Cosmotologists and students...

[truepeacenik]

Cosmetologists, how do you integrate long hair lore and your official training?
(Students, too)


If you are employed in hair care, how do you apply long hair methods with standard ideology, and vice versa?


What frustrates you when translating for two mindsets?

[ScarlettAdelle]

Alright, I'll bite.

I currently do hair on the side, not as my main job, but I'm still a licensed hairdresser. Have had my license for years, and used to work in a salon. Now I really only work with certain clients and rarely will take new ones, so my point of view is likely a little different to some other hairdressers.

Each client is different and looking for something different. If the particular client I'm working with is interested in growing her hair long, I give her different advice from a client who never wants to get past shoulder or so, etc. I have to let go of my ideas of what I personally think would look best, get to know the client and try and give them what will work best for and look (their idea of) best on them. It's not about me and my preferences. Generally speaking, I look at their lifestyle, how much time they have in the morning to get ready, what their day is like, how committed they are to maintenance and what they'd like to see staring back at them in the mirror and try and find something that's a happy medium within that.

It doesn't really frustrate me any more. It's not my hair. Even if I don't particularly care for the style the client wants, I still need to make it look (in their opinion) great, because they're a walking business card for me. Not everyone likes long hair. I've known a few people who say it's even gross. The hardest thing for me in the beginning was learning to set aside my personal preferences. Once I got into the mindset that I'm there to be a liaison between their mind and their physical body to bring about the changes they want to see in their hair but don't have the expertise to bring about, themselves, it wasn't so bad when I was still in a traditional salon setting.

[truepeacenik]

The hardest thing for me in the beginning was learning to set aside my personal preferences. Once I got into the mindset that I'm there to be a liaison between their mind and their physical body to bring about the changes they want to see in their hair but don't have the expertise to bring about, themselves, it wasn't so bad when I was still in a traditional salon setting.

Thank you!

This last of you post resonated.
Do you think of yourself as a designer?