...to ask your honest thoughts when someone tells you they're a hairdresser?

[westmommy]

First thoughts, any assumptions? Fully transparent and honest answers please, no judgement whether good/bad!

Also any hairdressers out there, what are your honest experiences and thoughts about the job? Do you enjoy, would you recommend it etc?

I've tried and failed for many years to get my hair to look half as good as it does when I come out the hairdresser so for that alone I totally admire them. It's a skill like everything else. A good haircut can do wonders for a person's self confidence and if a person is out facilitating that and is making money doing something they love and enjoy, I can't see why anyone would look down on them.

It always says more about the person who feels they need to make negative assumptions and look down on a person because of their vocation than the person actually doing the job.

I think: please don’t start talking at me about your most recent holiday and please don’t ask me about my “love life” - I’m very happily married.

See this is where I totally disagree. If they’re not academic I would say it’s one of the best careers they can go for. It’s utterly flexible and a brilliant skill. I’ve so many ex lawyer professional friends who couldn’t make their career work with small kids. The hairdressers however were laughing all the way to the bank.

when you can charge £35 a blow dry, £75 for a cut and blow dry and hundreds of ££££ fo wedding hair it’s not to be sniffed at.

I hope they aren’t looking at my roots to thinking they need doing!

One of my best friends is a hairdresser and she is wonderful. So clever, grounded and just an all round good egg.

That they cut hair and make money from it... about all that crosses my mind.

How useful!

I would probably be a bit worried about the state of my own hair....

I've been with the same hairdresser for the last 17 years. Followed her from one salon to another, and now I go to her own salon which she has had installed in her back garden.

She is brilliant and I like what she does with my hair, but the reason I've stuck with her is because I like her as a person. She is warm, intelligent and genuinely interested - I'm often amazed about the little details that she remembers. So we don't have any of the inane and uncomfortable conversations that I used to have with the people who did my hair before I found her - we actually have good conversations.

She is constantly booked up and I book my own appointments 4 months in advance in order to be sure of getting them when I want them. She is really happy now that she is running her own business, and while I don't know how much she makes out of it, I would say that she is doing really well.

If it's what you want to do, then go for it.

I don’t think anything, if I did I’d probably just be wondering if they were any good and could do my hair.

However growing up I was taught to believe that hairdressing was something you did if you didn’t do very well at school. That it was poorly paid and a lazy option.

That of course, is a completely false stereotype and a lot of hairdressers are making very good money and are very skill full and talented.

Me too. Must be a good feeling when your clients leave feeling great.

To add, I’m 41 and if I was younger I’d certainly consider re training as a hairdresser to see if I was any good at it.

I know a few people who charge hundreds for a colour and are booked up several months in advance.

Things to consider are that the colours/bleach can be expensive, you’re on your feet a lot, it can bring hassle. My amazing hairdresser has told me some stories of absolute horrors of clients.

I'd assume they were a creative, skilled person and I'd probably want to ask them what kind of salon they worked in and what they specialised in. My own hairdresser runs her own salon and is an incredibly interesting, creative, entrepreneurial person. She and all her staff also have an extremely in-depth knowledge of the chemistry of hair itself and the many different products and dyes that they use, and how they all react with one another etc.

That they must be good at cutting and styling hair? I suppose if they had really horrible hair it might put me off using them. Which doesn't even make sense as I doubt they do their own?!

My honest thoughts would be.. please do my hair then.. mates rates lol.

I'd just worry that they were silently judging my terrible hair 😂

If that's all I know about them it is not enough to form any opinion.

My own hairdresser I love she is a star as a person.

I’ve been a hairdresser for 24 years and this thread is exactly how I imagined it’d be! I really appreciate seeing all the posts from people who ‘get it’!

First off—I can’t speak for all hairdressers but I certainly don’t judge people’s hair upon meeting them. Any one of us worth our salt is trained to see the beauty in everyone first. I don’t think people realise this! I notice your beautiful eyes, your quirky features that make you stand out, even things you might not like I will probably notice as being really lovely.

We don’t just want to talk about holidays. I don’t particularly enjoy small talk beyond the initial stuff.
I’ve held space for mothers who’ve lost their children, shaved my lovely client’s hair off when it started falling out from chemo, chatted about one client’s giant hemmorhoid she named “Steve”, and regularly get into the gender woo stuff, art and culture and wider world events. I can also shut the fuck up if required!

It’s more than just hair. Although I do invest a ton of energy into perfecting and updating my skills. While hairdressing isn’t an academically rigorous job, its one that requires a lot of emotional intelligence and fine motor skill and visual and cultural understanding. There are a lot of shit ones, yes, and uneducated ones, but we’re not all like that, obviously.

I am really shit at maths though.

So basically OP, in addition to my previous post banging on about it, I highly recommend it as a career! If you genuinely like people and have a good eye it’s a wonderful, albeit emotionally intense job. 😄

Aside from the comment about those who do employ other hairdressers, my comment applies to every hairdresser who hires a chair. Every hairdresser I've had for 20 years has hired her chair and had to.run her.own business whether as a sole trader or as self-employed.

My current hairdresser went into a joint operation with six other women when the lease ran out on their old place. They all.stikk hire their own chairs but they also contribute to the maintenance and management of the new premises.

I find it interesting that you seem to think that hairdressing doesn't involve business management as well and that some hairdressers. Or had it never occurred to you that the person doing your hair is also working out her tax, pricing and profit margin?