Welcome to "All About Hair," the podcast where we explore the art, science, and business of hairstyling. In this empowering episode, we're diving deep into the topic of confidence and how it impacts the success of new hairstylists.
Join us as we guide you through practical tips and expert advice to help you build confidence behind the chair. From mastering the foundational principles of hair to refining your client communication skills, we'll equip you with the tools you need to thrive in your hairstyling career.
Discover the value of practice, mentorship, and continuous learning as we share personal anecdotes and industry insights to inspire and motivate you on your journey. Learn how to navigate challenges, overcome mistakes, and cultivate a positive mindset that propels you toward success.
But confidence isn't just about what you do in the salon—it's also about how you take care of yourself outside of it. That's why we'll explore the importance of self-care and personal development in nurturing lasting confidence that shines through in every aspect of your work.
Whether you're a recent graduate or a seasoned stylist looking to reignite your passion, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you gain the confidence you need to excel in the competitive world of hairstyling.
Welcome to "All About Hair," the podcast where we explore the art, science, and business of hairstyling. In this empowering episode, we're diving deep into the topic of confidence and how it impacts the success of new hairstylists.
Join us as we guide you through practical tips and expert advice to help you build confidence behind the chair. From mastering the foundational principles of hair to refining your client communication skills, we'll equip you with the tools you need to thrive in your hairstyling career.
Discover the value of practice, mentorship, and continuous learning as we share personal anecdotes and industry insights to inspire and motivate you on your journey. Learn how to navigate challenges, overcome mistakes, and cultivate a positive mindset that propels you toward success.
But confidence isn't just about what you do in the salon—it's also about how you take care of yourself outside of it. That's why we'll explore the importance of self-care and personal development in nurturing lasting confidence that shines through in every aspect of your work.
Whether you're a recent graduate or a seasoned stylist looking to reignite your passion, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you gain the confidence you need to excel in the competitive world of hairstyling.
Welcome to All About Hair, where we dive deep into the world of hair styling to help you unlock your full potential as a stylist. In today's episode, we're tackling a topic that's essential for every new hairstylist, and that's gaining confidence behind the chair. Confidence is not just about skill. It's about how you carry yourself, how you communicate with clients and how you handle challenges. Whether you're fresh out of cosmetology school or starting a new salon, building confidence takes time and effort. Throughout this episode, we'll explore tips and strategies to help you boost your confidence and thrive in your hair styling career. From understanding the foundational principles of hair to developing effective client communication skills, we'll cover everything you need to know to feel confident and capable behind the chair. We'll also discuss the importance of practice and the value of mentorship, and how to overcome challenges and mistakes with grace and resilience. And because confidence is not just about what you do in the salon, but also how you take care of yourself outside of it, we'll explore the role of self-care and personal development in building lasting confidence. And if you love this topic and want more of it, you'll want to make sure you sign up for my weekly newsletter. You'll receive the latest hair news, my hairstyle pick of the week and weekly nugget. So go over to my website that's wwwdeneasciletscom Denise is spelled with an A and sign up today, and, of course, I'll put the link in the show notes. So, whether you're looking to take your first steps into the world of hair styling or seeking to elevate your skills to the next level, this episode is for you. Get ready to gain the confidence you need to shine as a hairstylist right here on All About Hair.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to All About Hair, the go-to podcast for stylists, salon owners and anyone passionate about hair styling. Whether you're a seasoned stylist refining your skills or a curious listener looking to enhance your hair knowledge, we've got you covered. I'm your host, denise Kylitz, a former stylist and salon owner with four award-winning salons under my belt. With over 30 years of experience, I've dedicated myself to helping stylists excel in foundational hair cutting, color theory, client communication and more, enabling them to build six-figure careers they can be proud of. My mission is to uplift our industry by sharing valuable insights gathered along my journey. Get ready for enlightening discussions, captivating interviews and practical advice on marketing, sales and technical skills. This is the podcast All About Hair. Well, hey there, everybody, and thanks for joining us in another week on the podcast.
