A day in the life of a Beauty Therapist

Love beauty? Enjoy treating yourself to a relaxing facial or have fun painting other people’s nails? Do you find yourself reading articles online about beauty, or trying new techniques and recreating certain looks on friends and family? If you’ve sad “yes” to any of these statements, then a career as a Beauty Therapist may be an interesting path to consider.

Being a Beauty Therapist may sound glamorous, but it requires a lot of hard work and your schedule will often be very busy. However, spending your day making others feel truly pampered or looking great can be both fun and extremely rewarding.

Read this guide to find out more about a career as a Beauty Therapist…

Beauty career outlook

Now is a great time to consider a career in beauty. According to Job Outlook, the number of Beauty Therapists in Australia increased over the last 5 years and the growth is expected to be strong over the next 5 years too. In that time, there is estimated to be around 25,000 new beauty therapy jobs opening.

Beauty therapists work in most regions of Australia, so you’re sure to find job opportunities available where you live.

Earnings tend to be below average, at around $650 per week ($33,800 per year) vs. the ‘all jobs’ average of $1,230 per week. However, your beauty therapy salary can increase as your experience and professional reputation increases. You can also benefit from the added flexibility of the role, with more than half of Beauty Therapists working part-time, which means you can fit it around your other commitments, such as family life.

95.5% of workers are female, but that’s not to mean that if you’re male and interested in Beauty Therapy that there’s not a role available for you too!

What does your typical day look like?

As a Beauty Therapist, no day is ever the same, so you’ll never get bored. You’ll meet different customers and will perform a range of different treatments every day.

Here’s a selection of some of the tasks that may need to be carried out on a day-to-day basis:

• Answer phones as well as manage client bookings and schedules
• Discuss beauty requirements with clients
• Advise clients on their beauty needs
• Perform treatments such as manicures, pedicures, massages, hair removal and more
• Maintain client records
• Order supplies
• Research new products such as nail varnishes and body lotions
• Evaluate treatments to continually improve service
• Monitor the latest trends in beauty to stay up to date
• Keep the treatment rooms clean and tidy

As you can see, there’s a lot more to becoming a Beauty Therapist than just painting people’s nails and being able to perform facials.

You also have a lot of choices when it comes to how you work, as you could find a position in a beauty salon, or you may also find that there are job opportunities for Beauty Therapists in hotels, tourist destination areas, on cruise ships and at day spas. Alternatively, you may decide that you want to become your own boss and run your own business, either from separate premises, from your own home, or at clients’ houses.

You can choose to carry out a full range of services or specialise in one specific area, such as by becoming a Nail Technician, or Masseuse.

The main demands of the job are that you need to be friendly and professional. You’ll be working with people most of the day, so you need to be comfortable making conversations with them, whilst also being able to relax them, so they enjoy the experience. You must have good communication skills, listening to what the clients want and being able to explain the treatments you’re carrying out clearly. You also need to be organised as you’ll need to be able to manage appointments and stick to time slots, so you don’t leave customers waiting.

Is Beauty Therapy a good career choice for you?

If you’re passionate about beauty, then you’re already halfway there. It’s an interesting and diverse career and gives you the opportunity to work for others or become your own boss. You can also be flexible with your hours if that’s important to you. If you’re creative and enjoy working with a mixture of different people every day, then this role could be a great fit for you.

If you’d love to create a career for yourself in beauty or develop your existing skills, you need the help of a beauty therapy course. Open Colleges Beauty courses will transform you into a professional Beauty Therapist, teaching you how to manage or own a salon, master the art of creating the perfect lashes, give you the skills and knowledge required to perform safe and effective waxing and much more.