Cut, colour and style hair. Licensed in about 2 years, then it takes years more to build a clientele.
Click through it
Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
An apprenticeship: you are hired by a sponsor, paid while you learn on the job, and go to class for a few weeks at a time. Every fact here is from Skilled Trades Ontario (STO) and the Ontario government. See every Ontario trade side by side
You are paid from your first day. Over the 3,020 hours on the job, even at the minimum wage you would earn at least $54,209 before tax while you train, and most sponsors pay more as your skills grow.
The trade on Skilled Trades Ontario's site(opens in a new tab)
Still in high school? In Grade 11 or 12, with at least 14 credits and age 15 or older, you can start an apprenticeship through co-op placements and earn credits at the same time. Ask your school's OYAP recruiter, guidance counsellor or co-op teacher. Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program (OYAP)(opens in a new tab)
Not ready to find a sponsor? Free pre-apprenticeship programs (up to a year at a college or community agency, tools and books covered, with a work placement) get you ready and in front of employers. Employment Ontario helps you apply. Pre-apprenticeship training(opens in a new tab)
Ontario sets no percentage of full pay for apprentices. Your sponsor agrees your wage with you, and it can never be below the minimum wage: $17.95 an hour from 1 October 2026. Source (opens in a new tab)
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $41,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $31,000 at the lower end to about $62,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 3 years after high school, on the usual route.
$1,850 to $23,200 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$41,000
Lower end
$31,000
Upper end
$62,000
Job Bank's national median for hairstylists and barbers is $19.88 an hour, about $41,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low and high are the bottom and top of the wage range for everyone in the group, from $15.00 to $30.00 an hour. Pay depends on your clientele more than your years.
$23.00 an hour
The median in British Columbia, the highest in Canada, about $47,800 a year
Quebec is next at $21.63. Ontario's median is $18.00 and Manitoba's the lowest, at $16.40 (Job Bank, 2023 to 2024). Commission salons pay a share of what you bill, so a new stylist with few clients earns little.
Tips come on top
Clients tip on most services
Established stylists often rent a chair and keep what they bill. That means booking your own clients, buying product and paying your own taxes.
Roughly, all in
$1,850 to $23,200
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the apprenticeship route: a salon sponsors you, you are paid while you learn, and you pay only $400 to $800 per college block (Ontario pays the Level 1 classroom fee for classes from January 2026) and a starter kit of shears, clippers and a dryer. Your first certificate exam try is free in Ontario once your apprenticeship is complete. The high end is a private hairstyling academy at up to $20,000 for the program plus a fuller kit and the same exam. The apprenticeship costs a fraction of the academy and pays you, but you have to find a salon willing to sponsor you first, which is the real obstacle. Apprentices can use the Canada Apprentice Loan and EI (Employment Insurance) during school blocks, though the federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025.
The apprenticeship route costs a fraction of a private academy and pays you while you learn, but you need a salon to sponsor you. The federal Apprenticeship Incentive Grant closed in March 2025. The new federal Red Seal Completion Bonus pays $5,000 if you finish your apprenticeship and get certified in a Red Seal trade on or after April 1, 2025. Applications open November 16, 2026.
Tips
Cash and card, most days.
Product discounts
Professional product at cost.
Flexible schedule
Once you have clients, you set your hours.
Health and dental
Rare unless you work for a large chain or a spa.
Portable skill
Every town has salons.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A 2-year apprenticeship, or a private academy followed by apprenticeship hours. Compulsory in Ontario.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Grade 12. Many high schools offer cosmetology courses with a working salon. OYAP (Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program) can count your hours.
Choose a route
Months
Private academy (6 to 12 months, $10,000 to $20,000) then work as an apprentice, or find a salon that sponsors you from day one and take school blocks at a college. Both lead to the same exam.
Register the apprenticeship
Days
With Skilled Trades Ontario (trade code 332A), Alberta Apprenticeship and Industry Training, or your province's authority.
Work and study
2 years
Ontario requires about 3,500 hours: 3,020 on the salon floor plus 480 in school, in two levels. Roughly 2 years.
Certificate of Qualification
After your hours
Pass the provincial exam. Hairstylist is a Red Seal trade nationally, though Ontario issues a provincial certificate rather than the Red Seal endorsement.
Cosmetology or hairstyling
Offered in many high schools with real salons.
Art
Colour theory, shape, proportion.
Business or math
Chair rental means running a tiny business.
Chemistry
Colour and perms are chemistry.
English
Consultations are conversations.
In Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta you must be a registered apprentice or certified to cut, colour or style hair for pay. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island require a licence from their hairdressing or cosmetology body. Quebec, British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador and the territories have no requirement. Barbering is a separate trade in some provinces and part of hairstyling in others, so check your provincial authority before choosing a school.
Private academy
Fast, full-time, $10,000 to $20,000. No salon needed to start.
College apprenticeship
Cheaper and paid, but you need a sponsoring salon first.
High school co-op
Hours toward your apprenticeship at no cost to you.
Certification is voluntary in Quebec, so you can work without it. Most people start with a public vocational diploma.
Secondary V, or Secondary IV at 16
From age 16
You need a high school diploma, or be 16 with Secondary IV language, second language and math.
DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) in Hairdressing (5245)
About 14 to 16 months
1,455 hours of cutting, colour, perms, styling, men's cuts and beard trims, at public vocational centres across Quebec.
Get a salon job
After graduating
Employers may ask you for a hairstyling demonstration before they hire you.
Voluntary certificate, if you want it
12 to 24 months
Through the government workplace apprenticeship you train on the job with an experienced hairdresser: 12 months with the DEP, 24 months without. Quebec then issues a certificate of qualification.
Red Seal, if you want it
Any time after
Hairstylist is a Red Seal trade. It makes it simpler to work in provinces where certification is compulsory, such as Ontario and Alberta.
The English DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) is Hairdressing (5745), the same 1,455 hours.
Laurier MacDonald Vocational Centre
Montreal, English Montreal school board.
Gordon Robertson Beauty Academy
Montreal, Lester B. Pearson school board.
Nova Career Centre
Montérégie, New Frontiers school board.
Brome-Missisquoi Campus
Cowansville, Eastern Townships school board.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Colour specialist
Brand certifications run a few days each.
Barbering
Fades and beards.
Extensions and keratin treatments
Long, high-priced services.
Editorial, film and TV (television) work
Union hair and makeup for productions in Toronto and Vancouver. Hard to break into.
Educator for a product brand
Travel and a salary.
A social media portfolio
Clients find stylists on Instagram.
Friends who let you practise
You need heads to work on.
A customer service job
Half the work is conversation.
Good shoes
You stand all day.
Some stylists go on to open a salon. Rent, chairs, product and staff are a large cost before the first client walks in. Others go the other way and stay independent chair renters to avoid the headaches.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Salon opens at 9 or 10am. Back-to-back clients: a cut every 45 minutes, colour every 2 hours, with consultations and blow-dries in between. Sweep, sanitize, rebook. Evenings and Saturdays are the busiest, so expect to work them. Standing 8 hours, arms up. Slow days early in your career mean small paycheques on commission.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Hairstylist is a compulsory trade in Ontario: to cut hair for pay you must be a registered apprentice or hold a Certificate of Qualification. Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have the same rule.
In Alberta's 2023 wage survey, hairstylists and barbers started at $17.58 an hour on average, while the top-paid averaged $37.61.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety lists skin allergies from dyes, bleach and perm solutions, long hours standing, and strain from repeated hand and wrist work among the main hazards for hairdressers.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Personal, food and outdoor trades first, then the rest of the field. See every career in skilled trades.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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