The Cleanest Chair in Town: Elevate Your Salon Standards with the Salon Safety App

This week on Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations, we’re joined by Jacqueline Weesner—veteran stylist and founder of the Salon Safety App, a powerful tool built by a stylist, for stylists. After 17 years behind the chair and countless state board inspections in California, Jacqueline took one of her biggest pain points—compliance anxiety—and transformed it into a game-changing app that helps stylists across all 50 states feel more confident, prepared, and protected.

We dive into:

• The real risks of state board inspections (even if they’ve never happened to you!)
• How salon habits slip over time—and why that can cost you
• What inspired Jacqueline to create an AI-powered compliance tool
• How the Salon Safety App works for independent stylists, suite renters, and salon owners alike
• How safety and cleanliness can become a key part of your branding and guest experience
• Why this app might just be your salon’s new secret weapon

Whether you’re a seasoned salon owner or just getting started behind the chair, this episode is a powerful reminder that the basics matter—and that protecting your license can be smart, stylish, and stress-free.

Resources + Mentions:

🔗 Download the Salon Safety App: www.salonsafety.io

📱 Follow Salon Safety App on Instagram: @salonsafetyapp

 📩 Questions or collaborations? Email Lisa at stylistsoultribe@gmail.com
 📲 Follow on IG: @lisahuffhair

