There's No Such Thing as Poaching: Why Stylists Leave and What to Do About It
There's no such thing as poaching. You can't take a stylist from an owner who gives them a real career path, real education, and real leadership, so when someone leaves for another offer, the offer wasn't the cause. Your salon was. That's how I look at it, and it changed what I do on a Monday morning.
Is there such a thing as poaching a stylist?
No. It is impossible to poach a stylist who is happy where they are. If another owner reaches out and your stylist says no thanks, nothing happened. If your stylist says yes, they were already looking for a reason, and that is information you needed.
I've had stylists leave me for offers they felt were better than what I was giving them. More than once. Every time, I wanted to blame the other owner. And every time, the honest read was the same: I wasn't listening to what my team was telling me, I missed the signs, and I hadn't offered them a better career path. That's not their fault and it's not the other owner's fault. It's mine.
Getting mad that another salon messaged your stylist is like getting mad that a client liked another stylist's post and switched. Sorry, they were just better than you at that moment. They cared more. Become a better owner and you have nothing to worry about.
Why does poaching exist?
Poaching exists as an idea because it gives an owner someone else to blame. It is easier to say a stylist was stolen than to ask why a stylist was shopping. The word turns a retention problem into a crime story, and a crime story lets you skip the work.
Here is the part most owners miss. Your clients don't only sit in the chairs. Your clients also work behind the chairs. Your stylists are your internal clients, and your salon is delivering a product to them. So ask yourself:
- What is the career path for a stylist in my salon?
- How do I nurture their career?
- What education do I provide?
- How do I set them up for success?
Think about how a guest behaves. If they get consistent results, stay inside their budget, and can always get an appointment, they stay for years. If you keep changing your niche or your quality slips, they find someone who does what they want. Stylists work the same way. If you present one thing and then stop delivering it, they go.
What does it mean when a stylist leaves for another salon?
It means something in your salon didn't hold them: pay, growth, attention, standards, or a conversation you avoided. A stylist leaving is a report card. I read it, fix what it points to, and move on.
The clearest example from my own history: I had a great salon with great opportunity for everybody at The Warehouse Salon. Then I branched into coaching and an online store, lost focus on the salon, and lost some people. I had to go back and refocus. Owners who love this industry do this all the time. We get pulled into other ventures and then wonder why the team feels neglected. They feel neglected because we are neglecting them.
Two fixes I'd make if that's you:
- If you pivot into another vertical, put someone in place to nurture your internal clients before you pivot, not after.
- If you are the busiest stylist in your salon, you don't have the bandwidth to care for your team. Block a couple of days a week to make sure your salon presents the best opportunity and actually delivers it.
Then put it in writing. A position agreement says exactly how you will fulfill your role as the owner, and exactly how the stylist will fulfill theirs. You both agree to it. Hire someone who fits your core values and your vision, explain how you'll support their career and what success looks like in that role, and nobody can take them. The only exception is a stylist who outgrows you, which is why your vision has to be big enough to fit your team's vision inside it.
I covered the culture side of this in why your salon keeps losing good people, and the other side in what makes great stylists stay when they could go anywhere.
How do I recruit stylists without it being poaching?
Run a recurring class in your salon, post content about it, and start conversations with the stylists who engage. Job boards like Indeed usually don't work in our industry, because the stylists you want are busy doing hair on other people. They are not scrolling a job site.
Stylists find you through your social media presence and through conversations with their peers. Here is the playbook I use:
- Create a recurring class schedule in your salon, weekly or monthly.
- Post content about those classes that stylists will engage with.
- When a stylist follows or engages, start a DM conversation on Instagram, TikTok, or whatever platform you use.
- Invite them to a class.
The DM can be as simple as: "Thank you for following. Are you here for the inspo or are you looking for some more hair tips?" If they say hair tips: "Awesome. I teach classes every Monday at my salon. I would love to invite you to come to a class."
Yes or no, it doesn't matter much. If they say yes, they are in my salon and in my world. Is that poaching? No. If they are happy where they are but hungry for education they aren't getting, I'm glad to help them grow over there. If the conversation shows they aren't happy, I might have an opportunity that fits them better. I never have to steal anyone, because a happy stylist doesn't go anywhere.
It also works in the other direction. Other owners' teams reach out to my stylists on social media. I don't care. I laugh at it. My job is to protect my salon, fill my chairs with clients, and fill my salon with stylists.
What should I do when I find out a stylist messaged another owner?
Be glad you found out, then sit down with them and ask what's going on. Finding out gives you a chance to fix the problem while the stylist is still on your team. They are looking for a reason, and it could be pay, growth, or something you said or did.
Don't jump to conclusions. Ask first. A few things I look at:
- How do I run team meetings and one-on-ones?
- Did I correct behavior I didn't want, or let it slide?
- Did I encourage the behavior I do want to see more of?
If it turns out to be someone who is never happy and always thinks the grass is greener, that conversation is your clean way to move them on. I give everything gratitude and look for what I can learn from it.
One thing I owe you from my own history. A stylist on my team reached out to a friend of mine who owns a salon, and my friend told me. When I sat down with them, the cause traced back to me. I had watched a standard slip over the years and dropped hints instead of addressing it directly. I'm not a micromanager, and I want people to make their own decisions, but hints are not a policy. The fix is having the policy written down and having the conversation early. My dress code is short: don't look sloppy, and express yourself however you like within that. Whatever your standard is, write it down before you need it.
If you want help building the career path, the position agreements, and the recruiting rhythm so your stylists have no reason to look elsewhere, apply here and see if your salon qualifies. You can also read how I got here to see why I run salons this way.
FAQ
What is poaching in the Hunger Games?
In Suzanne Collins's novel The Hunger Games, poaching is the literal kind: illegal hunting. Katniss slips under the fence outside District 12 to hunt game they aren't allowed to take. That is a different thing from a stylist choosing a new salon, which involves no stolen property, only a person making a decision.
Can you go to jail for poaching?
Illegally hunting wildlife is a crime in many places, and penalties can include jail. Recruiting a stylist is not that. A stylist who changes salons is an adult changing employers. If you have a signed non-solicit or non-compete, that is a contract question, so talk to an employment attorney in your state before acting on it.
What if a stylist outgrows my salon?
Then celebrate it and plan for it. Outgrowing you is the one exit I accept, because it means you built someone good. Give them room to build a personal economy inside your space, like teaching a class or offering shadow days, and some of them will stay far longer than you expected.
Should I stop talking to stylists at other salons?
No. Keep teaching and keep showing up in their feeds. Your content and your classes are how they find you. What you stop doing is treating the conversation as theft.
