With a lot of time to overthink my “so called job”, of which so many take it for granted as just a cut or a colour..which is actually a God given talent in so many ways..
Being a hairstylist somehow has so many beliefs attached to it.
Being a hairstylist is seen by some to imply it was the only option we have.
I want to explain and share to you a hairstylist heart, the passion that is placed within us and share with you why I think being a hairstylist is a lot more valuable than most people think and why we deserve more recognition for our skills, effort and contribution.
Why we can be seen as an essential service.
We use scissors that are sharper than a chef’s knife or a surgeon’s scalpel just millimetres from our fingers and your ears. We move our tools quicker than your eyes can follow. Most days we cut ourselves as we work, forgetting about ourselves, because we are concentrating on your hair.
We use both science and maths, combined with an artist’s eye for beauty and detail, to figure out the exact angle to cut a client’s hair so that it falls correctly time and again when our client leaves the salon and has to manage it themselves.
We often put our bodies in the most unbelievable positions to make sure we can see each strand of a client’s hair to create a perfect angel for the cut. Our work means we are standing and bending a lot, but such attention ensures our clients have perfect hair.
What about the tools of our trade? Most people don’t realise how much scissors cost – we pay anywhere between R3000 to R50 000 of our own money with no payback, just to make sure our client’s hair isn’t damaged by blunt blades. Not even to talk about the straightening and hairdryer wich is not the normal ”Clicks” brands.. All of this for you as client.
We use a detailed knowledge of chemistry to create a special colour formula to work with our client’s hair.Not just a pour and mix blend. This is one that won’t work with someone else’s hair as genetics play a huge part in the reaction to chemicals and we have the courage to do what we believe is right for our client.
We have to work with time that is always against us as two minutes too late will blow the cuticle in our client’s hair like a small atomic bomb and underdevelopment or overdevelopment means a total disaster.
We strategically place colour to blur lines and create a subtle blend by ourselves in three hours, that looks uncannily like a photo our client brought in from the internet and in all likelihood was created by an editing program or its a wig.
We spend 50% of our working day using tools as hot as an oven, one touch and our fingertips are burned. There’s no need to moan because we are used to it – it’s just part of the job.
Every day, we breathe in fumes from hair products and get hair splinters all the time in our feet and hands.
We always have to look our best whether we feel it or not and right up until the last client who gets exactly the same care and attention as the other 10 clients you have seen that day.
We are there for our clients through their most important life moments. Whether it’s a wedding, best friend’s birthday or even to make sure they feel ready to face the world for their husband’s funeral.By being not just a hairstylist but a friend, a councellor, an advisor or a therapist of some kind helping your client to unwind.To give hope,to reveal the beauty within.
We get at times a cold shoulder by clients if we are running behind, when most of the time it’s because another client before them turned up late or isn’t honest about their colour history, which turns a two-hour appointment into a huge colour correction marathon.
We work even when we are ill, because we don’t want to let anyone down with appointments. We work early mornings, weekends,late nights, sometimes holidays.
Our social life is restricted so that out clients can have the best and we can earn a living. We also have family’s you know.
We can talk all day and make extremely close connections with our clients, and tonight when we are at home we want a bit of quietness which is not always possible with family who also needs attention.
We don’t get the usual “holiday days” because people need us in order to feel beautiful. We don’t always work 9-5 – we work from the first client to last client with no real promise of what time exactly we will finish.
We are often heard saying that we haven’t eaten lunch over the past three days because we’ve had no time between clients due to over-runs. On our days off, many of us spend hours researching new techniques and finding educational classes to attend.
A hairstylist life revolves around her clients hair. Our brains constantly switch from math to science and from social to psychology and back to our clients. We work hard physically, emotionally and mentally – every day with few breaks and definitely no silence.
Being a hairstylist is one of the few things now that clients can’t buy online. We can’t cut hair over a computer. It is a career that holds endless possibilities if you are willing to work hard and build on your natural God given talent.
You can travel the world, you can manage a team, you can work with big names – you can follow your passion. ONLY WHEN WE CAN WORK!!!!
We need support from our clients in every way.
We are in an industry that deserve the recognition that we are not just hairstylists – we are the people who build your confidence in both the good and the bad times and help you to take on the world.
Scientist, artist, counsellor, chemist, time management expert, friend, architect, and transformer.
Yes – I am immensely proud to call myself a hairstylist, with all it entails to design beautiful hair with the talent I have and to stand alongside all of us who recognise ourselves as a hairstylist.
And to make our work part of an essential service.
To feel worth the beauty we have within.
An inspiration on behalf of all hairstylist that want to work but can’t due to Covid 19.
