Hair Styling & Design

Types of Degrees Hair Styling & Design Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many hair styling/stylist and hair design graduations there were in 2020-2021 for each degree level.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Undergraduate Certificate	954
Basic Certificate	75

What Hair Styling & Design Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, hair styling majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Hair Styling Majors

Hair Styling majors often go into careers in which the following knowledge areas are important:

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.

Skills for Hair Styling Majors

hair styling majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

Abilities for Hair Styling Majors

Hair Styling majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Arm-Hand Steadiness - The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Manual Dexterity - The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
• Finger Dexterity - The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.

What Can You Do With a Hair Styling & Design Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with hair styling:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Barbers	13.5%	$27,960
Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists	13.0%	$24,730

How Much Do Hair Styling & Design Majors Make?

Salaries According to BLS

Average salaries range from $30,190 to $33,220 (25th to 75th percentile) for careers related to hair styling. This range includes all degree levels, so you may expect those with a more advanced degree to make more while those with less advanced degrees will typically make less.

To put that into context, according to BLS data from the first quarter of 2020, the typical high school graduate makes between $30,000 and $57,900 a year (25th through 75th percentile). The average person with a bachelor’s degree (any field) makes between $45,600 and $99,000. Advanced degree holders make the most with salaries between $55,600 and $125,400.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Hair Styling & Design

Some careers associated with hair styling require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for hair styling careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
Less than a High School Diploma	10.6%
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	23.1%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	54.7%
Some College Courses	6.0%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	5.7%
Bachelor’s Degree	0.9%
Master’s Degree	0.6%

Online Hair Styling & Design Programs

In 2020-2021, 114 schools offered a hair styling program of some type. The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	100	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	5	0
Associate’s Degree	0	0
Bachelor’s Degree	0	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Is a Degree in Hair Styling & Design Worth It?

The median salary for a hair styling grad is $30,190 per year. This is based on the weighted average of the most common careers associated with the major.

Trades Related to Hair Styling & Design

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to hair styling.

Major	Number of Grads
General Cosmetology/Cosmetologist	46,395
Aesthetician/Esthetician & Skin Care Specialist	31,569
Nail Technician/Specialist & Manicurist	11,623
Barbering/Barber	8,381
Facial Treatment Specialist/Facialist	2,437
Other Cosmetology and Related Personal Grooming Arts	2,278
Master Aesthetician/Esthetician	1,620
Cosmetology, Barber/Styling, & Nail Instructor	1,382
Make-Up Artist/Specialist	566
Salon/Beauty Salon Management/Manager	291
Electrolysis/Electrology & Electrolysis Technician	253
Permanent Cosmetics/Makeup & Tattooing	71

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By Tiffany Bumgardner under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.