Why I Left Edo Salon (3 times!) and Why I Will Never Go Back.

I really debated for a long time, maybe years, about sharing what I am about to share. And before I do I want to start by saying - there are some really talented, kindhearted stylists working at Edo Salon of whom I love very much. This is not about them. This is about the owners of Edo and more broadly about the chaotic and abusive culture that permeates the salon industry. If you are seeing a stylist at Edo- please don't let this post detour you from supporting that artist and their work.

Getting hired as a senior stylist at Edo Salon in 2016 felt like a dream. I was a young single mother, living in Sacramento with family, commuting to San Francisco 3 days a week and working at a really toxic place called Salon Alta with owners who neglected to pay me on time, expected me to sit around unpaid and wait for clients in the salon all day - of which there were very few, if any. I had a child to support and a life to build. I was wasting my skill and talents working there. I needed an out. At that time Jayne Matthews and I had met on Instagram (in its early days!) and bonded over our shared allergies to ammonia-based hair color. I had already started working with Organic Color Systems at the time and had attended their teacher training. They needed someone to teach the stylists how to use the line at Edo and I needed to work somewhere that actually had a clientele and would actually pay me. I was desperate and my standards were low, so it made getting this job feel like I had hit some kind of a jackpot.

Working there was amazing, in the beginning. I felt so lucky just to be "booked and busy". I loved having the chance to teach stylists how to use this less toxic color line and to be in this cult like group of gorgeous women and queer folks. It was before all the social media hair influencer madness had begun and a really cool time for hair in San Francisco. Tech companies were popping up everywhere and with that came a new clientele of folks who had high paying jobs that "let them" have cool hair colors and cuts. Prior to that point in my career, it was rare to have clients who could actually afford to pay you to dye their pink and cut it in to a fashion mullet. That kinda hair magic was reserved for outcasts, artists and musicians. We were doing fun hair, but it was for free, after work on our friends. So, I was pretty happy. Making money, doing cool hair, vibing with my friends at work.

But I was also expected to work 9-hour days, double booked (meaning working on multiple clients at once). No one batted an eye when you didn't have a lunch break or even 10 minutes to take a breath and get some fresh air. It was pure toxic hustle culture. At that point we all got paid a commission percentage of the work we did and so - the more you worked- the more you got paid. Working overtime was encouraged and everyone did it. You were not compensated any more for overtime or for working through your lunch. But if you did that- you could cram more clients into your day- so it would feel like you did.

Those 2 years absolutely destroyed my body- I was dealing with so much chronic pain from being on my feet for 9 hours a day- toiling away bent over clients. The dress code didn't allow us to wear sneakers- so you can imagine how that felt. If you've ever been to an amusement park or music festival where you've been on your feet all day- well just imagine doing that 4 days a week. I am still getting my body back in working order after the damage that did to me.

I was also starting to notice something strange about my paychecks. The commission amount that I thought I was getting paid seemed to go up and down. When I asked Chri, one of the owners, about it- I got a weird answer. She told me that my sales commission varied based on my hair product sales. So, if I sold more shampoos and styling products to my clients - I would make a higher commission on my services - and if I didn't get that many sales during the pay period, my commission would be less. It varied by a lot. I could maybe fall $15 short of target and that would make my paycheck lower by $300-$500. I guess this had been explained to me when I was hired? I later found out that this was a business model taught by Bumble and Bumble to salon owners. (truly hate that company but more on that another time!) Chri also said- don't worry- if this upsets you, we are making an announcement next week that you will like.

The announcement was that they were switching their business model to a rental salon. Meaning you pay a fixed amount weekly to work there plus a fixed charge for the color you use on clients. Everyone was expected to become "small business owners" overnight. It was absolute chaos. Older more established stylists like me were at an advantage but younger/ newer stylists were understandably terrified and unprepared to handle running their own business. They assured everyone it would be great, that they were doing this for the stylists. That they cared about us and wanted us to thrive. Idk. Maybe that was true. But within less than a year - it fell apart, and they decided to go back to a commission model.

The chaos of this was felt deeply by the staff. People felt unsafe and unsure and that created a culture of fear and scarcity within the salon. It was a mess. There was also a new law in place in CA that said that they had to pay stylists a base rate to ensure that folks were being fairly compensated for downtime at work as well as overtime. The owners told us that they had created an amazing new business model that would allow them to still pay us our commission rate while complying with the law. They said if they didn't do it this way- they would have to pay us all much, much less. So, they framed it as "we are doing this for you". Every time they pulled the rug out from under us, they said, "we are doing this for you" It was like being in an abusive relationship. That model - which is still in place now- would end up being the reason I left Edo in January and the reason why I reported them to the CA Labor Board. It works like this- and look, it's so confusing and stupid that it is hard to explain. But I will try.

You get paid a base rate of $20 an hour.

They tell you that it doesn't really matter- it's just to comply with the law, and that they are actually paying you a standard commission rate. Most stylists start at 40% commission. So, the way they calculate your paychecks is- they take your total hourly wages and deduct them from your commission amount.

