Prepping for an Express Haircut

A lot of salons are adding or have had them in place for a long time, the express haircuts or haircuts that are not pre-shampooed as a part of the service. Budget cutting salons cater to quick cuts for a wallet friendly service that you can enjoy on your lunch break, while the kids are in school or just a random Tuesday in the summer. With our ever increasing busy lifestyles, full service salons are now giving their guests the option to skip the lengthy shampoo and conditioning work, and get straight to work cutting off long overdue coifs.

Upgrade with the Luxury Haircut for the Shampoo and Blowdry.

These express services require common courtesy and through my work over the last several months, there's a lot of miscommunication about how best to arrive when you have one scheduled. We have all been on the receiving end of a late appointment so we understand it can be full of frustration and anxiety so needing a lengthy consultation before the haircut is started is not recommended. Stylists DO NOT want to run over their next appointment time so if you need a pep talk before you cut your curtain bangs, schedule a full service.

Running in to get a quick cut after you have cut the grass or got your daily workout in, not recommended. A lot of us are cutting bare handed in these salons, we don't know our clients nor what they may be carrying in their scalp or hair and it's a snowball effect of disgust from there. I now understand the barber videos where the techs are gloved up. Bacterial and fungal infections like ringworm or impetigo can sometimes go unnoticed or undisclosed; coupled with the inability to diagnose or refuse service on speculation, a lot of stylists in franchise and corporate chain salons are forced to complete work, putting themselves and others at further risk. If you have a breakout or possible infection, please see a doctor for treatment and follow up before your appointments.

The day of your express haircut, it should be common courtesy to shampoo your hair. I have found, it is not. Which leads me to ask-Who raised y'all?!

There are several factors that make washing your hair prior to an express haircut a good idea:

1. Sanitation

2. Clean Palette=Clean Results

3. Texture Reset for more true shapes

4. Decompresses hair caused by sleeping or previous styling

5. No sticky/crunchy residues to cut through, which damages our blades and dries out our hands

Lastly, 20% tips are standard across the US for tipped wage positions. Beauty Salons and Spas, Barbershops and Budget Chains are a part of that demographic. Tell your friends and family to stop being cheap, and if you're out here tipping two dollars on a twenty dollar cut that you used a coupon for, which saved you another five dollars, this is your official slap on the hand. Do better. AND WASH YOUR HAIR!

Hairloss is More than a side effect

In 2020 I took deep dive into a new hair extension method with a positive mindset, thinking I would be providing runway type hair to these IG models and I was going to be so popular, all the long haired extension goddess guests would be filling up my books.

What really happened is women, in need of hair repair landed in my chair. Every age bracket, income level, college/non college, single, married, divorced, dog moms, angel moms, widows, grandparents; the whole gamut of people. The one thing every one of these people had in their lives?

Stress.

Stress in mind, body or spirit essentially leads us to seek sources for treatment. Excercise, meditation, prescription drugs, self care, street drugs- caffiene included; this list could be infinite but everything we do or put into our body has a reaction to our outside appearance.

Currently, sipping a lukewarm coffee as I type this and thinking hard about the trust we put into our care providers. After sitting for hundreds of hours with women going through hormonal hair loss, drug treatment protocols with nasty side effects, insurance battles and Drs over prescribing medications... I can't help but to encourage my guests and readers to take charge of their own health, double check your medications, read the effects on your health and weigh the pros and cons. I literally listened and waited for one of my guests to speak with her dr's office about adding this new medication with the one she was currently on. The non chalant manner that this medical provider had when they told her, "oh, just cut it in half, there's a perforation on one side." ...

I'm so hotheaded, but I was calm cool and collected as she got off the phone. I said, "it's a good thing you called, you really can't blindly trust they are reading your chart."

The first thing we can control in life is our diet and activity level. I 100% believe that's the key to perfect harmony. We just haven't been able to put the pieces together and implement them in our lives. And, just when you think you have it all figured out, the hormone levels shift with aging and you have to find a whole new balance. Then throw in our archaic economic norms of working in daylight hours for minimal wages for half our lives, stress throws in a whole car frame, not just the wrench!

Dietary changes, drastic in nature, can cause temporary or long term hair thinning and loss. With the popularity of weight loss surgeries and subcutaneous injections, more people are experiencing hair loss than ever before. It may not be hairloss for everyone. Some people have stunted growth due to chemical buildup that may shed through the hair follicles. In my experience, their new growth is very thick, but about five to six inches from the new growth, the hair begins to shed. Chemically treated hair is more susceptible naturally but is not a determining factor in the density change. Brands like Malibu C are attempting to mainstream at home and in salon treatments but they can be costly for the average person.

In digging a little more into nutrition and supplements, Vitamin D, often prescribed to us women in winter by our medically licensed professionals, has conflicting support in that too much or too little can cause hair loss. Specifically citing AI that it helps in the growth phase where new hair grows to its full length potential. To avoid having to take a supplement, because if you know me, you know I want less goverment in my life giving me the advice of the week, you can incorporate Vitamin D rich foods in your diet. I was suprised to learn that mushrooms are on that list; I'm looking at you my vegan friends! And of course, connect with nature in natural sunlight! Runner ups include light therapy or tanning if you're in to that.

Facilitating the Safe Space as a Hairstylist

Some stories stay with you for the rest of your life and this one is my favorite:

I have been a hairstylist since 2002 and every day behind the chair has given me an opportunity to learn and grow as a beauty professional, friend and your behind the chair therapist.

Years ago, I was having a very intense conversation about relationships and the intentions of significant others with a salon guest. She had been seeing me for a few years and I just adore her. I ran into a roadblock of what to say at a particular problem they were facing and my natural instinct was to ask, "Have you two considered talking to a therapist?"

Without skipping a beat, she looked at me through the mirror and said, "That's what I have you for, Jess!"

I was dumbstruck.

With that one sentence, she unlocked a whole door in my mind I never knew I had kept locked up. Up until this exchange, I recklessly doled out advice, with no thought to the consequence. I felt a dozen emotions in a span of that five seconds it took me to formulate a snarky response. I cocked my head to the side, nervously laughed and said, "You' right," and continued listening to her. This time with intention.

Hairstylists spend the most personal time with their salon guests, I'd venture to say that we know them better than their spouse, their kids. We go on auto-pilot as a lighthouse with our guests through any storm they may be facing and for the most part, we don't even recognize we are doing so. Family doctors often don't get as personal as a hairstylist with their client. Our breed of people are just built different.

We listen but we don't judge must have been written by a hairstylist.

Nothing my clients have ever said to me shocked me in the least. Amused or concerned, maybe; but never shocked. If I didn't understand it, you best believe I was asking discovery questions. Making sure the doctors were doing bloodwork or your school counselors were following those IEPs you were entitled to. Hairstylists are the connectors of society and you can't change my mind.

This industry loses over 60% of their new stylists within their first year and I attribute that to not educating on the client-stylist relationship and their dynamic. A large portion of those new graduates land in chain salons, many focusing on haircuts only and it becomes a bubble that young stylists can't seem to get out of. For their own fear, or out of financial necessity they can become a stagnant employee that misses the opportunity to connect with lifetime clientele.

Being an independent beauty salon, Bombshell Beauty is changing the dynamic to give stylists the upper hand in their career. We invite our stylists to create their own hours, realistically gauge and set their pricing based on value and always be serving the guest. Letting your hair down in a new salon is scary for both a new client and the new stylist but it's my goal to facilitate the safe space as a hairstylist.

Connection is literally our bread and butter.