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Transcript

Audio Only - All Participants: 0:00

Hi, friends. Welcome back to Stylist Soul Tribe Conversations. Today I am joined by Jacqueline Weisner, founder of the Salon Safety App, a brilliant tool created by a stylist for stylists. With 17 years behind the chair, Jacqueline knows firsthand the stress that can come from state board regulations. She took her own experience and created something to help the rest of us. Feel more confident, more prepared, and a whole lot less anxious about compliance. Let's dive into how she turned a pain point into a powerful platform that is changing the game for salon professionals across all 50 states. Hello, Jacqueline. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. How are you doing? That was so beautiful. Thank you. I was just telling Jacqueline before we hit record that she reached out to me and basically was just like, Hey, I'd love to collaborate in any way. I'm trying to get word out to the industry, about this app that I've created. And I was like. Come on the podcast. I'm always looking for people to podcast with. posting an episode every single week is not easy, so I'm always looking for people to have conversations with. And, after digging in more to what you have and what you have created, I'm like, heck yes. I'm happy to share this with my audience. so tell us a little bit of a backstory, who you are, where you're from, how this idea came to be. Okay. I have been in the beauty industry, licensed as a hairstylist for 17 years. I am second generation to this lovely career. Kind of did it as a backup. thought I was gonna be in the education route and 2008 hit and I got to be a hairstylist. Didn't think that it would last the 17 years that it has, but boy, have I loved this career. Yeah, some days more than others, but, it's, it's been such a great ride. And as I've hit year 17, I guess I wanna look back. And make some pain points, easier for stylists that, that come up after me. And I hope that when I'm an old lady, there's still a great amount of trained stylists waiting and willing to, to serve us kind of that full run roundabout sort of circle. So I took one of my biggest stressors, as embarrassing as it is to stay. As state board, I became licensed in California and about every quarter the salons that I worked at would be visited by state board. I mean, can I say something? And I don't know if this is just'cause I work in a tiny little town in Illinois. I have never had a state board visit in my. 15 years I meant to ask you what state you're in, but I'm in Illinois, not in Chicago. I'm in a small town in a bunch of corn fields in the middle of Illinois. that is something I should worry about now that I downloaded the app I'm looking at, I should worry about. Yeah, I mean, because obviously I'm not dirty. I try to take what I remember from school, I was reading your talking points about how habits are just created after being licensed. And my goodness, is that true? So that's fascinating that every quarter, this was something that you dealt with. Yeah, and I think like. I was saying previously, Lisa, that I think a lot of our, our training and such does happen on the go and you get taught in the trenches, but, what you're taught in beauty school is so strict and rigid. And then day one you get employed at a salon and it's kind of a, a hot mess of Monkey sea, monkey Dew and mm-hmm. I know I practiced that way for quite a few years and one of my most embarrassing moments that I have as a hairstylist, I worked in this very classy salon and we would rotate stations. Your roll about would be pulled over. And, there I sat at my, my little SMA, my client comes in for a bang, trim, grab the water bottle that's at that station to spray your hair down. And she said it smells like bleach. And I look at the water bottle and it's unmarked. Run in the dispensary to our salon manager. And I said, what is in this? She said, bleach. Oh my God. I did a 180 of like, these rules are stupid to, oh my gosh, this, this is why stuff exists Yeah, it was, it was such a slap in the face of. realizing why rules and safety measures are in place. So I walked back out to the client and, you know, I was like, oh my gosh, it is bleach. Ran over to the shampoo bowls, rinsed her hair, but I never saw that client again. Fair. And like, I shrunk That day. Took me a while to like gain that confidence back. Yeah. And it wasn't, I'm a badass hair colorist. I'm a good cutter, but like standing behind the chair. in the face-to-face customer to stylist setting. Like sometimes that, that makes me so nervous. And I think a lot of that just has to do with, not really understanding. the lane that you have to protect yourself. Your customer. And then avoiding having your license be threatened. wow. So when did the idea like finally come?'cause obviously it sounds like that happened pretty early on, and so you respected and understood compliance and regulation. When did the idea come of like, this would be helpful. I feel like we learned all this in cosmetology school. We learn a little tiny bit in continuing ed. But then after that, especially if you go independent, I'm in a studio. You don't really, I mean, it's monkey c monkey do for a little while, but then when it's you on your own, you don't really have that consistent, checkpoint. So when did that drop in? When you're like, there needs to be something that makes this easier. It makes us more front of mind. We have so much education always being. Put in front of us, but I Don't, in the last many years have I had a conversation like this, truthfully. year 10, I entered the entrepreneur stuff And rented out my suite. Mm-hmm. And, state board came one day, I had a client sitting in my chair for the haircut, and I asked her to leave. I said they're gonna be inspecting me, and I either wanted to deal with it face to face, or in all honesty, I locked my suite up for the day and left. So fast forward a few more years, I had to relocate to Colorado Post 2020. Same as