Beauty Writer or Editor Defined
A beauty writer is someone who writes about the world of beauty through any number of avenues including websites, magazines, books, and educational or marketing materials. A beauty editor is someone who manages a team of beauty writers and organizes their written pieces into an informational and marketable format to present it to their target audience.
What it Takes
Not all cosmetology careers lead to working behind a chair. Your cosmetology education can take you in a completely unexpected direction, such as writing. The common ground between writers and cosmetologists is that they are creative and expressive people.
Becoming a qualified beauty writer or editor requires a very specific set of skills:
- A cosmetology background and education.
- Excellent writing and grammar skills – some of the more structured career choices may require formal writing education or background. This may come in the form of online writing classes and workshops or college classes.
- Marketing skills. More marketing skills are required for a position as an Editor than for a Writer, but you’ll still need to know how to write something that will appeal to your audience.
- Logical thought process and organizational skills. Writers first need to determine what their ultimate goal is and work backwards from there to compose a piece that will achieve the desired result.
What You’ll Make
Writing and editing positions vary widely; consequently, so do salaries. At the high end of the salary scale are writers and editors working for beauty, fashion or trade magazines (think “Allure” or “American Salon”), who can easily make six figures. While these jobs are hard to come by, they do exist – and they pay well. Some writers are freelancers who earn anywhere from $35 - $250 per article, again depending on what they write and who they work for. The mid-range salaries (most common for editors and managing editors) typically start in the $40K-$50K range.
Working World
Although hairstylists and writers share similar personality traits, the careers are very different. Hairstylists interact with numerous people on a daily basis; they spend most of their workday on their feet; they are very verbally and physically expressive; they are generally outgoing and assertive. Writers, on the other hand, tend to express themselves more through their writing than with their spoken words. They tend to work alone more often, and interaction with people for professional purposes is much more pointed and focused.
There are many different avenues where your cosmetology education can complement and influence your writing.
Beauty Blogs
Beauty Blogs are growing in leaps and bounds. The main function of a beauty blog writer is to keep readers current on anything newsworthy in the industry, provide product reviews (free stuff for you!), and share opinions about what’s going on in the world of beauty. Writing a successful beauty blog requires an outgoing and informal writing style, the ability to do heavy research, and excellent communication skills. An easy-going personality helps if you’re going to be a career blogger – not everything has to be perfect, it just needs to be interesting, accurate and posted in a timely manner. For the most part, these positions are freelance but in some cases they are full-time positions.
Beauty/ Fashion Magazines
No matter what the trends are in the rest of the publishing industry, beauty and fashion magazines are always at the top! A career in publishing can include being a beauty writer or editor. Writing articles for a magazine can be either a freelance or a full-time position. If you choose to pursue this path, you need to have a broad creative thought process, be able to work well under pressure and possess excellent grammar skills. A position as editor will require a full-time commitment, extremely strong writing skills and a background in marketing. The magazine industry is deadline-driven, meaning that you need to be extremely self-disciplined and focused so that you can turn out quality work in short periods of time. Quite often, working for a magazine also provides you with opportunities to travel and meet lots of new people.
Technical Writers
If you’re a logical thinker you can combine your cosmetology background with technical writing. Chain salons, cosmetology schools and product companies need technical writers to compose employee manuals, instructions, procedures, textbooks, and product breakdowns. This career requires acute attention to detail and an obsession for literal fact-finding as well as the ability to translate the technical into easy-to-understand written pieces. It’s not always easy to make data and procedures interesting to read - so if you have this skill you should put it to good use.
You’re Booked Up
Do you have a plethora of thoughts and ideas just dying to get out? Write a book! Whether it’s a beauty how-to book, a book about celebrity fashion, or a book about how to combine cosmetology with writing, there’s always something to write about. As you stretch your literary muscles, you may just discover that a book needs to be written – and who better to write it than you?
By nature, most cosmetologists are creative, artistic people who appreciate the opportunity for self-expression. Likewise, professional writers are also creative, artistic people who appreciate the opportunity for self-expression. Write your own life story; combine your cosmetology background with your passion for writing! It’s a beautiful career path with a happy ending.