Running a busy salon isn’t easy. It’s good fun, and hard work combined. What really grinds my gears, is spending umpteen hours perfecting a colour, and taming unhealthy hair, genuinely talking clients through the process of how to maintain their hair and giving advice on how to care for it, to then have them return for their follow up appointment, saying how dry it feels, or how their icy blonde colour has faded to a dull yellow.
If I were running a salon offering £20 colours, and £8 cuts, I wouldn’t have the years of experience, training, knowledge and passion that I DO posess. I tell you my honest opinions on your hair choices, and offer genuine professional advice.
If I tell you, you need to use our Evo platinum conditioner once a week to keep your blonde really ice white, I actually mean that. If you read between the lines and hear me saying ‘I’m saying use the Evo stuff, but I really mean is buy some pound shop purple shampoo, and a cheap Aussie hair treatment, mix those together, wack that on your head endlessly, and your hair will be exactly the same as if you bought what I’m recommending’, then you need a hearing test or to learn to communicate better!
I endlessly tell clients how much regular shampoos will strip hair colour out, due to all the chemicals in them, and I’m sure 30% of you then go and scan the labels of every shampoo in super drug, or worse, pound land, in a bid to find a cheap sulphate free shampoo. 60% of you don’t listen to a word I say, and at an optimistic guess, 10% of you take the obvious and simple choice of buying what I’ve recommended to you as an individual.
I’m not offering these products to you to make a bit of extra cash, I’m telling you my advice, based on my own experience and knowledge. Knowledge of what range I use, not knowledge of high street brands. I’m not a phone salesman, the treatments we sell to take home WILL help your hair, whereas that funky case for your iPhone 6, and optional posh headphones, probably WONT prolong your phone’s lifespan.
The sulphate issue is ongoing, and to be fair, clients are not to blame entirely. I am also a human, and money is always an issue. However it really is the case that you get what you pay for. Yes, boots may sell a nicely packaged conditioner, that smells nice, claims to do magical things to your hair using elaborate technology you’ve never even heard of, and yes, the shampoo is on offer with it too. Fab, you spend £12 on two products, whereas my Evo range would have been about that price for one. BUT, in a months time, you will have run out of both products, and your colour will have faded, and your hair isn’t as glossy, thick, and lustrous as the model on the telly. So you then have to pay more to revive your colour, have more of the dead ends cut off, and risk a depressing all-knowing look from your stylist, who knows exactly what you’ve been putting on your hair, despite your protests at such a suggestion.
I can see the economy in buying a salon product. They last longer, go further, and actually work.
Sadly not all of my clients regard their hair the same way.
Everyone has different hair, you can try and categorise it, but we all have subtle differences. My hair my get dry on the ends but greasy at the root, whereas yours may be the opposite. Hence my extensive shelves of lotions and potions that all target different issues. Nice hair products aren’t cheap, and cheap products aren’t nice.
You wouldn’t seek advice from your garage on your balding tyres, and then have smaller tyres for a different model of car fitted, because they’re cheaper! So why do so many people do this with their hair care?
So next time you come in for an appointment, remember that I’m not just talking for the sake of it, or trying to make a few extra quid to go in my pocket. I’m just trying to offer you products that long term will save you money and dare for your hair the right way.
hellcatsalon 