A few years back, some Ning Nong, decided it was a great idea to shorten the length of a Hairdressing Apprenticeship by 12 months from 4 years to just 3. In the past few years, employers have been able to sign off apprentices even earlier as long as they have finished their TAFE component. We all preach the fact that "3 years is not long enough! BRING BACK THE 4 YEAR APPRENTICESHIP!" But some are signing them off in 2 or less! This is a major part of what is destroying our beloved industry and it comes from the main people complaining about not being able to get staff and preaching about how short an apprenticeship is, The Employers. There are far too many salons, hiring young people on apprentice wages, poking them behind a basin, using them as cheap, cleaners and shit kickers and investing little to nothing in their education nor developing their passion for the industry. In fact most of these types of employers are killing the passion these young ones have. I know there are employers that have signed people off early, as the apprentice may have developed an illness and was unable to continue to work in the industry but didn't want them to leave after nearly 3 years with no qualifications... Is that right or wrong? I'm not too sure... But what IS NOT right is the fact that, after 2 years of no in salon training, a lot of apprentices look for work elsewhere, then what happens, is that these employers, then sign off these NON competent apprentices off as COMPETENT Stylists to get a piddly $2500 from the government. This is totally unethical and if you've done this, YOU'RE A NUMPTY AND A JERK AND YOU'RE F**KING OUR INDUSTRY! You are the problem! You are doing this person (and our industry) a complete injustice! Not only have you already made it harder for them to get a job by not training them properly in the first place but now you have fed the world another back yard hairdresser that is, not competent and not employable in any salon! All they wanted all along was someone to help them gain the skills, guidance, mentoring and education that they crave. You failed! *Clap! Clap! Clap! Here's some hard truths:
So to the rest of you who do the right thing and are finding it SO hard to find staff that are capable and confident, blame these dip shits! They are helping our government to destroy our industry and deserve a good, firm kick to the shins! Stop being a dickhead and do right by these young ones and do right by your industry and your peers. Stop being a Dick! if you’re an apprentice and want to discuss your training contract or employment issues contact the apprenticeship board or the department of industry. https://www.training.nsw.gov.au/apprenticeships_traineeships/index.html
Or as an employer, you can contact HABA https://www.askhaba.com.au/ Or as an apprentice, join your union. http://www.hairstylists.org.au/ You know the moment. The client that's booked in with you for a colour correction comes strolling through the door, nervous as hell, orange stripes galore and hands you a "goal" picture, of a beach bound Gigi Hadid with a beautiful mane of beige blonde hair. She's handed this picture to another stylist elsewhere and she left looking like a Sumatran Tiger. You're excited. The client is shitting herself. You head to get your apron, you can feel the nervousness vibrating in the salon. As you slip it over your head, you realise, you've got this. You turn around and your apron screams to your client, "Don't worry... I can fix it." Your client smiles, then giggles. You give her a thumbs up and she laughs. She seems relieved and in one instant, there is a connection between you both. You've snagged this client for life and you both know it. There are amazing hairdressers all over the place.
They're in massive salons, they rent chairs, they're in small boutique spaces in suburbia and they're in the back of beyond and many are super successful. They can do amazing hair, (of course) Some have request clients. Some sell retail. Some have great rebookings. Some have massively long waiting lists. Much like most of our industry... But the ones that really are "the next level", have the thing that sets them apart. That "thing" is that they are fun! People love to be around people who are FUN! Hairdressers are well known for our cockiness, our wit, our amazing good looks.... And our Sassiness! Do not confuse Sassy with Bitchy - Bitchiness come from a dark place of frustration and bitterness. Sass is just the right amount of wit and intelligence and a confidence that comes from being the fun one. Our facebook "page "Hairdressers of Australia" came from a place of fun. Poking fun at ourselves, at our industry and all the crazy, dumb, shit things that happen to us working in it. We wanted to embrace that with our limited edition aprons called The Frock! You need to get yourself one. Before your competition does... Shop now. Today we had a new client come in with short hair who always had a tint and foils. ALWAYS! It was flat and lifeless. She was reluctant to try something else. I asked her to trust me! I'd give her a fresh look and make her feel awesome!!! As you can see, the before is flat and lifeless. There is just no WOW factor. See? I told you! Drab! I grabbed my new favourite product, the Shatush Lightener! Excited!!!! I applied a tint that was the base of an 8 for grey coverage but added a bit of 8.12 for a cool, pearl colour that would soften some of the existing gold and applied it straight through, roots to ends. I mixed my Shatush 2:1 with 30vol. Taking medium diagonal slices from the front hairline, I free hand painted from roots to ends using the Shatush lightener. I then took the next section and continued the same technique. This continued throughout the hair, always in diagonal sections. I processed under heat for 20 minutes and the results were FANTASTIC! Her hair felt AMAZING! The results were soft and natural. Time wise, it only added 5 minutes to a basic regrowth application. It looks sunkissed and uber natural! The client was so pleased and said she had never felt so amazing and fashionable!
