The Aspiring Stylist with Tracey Franklin

Welcome to the Aspiring Stylists Podcast with Tracey Franklin. Where to begin, grow and aspire to become the best stylist you can be. Whether you're thinking about becoming a stylist opening a salon, or developing your skills as an experienced stylist the next step of your beauty career starts here. Each week we'll discuss strategic ways to design, plan and execute on becoming a stylist that excels behind the chair and above the bottom line. Here's your host, Tracey Franklin.

How does a stylist bounce back from disaster? If you're a relatively new stylist, maybe you haven't experienced a disaster yet. But it's inevitable that you probably will at some point in your career. So I want to talk about what it looks like to be able to overcome that bounce back from that and become more resilient because of it early on, basically, everything you do is going to be new to you yes, you're going to have the skills that you're you know, graduating your beauty school with, but there is so much about the salon floor that is still going to feel incredibly unfamiliar to you. And although beauty schools do try to put as many possibilities in the curriculum, you know, trends change. So two years down the road, someone is going to walk in and ask for something that maybe you don't even know exists yet within the beauty industry. So being an early stylist is going to require a ton of resilience on your part. And you've got to kind of know how to navigate those uncertainties, you're going to get more skilled and more experienced. But that does not mean that things are always going to work out, you're still going to have things turn out less than perfect. You're gonna have color mishaps, I mean, chemistry is hard, right?

clients aren't always honest about what's on their hair, it's incredibly important to try to extract as much information from your client as you can. But they're not always going to remember every single color glaze or semi permanent hair color that they bought from the beauty supply house and tried on a Saturday night with their friends, while they drink a bottle of wine. Like those are the types of things that are not going to be discussed during a consultation. But they're incredibly important to know, you could possibly cut someone's hair too short. And you know, they're going to have a negative response to that when someone is very particular about the length of their hair. It's not a mystery, they're very, very clear about it during the consultation, okay, I only want an inch off. And they may even show you with their own fingertip like how much hair they are willing to part with during this appointment. So be very mindful that if a client is coming to you with a lot of detail around how much hair they want cut off, this is where you're going to want to baby step it you may even want to take off just a little bit less than you thought you should just to make sure you've got that little room there for a buffer.

You know, maybe everything went right, maybe it looks exactly like the picture showed you and for some reason the client doesn't like it. She's looking in the mirror. And the picture that she brought you is of Megan Fox, well, we're not Megan Fox, you know, she's an incredibly attractive person with great bone structure. And if you have someone that doesn't look like that, bring a picture of that hairstyle in no matter how hard you try, no matter how right you get it, she may have a negative reaction to it. During your consults, especially during like a major transformation. Make sure and dig deep. Make sure that you're asking all the questions, not just about do you think this is going to look good on you? Or what do you like about this, ask them about how much time they're willing to spend styling their hair every day. Because if they brought you something that's going to require a ton of time with an iron and they're like, Hey, I'm a washing go girl, then that's something you need to know, that's an explanation that you need to give them as to why this might not be the right style for them. And lastly, make sure that they are emotionally aware enough to make a decision on a major transformation. If someone comes in and brings me something drastically different with either the length of their hair or the color of their hair. I just like to spend a little bit more time getting to know them and seeing where they are mentally and emotionally. That's gonna save you a lot of trouble if for some reason, they just went through a bad breakup. And now they've decided they want to chop all their hair off. And that might be something that they regret once the dust has settled. So how do you handle unhappy clients? Maybe that's something that you haven't handled yet, but it's inevitable and I'm going to share some strategies that I really feel like helped me get through these super uncomfortable experiences, you know, so dealing with unhappy clients is challenging.

So you're going to want to stay calm, and you're going to want to talk it through and you're going to want to get really specific you're going to want to clearly identify where this point of dissatisfaction lives.

Is it in the length, is it in the layering? Is it in the tone of blonde is the blonde to light there are So many different aspects of a good cut and color or even a not so great cut and color that need to be discussed to make sure that we have hit the mark to make sure that the client likes it. So we're gonna want to talk it through, but we're also going to want to be a very good listener. So we're going to want to ask the questions, and then we're going to want to take a step back, and we're going to give the client the safe space that they need to actively communicate with us. So it's not just about talking, it's not just about you know, scrambling with your words, trying to figure out what it is they don't like about it, ask him a few simple questions, and then be quiet and give them the space to talk about it. So you've asked all the questions, and for some reason, the client is unable to give you clarity, they don't know what they don't like about it. This is an incredibly difficult situation to navigate. But navigate it, we must, we must come up with some kind of solution and try some kind of alternative that at least lets them know that we're on their side, you don't like it, that's okay. My objective is to make sure that you like it when you leave. So what do we need to do, they're going to be looking to you for solutions, they don't know what to do. So if you don't know what to do, my suggestion is try something, try a toner. If it's too blonde, try more layering. If it feels too heavy, there are solutions out there, and it's going to be up to you to come up with it.

