August 5, 2015

How To Be A Good Salon Client

Martie Hair, Makeup and Beauty appointments, box color, how to be a good salon client, humor, mullet 6 Comments

Welcome to WaVeS oN wEdNeSdAy!  Today, with much lightheartedness and humor, I would like to enlighten the world on how to be a good salon client.

I try to be the best hairstylist I can be….I really do.  I schedule my clients a reasonable amount of time apart, and I stay on schedule.  I keep the things in stock that I need to do my job well.  I’m on time for work, and I keep after-hours appointments.  I get to know my clients, and consider many of them good friends.  I have little to complain about; I love my job, I love my clients, and I am a happy camper…most of the time.

Occasionally, we have a client  who just doesn’t get it.  I would like to share some tips with you today on how to be a good salon client….in other words, what NOT to do in the hair salon in order to remain a prized customer.

• Don’t be late.  Sure, it happens every now and then.  Traffic was bad (you got behind a tractor), you had a phone call just as you were leaving the house (your neighbor, wondering why you haven’t left for your salon appointment yet), or you had an unexpected meeting at the police station (True story!  Maybe putting your trash with your name and address on it into the public recycling bins is a bad idea…), and you just couldn’t get here on time.  NO biggie, man.  We all have our moments.  It’s when you are 15-20 minutes late EVERY SINGLE TIME that your stylist will become frustrated, and possibly encourage you to choose another stylist.  It’s especially annoying when the client knows you have to pick your child up at school at a set time, and makes you late enough for your child to be the last one at school, impatiently wondering where Mom is.  *If you have to wait 15-20 minutes or more on your hairstylist, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I’m sorry.  He/She must be very talented and busy, or extremely slow, so it’s your choice to wait or find someone else.  I try to run on time, and I hate for people to have to wait more than 10-15 minutes, EVER.
• Don’t sit all Mac-Daddy style in my chair, because you aren’t impressing me.  All you are doing is impressing your stinkin’ elbow into my gut every time I have to get close enough to do accurate work.
• Don’t stare into my eyes at the shampoo bowl.  Creepy.  Makes me feel like I have a bat in the cave. ‘Nuff said.
• While we’re on the subject of creepy, don’t hit on your hairstylist.  Especially when she has on a wedding ring, you have a mullet and half a set of teeth, and there are innocent bystanders.  Gross.  Seriously, you think that photo on my station of me with that handsome man and those two little girls is the one that came with the frame?
• Hmmmm…speaking of mullets….don’t tell your friends who cuts your hair if you insist on forcing me to give you a mullet, or any other haircut that went out of style 20+ years ago.  I love you, and I appreciate your business, but you are not exactly the walking billboard I had in mind.
• Don’t yap on your phone through your entire haircut.  If you have to switch sides more than once for your stylist to continue working, you’ve been on the phone too long.  Yes, you will receive calls that you must take at the salon, and that’s A-OK.  I will also receive calls that I have to take while you are sitting in my chair…it’s how you got your hair appointment.  I just hope your dentist didn’t get too annoyed when you called me during your root canal.  *If I yap on the phone the entire time I’m cutting your hair, I’ve got $50 that says you’ll be sitting in a different chair next month.   And I certainly wouldn’t blame you. 
• Don’t color your hair at home a week before your color appointment (and still expect me to perform the color service).  I know, it’s surprising to me, also, that I have to add this one.  I had a client recently who did this…twice.  I ended up with a huge gap in my day and a large cut in expected pay…twice. A good hairstylist will not color your freshly box-colored hair, unless you are wanting to go darker with a demi-permenant color and an up-sale of $10 for the Olaplex. There won’t be near enough new growth to successfully color the roots, and the rest of your hair is now compromised by the el-cheapo color you just put on top of your already-box-colored hair last week.  {An aside…also don’t get smacked out on pills to the point that your speech is not coherent and you can’t hold your own head up before your hair appointment.  Pretty please.}
• Don’t schedule an appointment with your stylist that you have no intention of keeping.  Better yet, if you do schedule an appointment and decide you don’t want it after all, don’t forget to let your stylist know at least 24 hours in advance.  No-shows are the worst.  Every now and then, we all forget things.  You may accidentally forget your appointment on occasion, and that’s ok.  No one is ever perfect, including me.  But there are folks who stand us up over and over and over again, and don’t even seem sorry.  I don’t think the general public realizes that stand-ups for a hairstylist is like your boss saying, “I’m not paying you for two hours of your workday today, but you still have to be here.”  What would you say? Bye, Felicia! That’s what I thought.  *If your stylist constantly stands you up for your appointments, I highly recommend you find another stylist.
• Don’t forget to bring your hairstylist chocolate, often.  Okay, I have no scientific data to back this one up, but I sure do love chocolate.

This concludes my little list of  do-not’s, for today.  I hope you’ll find it helpful, if not a little comical.  Happy Hump Day!

*Speaking of do-nots….I’m going to go eat some doughnuts now….chocolate ones!

X,O,X,O,   Martie