Some great employees, however upper management is a joke! - Salon Manager Ulta Beauty Employee Review

1.0
8 Jul 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

It is a great opportunity to grow and develop stylists. With an average of over 2,500 customers a week, there is a lot of opportunity to build your book. Most of the employees are great, they offer more benefits that any salon I have heard of.

Cons

They treat every location as though it should perform as well as their best locations, a nice standard, but unrealistic, especially when some of the locations are placed poorly and circulate a poor demographic. There is no support, just getting yelled at, or talked down to, usually my retail management, who know nothing about hair. There is an overall disrespect for hairdressers at Ulta, the retail staff is encouraged to be active in the salon, yet they continuously overstep their bounds and there is an infestation of the idea that the retail staff know half as much about hair as the licensed hairdressers! The salon module and business plan is extremely flawed, and unless evolved, it will fail. The level and commission system is based purely on revenue generated for the company, and not skill and education, thus losing integrity with the clients that believe they are getting a better service when paying a higher price. Overall, if you really need a job, this isn't a bad place; but I would be cautious before thinking a career is possible here, and a good or bad district manager can make or break your workplace satisfaction with Ulta!

Explore other reviews about Ulta Beauty

5.0
9 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

sweet company that appreciates their employees, great gratis!

Cons

the hours kind of suck sometimes

2.0
4 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good benefits for full time employees from what I hear. hourly pay if commission goal isn't met which is nice for those building clientele

Cons

this could just be the case for my store, especially because it's a very high volume store, but as a stylist I don't feel valued at all. I expected this to some degree coming to a huge corporate salon, but the biggest issue is that they try to pretend they care about you. but at the end of the day, if you're not meeting the sales they want/growing quickly enough, they don't care about you as a stylist. if you don't already have an established clientele, business is highly unreliable as there is no late cancellation/no show policy. many services are underpriced in my opinion, making it hard to meet their sales goals as an entry level part-time stylist unless fully booked every day. all they care about is getting as many clients in and out and quickly and possible and they hire more stylists than there are chairs, making every day inconsistent and chaotic. the relative stability of hourly pay is commission threshold isn't met seems enticing for stylists still building a clientele, but the hourly pay is wildly inconsistent between stylists, even those of the same tier. as a stylist of over 3 years who moved and is starting over with no clientele, I make over $2 less per hour than a fellow stylist who just got her license a few months ago and started taking clients for the first time last week. you're better off working at a place like Great Clips or Hair Cuttery because at least they're honest about what they are.

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