Because the client doesn't know the proper terminology, they just know that they're looking in the mirror, and they don't like it. The most important thing to remember is that everything is fixable, color can be modified and hair grows. So just stay calm. A good connection is going to be what gets you through those less than perfect outcomes. When you are creating a strong connection with someone, then they are going to feel a lot more comfortable coming back to you if they've already left. Because let's be honest, sometimes they don't know they don't like it until they get home and they get their husbands response. Right?

Maybe they do like it but they went home and the husband was like, oh my god, what have you done. And now all of a sudden, they're all up in their head about it, they're having major regret. And they are going to try to figure out a way to make that your fault. So you have to be prepared to have that callback. Maybe in the moment, it's really hard for you to understand, because when they left, they seem really happy.

Maybe they even left you a generous tip. And you really felt like they loved it. But again, it's not just how they see themselves. It's how the people they respect see them, and the reaction that they get when they walk in that door. A bad review is probably going to happen. It doesn't happen to everybody. But the chances are that someone is not going to like the service that they received is inevitable. And some people really like to voice their opinion, loudly. And they're going to do that through reviews. And they're going to do that through online platforms.

And you just have to be prepared on how to handle that. For me, I don't like to ignore it. I like to respond with something whether it's I'm so sorry that we weren't able to achieve your hair goals. I'm so sorry that you didn't love your experience with me, please let me know if there is anything that I can do to make it right. That way the public at least gets to see that you don't push things under the rug, that you take constructive criticism seriously, that you hold people's opinions in high regard, that it matters to you that your clients are satisfied and with the knowledge that not everybody is going to be but that you're not just going to sit back and ignore that.

Somebody asked me one time, could I get sued for somebody not liking their hair? The answer to that is no. That type of dissatisfaction doesn't hold up in small claims court unless the person has some sort of personal injury. If you were to burn somebody or harm somebody, then that's an entirely different thing. But no Susan deciding that she doesn't like her short hair is not gonna hold up in a court of law. So know that rest in that. So let's talk a little more about correcting hair mishaps. The most common mistakes in the salon behind the chair are color corrections, botched hair cuts, things like that, how can we fix them. So if you're lucky, a client will be honest and call back and express dissatisfaction. This is a best case scenario. Hear me again, this is a best case scenario you should want to know this is where we learn and where we grow professionally. You should make sure that that client feels comfortable coming back to you.

This should be your top priority. And then you need to reward their honesty with kindness and openness and a solution. Make sure that when they come back, you're setting the stage for really good dialogue. You're going to take the discomfort and the dissatisfaction that they're feeling into that hair and you're going to turn that into a conversation letting them know that this is a safe space for them to express themselves. I say this a lot but it's really really important to have as thorough have a consultation with your clients as possible, you are literally going to hear me say this over and over again.

Because this reduces your chances of missing the mark greatly. Prevention can look like constantly keeping yourself educated and leveling up your game, making sure that you're practicing when you have downtime, This greatly reduces the chance of you coming into a situation with your client with no experience. Because when that first client is unhappy with their service, that's going to be a brand new experience for you. Lastly, if you're not comfortable performing a service is it is outside of your current skill set. Notice, I did not say comfort zone, okay, because you're gonna be out of your comfort zone every single day until you have some experience under your belt, but if it is outside of your current skill set, and say so, I personally am not willing to take a chance on the integrity of someone's hair or the satisfaction of their service. So if they come in and ask for something that I've never done, that I'm not familiar with, I'm just going to be honest to them, and hopefully I have a referral in my pocket that I can give them and send them to someone that I know can deliver that service better than I can. Let's discuss the value of self reflection. Mistakes are hard, and they're going to keep you up at night. I would like to tell you that that's never going to happen. I would like to say, Oh yeah, you're going to be able to leave it at the door of the salon. When you leave, you're going to just claim your personal life back at the door and it's going to be so great.

And you're going to go home and enjoy your family and get a perfect night's sleep. Well, that is not how that happens.

This, my friends is what passion looks like. This is what being completely in love with what you do for a living and being passionate about it looks like and that's okay. Learn from the stylist that you work with or learn from your mentor. I like to use my mistakes in my lesson planning because some of them can be avoided if you lean into the experience and those mistakes that other people have had before you. If someone is able to pour into your life and prevent a mistake from happening. That should be something that you're wildly excited about. The right mindset can turn any setback into a setup. Most mistakes only need to be made once if you're willing to learn from them and grow as a stylist because of them. Don't forget to focus on the good. Be proud of all the times that you get it right. And all the clients who have better hair and a better day because of you.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin. If you enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you find your podcasts. The Aspiring Stylist Podcast with Tracey Franklin is a Morgan Franklin Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin editing and post production by Mike Franklin.

Want to find out more about Tracey and the Aspiring Barber and Beauty Academy go to aspirebarberandbeauty.com