Steward / Hairdresser
A steward or stewardess who is also a qualified hairdresser. Most of your hours go on normal interior work: service, housekeeping and laundry. Then guests want a blow-dry before dinner or a trim before a flight home, and you take the hairdryer and scissors. Owners and charter guests value it, and it makes a junior stew CV stand out.
The jobWhat fills the day
The job is two trades in one. As a steward you set tables, serve lunch and dinner, turn down cabins, run laundry and keep the guest areas immaculate. As a hairdresser you do blow-dries, up-dos, cuts, colour touch-ups and sometimes men's grooming, usually in a guest cabin, the spa or a corner of the beauty salon. You also cut crew hair, which is unofficial but expected. It earns you goodwill with the deck team and takes one more job off the list in port.
With guests aboard, hair appointments cluster before dinner and before shore events, so the chief stew plans your service rota around them. Expect three or four styling sessions in an afternoon at Porto Cervo or St Barths. Between trips the work is ordinary interior: detailing, inventory, provisioning help. On a 45m yacht the role may be one stew who happens to cut hair. On an 80m+ yacht with a spa you may sit partly in the spa team and work alongside a beauty therapist and massage therapist.
Captains and chief stews hire people who are stews first. A great stylist who can't carry a tray, iron a tablecloth or work a sixteen-hour charter day will not last. Most successful candidates trained and worked in a salon ashore for two or more years, then did STCW and ENG1 and joined as junior or third stew. Bring your own kit: good scissors, a professional dryer, irons, brushes. Owners notice colour work and bridal-level styling, so a portfolio on your phone helps.
Progression usually follows the interior ladder. Second stew, then chief stew, with hairdressing as a strong extra that keeps you employable on charter yachts. Some move sideways into the spa, adding beauty or nail qualifications and aiming for spa manager on large yachts. Others use the skill to land long-term private roles where the owner's family wants the same stylist every summer. Keep your trade current with courses during leave, because guests compare you with their salon in London, Paris or New York.
Skills captains look for
- Blow-dries and event styling
- Cutting and colour correction
- Silver service and wine service
- Guest cabin housekeeping
- Laundry and fabric care
- Discreet guest manner
- Working to tight timings
A day aboardCharter day, 60m motor yacht, Porto Cervo, Sardinia
Start on breakfast service on the aft deck. Coffee orders, fruit, eggs to order, then clear down.
Cabin rotation with the third stew. Beds, bathrooms, wardrobes, and collect guest laundry.
Lunch service on the sundeck while the yacht sits at anchor off Cala di Volpe.
Ninety minutes off. Eat, shower, and lay out styling kit for the afternoon.
Three appointments in the spa: a blow-dry, a braided up-do for the charterer's daughter, and a beard tidy.
A quick touch-up for the principal guest in her cabin before the tender run to dinner ashore.
Crew dinner in the mess while guests are ashore.
Turndown service, reset the salon and bar, then pack hair kit away and log the products used.
Wait up with the night stew for guests returning by tender. Drinks, then bed.
Pay by yacht sizeMonthly, before tips. Estimates. Bars share one scale.
Expect a few hundred dollars a month above a plain stew of the same rank. Charter tips, often 5 to 15 percent of the charter fee split among crew, can add several thousand dollars a season, and some guests tip directly for styling. See the Stewardess & Interior Crew salary guide for figures from live adverts.
Tickets and visas
Must have
- STCW Basic Safety Training
- ENG1 medical certificate
- Hairdressing qualification (NVQ Level 2 or 3, or national equivalent)
Gets you hired
- PDSD (Proficiency in Designated Security Duties)
- GUEST Interior Crew Introduction
- Food Hygiene Level 2
- Colour or barbering certificate
- Wine and Spirit Education Trust Level 1 or 2
Visas
- Schengen visa (non-EU crew)
- US B1/B2 visa
Where it leadsA typical career path
Stewardess & Interior Crew jobsOpen now on SuperyachtRoles.com
Questions crew ask
Do I need yacht experience to get a stew/hairdresser job?
No, but you need solid salon experience, usually two years or more. A captain will take a strong stylist with no yacht time as a junior or third stew, as long as you have STCW and ENG1 and show you are ready for hard interior work.
Should I bring my own hairdressing kit?
Yes. Most yachts expect you to bring scissors, a professional dryer, irons and brushes. Many yachts will budget for colour and products, but agree that before you join.
How much of the job is actually hairdressing?
Usually less than a quarter of your hours, more on busy charters and less on private trips. The rest is service, housekeeping and laundry, so go in expecting to be a stew first.
Will it help to add beauty or nail qualifications?
Yes, especially if you want to work on larger yachts with a spa. Hair plus nails or lash work makes you useful to the spa team and opens a route towards spa roles.