Totally chuffed. I love my Shatush! Buy yours from here. I've been HANGING for this product to come out! Obviously, like any other salon that is turning over any decent dollars, colour is your thing. And Balayage is what people want. Freehand Hair painting is ALL THE RAGE! If you're not doing it, you're missing out! So we've tried 3 others on the market and we just weren't getting the lift. Even with the maximum developer, we were lucky to be getting 2 - 3 levels of lift and for all the work, it was a small pay off for a big disappointment. So when I heard Hi-Lift were bringing out a cool new freehand lightener, I nearly wet my pants. As an Aussie hairdresser from waaaaaay back, Hi-Lift has always been a reliable and quality brand and they are NOT a rip off! Yay! So I was itching to get this stuff out and give it a whirl but it couldn't just be on anyone. This client had gone elsewhere to get balayage done as we couldn't fit her in. And this is how she left. She's also had her hair "thinned out" to the max. Kill me now! 😡 Why do hairdressers do that to long hair!!!!? Anyway, that's for another blog.... So the client produced a light blonde image which was very cool. No yellow and little brown. We didn't colour her root area as she wanted it as low maintenance as possible. So we mixed up the Shatush in a ratio of 2:1 with Hi-Lift 20vol cream but I felt I needed it a little creamier so I added about 10 mls more peroxide. I applied in "V" shaped sections from the hairline then layering each section in foil to keep moist and warm. I left the ends exposed as I didn't want them to overprocess and stress out. I processed for 35 minutes. The below photo was taken 10 minutes after I completed application. The lift was already underway. I had a great feeling about this. After 35 minutes, the Shatush Lightener had lifted a good 6 - 7 levels and on tinted hair! Then we rinsed. I was so pleased with the lift and the condition was AWESOME!
Our client was totally in love with herself. We glossed with RPR 10.12 with LS concentrate. I love this product. - The price. - The consistency. - The results. - The reliability. Available at all good suppliers but here's where we get ours. Shop Shatush Now. We had a new client come in, who of course wanted to be as blonde as blonde can be. In as few steps as possible. 😳 Of course we said we would try our hardest and she was open to using Olaplex. As we've not serviced this client before, we didn't know what was going to happen or what was sitting on her hair until we got into it, so we decided to do a full head of foils. This is her before. We used RPR My Colour blue Bleach with 30vol and 7.5mls of Olaplex and applied back to back foils on angles all the way through. Eg, no straight lines down the middle of her head or along part line. This stops stripes and allows it to grow through beautifully. After 20 minutes processing, we discovered that she had direct dyes on her hair... The roots were fluro red and PINK! 😫 KILL ME NOW! We left it to process for a further 50 minutes at room temperature as we didn't want to push too hard. Even with Olaplex, we were concerned about the response we might get if we used heat at this point. Slow and steady. Always slow and steady, especially if you didn't have anything to do with their hair history. This is how it came up. 😕 This is rinsed, and towel dried well. So we are left with orange near the scalp, gold in the mid lengths and pale yellow on the ends. So what do you do? How do you gloss this mess? We weren't afraid! 💪🏼 We were tackling this head on! A lot of hairdressers freak out if this happens. They either do 2 things. - They freak out and get scared of the light ends and add natural to their toner and end up with gold, shit hair on the roots and mid lengths. - Or aim to fix the orange and end up with super overtoned, muddy green ends. Why are hairdressers afraid of trusting our best friend? THE COLOUR WHEEL! You NEED TO look at the hair and assess where you're at. Don't lie to yourself. Be honest to yourself. Don't imagine it's something it's not. Work out the level you're at and the reflect. In our case, we knew we needed 2 glosses (toners). Our root area was at a level 8. Mid lengths at a level 9. Ends are at a level 10. So, we knew we had the orange to deal with on roots and mids. What counteracts orange? BLUE! We didn't get scared. We mixed up RPR My Colour and mixed 45mls 5vol and 28mls 8.1 + 2 mls LS (light silver concentrate) On the mids being gold and ends being pale yellow, we mixed RPR My Colour, 45mls 5vol + 29mls 9.12 + 1 ml LS (light silver concentrate) We applied the first mix to the root/scalp area and down over any of the orange. We then applied the second mix the ends. We then blended the 2 together over the mid lengths using different pressure through our fingers, distributing evenly throughout and bleeding it into each other. Processed for 25 minutes, rinsed, applied Olaplex step 2 for 15 minutes then shampoo'd and conditioned out. Here's our results! 😃 This was from a one step process using 2 different colours.
We kept our head. We were honest about our process. We trusted our skills. We protected the fabric of the hair and the results were EXCEPTIONAL! Real results in a real salon! Trust your gut and hug your best friend tight! THE COLOUR WHEEL! - Cassandra Your salon should be pumping. It's November. Soon it'll be December.
