All About Hair

234: Overcoming Hair Salon Phobias and Building Client Trust

• Danise Keilitz • Season 4 • Episode 234

Share episode

Send Danise a Text Message.

Ever wondered why some people fear visiting the hair salon? Discover the hidden anxieties that keep clients from getting the professional hair care they deserve. Join me as I unpack some of the most common fears, from traumatic past experiences to personal embarrassments. In this episode of All About Hair, we explore how hairstylists can turn these fears into trust and confidence through thoughtful client communication and personalized care.

Tune in to learn effective strategies for making every client feel at home in your salon. We discuss practical tips for creating a welcoming atmosphere, from personalized greetings to thorough consultations. By putting ourselves in the client's shoes, we can alleviate their anxieties and enhance their overall experience. This episode is packed with actionable advice on how to turn potential fears into positive, reassuring visits that build lasting client relationships.

Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel as well!

Subscribe to our Podcast & get mentioned in an upcoming episode!

Website: www.danisekeilitz.com
YouTube: All About Hair

Shop my favorite Eufora Products.

Speaker 1:

There's actually a hairdresser phobia that people are actually afraid of. You, the hairdresser. Welcome to All About Hair, the go-to podcast for stylists, salon owners and anyone passionate about hairstyling. 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 haircutting, 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.

Speaker 1:

Don't you think that one of the most rewarding aspects of our job as a hairstylist is the opportunity to build relationships and to engage one-on-one with each of our clients? We want to make them look and feel their best and we want them to feel better about themselves when they leave the salon. Right, but can you believe it? Not everyone looks forward to coming to the salon. They're actually afraid of coming to the salon, but think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Okay, when I had my salon, I actually got to ask questions and as our team grew bigger and bigger, we kind of got together and said, hey, how can we make the experience for our guests be better? Because we did have that discussion that, think about it.

Speaker 1:

Them walking into a salon is kind of scary. They're putting a lot of trust in the hairstylist, in your salon, in the reputation of your salon. Think about it. They don't know you, they don't know what you can do, they don't know what education you've had, what experiences you've had with color. They don't know. So they're putting a lot of trust in you and with their hair and when you agree, your hair says a lot about you. It's like your self-confidence just sitting on your head. So I thought today, in the spirit of Halloween and you know being scared of all things scary let's talk about why people are afraid of coming to the hair salon and maybe what we can do to make their experience better.

Speaker 1:

Number one and I hear this a lot is that they've had a previous bad experience. Who hasn't I have? Look, new clients are looking for a new salon because they've had a bad experience elsewhere, or maybe they just really need a haircut and they just have a bad memory. It could be a long time ago, it could just be their last haircut. Maybe their haircut was too short. Maybe their color went wrong or maybe it was just service mistakes. Maybe they were made to wait too long. Maybe when they got there they were moved to a different stylist or a junior stylist that they had no idea that that would be happening. Maybe they just felt like they weren't listened to, that the stylist kind of just did their own thing and they felt like a guinea pig. Whatever the reason, they left there unhappy. We, as hairdressers, we know that there's lots of things that we have to do to make sure that the client visit goes right, and it's very easy to fail, not on just one or two of those, but even if we fail on one, it's detrimental to the client experience and usually that client won't tell you when they're in the salon. They just don't come back. I think the biggest thing that we can do is and I learned this a long time ago was pretend like every person has a sign on them that says make me feel important, because that's truly what they're wanting. They want to be heard, they want to be made like they are the most important thing to you at that moment, because they are.

Speaker 1:

Let's think about the second reason that people are afraid of the hairdresser. Well, personal embarrassment. It could be anything. It could be that they're embarrassed because maybe they have a scalp issue, maybe they have dandruff, maybe they have psoriasis, maybe they box colored their hair at home and they're embarrassed that they did a bad job because it's over-processed, maybe they have medical treatments they're doing and it's causing some kind of issue with their hair. These are real, real life things and we have to figure out a way to communicate with them and we'll talk about that in just a few minutes, about what we can do.

Speaker 1:

The third reason people are afraid of the hairdresser is uncertainty. I have this conversation a lot with people. They have no clue what they want. They just know they want a different look. They want their hair to look different and they have no idea what to describe. Even if they could describe it, they don't know the hairdresser terms to describe it and they're just really nervous about coming in because they don't know what to ask for. They just know that they're unhappy with their hair, but they just don't know what direction to take it. So there's some uncertainty that would scare me too.

Speaker 1:

The fourth reason is they feel like they don't fit in. Every salon has its personality, you know. We all cater to a certain age or a certain demographic or personal style or genre, and this could be a big barrier to some. They're afraid that they won't fit in. Maybe they're too old to go to your cool, fun, eclectic salon. Maybe they're not old enough, right, I don't know, but whatever it is, it's definitely giving them pause on booking with you, whether that's online or giving you a phone call.

