Occupation / job
Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists pays $35,790 where the typical American job pays $50,020 — $14,230 a year short, or $6.84 an hour. That is a liveable wage in a cheap state and a difficult one in an expensive city, and nothing about the national figure tells you which you would be in.
This is a large occupation: 305,710 people work as Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists. Large occupations hire continuously and replace continuously, and the pay reflects both facts.
Personal appearance work suits people who build a book of regular clients and keep them for years — the skill gets you hired once, the relationship is what pays.
We carry no verified training length for Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
$30,120 to $48,830 — 1.6x, or $1,559 a month between the quarters. An unremarkable spread, which means the useful planning number for Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists is the bottom of it rather than the middle.
Under $30,120 is where a quarter of this field sits, $19,900 beneath the $50,020 a typical American job pays. The risk in Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists is not the average outcome, it is how long you might spend in the bottom quarter before leaving it.
Avoid it if you cannot stand all day, or if you would not enjoy the client-building side, which is most of the income.
There is no failure rate on this page because there is nothing honest to divide by. BLS counted 305,710 people employed as Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists; it did not count the people who trained for it and are doing something else, and a rate built without that denominator would be a number we made up.
What the spread tells you
A 1.6x ratio is the most common shape in this data: some room to move, none of it quick. Read $35,790 as where you might be after years in Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists, and $30,120 as where you would start.
Put in money rather than ratios: $30,120 at the 25th percentile, $35,790 at the midpoint, $48,830 at the 75th. $18,710 separates the quarter of Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists at the bottom from the quarter at the top.
The 75th percentile is $48,830. Reaching it from the $35,790 midpoint is $13,040 a year; reaching it from the $30,120 that the bottom quarter of Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists earn is $18,710.
From $35,790 the drop to $30,120 is $5,670 and the climb to $48,830 is $13,040. When the upper half of the range is that much longer, the average is pulled well above the median — which is exactly why this site publishes the median.
Converted to an hourly rate over a full-time year: $14.48 at the bottom quarter, $17.20 at the midpoint, $23.47 at the top quarter. The typical American job works out at $24.04 on the same basis.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Hairdressers, Hairstylists, and Cosmetologists for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $35,790 describes them.
Treat the per-hour figure as a conversion. It assumes a flat full-time year against $35,790 because we have no verified record of unpaid hours or out-of-pocket costs for this work, and we would rather convert honestly than adjust invented ones.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else