Salon owners across Central Victoria are struggling to recruit hairdressers following an exodus of qualified staff since the pandemic began.
Bendigo's Red Raven salon owner Lauren McIlrath has been trying to find a new hairdresser since July last year after a former staff member left to work in hospitality.
"It seems to be a massive problem for the industry," she said.
"There seems to be a lot who have moved on after COVID to start something else.
"We actively look all the time, because you can't give up – ads on social media, LinkedIn — it's hard because we just can't fit all of our clients in at the moment."
Castlemaine woman Karrinda Lawler is a qualified hairdresser but left the industry for four months last year to work in the mining industry as a field assistant.
"It left a lot of us with job uncertainty, unfortunately."
Ms Karrinda has now returned to the industry and is working as a barber.
"I enjoy doing it because it's rewarding — you get to make people feel good about themselves," she said.
Staff, apprentices hard to find
Australian Hairdressing Council CEO Sandy Chong said the shortage of skilled hairdressers was a nationwide problem that was getting worse.
She said businesses were spending thousands of dollars on job ads in a bid to find staff and attract apprentices.
"At a government level, they think poaching is good but when you're a small business owner, it really damages and hurts them. It's very detrimental to our industry."
Ms McIlrath said she wanted more done at an industry and government level to encourage young people to become apprentice hairdressers.
"We're not getting the apprentices through. If you don't have the apprentices, you're not getting the staff," she said.
"There's a lot of reasons for that: it might not be the right career for them, they might be treated more as cleaning staff than hairdressers.
"You really need to nurture those kids, make it a career that's exciting to get into. It's a lot of hard work, it's not just pretty hair, coffees and gossip."
Ms Lawler has also seen the challenges the industry has faced to retain young staff.
We need 'migrant skill set'
Ms Chong said the impact of COVID-19 on visa workers who weren't eligible for JobKeeper had also contributed to the shortage.
"We've been on the skills shortage list for 20 years, we just don't have those young people who would have been coming through – and now there's a massive skills gap," she said.
The Australian Hairdressing Council is lobbying for hairdressing to be put onto the medium to long-term government skills list with a pathway to residency.
Ms McIlrath is now holding out hope overseas workers will have the opportunity to return to Australia when immigration is increased.
"We get a lot of beautifully qualified hairdressers coming from overseas, but we won't get that until at least next year," she said.
