PAINTBOX

IT’S THE FREEHAND COLOUR SERVICE THAT CLIENTS (AND THEIR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNTS) ADORE, BUT EDWARD HEMMINGS, CREATIVE DIRECTOR AT EDUCATION PROVIDER ALAN D, IS ADAMANT BALAYAGE IS BAD FOR A SALON’S LONG-TERM BUSINESS IS BALAYAGE BREAKING YOUR BUSINESS?

Training at Alan D

Is balayage ruining business? In my opinion, and that of many of the employers we train for, it is. The technique began in France in the ’90s but the colour was brought close to the roots. The Californian honey blonde with sun-blasted roots look is now the fashion, and has become softer and more natural as hair itself has been left longer.

There are various techniques and methods, but all of them actively increase time between visits to the salon by creating soft blending points between root and lengths as opposed to root colouring and highlights, which need more regular maintenance. Yes, in certain circumstances, roots need to be filled, but with those gentle blends your clients can wait an extra week or two (or even a month) or, even worse, grab a box off the shelf to brighten it up. Am I saying this alone is ruining our businesses? No, but together with the trend for long, one-length hair, we are not seeing our clients as regularly as we should. Until we start cutting hair shorter again and giving clients an excuse to return every six weeks or less, how do we expect to grow our businesses?

Supermarkets offer every type of product, electrical item and wet line, many with the same labels as can be seen in our salons. They offer clients the tools to make to make our work look amazing for longer – but what they cannot offer is a haircut.

To make the change, I believe we need to start by looking at ourselves. Do we project the right image? It will only take a couple of team members to have that shorter bob and, with the power of social media, all of your clients will get to see it. I recently had the good fortune to judge the Richard Ward Hair & Metrospa junior competition and it was refreshing to see shorter haircuts and more graphic colours, still with a commercial and feminine feel. That change has started internally.

Keep doing balayage because let’s face it, it looks so beautiful. But to make money we need our clients in our chair every six weeks! Short grad bob with ombre anyone?

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