Vunerability is the Birthplace of Joy

By Nathan Yip

It’s a new year, the Christmas rush over again for another year, you have aged 10 years with the craziness, long hours, and overdose of coffee.

Now it’s time to turn your attention to a new year, new focus, new skills, and opportunities.

2023 was a big and challenging year for many, big shifts in the industry in terms of salon employment vs Freelance, a lot of economic changes and uncertainty and fear.

I had a big year, I made the finals for the F.A.M.E Team, finalist for both AHIA and AHFA Educator of The Year, I opened a salon with my wife and my 3 kids continued to grow.

It was hard, many times uncomfortable and draining, I especially struggled keeping up with my social media and keeping up with messages, DM’s, emails and all forms of communication. I really failed at replying to people last year ha-ha, sorry if that was you!

This year my goal is to be more organised, more systematic with my approach and really focus on routine and structure. For someone with impulsive ADHD these things have always been difficult and uncomfortable but not impossible! I know I just have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and learning to commit to a routine and ultimately to myself.

With the new year I wanted to unpack many conversations and observations I had last year, in regard to education.

Something I believe is becoming an alarming trend is, as our industry becomes more colour-obsessed, hairdressers are becoming unqualified and terrified to cut hair and do anything more than the same GHD curl. Cutting and styling skills are becoming a dying art (pun intended).

Whenever I teach a class I often I hear stylists say, “They hate cutting hair or they just like colour better”. When I challenge them if they actually like colour more or are they simply scared of cutting hair, most often it is the latter.

The Fear is “Once you cut it, you can’t put it back on”. They aren’t scared of cutting hair, they are scared of the result, of getting it wrong. There is a common belief colour isn’t as scary because you can fix it with a root smudge or toner. I disagree, what happens when that toner fades or the irreparable damage from over colouring.

The issue isn’t just cutting training and techniques, The issue arises in the consultation. We have become too focused on “scripts” and moved away from what a consultation actually is: a conversation between two human beings to work out what the client wants and to problem-solve how to get there, for the professional to give a professional recommendation with their experience and style. (I’ll save more of this for my next article)

Another challenge is conceptualisation and visualisation, many stylists that I teach tell me they struggle with short hair because they don’t know where to start or what a good short haircut looks like… are you a human being? do you have a pulse, an opinion? Of course, you do!

Do some homework, when you're bored, scrolling Instagram, watching a movie, take notice of people with short hair, what makes them look nice, why does it look good, why does it suit them? Then get curious about how you may achieve it and start to problem solve.

My wife and I took on a pre-existing salon in a small coastal suburb of Brisbane and renamed it “The Weekend Society”. I have had many conversations with the more mature clients, and I kept hearing: “Hairdressers keep giving me an old lady haircut, I know I’m old, but I don’t want to look it!” I actually agree, as hairdressers and human beings we profile people and we have an age-appropriate script and look for women of a certain age, when you ask a certain set of questions, you are going to get a certain set of answers. Not allowing for creativity or customisation.

I can’t tell you how many times I have heard stylists trying to unconsciously talk people out of cutting length off, cutting layers or face framing because they are too scared or ill-equipped to complete the task and worse sometimes admitting to blaming the persons face shape etc, for not suiting something. Imagine being told you can’t have a fringe because you have a round face but deep down the reason is that your stylist was too scared to do it but gaslit you.

We need to get vulnerable; we need to listen properly to the human being on the end of the consultation, drop your scripts and have a real conversation, actually listen to learn, be curious, ask a good question to elicit a good response, conceptualise an idea, an image and execute it proficiently.

We are limiting our client's results with our fears!

We can go around blaming our past for the lack of training but the responsibility of your craft, your growth and your understanding is 100% your own!

Why not make 2024 the year you become very self-aware, become vulnerable and ask yourself where your weaknesses are and become comfortable with the uncomfortable and push yourself to seek what it is you need to learn to make yourself an awesome and confident cutter, colourist or stylist.

If this has struck a chord with you, please reach out and let me know your thoughts.

@prettyvac_nt