Speaker 1:
I wanted to do this podcast, this conversation, because I remember when I would get brand new hairstylists joining our team that, yeah, they might have needed practice doing hair cuts, they might have needed color theory to gain their strength, but really what people need is confidence. Yeah, because the more you know, the more confident you can be. I remember more than a half a dozen of the new stylists fresh out of beauty school. They just did not want to do brand new clients. A few of them actually were crying in the break room because they were so scared to go out and greet the client, to go out and get to know the client, because what if they had to do something they didn't know how to do? So we would teach them ways to get through that. We would be their confidence for them for a while until they learned what they needed to learn to have the confidence to actually the confidence to ask for help if needed. That's a thing, okay. So your confidence as a hairstylist is so crucial for your success. You cannot be a successful hairstylist without being confident in your craft and in yourself, because everything that we do behind the chair we're either selling an idea, we're selling a product, we're gaining trust, we're showcasing our skills, we're solving problems all these things. You have to be confident in what your knowledge is to actually do your job effectively. Yeah, so in today's episode I'm going to just kind of break it down into segments, into different areas of how you can work on your confidence. Okay, so get ready, let's go.
Speaker 1:
The first and foremost this is like I cannot begin to stress the importance of this is you have to have a strong foundation in hairstyling, in your craft. I don't care, and this is how I did it I knew five haircuts, maybe six, but let's just say five because it's easier to say five haircuts, and they got me through my whole career because they were foundational haircuts. And then you could take those haircuts and hook them to one another and you kind of knew and I knew because I learned this of how those haircuts worked on different head shapes. But I only had to have five. I didn't have to go out and get fancy training or know the newest way to do something. No, solid haircuts.
Speaker 1:
And then you have to have a strong, strong, fundamental concept of the hair, the structure, the anatomy of the hair and how everything you do affects that. And what do I mean by that? I mean the cuticle, the cortex, the medulla. What makes that important? In hair color, in styling, you have to rough up the cuticle to get your style to hold. Is the cuticle even present? Do you have to lay the cuticle down? Do you have to heal the hair for color? You have to know what the hair is actually doing on the person's head and then the texture. Texture is huge.
Speaker 1:
You cannot cut a successful elevated bob on somebody who has thick, thick, coarse hair. Okay, they just might not be able to do that because their hair will be too full unless they straighten it every single day with a flat iron or whatever. It's still gonna be too much, it's gonna lay a lot different than someone with fine, thin hair or just even medium density hair. And you have to know the difference in that and why it is. I've seen so many people try to go in, especially when oh, I can't think of her name, beckman, victoria Beckman when she had that bob that was cut really high in the back and it slanted down I'm dating myself but and a lot of people would come into the salon requesting that and brand new stylists, they were really eager to cut that because you know we've taught it to them, things like that, but they were not. They didn't have the confidence to say, hey, we can't do that on your hair type because it won't support it. However, we can do this, a variation of that. It just isn't gonna be as high in the back or whatever, and so both the client and the stylist would leave that appointment disappointed both of them, because the stylist didn't know what they didn't know. You get it Okay.
Speaker 1:
Now you're saying, denise, well, how do you get this? How do you know this? How do you gain the knowledge if your salon doesn't offer an ongoing education? Or maybe you're in a booth rental situation and you're kind of on your own? Well, you have to go out and get education. There is so much education out there, whether it's online and you're following step by step on a doll head and have to stop the video and do it and stop and do it, or you're going to an in-person class, you do have to take time and do it.
Speaker 1:
If I was a brand new hairstylist fresh out of beauty school, because really the beauty schools are only teaching you how to stay bored and sanitation practices, from what I hear is, you don't even have to do haircuts or anything at State Board anymore. It's just a written test, which I think is just awful. Man, in my day I had to do finger waves, I had to do pedicure, I had to do a roller set, I had to wrap a perm. This is all a state board. You guys don't know how easy you have it right now, but you also have a hard because you don't know how to do the things. So you have to take it upon yourself to learn.
Speaker 1:
So, like I was saying, so, if I was brand new, fresh out of school, I would take those first two years and I would take every class available. There are so many free classes out there. Take them all because you're broke right now. Right, if you're a brand new hairstylist, you can't afford anything. If you can afford it or somebody's gonna gift you a class, I would definitely take a color class, especially a strong, strong color foundations, color theory really, really know your color theory, because once you know color theory, that does not change. You can work in any color line and color theory does not change. Now the color line might have nuances of how things are intermixed, but color theory, knowing that color wheel and why it works and how it works on certain different types of hair types never changes. The levels of hair never changes. You've got to grasp that, and I would get those five foundational haircuts under your belt so you can do them in your sleep if you had to. That's how well you have to know them.
Speaker 1:
All right, my second stage of this you have to practice, practice and then practice again. Yeah, I used to always say that it takes about 500 butts in your chair before you get it. It really does. That means 500 clients need to be sitting in your chair before it actually like comes on like a light bulb. That is like oh, I finally understand what I'm doing. A kid you not. A kid you not. It is very, very, very rare I think it's happened on two occasions that someone has come out of beauty school and they had it. They got it. You could show them something once and they did it. Now I could think of two people off the top of my head that, but they were like sponges, they loved it, loved it, and some people just have a natural, you know gift, so alright. So how do you practice, practice, practice and still be behind the chair? Well, any time that you have time.
