The Secret Advantage of Hiring Youth | Betting on the Underestimated

By Danielle Cherewyk

A few years ago, I promoted two high school students into assistant manager positions at The Headroom.

Most salon owners would never do this. And I understand why. It sounds risky. It sounds unconventional. It sounds like exactly the kind of thing that could go sideways in very public ways.

But here’s what actually happened:

They soared. And so did our team.

I bought my first business when I was 22. As an “inexperienced millennial,” I learned very quickly about the opportunities that come with being underestimated—and I’ve leveraged that advantage ever since.

It’s also why I believe hiring youth has become one of my unfair advantages in business.

Experience Matters. Potential Matters Too.

There’s a bias in the professional world—and honestly, in life—toward experience.

And experience matters. I’m not dismissing it.

You can be the hardest-working sailor on the ship, but if you’ve never weathered a storm, there are certainly hard lessons still to be learned.

But those young sailors? They are often willing to carry a big load to prove themselves, and they have the stamina to do just that.

Pair that with the right guidance and, oh, the magic that can come together.

Because there’s something the right young people bring to the table that experience can sometimes quietly erode: unfiltered enthusiasm, genuine creativity and a willingness to try things that seasoned professionals may have already decided won’t work.

Young hires stay up on trends not because it’s their job, but because it’s their life. They live where culture is being made. They understand platforms, audiences and what actually resonates right now in a way that’s difficult to fake—or study into existence.

The right young employees can also be incredibly coachable.

When you combine their energy and ideas with the structure, resources and guidance of a more established business, something remarkable happens.

They don’t just meet the bar. Sometimes, they raise it.

That combination of creativity, coachability and endurance is far more common in young people than I think we give them credit for.

The Power of Being Underestimated

Watching these two young women step into leadership roles—and watching other people underestimate them, question them and wait for them to fail—reminded me of something I’d almost forgotten about myself.

As a young female owner, I know exactly what it feels like to walk into a room and have people assume you haven’t earned your place there.

To have your ideas dismissed before you’ve finished explaining them.

To have to prove yourself twice as hard to be taken half as seriously.

Being underestimated can sharpen you. It can focus you. It gives you something to prove.

And that drive, channeled in the right direction, is one of the most powerful forces in business.

It’s why we named our book Prove Them Wrong.

Because I’ve lived it. And so have many of the women I collaborate with.

When you hire youth and give them real responsibility—not busy work, not the tasks nobody else wants, but actual ownership over their role—you show them that what they contribute matters.

You’re investing in someone who has something to prove.

And when that investment is nurtured, more often than not, it pays off.

The Proof

Our nominations for Best Marketing in Alberta didn’t come from a big agency.

They came from a team that included two young women who cared deeply, thought creatively and worked tirelessly because they had something to prove—and a team they wanted to make proud.

We didn’t bring them into the room just to execute someone else’s ideas. We gave them space to contribute ideas of their own, responsibility for real outcomes and accountability to measurable goals.

That’s an important distinction.

Young people don’t develop into leaders because we tell them to watch leadership happen.

They develop into leaders because we give them opportunities to lead.

That’s a competitive advantage I think many salons—heck, many businesses in general—are leaving on the table because they’re waiting for experience instead of investing in potential.

How to Make Hiring Young Employees Work in Your Salon

Hiring youth isn’t about lowering your standards.

It’s about being very clear about what you’re looking for—and then creating an environment where potential has somewhere to go.

Here’s what I’ve learned makes it successful:

1. Give them real ownership over results.

Not vague projects. Not supervised tasks with no stakes.

Give them responsibility for a tangible outcome and the space to bring their own ideas to the table.

For example, we wanted to commit to six weekly posts on our Instagram account, and we wanted those posts to contribute to three clear KPIs in the business.

Those KPIs were measured weekly.

That’s ownership.

2. Pair their energy with your structure.

Inexperience without guidance can create chaos.

Handing someone responsibility without giving them the tools to succeed isn’t empowerment. It’s setting them up to struggle.

But youthful audacity paired with a mentor’s experience? That’s where the magic happens.

Instead of waiting for someone to prove themselves alone, co-work the first project.

In a salon, that could mean putting a developing team member alongside someone more experienced during a colour application. They learn in a safe environment, the senior team member becomes more efficient and—bonus—four hands can accomplish more than two.

Good salon leadership development isn’t just teaching someone what to do. It’s giving them enough support to discover what they’re capable of doing.

3. Celebrate their wins publicly.

When a young team member does something exceptional, make it visible.

To the team. To their family. To your community.

Recognition reinforces the behaviour you want to see more of, but it does something else too:

It tells that young person, you belong here.

4. Be patient with the learning curve.

There will be mistakes. That’s part of the deal—and part of the investment. Your job is to guide, not constantly rescue.

Think of the guard rails when a kid is learning to bowl. They’re never going to have fun long enough to become great if every single shot ends up in the gutter.

Create the guard rails.

For example, when our young team members started managing content, we began with a pre-approval process before moving toward greater autonomy.

And feedback was never just a yes or no. It was a yes, or an explanation of why not yet.

That’s how judgment gets built.

5. Remember what it felt like to be them.

The best thing you can do for a young hire is remember what it felt like to be new.

To be underestimated.

To be trying to prove yourself in a room full of people who weren’t entirely sure you belonged there yet.

Lead them the way you wish someone had led you.

Or better yet?

Lead them the way you’d want someone to lead your own child.

Your Legacy: You Can Pass It On or Hold It to Yourself

The beauty industry needs young leaders.

It needs people willing to take the baton, run with it and take it somewhere the generation before them couldn’t have imagined.

When you invest in youth—when you give them real opportunity, real responsibility and real belief—you’re not just building your salon team.

You’re building the future of this industry.

That’s legacy.

I carry lessons that were passed to me by my mom. I’ve added my own experiences, mistakes and lessons along the way. And now I get to pass those things to another generation of young women who will take them, make them their own and eventually pass something even better to the generation behind them.

That’s how an industry moves forward.

The question isn’t whether the next generation will eventually take over.

They will.

The question is whether you want to be part of preparing them for it.

And you might just discover, like I did, that they teach you every bit as much as you teach them.

Age is just a number.

Potential is everything.

Prove them wrong.