Issue link: https://www.ahpindiestylist.com/i/1421270
46 indie stylist Volume 2 Issue 4 Finally, can you be replaced? What's trending? What's been overtrending? Those are the things you need to look at. If you are doing exactly the same thing as everybody else, and you aren't offering anything special, you're no different than a stylist down the road. So now you're going into a price war. If you can be replaced so easily, then your value is decreased. It is your responsibility to constantly upgrade your skills, learn techniques, and push creativity that's relevant to your market. WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO A STYLIST WHO'S FEELING STUCK? There's a great quote that says we overestimate what we can do in a year, and we underestimate what we can do in a lifetime. I think you have to set realistic goals. You have to be able to reinvent yourself. And then you should focus on education. Look at the fundamentals. Find somebody who's doing what you want to do, and get education around it. Sometimes it just starts by listening to somebody talk to begin thinking like successful people think. You've got to think the right way to be successful, to be motivated, to be inspired. You can learn a new technique and still have old thinking, so you've got to use words like "I can" versus "That won't work" or "She'll never like that" or "That will never happen to me." You've got to shift the language and listen to the power of your words, because how we feel creates an energy field for every thought. When we have a positive thought, and we put out positive vibrations to the universe, positive things come back. But when we put out negative thoughts and negative comes back, it only affirms, "See, I was right. My clients will never like that. I'm not good, I'll never change." And the world goes, "Yeah, you're right, so we'll just give you more of the same." industry has been spoiled on free. And I don't think there's any hairdresser reading this who's going to spend days behind that chair working on clients for free. WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR NEW HAIRSTYLISTS TRYING TO DEFINE THEIR BRAND AND OFFER VALUE TO THEIR CLIENTS? First, it's not about price. If your clients feel valued, then your work has value. And if everything you touch and do has value, then I don't think there's a question about price. But when people pay a high ticket, and they don't get value, then the question becomes: Why have you overcharged me? As far as advice for new hairdressers, there are three things on my checklist. If you want to know how to be a great person of influence, number one is skill. Number two is demand. And then the third thing is: How easily can you be replaced? First, ask yourself, "What is my skill level?" Does the quality of the product that walks out the door—the technical, creative quality—fit the person wearing it? If you practice hard enough, you can cut a square bob, but do you know the right length or the angle? What's the profile? How much do you open or close the face? How is it fitting the frame of the face, the shape of the neck, the shoulders, the body type? How is it fitting them from a fashion perspective? Because bobs are the most generic, common thing going, right? So just being a technical hairdresser is not enough. You've got to know your skill in technique, in creative flair, and in recognizing how to put the right look on the right person—and how to communicate it. Next, is what you're doing in demand? Is it everywhere? Are you creating the demand? When you look at some of the most famous hairdressers in the world, they created the demand. Vidal Sassoon didn't copy anyone. He created it, right? But it took him nine years to go from a shampoo and set to a blow- dried hair style. That's tenacity!