Speaker 1:
If you're not busy in the salon, you pull out a doll head or you invite your friends in or your family members, but you always need to be working on something, whether it be a haircut or how to curl the hair different or how to style the hair different. You can have a bob, but you can style it three different ways. You can have a pixie cut. You can style it a hundred different ways not a hundred, but you know what I'm talking about. Practice Find your signature look that you like to do. Practice blow drying, finishing oh my gosh, that's skill in itself. Just practice blow drying so you can seal that cuticle down and you have that nice bouncy, shiny hair. Practice that. Practice blow drying with a brown brush and do it so great that you don't have to pull out a flat iron.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I'd also seek out a mentor. Find somebody in your salon If it's not the owner of the salon. Find somebody in your salon space that you like what they're doing and ask if they would be your mentor. I do believe that most anybody who was asked that would love to, would love to share what they know. That's the only way our industry is going to grow is just pass it on, pass on the knowledge, and you know, if you have a spare minute, say is it okay if I watch what you're doing? Could you explain what you're doing? Why are you parting the hair like that? Don't ask too many questions because that becomes a nuisance, you know. Just say is it okay if I ask some questions, or maybe write down the questions that you have so, after they're done with their guest, you can ask them afterwards. That's actually more respectful of the guest's time too, and also it won't slow them down. I think that's a probably the best. Yeah, that's probably what I would do. But, yeah, find somebody that you can look up to, that you really like what they're doing and just just be there.
Speaker 1:
Alright, the third segment of this client communication skills. Wow-z. I'm not talking just like consultation, which is crucial. A consultation and getting a consultation right is crucial. And if you haven't listened to the five C's of consultation, go back and listen to that episode. I think it's podcast, episode 1.33, I'm guessing. I'll look it up, put it in the show notes, but you have to be an effective listener.
Speaker 1:
Okay, you need to be eyeball to eyeball, not eyeball to mirror to eyeball, but you need to be looking directly at your client's face, because what you're doing is not only are you showing them that you're listening, but you're also looking at their eye color, their face shape, how they hold themselves, what parts of their hair are they touching, because that's typically the part that's giving them a hard time. And you want to repeat what the client is saying to you Not repeat, but kind of paraphrase it back. So say, if they say, yeah, I'm having problems with volume, you can say so what I'm hearing you say is that you'd like a little bit more volume at the crown area of your hair. Okay, and then you want to be able to have in your back pocket some suggestions, hair styling suggestions or treatments, if their hair's, you know, not in the best shape and just based on their hair type, based on what they're asking you. You need to have in your back pocket Pinterest, if you will. We used to have lookbooks, but we don't make them anymore. But Pinterest is a great one.
Speaker 1:
And so say, they come in and they want blonde highlights. Well, you need to know what they're talking about, because blonde highlights to you might be different than blonde highlights to them. You might be thinking icy blonde, they might be thinking honey, blonde, you need to be on the same page and pictures are worth a thousand words. You've heard that before. So sometimes you're gonna have a client that you just can't see. Eye to eye, I mean, something they're saying you can't, it's just not making sense, or they keep changing their mind within the conversation, of the consultation. You know, and you're just like whoa, this person's all over the place. It happens.
Speaker 1:
You should be confident enough in yourself and your own ability to say you know, just from our conversation, I don't know if we'd be the best fit, I don't, you know, and you you could say that and but then say but I do think I know somebody who would enjoy doing your hair or that you would be a better fit for. And then, you know, recommend somebody in your salon or a different salon if you know another hairstylist. You know, because you're not gonna be for everybody and you should be able to say I'm not your girl. And that's a lot easier to have that honest conversation right up front than to try to take on something that you don't even know what they're asking for and try to hit it out of the park. You will feel every time and you'll be. It'll feel terrible, trust me on that.
Speaker 1:
It's happened a few times in my career. I had people you know a person come in and I really didn't understand what they were asking for, and so, but at the beginning of my career I didn't have the confidence in myself to say I don't understand what you're asking for. I just kind of faking it and I was like, okay, let's go, let's go get you shampooed. And I remember this feeling. I don't remember the exact instance, but and I remember going back to the chair and starting to cut and not even know what I was doing. Not that I didn't know how to cut hair, I just didn't have a plan, I didn't even none. I didn't know what lengths she wanted, I didn't know how many layers she wanted. I didn't. That was an instance that I should have said you know, I'm not seeing this, I'm not feeling this, I don't understand.
