Fun Learning for Product Knowledge in the Salon by Joe Cignetti

Quiet moments in the salon are the perfect chance to turn downtime into a fun, engaging way to build product knowledge. Instead of sitting through long lessons, your team can learn in short, interactive bursts that feel more like games than training.

One great way to do this is by turning knowledge into a quiz. A quiz can be light-hearted and competitive, with small prizes or rewards for the winning team. Questions might cover the benefits of a product, the key ingredients, or the best client scenario for recommending it. This type of game encourages fast recall and keeps product details fresh in everyone’s mind.

Role-play is another powerful learning tool. Team members can pair up, with one person playing a “client” and the other acting as the stylist who recommends a product. For example, a client might complain about frizz or colour fading, and the stylist’s task is to confidently suggest the right product while explaining how and why it works. Swapping roles helps both listening and selling skills, and it mirrors real conversations on the salon floor.

To make learning dynamic, you can set up “product speed dating.” Place different products around the salon and give each stylist a couple of minutes to present a product’s key features to the group. After time is up, they rotate to the next station. This keeps the energy high and gives everyone a chance to practice talking about products in a concise and confident way.

Sensory learning can also be effective. By covering product labels, your team can guess the product based on smell, texture, or the type of hair concern it solves. This adds a fun challenge and engages more senses, which helps with long-term memory.

Another approach is to create quick challenges. Each team member can be assigned a product to research during downtime and later present a short, sixty-second pitch to the group. This not only deepens their knowledge but also builds confidence in talking about products under time pressure, much like with clients.

To connect learning directly with client needs, set up a board or a stack of cards with common salon problems written on them. A stylist might pick a card that says, “My blonde keeps going brassy,” or “My curls don’t hold shape.” The challenge is to identify the best product solution and explain why. This helps the team practice tailoring product knowledge to everyday conversations with clients.

To keep motivation high, you can introduce a reward system. Track points from quizzes, role-plays, or challenges on a scoreboard. At the end of the month, the highest scorer could receive a small reward such as a product, a gift card, or even first choice on rosters. This adds excitement and a sense of achievement to the learning process.

By rotating between these different activities, learning will always feel fresh and fun. Each exercise is short, light-hearted, and interactive, designed to strengthen product knowledge while also improving communication skills and confidence.