Why Black Women Are Choosing Ulta: 5 Marketing Lessons Every Small Business Should Learn
Black women are taking their hair appointments to Ulta Beauty, and small business owners should be paying attention.
Across social media, women are sharing their frustrations with traditional hairstyling experiences, from complicated booking policies and nonrefundable deposits to unexpected fees, appointment cancellations, and inconsistent customer service. Some are discovering that larger beauty retailers, including Ulta Beauty and JCPenney, offer alternatives that better meet their expectations.
But this conversation is about much more than silk presses, hairstylists, or the beauty industry.
It raises an important question about customer experience, consumer buying behavior, and the role marketing plays in retaining customers.
When customers begin choosing a competitor, the most valuable response is not to criticize their decision. It is to understand what influenced it.
For small business owners, the lesson is simple: Customers are constantly communicating what they value, sometimes through their words and sometimes through where they choose to spend their money.
Why Are Black Women Choosing Ulta Over Traditional Hairstylists?
For generations, Black hair salons have been more than places to get a hairstyle. They have been spaces for community, conversation, cultural connection, and trusted relationships between clients and stylists.
Many independent hairstylists continue to provide exceptional service and maintain loyal clientele. However, recent conversations across social media have exposed growing dissatisfaction among some customers.
Complaints include lengthy booking instructions, expensive deposits, unclear service prices, stylists arriving late, appointment cancellations, and additional charges for services that customers previously expected to be included.
These concerns are not entirely new.
In 2024, Allure published an article titled Black Women Are Fed Up With Instagram Hairstylists, examining difficult booking experiences, deposit disputes, and the growing disconnect between some hairstylists and their customers.
More recently, in October 2026, The Cut explored the conversation surrounding Black women choosing Ulta and JCPenney salons, highlighting differences in pricing, expectations, customer service, and salon culture.
Although these public conversations do not establish how many women are changing salons, they reveal something important about consumer buying behavior.
Customers are evaluating the entire experience, not just the finished hairstyle. For small business owners, there are five marketing lessons worth understanding.
Lesson 1: Listen to What Your Customers Are Telling You
One of the most valuable forms of market research is customer feedback.
Customers communicate through surveys, online reviews, social media comments, complaints, referrals, and purchasing decisions. Sometimes their feedback is direct. Other times, businesses must pay attention to patterns in customer behavior.
When customers repeatedly complain about the same experience, those complaints deserve attention. For example, if salon customers consistently express frustration with excessive booking rules, it may be time to evaluate whether those policies are creating unnecessary obstacles.
This does not mean every complaint requires an immediate policy change. Businesses need boundaries, cancellation policies, and procedures that protect their operations.
However, there is a difference between establishing reasonable business policies and making the customer experience unnecessarily complicated.
Customer Complaints Can Reveal Market Opportunities
Customer feedback does not always arrive through a formal survey or customer satisfaction questionnaire. Sometimes it appears in online reviews, social media conversations, declining sales, or customers choosing another business.
A recent social media post from Sherilyn Michelle Bennett of Camden Lane Creative Agency makes an important observation about the conversation surrounding Ulta Beauty and JCPenney salon services. The post highlights how customer frustrations can reveal opportunities for businesses to improve the services they provide.
The larger marketing lesson applies to every industry. Understanding what customers find difficult, inconvenient, or frustrating can help businesses identify opportunities to improve their customer experience and strengthen their competitive position.
Sometimes the greatest opportunity to grow a business is not to introduce something new. It is to improve an experience that customers already find frustrating.
Lesson 2: Your Booking and Purchasing Experience Is Part of Your Marketing
Marketing does not end when someone clicks an advertisement, visits a website, or discovers a business on social media. The purchasing experience is part of the marketing experience.
Consider a potential customer who discovers a hairstylist on Instagram. The portfolio looks beautiful, the reviews seem promising, and the customer is ready to book.
But after clicking the appointment link, the customer encounters several pages of rules, unclear service descriptions, multiple fees, and confusing instructions.
That customer may decide to leave before booking an appointment.
This is an example of customer friction, which occurs when unnecessary obstacles make it difficult for someone to complete an action.
Ulta Beauty and JCPenney provide online information about salon services and appointment booking. These features give prospective customers a way to explore available services and begin.
Lesson 3: Customers Pay for Value, Not Just the Service
Pricing has become one of the most discussed parts of the Ulta salon conversation. Some Black women have shared experiences of paying increasingly high prices for traditional salon services while questioning whether the overall experience justifies the cost.