Speaker 1:
Set my scissors down and continue the consultation. And it's okay to do that. If you feel lost in what you're doing, have them explain again. Okay, it's okay, they'll actually be grateful that you did, because if not, you're just gonna give them something and I tell you you're both gonna be really disappointed. All right, that leads me to this like so what happens if you do make a mistake? How do you handle that? It's inevitable you're gonna make a mistake. Everybody does all the way throughout their career. There are mistakes. I mean, think about it. You're cutting someone's hair, you're coloring someone's hair. The communication is off. 90% of the time it's the mistake is in the consultation. You just didn't ask enough questions but say you actually did make a mistake.
Speaker 1:
How do you handle that? Well, you have to own it. You have to stop it. You have to stay calm, you have to stay composed, okay, because there's gonna be unexpected situations and challenges in the salon probably every single day, and you just have to be like a duck right when they paddle like hell under water and they're stressed out, but on top of the water they're calm, cool and collected. That's what you need to be. You might be throwing up in your mouth a little bit because you're like shoot, I just cut this person's layers way too short and it's popping up and I don't know how to make a lay down whatever. I don't know. That's an extreme case. Or you're putting highlights in. You go to check the foil and the hair just fell off in the foil, ooh whoa. Those are extreme cases and I tell you, even as a salon owner and stuff like that happens is like how the heck are you gonna fix that? Well, you have to take responsibility and you have to apologize when necessary. Okay, if you are the one who really did make the mistake, you have to apologize and say let me either give you your money back, give you a gift certificate, have someone fix it, give them treatments for their hair until their hair gets better conditioned because maybe you over-processed it and it's all on the house until their hair grows out and is healthy again. But you do have to do whatever it takes, whatever's necessary to correct the mistake, but also use it as a learning opportunity. That's not gonna happen again. I'm not gonna let that happen again.
Speaker 1:
It only takes one time of smoke coming out of foils on the head to ask the questions or to pretreat the hair with a chialating shampoo to get all the minerals off the hair, get all of the chlorine off the hair, because that's usually what it is is some kind of buildup on the hair that causes a chemical reaction with the lightning and the lightener, and usually we don't take the time and we just go in there and I've only seen it happen once or twice. But, man, when you see that happening, whoa, whoa, whoa. That is some scary, scary stuff. If you see smoke coming off your foil you want to get them to the shampoo bowl as fast as humanly possible. Anyway, hopefully that never happens to you.
Speaker 1:
Quick tip always do a pretreatment before you do any kind of color. Again, most people don't take the time to shampoo the hair beforehand. If you don't have the time in the salon to do that, maybe with your color clients, especially your lightning clients, if you do a consultation or if they're a regular client and you know that they have minerals in their water or hard water or they swim a lot, or whatever, send them home with a little sample of a chialating shampoo. Whatever brand you use in the salon. You can get those little plastic containers I think at Sam's Club, costco, one of those and fill it up and give it to them, or just have them buy the chialating shampoo off your shelf that's even better. Sell retail, but have them use it the day before they come in and then you don't have to worry about it. We used to do that sometimes too. It just depends on you If you consult with brand new clients before you actually do their color. I would probably have that as a package deal, like your new client package, like you have a sample of your chialating shampoo or treatment or whatever it is that you use and send it home with them in a little cute little bag, I don't know. It makes you different too.
Speaker 1:
All right, handling mistakes. One more little story. It's not really a story, but you will cry. They will be crying in the break room Always Just expect it, especially your first couple of years. You're going to make mistakes and you're going to go back there and you're going to just be crying and you're going to not want to go back on the floor. It's kind of like getting back on the horse. You're going to think, oh my gosh, I'm no good. How could I have done that to that person? I don't know what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:
All it takes is more education. You only know what you know. As long as you're doing the best you can do with the knowledge that you have at that moment. That's all you can ask Anybody can ask for. So just do your best with the knowledge that you have. Until you know more, you know.
Speaker 1:
I always say when you know better, you do better, right? Hey, that's what I'm talking about. Okay, let's talk about personal development. So taking care of yourself and your mindset is huge for your self-confidence. And what I mean by that is successful people do successful things right. They wake up early, they get negativity out of their life, they exercise, they eat healthy, they get eight hours of sleep, or they try to. They do the things that healthy people do. Okay, they might look different to you than it does for me, because everyone's different, but make it a daily habit of drinking your water, getting your exercise, even if it's a 10-minute walk outside, just fresh air Meditation could be included in that.