you. I live in a town of 40,000 people and people don't know what state board is here. Mm-hmm. and I understand that not all stylists work in San Diego, California like I did. Yeah. but also there probably should be more of that because I agree. The fact that I have been doing this for that long and I've never had a state board run in is, is also kind of ridiculous and wild. So I don't know about you, but my partner and husband is my sound board. He doesn't know much about hair. But luckily he knows about technology. And one day I said to him, I said, I wanna be able to feel like. This phone I have to have on me doesn't give me peace of mind. Like I can Google stuff, but mostly I'm reaching out and texting like, oh my gosh, this happened. But I want to have a tool that when I take my phone out, either what I'm stressing over or what I'm worried about, I can find the solution for. I'm tired of just complaining. So I said, make this phone work so I can stand in my salon and scan everything around me and know what I need to fix. And know what's compliant. and I don't even hire people, I don't have employees. This is just me. But like managing, when I got my own establishment, like, okay, you need an establishment permit. and your license displayed this way, and then you're noticed to the consumer and like six or eight different things that if they're not hung on a wall. They walk in the door and that's a fine, so call me a rule follower. But like you said, that original story rules exist for a reason. Yes. so what are some things that people like me and maybe like the people in Colorado that you are around with?'cause again, at any point it could happen. We're told that, I mean, when you get a business license, you run a business. That could happen at any time. Your couple run-ins that you've had, what can happen if state board comes to your salon space and you don't realize that you're not up to board? what does that look like? one of my favorite moments that I had was the regulation in California had actually kind of changed in a. Quick period of time. I'd call it none of my coworkers were talking about the deregulation. Yeah. but they went from labeling our, our items from clean to new. Mm. So that day I got fined for the labeling of every drawer I had that was labeled clean instead of new. Wow. Um, and then how big are those fines? Is that too much to ask? I'm just curious. I feel like, yeah, I know what a state pursuant, but California. I left California and I love California. I lived there for 35 years. But yeah, they are so heavy when it comes to fine. I think each one was a hundred to$200. Wow. 10 years ago. Yeah. It's like driving, getting a parking ticket every time you go to work. That's not fun. Or, you know, a speeding ticket that's not, and then fun, a certain amount of fines and strikes. I know somebody that was sent back to beauty school training because they had accrued so many penalties. For a certain amount of hours or what did that look like? Yeah, they just put you through like the sanitation disinfection class in freshman class again. and then you pay like, you know, tuition. Tuition. Totally. I mean that's, I think that is remedial steps that are necessary. I'm not at all like totally, bagging on that. I think that's an important, but again, we should have more tools to make sure that we're doing things properly.'cause it does matter. Oh, another thing you put for the talking points is how our habits tend to slip and like you said, the monkey see, monkey do. What are some like examples that you've seen of that? So if people are listening to this and they're the same as me and the state board isn't just a regular thing that pops into their salon all the time, what are some of those things? You already said clean verse new. what are some other things that you think start to slip over time that people don't realize? Obviously every state is different, but what are those like common threads? One thing that I find myself just out of habit repeatedly doing is somebody gives you$60 for a haircut that gets slipped in your top drawer next to your comb box. Mm-hmm. And what's dirtier than money? Super dirty. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. And I think it's just like a automatic habit sort of thing. Not like, you know, disease or infections are really gonna come by that, that simple act. a few times a week, I actually will open up my station drawers, my personal drawer, my top drawer, and then use my app to be able to scan and it will point out, oh, that comb is sitting in a uncovered container, or your barbicide is, is missing two inches and the combs aren't fully, and that's all AI driven. Yeah. Yes. And then I have actually gone in and refined it all. The more to be able to give it a personal touch. I think you can Google an ai, anything and it'll spit a bunch of good jargon, but giving it the main points of what it is that, that her nest really. Works with in terms of our tools and in safety, relating that to each state. so it is ai, but it's been especially trained by myself. Awesome. Awesome. So cool. Any other, barbicide being a couple inches too low. Any other ones that really stick? you, where your license is displayed is also a big one. