Hairdresser CV: example and tips

Keywords in job ads for hairdressers

Salons look for craft skills, service and the ability to fill the appointment book. Job ads say this with words such as “customer care”, “product sales”, “regular clients”, “trend aware” and “part of a team”. Chains and larger salons also use applicant tracking systems that sort applications by the words in the ad.

So use the same words in your CV where they match what you have done. If the ad mentions “balayage” or “men's cuts” and you can do them, write it. Selja finds the words in the ad for you and places them where they match your experience. Our guide to an ATS-friendly CV explains how these systems read your CV. Most ads in Norway are in Norwegian, so it helps to know terms such as klipp (cut), farge (colour), herreklipp (men's cut) and svennebrev (journeyman's certificate). These words come up again and again:

• Cutting, women's cuts, men's cuts and children's cuts.
• Colour, highlights, balayage, bleaching and colour correction.
• Styling, updos, bridal hair and beards.
• Customer care, consultations and regular clients.
• Sales of hair products and treatments.
• Journeyman's certificate, trade certificate and master craftsman's certificate.
• Booking, the till and responsibility for your own appointment book.

Formal requirements: journeyman's certificate, master's certificate and hygiene

The usual route into the trade is a journeyman's certificate (svennebrev) in hairdressing. According to utdanning.no it takes four years, with two years at school and two years as an apprentice in a salon. The school part starts with Vg1 Hairdressing, floristry, interior and display design, and continues with Vg2 Hairdressing. If you hold the certificate, put it at the top of your education section with the year. Many salons mention it in their ads.

If you have worked as a hairdresser for many years without the certificate, utdanning.no says you can sit the journeyman's test as a private candidate once you have five years of experience in the trade. A master craftsman's certificate (mesterbrev) is further training for those who want to run their own salon or manage others, and should be clearly visible if you have one.

Salons must also follow the Norwegian regulations on hygiene requirements for hairdressing, beauty, tattooing and piercing businesses. They require internal control with fixed routines, and that the customer is told about risks, for example of allergic reactions (section 7). If you have been responsible for hygiene routines or chemicals in the salon, it is worth a bullet point.

Example of a summary for a hairdresser CV

The summary is the three to five sentences at the top of your CV. It should say who you are, what you are good at and what you are looking for. Here is a made up example you can use as a pattern:

Example: “Hairdresser with a journeyman's certificate and five years of experience in a salon in central Bergen. Has built a regular client base of around 300 clients, focusing on colour, balayage and men's cuts. Accounted for 20 percent of the salon's product sales in 2025 and has been responsible for training two apprentices. Looking for a salon where I can develop further in colour and colour correction.”

Replace the details with your own, and only write what you can explain in an interview. You will find more examples in our guide to writing a CV summary.

Bullet points with results: weak versus strong

Many hairdressers write their CV as a list of techniques. That is useful, but what convinces a salon manager is numbers showing that clients come back and that you contribute to turnover. Start with a strong verb in the past tense and finish with a number: clients per day, regular clients, the share who rebook, or product sales.

• Weak: “Cut clients' hair.” Strong: “Saw 8 to 12 clients a day in a busy salon, with a full appointment book most weeks.”
• Weak: “Had regular clients.” Strong: “Built a regular client base of 250 clients in three years, and around seven in ten booked their next appointment before leaving.”
• Weak: “Sold products.” Strong: “Increased my product sales by 30 percent in a year by recommending aftercare tailored to each treatment.”
• Weak: “Worked with colour.” Strong: “Carried out colour, balayage and colour correction, and completed a course in advanced colour techniques in 2025.”
• Weak: “Helped apprentices.” Strong: “Supervised two apprentices through to a passed journeyman's test.”
• Weak: “Social media.” Strong: “Ran the salon's Instagram account and grew it from 1,200 to 4,000 followers in a year, with before and after photos of my own work.”

Skills, products and courses worth including

The skills in a hairdresser CV should be specific. List the techniques you master, the product ranges you know and the courses you have taken, with years. Many salons use particular brands, so it helps if you know them.

• Techniques: cutting, colour, highlights, balayage, bleaching, perms, beards, updos and bridal hair.
• Product and colour ranges you have worked with, by name.
• Courses and further training, with the provider and year.
• Booking and till systems, for example the ones the salon uses for appointments and payment.
• Hygiene routines and safe use of chemicals and colour products.
• Social media: photos of your own work and contact with clients.
• Languages you use with clients.

Apprentice, newly qualified or many years in a salon

If you are an apprentice or newly qualified, you may have only a few years in a salon. Show what you have done: the school salon, your apprenticeship, competitions, courses and styles for friends and family that you have photos of. If you have worked in a shop or in service alongside, include it. It shows that you can deal with customers. Many salons want to see your work, so add a link to an Instagram account or portfolio with photos of your own work. Our guide to a CV for recent graduates has more advice.

If you have worked in salons for many years, your client base is your strongest card. Say how many regular clients you have and what you are known for. If you have run your own salon, been responsible for apprentices, managed a salon or taught courses, give it space. Cut older jobs down to one line, and keep the CV to one or two pages.

Common mistakes in a hairdresser CV

Most mistakes are easy to fix. Read your CV aloud before you send it, and look out for these:

• Only a list of techniques, with no numbers for clients or sales.
• The journeyman's certificate far down the page, or missing altogether.
• No link to photos of your own work.
• Courses without the year and provider.
• The same CV for a barber and a salon that focuses on colour.
• Missing contact details or an informal email address.

Create your salon CV and cover letter in under a minute with Selja

Salons look for different things. One wants a colour specialist, another a hairdresser who can do men's cuts and beards, a third someone who can build a client base from scratch. With Selja you paste in the job ad and upload the CV you already have. In under a minute you get a professional, ATS-friendly CV and cover letter tailored to the salon, with the words from the ad where they match what you can do.

Selja never adds experience or techniques you do not have. If the ad asks for something your CV does not show, for example experience with balayage, Selja asks you first and only uses what you confirm. You can choose between several templates and colours and download the result as a PDF. It is free to start: check your CV for free, or take a free ATS check against the ad. Get started when you want to create your first application.

The application and next steps

Many salons ask for a short cover letter, and some want you to show what you can do in the salon. Keep the letter to one page: why you want to work in that particular salon, what you are strong at and how you work with clients. See our example of a job application for a template you can build on.

In the interview you are often asked how you advise a client who wants something that does not suit them, and how you sell products. Practise with the interview questions for the role. According to utdanning.no, most hairdressers are paid commission, with a guaranteed minimum wage in the collective agreement, so ask how the pay is made up. The free pay check shows whether the pay is poor, standard or good, with figures from Statistics Norway (SSB).