the middle half between $30,120 and $48,830
- **Total US employment:** 305,710
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.6% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 75,800 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 63/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 305,710 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,040 |
| 25th | $30,120 |
| 50th (median) | $35,790 |
| 75th | $48,830 |
| 90th | $71,190 |
| Mean (average) | $43,960 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $59,510 | $55,610 | 6,930 |
| OR | $57,580 | $55,708 | 1,860 |
| DC | $54,570 | $49,654 | 870 |
| SD | $49,800 | $56,217 | 690 |
| VT | $48,650 | $49,664 | 440 |
| CT | $44,620 | $43,065 | 4,090 |
| ME | $44,000 | $45,337 | 970 |
| MN | $39,170 | $39,718 | 5,320 |
| CA | $38,660 | $34,917 | 27,080 |
| NC | $38,410 | $40,720 | 8,490 |
| MT | $38,000 | $40,150 | 690 |
| NM | $37,750 | $40,938 | 1,230 |
| CO | $37,690 | $36,574 | 6,820 |
| MA | $37,290 | $35,260 | 9,600 |
| AZ | $36,810 | $36,562 | 7,840 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/hairstylist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/hairstylist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 575,200 in the 2024–2034 base year to 607,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 32,200 jobs, or +5.6%. Faster than average: 5.6% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 75,800 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 79.0% |
| High School Diploma | 20.9% |
| Some College Courses | 0.1% |

## What the work involves

- Keep work stations clean and sanitize tools, such as scissors and combs.
- Analyze patrons' hair and other physical features to determine and recommend beauty treatment or suggest hair styles.
- Update and maintain customer information records, such as beauty services provided.
- Develop new styles and techniques.
- Schedule client appointments.
- Shampoo, rinse, condition, and dry hair and scalp or hairpieces with water, liquid soap, or other solutions.
- Apply water or setting, straightening or waving solutions to hair, and use curlers, rollers, hot combs and curling irons to press and curl hair.
- Bleach, dye, or tint hair, using applicator or brush.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Chemistry — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.40 |
| C — Conventional | 3.92 |
| S — Social | 3.72 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.25 |
| A — Artistic | 3.24 |
| I — Investigative | 1.54 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISFJ | 72.2 |
| ESFJ | 70.5 |
| ESTJ | 67.2 |
| ISTJ | 63.3 |
| ESFP | 59.1 |

Best-fitting types: ISFJ, ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Barber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barber) — median $38,210
- [Skincare Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/skincare-specialist) — median $45,330
- [Shampooer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shampooer) — median $32,600
- [Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance](https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance) — median $97,150
- [Manicurist and Pedicurist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist) — median $35,760
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Retail Salesperson](https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-salesperson) — median $35,410
- [Spa Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/spa-manager) — median $69,770
- [Fashion Designer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fashion-designer) — median $80,960

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/hairstylist