Hairdresser / Hairstylist

The work is what you would do in a top salon, in a much smaller room. Blow-dries, updos, cuts, colour, men's grooming and beard trims, and sometimes wig or extension care for a principal. You keep the salon spotless, sterilise tools and track stock. Product planning matters. Once you leave Antibes or Fort Lauderdale for the Maldives or the South Pacific, you cannot just pop out for a toner, so you order the season's colour and care products before you sail.

When guests are aboard, your hours follow theirs. A charter day might start with a blow-dry before a beach club lunch and finish with three evening styles before a dinner ashore in Saint-Tropez. On owner trips you may be looking after one or two people whose preferences you learn closely. With no guests aboard you cut crew hair, help the interior with laundry and detailing, and do training. On yachts under 80m the job is almost always a steward/hairdresser role, and most of your hours go on interior work.

Captains and spa managers hire stylists with at least five years in high-end salons, ideally with bridal, editorial or session work behind them. Strong colour skills are essential, and barbering is a real plus because many guests are men. A second skill helps you get hired: nails, massage or lash work, or proven stewarding. Above all they want discretion. You will be close to very private people, and references from salons and earlier yachts carry a lot of weight.

Few yachts carry a dedicated stylist, so progression usually means moving to a bigger boat, a better rotation, or a post looking after the owner's family more closely. Some stylists move up to spa manager, running the treatment rooms, the budget and the team. Others build a freelance business, flying out to yachts for owner trips or events from a base in Monaco or Palma. A few are taken on full time by families they met aboard and travel with them between their yacht and their homes.