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Even I one day did a little experiment and I had it, took pictures of my, my color dispensary area. I have a storage area. And then even our salon bathroom setting and our like dispensary, cabinet perm rods and bleach and, you know, cleaning supplies are all held. And, it is able to, I guess when State Board does. Inspect you. I've never been like running a big salon to, to see like every avenue I'm more focused on, you know, dispensary room and my exact station. But they will go and look at your under the sink cabinets to make sure that all of your, you know, strong cleaners and, and things like that are adequate from the public labeled in a closed container. one of my favorite things, think about this one. I love when salons do like a, a smock or a cape, you know, change out before. Yep. How often do you see them in a bathroom? Because I see them very often. my salon doesn't do that, but I do know some people will do like a robe. Mm-hmm. And that's like a luxury kind of feel, but it's like go into the bathroom and change. But I hear what you're saying as it's got like all the toilet spread. So things like that, that like if you think about being the customer and all of the steps that complete that service cycle Just general practice is business day to day. I think it's very easy to be like, oh, let's put these towels here and these capes here, and who cares what comes into contact with regulation exists for a reason. Yeah. Correct. You can even like snap a picture of your shampoo bowl and it will notice any hair in the sink or combs left a stray. My sister's an aesthetician. I've done her establishment and been able to, you know, work up her bed, her tables, her waxing equipment. it is neat. so what is the paid version?'cause I downloaded the app before we got on, but I haven't upgraded to the ai. How much is that? So it is$10 a month, and what the$10 gets you is you have the unlimited, the ability to walk around and take pictures of every corner of your salon to be able to match up the image with your state board code and have it in plain English, say codes or combs should be in a covered marked container. Yeah. and then it will actually. Pull and source. I've learned a lot about informing this. our state board rules and regulations are actually written in legal code like ca four, 3.5. and then the rules that follow are very, all tools and implements must be legal jargon. Not to say you can't understand it, but I a visual kind. Complex. Yeah. So if it's taking the visual that you're giving it and then using our AI tool, it then gives you in a more plain English. Put your combs in a cover container sand. Yeah. So continuing it to be, making it be very. Very clear to understand and instantly to access. the page feature that we are talking about is one of them, but there's probably five or six other features that are completely free to use. Mm-hmm. And I didn't feel like was right to, to have it locked behind it mm-hmm. At paywall itself. Yeah. track your, your renewal for your license. You plug in your account information, put the state that you're registered with, and when your license expires, you get a push notification 30 days before your license expires, to automatically renew. Brilliant. Second to that, if there's an incident in the salon, say that I've had somebody that, like I use Kevin Murphy Calder. They have a irritation to honey products. Yeah, yeah. I'm legally responsible with my insurance company to document that, that evidence. So in there there's a secure only stored on your end, not shared with us. way to be able to document if there's an incident, a cut slip, and fall. After that, there's also a disinfection, little module that mm-hmm. did you ever do nails or pedicures or anything like that? I mean, I learned it in school, but never really. Thanks. So if we were to be hair colors instead of hair colors and hairstylist, if we did nails instead, you have to fill, fill out one of these forms every time someone like. So like, this would be at the end of a service or at the end of, I'm sorry. I know the nail salons in my town are not doing that. Right. I wish they would because as a consumer I wish they would. Yes. Or state boards around the corner, you get the text and you fill this out on the go. I have not been comfortable to walk into a nail nail salon and been a patron in many years, and I'm just more germophobic, I think, than many, so it's totally fine. But, I know that people aren't gonna stop getting pedicures, so what can we do to make it more, be more safe and transparent? our system makes the user, so if you, it was your employee using this app, you would log the date and the time, your initials, which is required by the state, and then you're able to take an on the spot picture of it being sanitized. That is once again stored on your system, not with us. So that when state board comes in, you would actually have a digital log stored on your iPod or your phone of all of the times that you truthfully have sanitized. Yeah. and I think this, this starts to pivot into things that like customers are gonna pay more for feeling safe, having their hair done and their nails done. Mm-hmm. I know for myself, like. Time and money is important, but like if I can work with someone that I am not only confident in their skill, but like confident that as I walk into their space on Christmas week, I won't be sick the week after. That means so much to me. I think even going back to nail salons, I think there is just, a little bit more of a stigma. You're like literally cutting cuticles and sometimes making people bleed. I think that's a little bit different than coloring hair Obviously, same amount of risk is there, but I think it's more prevalent and something you think about as a consumer, but even from a consumer standpoint and someone who has mental cosmetology. I know I pay more to go to the salon down the street than I can see them open clean tools versus I just saw them do a pedicure and drop the buffer in the bin and then pick that same buffer up and use it on me. So I do think there is definitely a spin on this where you can, obviously you should be doing it just for the sake of doing it, but you really can also lean into that when it comes to your branding, your marketing, your client experience, your guest experience, all these things that we're talking about. On social media, on our website, what we want people to be saying about us when we're not in the room. Like, you really can lean into that. And I think that this tool is very helpful in that. Specialization, I think has been such a thing. I've bought expensive color lines. I've dabbled in being an extension specialist, a balayage specialist, and I feel like there tends to be a trend that comes out and it takes a few years for us to all specialize in