Originally published on LinkedIn, 14 December 2025.
There’s a part of my career most people don’t know about.
Before Mooeys… Before running my own salons… Before building a franchise network…I spent YEARS in one of the most intense, diverse, high-pressure recruitment environments you can imagine:
✨ The cruise ship industry.
And let me tell you — if you can recruit for cruise ships, you can recruit for ANYTHING.
We’re talking about:
multiple time zones
recruitment agents worldwide
mass hiring events
hundreds of applications
strict standards
global placements
therapists from every corner of the earth
complete cultural mixes
and then placing them into floating cities where they lived and worked for 6–8 months at a time
As an operations manager, and then recruitment manager I was responsible for hiring:
💅 Beauty therapists 💆 Massage therapists ✂️ Hair stylists 🧘 Fitness instructors 🪡 Acupuncturists 🦷 Dentists (yes, really).
This was recruitment at scale. This was recruitment under pressure. This was recruitment with a heartbeat — because if you got it wrong, you didn’t just ruin someone’s job… you affected an entire team and their financial results.
I even set up a full coding system for each therapist and matched them to the perfect cruise line. Imagine the logistics of 400 staff across 20 ships all starting and finishing contracts at different times of the year. We had to work out who needed what training, get them into Southampton on time, accommodation sorted, visa's, medicals and various other requirements all organised, and then ready to be placed on a ship for when someone else is getting off. They needed to hit the ground running, and make money instantly.
It was fast paced, high pressure and so much bloody fun. We didn't always get it right, but when we did and we saw the figures coming in from the ships - it was magic!
I LOVED it. In fact, I think it was my fave job other than running Mooeys.
It taught me more about talent, attitude, cultural fit, resilience, passion, adaptability and ethics than any course ever could.
Then I moved into spa management in big Spa's and did it all again — but differently.
I hired brand-new teams from scratch. I rebuilt burned-out ones. I exited the wrong people. I navigated redundancies. I shaped cultures. I felt the emotional side of recruitment, not just the numbers.
This background became one of my biggest superpowers when I opened Mooeys, and one of the reasons our hiring standards have always been exceptionally high.
So when I say I’ve seen every recruitment trend in beauty, I mean it. And nothing — NOTHING — compares to what happened post-Covid.
The Post-Covid Beauty Recruitment Crisis (A.K.A. The Talent Black Hole)
When salons reopened, the industry didn’t go “back to normal.” It went into survival mode.
Here’s what really happened…
1. Colleges kept issuing qualifications… WITHOUT practical training.
We had therapists who had never waxed a leg. Never done a facial. Never held someone’s hand during a manicure.
And this wasn’t their fault — they hadn’t had access to clients during lockdown.
But it created a generation of therapists who needed months (sometimes years) of hands-on training just to reach a standard where they could safely serve clients.
The problem? Salon owners didn’t have the time or money to train from scratch.
2. Anxiety was through the roof.
People forgot how to be around people. We had candidates who:
froze in interviews
couldn’t answer the phone
couldn’t speak to strangers
couldn’t commit to consistent hours
couldn't show up for interviews
The mental health impact was enormous.
3. The “self-employment is the dream” narrative exploded.
The internet told everyone that “Self-employment = freedom + money + happiness.”
And stressed-out therapists believed it — who wouldn’t? But what they weren’t told was:
loneliness hits hard
admin is overwhelming
finding clients is unpredictable
rent, tax and bills add up
working alone gets boring fast
answering clients at midnight because they want to cancel their 9am appointment the next day isn't fun
Realising that your £25 manicures aren't actually profitable after all
What clients want vs. what is actually achievable with nail art is impossible to navigate unless you spend 2 hours on a design, but clients don't want to pay more than £10 for it (I might do a full ranty article on this topic another time as it's a whole other issue)
Many went self-employed… but many soon realised it wasn’t the magic solution they’d been promised.
4. Work-life balance became THE buzzword.
And don’t get me wrong — balance is important. But we suddenly had a workforce only wanting:
3-day weeks
short shifts
“no evenings”
“no weekends”
Whilst receiving the equivalent of a full time salary! Understandable… but almost impossible for salons trying to rebuild from the ashes.
But Here’s the BIG Shift: We’re Entering a New Recruitment Era
In the last 12–18 months, something beautiful has happened. A new wave of therapists is emerging. And they’re GOOD.
Here’s what we’re seeing…
1. Therapists miss the salon environment.
The energy. The banter. The community. The shared learning. The feeling of belonging. Home salons don’t give you that. Isolation takes its toll.
2. Therapists want a steady income again.
With the cost of living crisis, you can’t rely on inconsistent bookings. A guaranteed base salary matters.
Holiday pay matters. Pensions matter. Security matters.
Even 2–3 guaranteed days a week can change someone’s entire financial life.
3. Clients want connection again.
The world is becoming more digital and disconnected than ever.
Human touch - Real, physical, heart-led human touch — will become a luxury over the next five years.
People will crave community. They’ll crave social environments. They’ll crave spaces outside their homes where they can connect, chat, laugh.
And salons like Mooeys that are built on connection, are positioned perfectly for this shift.
4. The quality of applicants is climbing again.
Experience is coming back. Confidence is coming back. Skill is coming back. Drive is coming back.
5. Hybrid work is rising — and it isn’t going anywhere.
Therapists want BOTH:
✔ their own clients and creativity ✔ AND the security, community and structure of a salon
Salons that embrace this model (properly, with boundaries and respect) will win the best talent. (If this has made your eyebrow lift ever so slightly, keep your eyes peeled for the next article as I go into this theory of mine in a lot more detail).
Why Mooeys Is Built for This
Because our culture has ALWAYS been about:
💛 community 🤍 connection ✨ growth 🐮 fun 🖤 respect ⭐ development
We attract incredible people because we let people be FULL humans. We don’t box them in. We don’t clip wings. We don’t punish ambition. We don’t fear hybrid work.
We protect our brand fiercely. But we also nurture our team wholeheartedly.
It’s why the talent comes. It’s why the talent stays. It’s why our franchise salons thrive.
But also this same theory is passed onto franchise partners who want multiple streams of income. Why can't people have a Mooeys and work as a consultant in a speciality they had before setting up their salon? Why can't they run another business out of the spare treatment room in their Mooeys salon.
Women have been juggling many balls for years, we are made for this kind of hybrid approach to business. (I have just given myself another topic to write about haven't I!).
Anyway, I digress...
My Honest Prediction?
Over the next five years:
✔ we will see a renaissance in salon culture ✔ connection-focused salons will become the go-to ✔ home salon popularity will plateau ✔ therapists will crave teams, not isolation ✔ hybrid work will be the standard ✔ the best therapists will choose brands with HEART
We’re at the start of a beautiful new era in recruitment, and I think it's a much-needed one.
And honestly? I’m excited. This is what the industry needed.
What Are YOU Seeing?
Salon owners, managers, mobile therapists, freelancers — what’s happening on your end?
Are you noticing the shift? Are you getting better applicants? Are therapists coming back to salons?
I’d love to hear your experiences.