September 26,2021
You are ready to see a new stylist for whatever reason. However you are apprehensive on letting a stranger in your head, but you are desperate…right? You get online do some research and you see an attractive hair picture. You click on the picture and it leads an ONLINE booking site. You look through the service menu and it is all overwhelming, yet you see the first option on the list is to book a consultation. It is not mandatory, but doing so might make you feel more confident about this potential stylist. Wait…but now you know what you want, and you look at your hair and think how I get to that goal. Ok, you check out the reviews and they are 4 stars out of 5, which can be a good thing. Anyway you are not ready to cut your losses so you just book a consultation. Now you have a rush of emotions, and you don’t know what to expect but a consultation may just show you what you can expect…read on to find out what those expectations are.
1.See what the salon looks like, and check out the surroundings in the area.
Believe it or not I had clients that were in the business of looking for a new stylist plan their trip to the salon. With the salon address, they take a trip at least a day before the appointment just to see accurately how far away from their home or place of work I am located. Most clients want to make sure you are not located in a home and if you are, is there a separate salon set up from your home and not actually in areas where the stylist dwells. Just in case you didn’t know legally a stylist that is offering a beauty service for a trade of barter or money must conduct business in a licensed salon. Now that licensed salon can be their home, but there has to be a door that separates where they do business and where they are doing home stuff, and certain types of equipment must be present in that working area. Do what you will with that information. Some clients are concerned with the surrounding areas. Does it appear safe? Is it in a well-lit area? Are there some restaurants around to grab a bite to eat before, after and maybe even during the appointment. They just want to know what they can expect when they pull up to the salon, so a drive by is in order.
2.You get to do a meet and greet with the beauty professional, you can do a convoy of how the potential stylist conducts booking, and see if they follow through with booking procedures.
Meeting a beauty professional before an actual hair appointment will tell you A LOT about that person and how they conduct business. For starters…did your consultation start on time or at least with a 15 minute grace period. Now don’t get me wrong, everybody is late at some point, but you will NEVER catch me waiting hours for someone to get to me especially if they are not even in the building. And if they are behind, were you notified of the tardiness and an expected wait time as well as a thank you for your patience apology. Did they follow their own booking procedures? Stylist will create all these rules for the client, but do not have any for themselves. Have you seen some of the rules and FAQs pages? Talk about harsh, however I do understand the frustration on both sides, it is hard setting boundaries in a business where you have to play nice all the time. But boundaries are good and must be set on both sides to give both parties an understanding how their business operation will flow.
3.During consultation you can experience how the hairstylist interacts with you.
Now that you are in the chair to not talk about hair but, YOUR hair. How was your greeting, were you allowed to express your concerns about your hair, were follow up questions asked, did the stylist take any notes??? Now you will have an opportunity to see how a stylist will handle you, not all stylist are people person. And as much as you think we should be, some us just aren’t, well because we are people too and we have our own weird shit about us! But never the less you should be handled with professionalism and respect, whatever that means to you. If that stylist spirit does vibe with you they may not be the person for you, even if their work is the BOMB!
4.Will the stylist provide a regimen for your hair needs, and offer tips, tricks, products, and tool advice for at home care.
The stylist should always ask these key questions. What are you hair goals? What is your life style? How do you wear your hair? How would you like to wear your hair? What products do you use? What is your at home regimen, if any? After all these questions, that stylist should ask to examine your hair. He/she will be looking for the porosity and elasticity of your hair. Is your hair chemically treated? If so what type, how long have you been doing these treatments, brands of these treatments? ARE YOU DOING THESE THINGS YOURSELF??? No matter what the questions and answers are there is no reason to be ashamed about what is going on with your hair. It is like a doctor, this is your opportunity to be up front so you can reach your desired goals for your hair. If you lie…trust me, we know, some of us will call you out on it, and some of will let you find out the hard way if you don’t listen. I recommend that you do a respect and receive when a stylist tells you that your hair or you may not be ready for certain things when it comes to your hair.
5.Lastly, see what the checkout process is like.
Were all the booking procedures followed by the stylist, did things change up on you at the last minute, Yes!…move around, if things remained consistent with, go ahead think about things if needed and move forward with starting a client/beauty professional relationship.
Remember, not every stylist is for every client and every client is not for every stylist. That is okay, there are plenty of beauty professionals and clients to go around for everyone and find that perfect person. After you have done your online research and consultation, you will have a pretty good idea if that person is going to be your person. It is okay to ask what methods are used, products, and tools. Some of these may be different from what you are used to, but you looked at the stylist’s portfolio and you loved it, all those things is how they arrived at the end result that you see. Be open minded about that, we know you know your hair better than we do, but we know hair from all walks of light, and a well-trained educated stylist will know how to handle your hair. I want to close on this note because I think it is important, not all stylist prefer to do all the specialties of hair. For example if you don’t see braids on a stylist profile, they do not prefer to do them. Maybe that stylist just does color, color hair care, and styling. This does not make them less of a stylist, they just have niche, and it works mentally and financially for them. I have clients that have different stylist for different things, and I am okay with that as long as this other stylist will not compromise the hair. Before you book your next hair appointment with a new stylist be sure book a consultation first just so you have a peace of mind about your hair experience with your possible new hair person.
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