We took a trip to the Beachwaver office to watch celebrity stylist Sarah Potempa in action. Of course, she created a beautiful style and had the perfect white backdrop to photograph it against. Mission accomplished!
We took a trip to the Beachwaver office to watch celebrity stylist Sarah Potempa in action. Of course, she created a beautiful style and had the perfect white backdrop to photograph it against. Mission accomplished!

Instagram is the perfect social platform to showcase your work to potential clients and product brands—think of it as your online portfolio.

But how do you make your profile one that will stop a scrolling thumb in its tracks? We have a few ideas that might help.

Start with photo-worthy work.
When all is said and done, the most important part of any picture you post is the content—and for a beauty professional, that’s beautiful hair, flawless makeup, a chic mani, perfect fades or whatever you want to be known for. Create striking work, and a good photo is sure to follow.

Keep it clean.
Your background, that is. Try to have a consistent, clean backdrop that you place your models or clients in front of. If your salon has a photo station with a ring light and backdrop, fantastic. If not, the outside of your building might have good surface with natural light, though it won’t be much help during inclement weather or when it’s dark out.

Channel your inner art director.
Take pictures from multiple angles, on multiple backgrounds, and with natural and artificial light (your schedule allowing). Don’t be afraid to adjust your model by tweaking his or her body position or by fixing a flyaway. Chances are, you’ll end up with a camera roll on your phone that’s filled with variations on the same image—and that’s okay!

Step away from the filters.
If you’re creating your best work, you shouldn’t need a filter! Using one is not a true representation of what you can do, so don’t alter imagery unnecessarily. There’s a big difference between brightening an image that turned out too dim and laying on three different filters and tweaking the hue or saturation of your finished product.

Hashtags are friends.
Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags on every image you post—use them all! Hashtags are searchable terms that allow other users to find your work. So if someone is looking for a stylist in Chicago and you tagged #chicagostylist and #chicagosalon, they might see your work and give you a call. And of course, you’ll want to use our favorite hashtag (and, might we add, the most popular hashtag in professional beauty), #modernsalon, for the chance to have your work viewed by our 822,000 followers.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.