When Liz Savage returned to work at a family-style Staten Island beauty shop, following a brief stint at a pricy Los Angeles salon, she kissed her chair, her mirror, and all of the customers and hairdressers present.

Ms. Savage, 42, said she was elated to be back at Unique Partings, located in a south-central Staten Island strip mall. She had spent the past three days out West at Allen Edwards Salon and Spa, where she had her own assistant and could charge more than $65 — instead of her usual $18 — for a haircut and style. Despite those perks, she said, “You couldn’t pay me enough to work there.”

Allen Edwards, who owns three Los Angeles salons and works as a stylist for celebrities including Kirsten Dunst and Mary Steenburgen, said he was just as relieved to return home after a trying gig at Unique Partings, home of the $8 senior special. “They have to do their own cleaning,” he said in a phone interview. “I have maids, three desk girls, and 10 assistants.”

The Style network is betting that this and other unlikely changes will make for compelling reality television this fall. In the spirit of ABC’s “Wife Swap,” the premise of Style’s forthcoming show, “Split Ends,” is to have high-end and often prima-donna stylists switch places with no-pretension hairdressers in Small Town, USA — or, in one case, Staten Island.

Welcome to the world of hairstylist TV, where the salons are sets, the hairdressers are stars, and the drama is bigger than the hair of a southern belle on prom night.

Stylists are the latest service worker segment to capture the American imagination, a columnist for American Salon magazine, Kim Vo, said. “It’s like what happened with celebrity chefs 10 years ago,” he said.

Mr. Vo, a contributor to “The Daily 10” on E! and “Extreme Makeover” on ABC, said hair stylists often boast larger-than-life personas that make them reality show naturals. “They’re like doctors,” he said. “You never used to question your doctor. My clients say to me, ‘Do whatever you want.’ When you hear that over and over again, you build an ego. You either use that ego to help others stylists, or you become a diva.”

And for all of their shortcomings, divas do know drama.

The stylist-as-star genre was born when Bravo launched “Blow Out” about two years ago. That show, which aired for three seasons, followed a fiery celebrity stylist, Jonathan Antin, as he opened his Beverly Hills salon. This season, the lineup includes two new salon-centric reality shows. In addition to “Split Ends,” there’s “Hair Trauma,” a six-episode series on a women’s cable network, We.

Less gimmicky than “Split Ends,” “Hair Trauma” documents the adventures of salon ownership through the microcosm of one New York City beauty parlor. The half-hour show’s “star” is the entrepreneur and high-profile stylist behind LaVar Hair Designs. Ellin LaVar, 45, employs her two younger (and saucy) siblings at her West 72nd Street salon. The show often seems less like a reality television, and more like an engaging beauty shop-based family drama.

With the show’s forthcoming premiere, Ms. LaVar said she’s bracing for increased demands for appointments and on-the-spot hair consultations. Accustomed to styling the hair of well-known women such as Venus and Serena Williams (who make appearances in the show), Ms. LaVar is already becoming a bit of a celebrity herself. “The other day, I went to the bank, and the woman behind the counter said, ‘Oh my God, my hair is falling out. What should I do?’ and I was like, ‘Can I deposit my check please?'”

A senior vice president for development at the Style network, Elaine Brooks, said she thought hair-related shows would appeal to a wide range of mostly female viewers. The network has committed itself to eight, hour-long episodes of “Split Ends.” “There isn’t a city in the world where girls don’t have a fascination with their hair salon,” she said. “That’s true in Los Angeles, in small towns, and in mom-and-pop shops across the country.”

Ms. LaVar said she wouldn’t be surprised if “Hair Trauma” finds an audience among heterosexual men, mystified by the salon culture so intrinsic to the women in their lives. “There are always men calling up to ask, ‘Just what is it that you do there?'” she said. “They might want to see what the whole experience is about.”

“Hair Trauma” premieres Wednesday, October 11, at 10 a.m. on We. “Split Ends” begins Friday, November 17, at 9 p.m. on Style.