Beauty jobs you can get at 16 (and at 18)

Good news first: beauty is one of the better industries to be sixteen in, because salons have always taken juniors straight out of school and nobody expects you to arrive qualified. One straight thing about this site before you read on though. FIRSTJOBZ lists roles for over-18s, so nothing here is going to point you at our board at 16. Treat this page as the map instead: what's genuinely open to you locally over the next two years, then everything that arrives on your eighteenth birthday.

What's genuinely open at 16 and 17

The distinction that matters more than your birthday is whether you're still under school leaving age. If you're 16 but still in year 11, you count as a child worker and the rules are tight. Once you're past it, broadly from the end of year 11, you become a young worker and the industry opens up properly, even though in England you'll stay in some form of part-time education or training until you're 18.

While you're still school-aged, salon work is legal but bounded. You can't work during school hours, before 7am or after 7pm, or for more than 12 hours in a term-time week - in practice 2 hours on school days and Sundays, with up to 8 hours on a Saturday once you're 15 or 16, or 5 hours at 14. School holidays loosen to a maximum of 35 hours a week at 15 to 16, or 25 hours at 14, with Sundays still capped at 2 hours. You get an hour's break after 4 hours of work and the law guarantees you a two-week stretch each year completely free of work. Some councils also ask employers to hold a work permit for you, so don't be thrown if one gets mentioned. None of this blocks anything. It's simply the legal shape of the classic Saturday job.

Once you've left year 11, the picture changes properly. Young workers can do up to 40 hours a week and full-time is allowed, which is exactly how thousands of juniors and apprentices start out in this trade.

So where do the yeses cluster? Salon junior and Saturday assistant roles are the big one - shampooing, prepping, sweeping, making drinks, learning by standing close to the chair. Barbershops take juniors the same way. Nail bars, brow and lash studios and small independents all hire assistants at 16. Spa reception and host roles suit anyone who'd rather be front of house than hands-on straight away. Beauty counters, cosmetics shops and health stores hire Saturday staff at 16 too, which builds the product knowledge every salon application afterwards leans on.

How those jobs actually get found

Here's the part that matters, because none of the above comes through a job board. Not ours. Not anyone's. At 16 and 17 the hiring happens face to face and locally.

Walk in. In this trade the person doing the hiring is usually standing right there with a client in the chair. A printed CV handed over in person on a quiet Tuesday afternoon beats any online form. Ask if the manager's around, say you're after Saturday work, leave the CV. Two minutes of mild awkwardness buys you a name with a face attached.

Then use the routes school gives you. Careers advisers hold local contacts nobody ever advertises. Work experience placements turn into paid Saturday shifts far more often than anyone expects. College beauty courses run training salons that hire their own students. Ask about all of it before you leave year 11 rather than after.

After that it's the noticeboard version of a job hunt: cards in salon windows, local community groups online, the shop your cousin works in, the mobile therapist your mum books. Word of mouth is how small salons fill shifts, so let people know you're looking.

Two practical notes for the school-age version of this. Lead with your availability, since your legal hours line up neatly with the salon's busiest ones. And bring a parent or guardian into it early, because some employers want their consent on file and it speeds things up when they ask for it.

Apprenticeships deserve their own line. In beauty they're not a consolation prize. They're the main road in, available from the moment school finishes, applied for through the government's apprenticeship service or straight with the salon itself. Our routes into beauty guide compares them properly.

One honest caveat about treatments. A qualified therapist only performs what their training and the salon's insurance cover. Some treatments also carry their own minimum ages for clients, so as a junior you'll be assisting rather than doing them. That shapes which room you're standing in, not whether you get hired.

Pay-wise, your legal minimum at this age is £8.00 an hour, or the apprentice rate if you're on an apprenticeship. Our beauty pay guide breaks down the full ladder plus the tips, commission and training that sit on top of it.

What unlocks at 18 and where FIRSTJOBZ comes in

Your eighteenth birthday changes several things at once, no promotion required.

The money moves first. Your legal minimum jumps to £10.85 an hour the day you turn 18 - same salon, same rota, higher floor. It's automatic and it doesn't need asking for.

The hours open second. Adult working-time rules replace the young-worker limits, so late openings, early wedding mornings and long party-season Saturdays in December all become available. Those are the shifts that get noticed. In a trade where event work pays well, they're also the ones worth having.

Some settings unlock third. Sunbeds are the clearest example: the law says nobody under 18 may use a sunbed on a tanning business's premises and it puts the duty on the operator to prevent it, so expect age to come up if you apply anywhere with tanning on the menu. Tattooing works the same way at the client end, since it's an offence to tattoo anyone under 18 outside of medical reasons. If body art or tanning is where you're heading, 18 is the gate.

And the board opens fourth. That's where we come in. FIRSTJOBZ lists beauty roles for over-18s, which means from your eighteenth birthday every salon assistant, spa job and trainee therapist vacancy we collect is yours to apply for in one place. When that day lands, browse live beauty jobs and start there.

Arrive at 18 ready

Two years sounds like a long wait. It isn't, as long as you spend it stacking the three things an employer actually looks at.

Experience first. An 18-year-old with two years of Saturday shifts behind them is not an entry-level gamble any more. They've held a rota through exam season. They know what a slammed Saturday feels like and they've learned the bit nobody can teach in an interview: how to be useful in a room full of clients.

References second. One salon owner who'll pick up the phone and say you were reliable outweighs anything you could write about yourself. Get the name, get the number, stay in touch after you leave. Owners move salons and they take their memory of you with them.

Availability third. What turns an application into a job at 18 is being able to say yes to the shifts nobody else wants: late Thursdays, all-day Saturdays, the whole of December. Build that habit while the legal cap is still protecting you and it's simply how you work by the time the cap lifts.

If you've been on an apprenticeship since the end of year 11, add a fourth. You may be qualified by 18 rather than starting out, which means clients of your own, commission and a rate the salon sets rather than the government. Our guide to getting your first beauty job with no experience covers how to get all of that onto a page.

So don't sit around waiting for a birthday. Start where the door is open right now: the Saturday job down the road, the apprenticeship your college runs, the counter that needs someone through December. That's two years of real experience, real money and the proper start of a trade. Head back to the beauty hub for the rest of the series and keep building. The board will be waiting on your eighteenth.