Others have reported finding more affordable alternatives at larger retailers. However, the marketing lesson is not simply that lower prices attract customers. It is about perceived value.
Perceived value is how customers evaluate the benefits of a product or service compared with the money, time, effort, and inconvenience required to obtain it.
Consider two hypothetical hairstyling experiences. One stylist charges $175 for a silk press but provides a thorough consultation, arrives on time, includes a shampoo and conditioning treatment, explains proper hair maintenance, and creates an enjoyable salon experience.
Another stylist charges $100 but frequently runs late, has unclear service inclusions, and provides inconsistent communication. Some customers may willingly pay more for the first experience because they believe the additional value justifies the price.
Independent business owners also have legitimate expenses. Rent, equipment, supplies, labor, insurance, and professional education all influence pricing. Customers may not understand those costs unless the business communicates its value effectively.
Businesses should not automatically reduce prices whenever a competitor offers a less expensive alternative.
Instead, they should evaluate whether their pricing reflects the quality, expertise, convenience, and experience being delivered.
Customers don't always look for the cheapest option. They want an experience that makes the price feel worth it.
Lesson 4: Don't Attack Customers for Choosing Your Competitor
One of the least productive responses to customer dissatisfaction is publicly criticizing customers for spending their money elsewhere.
When customers express concerns about pricing, quality, policies, or service experiences, they are providing information that businesses can use to improve.
Dismissing those concerns, insulting customers, or questioning their financial circumstances can create additional problems.
Remember that social media conversations reach more than the person making the complaint.
Potential customers, current clients, and others who are unfamiliar with the business may observe how an owner responds. Also remember that customers like Shari share their real-life experiences on social media applications like TikTok. Her recent trip to Ulta in West Palm Beach, Florida, accounts for what she loved about her stylist and also implied what she didn't like from previous stylists, such as chewing gum in her face, trimming too much of her hair, and the lack of hair education.
Lesson 5: Small Businesses Can Compete Without Becoming the Cheapest Option
Competing with a national retailer may seem intimidating for an independent business owner.
Larger companies often have greater purchasing power, more extensive marketing budgets, established technology, and additional operational resources.
But small businesses have advantages of their own.
They can build meaningful customer relationships, offer personalized attention, develop specialized expertise, and respond to customer feedback without navigating multiple layers of corporate approval.
Independent hairstylists, for example, can differentiate themselves through healthy hair education, specialized styling techniques, individualized consultations, and consistent client care.
The same principle applies to small businesses in other industries.
A local marketing consultant may provide a deeper understanding of a nonprofit's community than a large agency. An independent retailer may offer personalized product recommendations that make customers feel understood. A small event planning business may build lasting relationships through exceptional communication and attention to detail.
The goal is not to become a smaller version of a national competitor.
Businesses must also recognize that competitors can provide useful information about changing customer expectations. Reviewing competitors' service offerings, communication, pricing structures, and customer experiences can help identify opportunities for improvement.
What Small Business Owners Can Learn From the Ulta Beauty Conversation
The discussion surrounding Black women choosing Ulta Beauty and JCPenney salon services provides an important reminder that customer behavior can change when expectations are not being met.
Independent hairstylists have contributed significantly to Black culture, entrepreneurship, and community building. That history and expertise should not be overlooked simply because some customers are exploring different options.
Similarly, choosing a larger retailer does not automatically mean a customer has rejected independent businesses.
Sometimes customers want convenience. Sometimes they want affordability. Sometimes they want predictability. Other times, they are looking for an experience that makes them feel respected and valued.
For business owners, the responsibility is to understand those preferences and determine how their products, services, and customer experience align with them.
Your marketing strategy is not simply about attracting attention, increasing social media engagement, or generating more sales. It involves understanding the audience, communicating value, building relationships, and delivering an experience that encourages customers to return.
The customer may not always be right, but their buying behavior is always worth paying attention to.
When customers begin choosing your competitors, will your business spend more time defending its practices or understanding what customers are asking it to change?
Sources and Further Reading
Allure. Black Women Are Fed Up With Instagram Hairstylists. March 6, 2024.
The Cut. The Ulta Debate Has Exposed a Generational Gap in Black Hair Care. October 2026.
TheGrio. Why More Black Women Are Turning to Ulta Beauty for Hair Services. October 2026.
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