I get sick and tired of hearing of salons saying how January is one of the quieter months of the year. If this is the case, year after year, CHANGE SHIT UP! January is one of our busiest months. Why? How? Because our rebookings are between 80 and 95%. If your salon's rebookings were high, ALL those clients from your busiest time in November and December should transfer over into January and February. "How do I get them to book? I ask at the point of sale, "would you like to rebook?" And they say, "I'll give you a buzz."" Here's a hot tip. YOU TELL THEM THEY HAVE TO! If you and your team are doing a proper service, end to end and not just "shit chatting", but giving a COMPLETE service, there should be no issue. Are you and your team doing these things with each and every client;
You've set your client up to know what it takes to keep their hair looking amazing and the rebooking is the MOST IMPORTANT BIT! If November and December are busy, January and February should be nearly as busy. So talk to your team. Listen to your team. Advise your team if they are not doing this. Ensure a FULL SERVICE is given to your clientele, which is everything bullet pointed above. Then, there'll be no bitching about a quiet January. Break records for 2016. Start how you want to finish. Smashing targets, blowing goals out of the water and training your team AND your clients to rebook after EVERY SERVICE! Get Booking! - Cassandra. After being a hairdresser for 23 years (yes I'm old) and a Colour Technician and Educator since 2000, I still love playing with colour. While I love all techniques, for complete change and colour control, you can't go past good old foils. I am a little weird in that I don't tone. I mean, if people want grey or pastel purple, of course I tone but if they want a sexy, creamy, cool blonde, I don't tone. A lot of hairdressers are sceptical of this but I've been doing it for close to 20 years and it works. It's all in your colour selection. Here's an example; Before is an image of a totally gold and brassy client that was having bleach foils with a toner over the top to cool the warmth at another salon. She hated it. It looked like shit (her words AND mine). From visit to visit, the toner would fade. This is because generally,toners are left on for 1 - 5 minutes or less which is not enough time to secure itself in the hair. Here's where I am different. I generally choose between 3 and 4 colours and my thinking is:
These colours combined for this client meant that all gold was eliminated completely.
Because the colours are all processed for the full length of time and not like a toner (for a few minutes at the basin) the colour lasts perfectly from visit to visit. This was a one step process and results are FRIGGING amazing! All colours used were from the RPR My Colour range. Protection was provided by Cureplex. The client was totally blown away and weeks later, it's still on tone. Then you have the salons that DO IT ALL!
We often get asked in private messages what is the difference between a toner and a gloss? People are afraid to ask questions like this without feeling dumb so I thought I'd answer for everyone that wonders. I have been hairdressing for 23 years. As a trained and qualified educator in our industry for 15 years, there are words and techniques that come and go and have changed and get changed back, so let me break this down simply. Toner: This is a high pigment, low base colour that is generally mixed alone with an activator of 5vol (1.5%) or lower. After shampooing hair, it's towel dried well then the toner is applied at high speed. Generally it is left to process for between 1 and 4 minutes. When colour is achieved, rinse well and condition. Upside: Fast, high impact results. Downside: Doesn't last. It is scientifically impossible for a colour to deposit AND last for up to 6 weeks after only processing it for 1 - 4 minutes. Gloss: A gloss can be made in two ways. It is either
This is the first difference between a gloss and a toner. The second difference is the preparation. A gloss is applied to freshly shampoo'd AND conditioned hair which is generally dried off to 100%. The third difference is the processing time. A gloss is meant to be processed as a colour in its own right which is why clear is added to high pigment colours. Unlike a "toner", a gloss is processed for between 15 and 30 minutes. This ensures, maximum shine, maximum deposit and maximum longevity. Salons that gloss hair rather than tone, generally have a larger colour following as the results last from visit to visit and the hair doesn't return to yellow or gold between appointments. Upside: Lasts from colour to colour. Looks great. Downside: The extra processing time. So whether you gloss or tone, as long as you and your clients are super happy with the results, that's all that matters. Happy Colouring! It's so bloody confusing!!! This is a very popular question that I get asked DAILY, so for the past 6 months, I have been researching ALL software available for salons in Australia. And HOLY CRAP! There are A LOT out there! At Hair Expo, 2015, we created a check list of everything we think is important when considering new software and we interviewed every software company there. PLUS, we have contacted every software company incognito and enquired in every which way we can and asked all the questions you want answered and some you'd never think to ask! I have found 2 that have literally rocked my world. The first one (that is featured in THIS blog) is for salons that want a software program that is inexpensive and super simple to use with a quick, easy start up. Have you heard of Bright Orange Salon Software? We first heard about it at its launch at Hair Expo 2015 and honestly I thought, "NOT ANOTHER ONE!" I was instantly sceptical and highly critical. Hairdressers and salon owners are already confused enough by all the options. We aren't "techie"! We don't understand the lingo! So I filtered through the jargon and found 2 software programs that wiill fit any salon type. I compared;
After researching 21 software programs we found that Bright Orange Salon Software is by far the best on the market for every day, day to day salon use. Here's why; 1. It has great functionality and does heaps of cool stuff.
(Not all systems do this. If you are a small operation and pay the small price tag, sometimes you don't get all the functions.)
Your data is not cloud based. This is super important and here is why;
You work hard for your database and it should remain YOUR database. So, if you want something that
Our industry is their bag! They love Hair and Beauty as much as we do! They know, understand, appreciate and respect our game. Hairdressers Of Australia, Bright Orange Salon Software is for you. We 100% recommend it and you will not be disappointed. Tell them we sent you! |
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