The relative importance of communication competence, communication satisfaction and commercial friendship in hair stylist-client consultation communication : a coorientational approach

Abstract

The beauty industry’s primary educational focus is on technical skills, safety and sanitation laws required to pass state licensure board exams, with minimal focus on communication skills (Braxton, 2001). Concerns arise as hair stylists enter the beauty industry with less than adequate knowledge regarding communication in the salon. As a result, communication challenges affect not only the hair stylists’ ability to provide adequate services, but also the clients’ experiences as well. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into an understudied area of the communication dyad existing between hair stylists and clients. Coorientation approach provides a framework to examine the relationships between two groups, hair stylists and clients, in their communication during hair appointment consultations. Support was found for two of three agreement hypotheses, concluding that, false consensuses, or inaccurate perceptions, were found for communication competence and commercial friendship, but not for communication satisfaction. Therefore, no alignment was found for the individual answers of the hair stylists and clients, respectively. Support was found for two of three accuracy hypotheses, concluding that, hair stylists overestimate the importance of communication competence and commercial friendship as compared to the clients’ actual answers. Results shed light on the disagreement and inaccuracies between hair stylists and clients during consultation communication. Changes in cosmetology education, as well as continuing education may be necessary in order to address this problem.