Speaker 1:
A yoga class or just sitting there for solid 10 minutes with no outside noise, and clear your mind. Or even have creative hobbies outside of work. Do a pottery class or a painting class or singing or karaoke or whatever it is. That is not anything to do with your career. It's okay to do that. In fact, you need to do that Also.
Speaker 1:
Some other things that will help you is attending business building seminars or self-help seminars. There's all kinds of them out there. You can read industry-related books. You could read leadership books. You can read salesmanship books. You can also, like I mentioned before, seek out mentorship from other stylists, whether they work in your salon or not.
Speaker 1:
If you see somebody online, follow them, follow what they're doing. You don't have to copy everything they're doing, but you can reach out every once in a while and say, hey, I noticed that this is what you did. I would like to know more about it. Or I don't know. I follow stylists that they don't even know I exist. I just love following them. And then, when I have met them in person, oh my gosh, it's like meeting a movie star and they had no idea what a difference they had made in my life.
Speaker 1:
Some of those were Beth Menardy for coloring. She completely changed my whole way of coloring hair by always using a demipermanent color. When you're going the same level or darker, you do not have to use a permanent color unless you're lightning the hair. That's another conversation. Eric Fisher is one of those. He owns a couple of salons in Wichita in a beauty school. Wonderful human being, and I happen to be from Kansas as well, so it was kind of like a person from close to my hometown. That's really made it, and I met him one time at a hair show. It was wonderful. I even have the pictures of me meeting him. It's kind of funny. Actually, it was the same hair show I met Beth Menardy, so it was wonderful. It was in Baltimore, and so go to hair shows. Maybe you'd meet your mentor, just like I did.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so we talked about why confidence is so important, and you know it. If you're a brand new hairstylist, you know. You know when you're not feeling it, you know when you're scared and you're hiding in the break room and you're afraid to go out on the floor. We've all been there. I've been there, heck, I've been there after 15 years, because, especially, you know what a secret. When vibrant colors, you know unicorn hair came out, I didn't want to do it at all. I was all about natural, beautiful, believable hair, and when those vibrant colors and rainbow colors came out, oh my goodness, I fought it, and I was the owner of the salon and I was like we are not doing that. If people ask we don't do that here, oh my gosh, how silly of me. But you know why, though? Because I didn't know how to do it. Yeah, and then we became the place to get it done, but that took a minute and that took us all going to classes and learning how to do it, because that rainbow hair is completely different than covering gray hair.
Speaker 1:
Look, I encourage you to take some of these things that we talked about today and use them in your own career. Take them for what they're worth. You know you want to boost your confidence behind the chair. That's the goal. Take classes, ask for help. You know they say fake it till you make it. Yeah, fake it till you make it. That might mean and we used to say this a lot Throw up in your mouth, swallow it and do it anyway. Do it scared because you're gonna be scared. It just is the game of life. But anything that gets you out of your comfort zone means that you're growing. So just keep that in mind. Every time that you're scared and you do it anyway, it means you're growing a little bit every single day and that means your confidence is growing. That means your skill set is growing. That means you're on your way to be a successful hairstylist.
Speaker 1:
Right, okay, I hope you got a lot out of this today. I really, really thank you for being part of this community, for listening to the podcast, for putting up with my stupid jokes sometimes. I do want you to remember when you know better, you do better. That's the only way to grow and, like I said, if you need help with your consultation skills, go back and listen to that. The Five C's I think it's episode 133, I think and again, I'll put my website link in the show notes so you can sign up for our newsletter, so you can be part of this community, so we could touch base once a week, so you could reach out to me personally and so you could be the first person to know when we have our classes go live, because, yes, I am getting ready to launch foundational classes, which is those five cuts that took me and carried me throughout my whole career.
Speaker 1:
I'm gonna launch those. I'm gonna launch color theory, I'm gonna launch salesmanship how to just build your numbers and these are gonna be easy to do, courses That'll take you far in your career and they're not gonna cost a whole bunch of money either. Guarantee it, okay. So, anyway, thanks again for listening and until next week, when you know better, you do better. Have a great week. Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of All About Hair. Don't forget to subscribe to stay updated on future episodes and to continue your journey with us. If you have any questions, feedback or topics you'd like us to cover, feel free to reach out. You can find us on Instagram or our website at denisekylitzcom. Until next time, remember when you know better, you do better.