Say you do $1000 in services.

40% of that is $400 (The salon takes their cut $600)

If your hourly wages equal $120 they will deduct that from your commission rate and pay it via a "bonus" of $280. So, your paycheck will equal $400.

This sounds kind of fine at first. And I and others believed them when they said it was so that they can pay you "as much as possible"

But what it means is- you are NOT paid for downtime, be it classes you attend on your day off, time in between clients, etc. And you are NEVER compensated for overtime. No matter how many hours you work. Oh- and say you have a real Karen in your chair, and she hates her hair and hates you and demands a refund. The salon will refund her and guess what- now you don't get paid for the hours you spent working on her. Not a penny.

So, for that reason, coupled with ongoing chaos and the fact that the Davines products that they used and sold in the salon were making me sick- I decided to break off and do my own thing. A few stylists joined me there and many more left Edo at that time as well. I broke free from the abusive relationship I was in with Edo Salon for the first time.

The second time I worked at Edo was during the pandemic. I was at the Oakland location. It was- fine. I worked there for 3 months. I saw that the chaos had continued. The assistants were miserable but that they felt like it was some kind of an honor to work there because Jayne was so famous on Instagram. They wanted to learn from this "guru" of razor cuts. I've said it before and I'll shout it into the void again- hair influencers give me the cringies. I just think they are very good at being basic and formulaic and working within the gross patriarchal standards of beauty that we all should be trying to defeat. I see Jaynes work as "fine", but she works on mostly thin conventionally attractive models and that feels really icky to me. I'm not impressed. Being back at Edo this time I really felt like it was the "Jayne Show" and I didn't love that. I know the real her and it doesn't match up with the virtue signaling I saw online. She can do whatever she wants, I'm not here to judge. I just don't have to like it. So, I didn't stay long.

Then in June of last year- I went back AGAIN. Y'all this one is on me. I grew up with a lot of abuse and trauma and I think some part of me was still doing this thing where I would be drawn to abusive situations in an effort to "win this time". The first red flag came from my body- I started a month long - heavy, super dramatic period the very first day I started there. My body was like "noooooooooo". But I guess I needed to really learn from this experience. The second red flag was that my long-time clients were refusing to come to Edo. They didn't like what they had been seeing online and hearing from friends about Edo. The third red flag- Chri, the owner who is now in charge of the business, was very weird about my prices. I found out later it was because their influx of clients was significantly lower, and she wanted to keep prices low to hopefully attract more clients. I also didn't love how little respect she had for the most senior stylist at the Oakland location. Someone who was a true leader, and incredible stylist and truly the person who held that salon together. It felt like she resented her, when really, she should have been deeply grateful to her. The fourth red flag- the back of the house at Edo is such a fucking mess. The room where we mixed color, prepped for clients etc. is like a dark cave with ugly cement floors, low ceilings, exposed wired and absolutely wayyyyyyy to much stuff for how small the room is. I wish I had a photo- y'all would not believe the stark contrast to the beautiful front of the house. The place where we had to sit and eat lunch had no table, old gross furniture and I used to tell everyone that "If I owned this salon and I wanted my stylists to feel like I didn't give a shit about them- this is how i would do it" Just the bare fucking minimum. I would be so embarrassed if I were them. I was always making sure the door was closed so my clients wouldn't see it. At the SF location they pile the staff in to a dingey basement that I'm pretty sure they legally are supposed to only be using for storage. I heard a horrific story about another area of the salon where they kept trash/ old paperwork being absolutely covered in rodent feces and Chri suggesting the manager and assistant clean it. When I worked there in 2016 a rat died in the wall, and we just had to live with the smell. Disgusting.

I talked with stylists there about how they were discouraged from raising their prices (the only way stylists can grow their income) and that they hadn't had commission raises in years. They were still paying them in that convoluted, illegal way. No overtime. No payment for downtime in between clients. Hustle culture is still encouraged. No career building or help growing. No receptionist. The manager manages 2 locations, a giant staff, all social media and is grossly underpaid and undervalued for the work she does. The owners are creating wealth off of the backs of these talented individuals. It makes me sick. At first I had hoped I could make Edo a better place. But that was so silly. They weren't interested in that at all.

I left in a rage. I hit my limit. It broke my heart to see how little the owners of Edo Salon take the time to consider the lives and needs of their staff. It's embarrassing. When I quit, I offered to talk with them about what I saw and why I left. They weren't interested. They didn't want my input. So here we are. I wrote this so that I could put this part of my career to rest and move the fuck on.

After I left, I reported Edo to the CA Labor Board, I was the first to do so and their response was essentially " we don't have time for this". This also why I felt the need to write this.

To anyone who works there- what I want you to know is that YOU DESERVE BETTER. You have more power than you think. You can and should question the leaders of Edo Salon. Ask them for what you need. Demand it. Band together. Support each other, like I know you already do, and rise up.

To the owners- if this upsets you- sorry, not sorry. Like I said in my letter of resignation- DO BETTER.

As for me, I shall never return to that place.

XOXO,

Opal