it, and then we're all the same again. Mm-hmm. The only person that benefits from that process are the vendors selling us those items. Yeah. So we're supposed to follow these rules and regulations every single day for protecting license, protecting our space, and being respectful. But what if I actually have a sticker on my station that says, I believe the safest chair in town should be your chair. So every person that sits in my chair, I want them to see the extra moments that not only have I taken like a medical barbicide wipe and wiped down the surface. But there's no hair, there's no junk. There's things that I think when you're a fresh set of eyes and you sit down, that the consumer sees that. That we don't see everyth single used too. Yep. Exactly. The balls of hair. The, the stuff that color everywhere. Yep. And I think like. I have a very cool statistic that says people would be, let's see, 92% of consumers agree that the cleanliness of a business is a major factor when deciding that they're gonna be a repeat customer. So it's not exactly like the decor of the salon or the branding or the, the wholeness of it, but just, yeah. How much does this person that gives me service and wants to be treated like a professional, you know, we, yeah. We always say, you know, doctors charge this rate. We should be, you know, considered professionals in our field. Yeah. And then we, we come to work looking a bit sloppy and having our, our situation look the same. Yeah. and I think we have gotten so dialed in on things like branding and specialization and all these things that you're talking about that we have put so much time and attention and money and and effort into making ourselves stand apart. That it is wild that it even has to be said, but I do think it has to be said that something so base level like this does get lost over time. And so I think it's a good reminder for everyone to just like pause and look in the mirror and ask yourselves like. Am I hitting the base level needs before I invest in that next, you know, extension course or that whatever, whatever it is. Because I do think we almost get so far ungrounded in, in where we're shooting for and what we're aiming for that this is just such a good reminder of like. None of that matters if we're not doing the base level thing. So I, this has been a great, wake up and reminder for me, and I hope that everybody listening, feels that way as well. And I say all this, not like I have a dirtier, a nasty space at all, but I, again, like you said, regulations exist for a reason. And the difference between clean and new seems silly when you're doing it, but it does, it does matter. And I just, I love hairstylists that are out here. What I call it is big magic ideas when this idea drops in and doing something different and beyond and creative and just really leaving a lasting like impact and legacy on the industry. So one thing I don't think you touched on, you talked a lot about the camera, but I also just noticed like the checklist Inside of the app. And I think that that's brilliant, especially'cause inside of my mastermind I have a lot of salon owners. One with. Commission and team salons, and that's a little bit easier to have some pretty strict regulations of opening duties, closing duties. But I know a lot of salon owners struggle with renters with opening duties, closing duties. There's that fine line of you're a renter versus what I can and can't tell you to do. Mm-hmm. And I think this app specifically is so. Legal focused that I think almost any, any owner can, can give this to any, service provider in their building. But I really think it's an interesting take, for a booth, rental salon or suite, you know, like mine is three small suites in a shared salon space to say like, Hey, moving forward, if you need to come in 30 minutes late and stay 30 or come 30 minutes early, stay 30 minutes late. Like, these are things that you have to do before you can come in and out. Part of you renting a space here. so I just think those kind of like, first thing is you do this. Second thing is you do this, but the end of the day, make sure you're disinfecting all the tools that you used for the day. I thought that was a great touch as well. So again, I'm gonna start using it and I'm excited. Thank you. Who wants to be a babysitter? For real. That is why I have not gotten into the full, like staffing and owning a Fullon salon. I know that I would be walked over instead of Instead of, you know, holding the line at all. I think when you have a system, just like with anything when it comes to business and you make it even level playing field, the checklist that you're referring to, not only covers, The stylists that are working in the salon, but even the salon manager and ownership of the paperwork and the licensing and the displaying, steps that need to be in place for your salon, to open and to be operating every single day. Totally. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, I think you're killing it, Jacqueline. I'm glad that you reached out to me. I'm sure a lot of people listening to this are gonna be excited to, hear and download the app and get their hands on it and start kind of peeking around. So I will leave the link to download in the show notes. Is there anything else you would like people to know or anything else I should know for the show notes? It is such a great free to use app and even if the whole AI subject and, avoiding state fines was something that you don't feel is a pain point to you. Yeah, I know some stylists are like, why don't you get this? I've, I've never gotten a fine. So, just with keeping your license active with, showing up in a digital setting better with big worth. When you're inspected, there's so many reasons why you should just take the free opportunity of using this app just for a little bit of safety, peace of mind, and safety and protection for yourself. Amazing. Amazing. thank you Jacqueline, so much for coming on. Thank you everybody for listening. and I will talk to you all next week. Bye.