We have all incorporated competitions, whether it be a design competition, haircutting competition, makeup competition, or nail competition. However, are you doing anything to change it up? Try creating multiple types of competitions.

Here are some examples:

Self-Competition: Have students work to better themselves by increasing their speed on a service or by improving their ticket average from one week to the next or by challenging themselves to serve more clients one month compared to the previous month.

Team Competition: When students are practicing perm wraps, make it fun and exciting by turning it into a relay competition. First, create several teams of 5 and have each team member stand behind a starting line. When you blow the whistle, one team member runs up to the mannequin head and puts in three rods.  Then, the next person goes and so on. Whichever team gets through first, wins! Of course, be sure to judge based on technique as well as speed.

Technical Competition:  When things are slow in the student salon, have a Grab Bag Updo competition.  Give a student a bag that contains 5 – 7 items.  They must create an updo using 4 of the items contained in the bag.  You might consider certain rules like no hot tools, etc. Take pictures of each entry and post the pictures on the school’s Facebook page and let your “fans” pick the winners.