High-end salons disrupting the sector
A row of white tables line the doorway to Buff Nails’ Fitzroy salon; Here, nail artists bend over to their customers’ hands, busily shaping and polishing them.
Advance reservations are required and services range from nude manicures and pedicures to individual nail art with intricate designs and jewels.
The aesthetically designed interior contrasts sharply with many walk-in strip stores and mall nail salons where payment is made in cash and equipment may be poorly sterilized, leading to fungal infections.
Buff founder Emma Forrest says she wants to shake up the industry, which is built on cheap prices and speed and “sort of sitting at the bottom of the barrel in terms of standards”.
He points to the salon, which is staffed by trained staff who focus on hygiene and nail health, and where a gel manicure costs $100, twice the price of many walk-in salons.
“Everybody wants to get [nails] It’s cheap and done as quickly as possible – an in-and-out approach – and I think we’re a bit of the antithesis of that,” Forrest says, adding: “We’re not doing a really quick… job; “We’re taking the time to make sure it’s done well and properly.”
From Buff’s first store opening in Brighton in 2020, the business has expanded to six salons across Melbourne with a turnover of $4.2 million. Forrest has received a loan from NAB to support plans to open a further 20 salons across the country over the next two years.
Chelsea Bagan, founder of Trophy Wife Nails, has a similar focus on quality and hygiene.
“Some people come and ask, ‘Why is it so expensive?'” Bagan said. “they say,” he says. “I think it’s undervalued compared to other services like makeup or hair.”
Bagan says it is expensive to employ well-trained staff at reward rates and feedback from customers is that Trophy Wife’s services are cost-effective because the quality products and techniques used last longer.
“For what people have traditionally expected to pay, staff providing this service may be paid below minimum wage and may be dependent on the businesses that house and feed them,” Bagan says.
Bagan says there may be an undercurrent of racism in Australia’s $1.3 billion nail industry, with wage theft and exploitation an ongoing problem in the industry dominated by Vietnamese immigrants.
“People will say things like, ‘I’m going to see Asians,’ they’ll say things like that,” he says. “I think it’s an unconscious bias in a lot of people. Some of my team are Vietnamese immigrants, and they definitely have to work harder to win people over, and that’s really sad.”
Vietnamese immigrants’ dominance of nail salons around the world is often attributed to Hollywood actress Tippi Hedren, who starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s film. birds.
After visiting a refugee camp in 1975, Hedren flew in her personal manicurist to teach women a skill they could use to earn a living in their new homes.
Lan Anh Hoang, professor of development studies at the University of Melbourne, says the nail industry provides an easy entry point for many Vietnamese Australians.
“Anyone can make nails,” he says. “You don’t need to speak a lot of English because even now in Australia Vietnamese people are one of the three lowest English proficient groups.”
Hoang says working at a nail salon can be lucrative despite being “low status” because payment is often made in cash, so not all income is declared.
“It is also attractive in that it can accommodate people without legal immigration status,” says Hoang.
A report was called‘Off the Book’: Inside Australia’s Secret System of Migrant Labor ExploitationA report published in May found that migrant workers were consistently paid less than they were owed under Australian law.
The report found that 71 percent of employees at salons surveyed did not receive a pay stub or received a pay slip that recorded fewer hours than they worked.
Associate professor at Melbourne Law School, Dr. Tess Hardy says nail salons tend to be significantly out of compliance with Australian employment laws because they often rely on vulnerable workers with limited English skills.
“If they are working without a visa or violating their visa conditions, they may hesitate to file a complaint, even if the working conditions are very poor,” he says. “It has all the red flags of many conditions that predispose it to exploitation.”
Hardy says it’s interesting that businesses like Buff and Trophy Wife are starting to differentiate themselves in the market by complying with workplace laws.
NAB small business banker Nikola Nanayakkara, who is backing Buff opening two new locations, says despite cost-of-living pressures, Australians are still finding small ways to treat themselves; NAB’s latest spending data shows spending on personal services is still rising, up 5.9 per cent on last year.
“What stood out about Buff was how differently they approached the category,” he says. “They have transformed nail care into a higher-quality, wellness-focused experience, and we are seeing demand moving in that exact direction.”
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