Speaker 1:

So the fifth thing would be fear of mistakes. I think the biggest underlying emotion is fear, fear, fear of a lot of things. Fear that the stylist is going to make a mistake. Fear that the stylist won't listen to them. Fear that the change they want won't look good on them. What if they just paid all this money and they got their courage up to finally cut bangs and then they hated them? Number six underlying personal anxiety. Now, not everyone who comes to the salon is super confident. We all have emotional challenges. We all have emotional challenges. We all have emotional baggage, and this can stem from all kinds of things, from a physical disability or just mindset challenges, but whether those are large or small, these anxieties are real and they are important to the client. What if your client doesn't like to talk to people and they're very, very introverted? Yeah, that can cause them a lot of anxiety having to come to the chair and being total focused on and the stylist wanting to talk to them. So those are six major reasons why people might be afraid of coming to the hair salon.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about what you can do, as either the salon owner or this hairstylist, to help your guests feel a little bit more comfortable and create a relaxing and an enjoyable experience for your guest. And that's exactly what it is. You have to actually put yourself in your client's shoes and see what that client experience or client journey actually feels like. When I was a salon owner, our team did a lot of role-playing on this, like, hey, how can our welcome be a little bit more welcoming? How can we make it so people aren't afraid to reach out to us? We did a lot on our website. We did a lot of defining what we do, walking them through the journey of what to expect when they come into the salon. We made our salon environment feel very welcoming. And let me tell you a few ideas on how to do that.

Speaker 1:

So, first of all, our receptionist, our front desk. When a client came in, we mentioned their first name. And if you don't know your clients, that's fine. You're not going to know everyone, but you can at least look at the book. And if there's a two o'clock coming in, you don't say, oh, you must be the two o'clock. You look down at the books and maybe her name is Susan and you say, hey, you must be Susan, it's so nice to meet you. Now she's going to respond one or two ways. She's either going to say hey, thanks, or she's going to say no, I'm not Susan, I'm actually coming in to see if you have any appointments. Okay, big deal, you took a jab and you got it wrong, but that's okay. People love to hear their name.

Speaker 1:

The worst, not the worst but I hear this all the time is somebody walks in for their appointment and you say hi, how can I help you? Well, you already know how you can help them. They're here to check in for their appointment. So why don't you look down at your books or anticipate it and say hey, you must be Susan. Welcome to DK salon. Let me show you around, let me take your coat. Can I offer you anything to drink? We have coffee, we have tea, we have whatever you have. Okay, and then maybe give them a tour of the salon and if the front desk person's not available to do that or they're really busy, get an assistant or a stylist who's not busy. Show them around, for heaven's sake. Show them where the bathroom is. Make them feel at home, just like they are coming into your house. Make them feel like they are your house guests, because they really really are. You want them to be completely at home before the stylist greets them.

Speaker 1:

And another big thing to overcome a previous bad experience for sure is thorough consultations. This should be on every single appointment, every guest, every time. We always used to allow at least 15 minutes for a consultation at the start of every single appointment. That's why our haircuts were hour long appointments, because we would spend 15 minutes consulting with them, even if they've been with us 10 times. And guess what, if they have been with us 10 times and they're just there for a trim? You know you can wiggle those appointments around, but why not spend that extra 15 minutes at the end? Show them a new product. Show them how to style their hair different. Show them something. Teach them something it's definitely well worth it. Don't act like oh, that's 15 minutes, I could be selling somewhere else.

Speaker 1:

People want to feel a personalized experience in your chair. Make them feel important. Don't make them feel like they're just another haircut at two o'clock. That's what people do not want. Anybody could do that. Any hair salon could do that. Let's talk about lessening their personal embarrassment. So say they come in and their scalp has an issue or their hair's fried, come on, we've seen it all. Let them know that you see it all the time. You know, and everybody's different. But we're going to approach this for your individual concern and just say, hey, this is what we do and just tell them they're in good hands and that totally understand their feelings. Get it. And if you have somebody because we used to have this, especially with our thinning hair guests who were really thinning or going through chemo or something we had some private styling stations that gave them a little bit more privacy. It just makes them feel a little bit more comfortable that way that you can actually have a private conversation with them too, and it really does set you apart from just the average salon that just has stylist stations next to each other.

Speaker 1:

What about if they're just uncertain about your skillset? Well, I can tell you. We used to spend a lot of time training on all the techniques and we shouted it from the rooftops. We had education every week. We had ongoing training. We took a lot of pride in our training and why we did that, not only to stay on top of things, but we wanted to make sure that our guests knew that we knew what we were doing and we also knew what they didn't want as well. We went through a lot of role playing on not only how do you talk about the new techniques, but also how do you come up with the questions to ask.

Speaker 1:

To narrow things down, what if your client wants blonde hair? Okay, there are a ton of different blonde hair out there. There's there's golden blonde, there's platinum blonde, there's rooted blondes, there's highlighted blondes, all kinds. So make yourself a Pinterest page of just blondes and so that way, if brand new client or if they've been with you a long time and they just say, hey, I just feel like I need to be blonder, you will at least have some images that you can go through and actually say, hey, this is doable, this isn't doable, this appointment, but maybe we can get you there after some time.

Speaker 1:

What you want to do, you want to find, yes, you want to. You want to have a reason to say yes to what they're wanting, but you also want to give your professional opinion, okay. So if I went into a salon and I wanted platinum hair, I would hope that the hairstylist would talk me out of it, cause I don't. I've never had platinum hair, but I don't think I would look that good with platinum blonde hair. So I would hope that the professional hairstylist would say, hey, whoa, what's making you want this and how can we get you blonder but still stay within your skin tone, your your eye color, things like that. So you want to empathize and you want to be professional. You want to guide them into what fits them best. What if they feel like they just don't fit in to your salon? We always wanted to think that everybody would fit into our salon, to your salon. We always wanted to think that everybody would fit into our salon, but not everybody does right. Every salon has its own personality, but you should never make anybody feel like they don't fit in Now, if I don't know how to say this without just saying it, but it needs to be very evident to every team member to recognize everyone as an individual.

Speaker 1:

You need to get to know them a little better with every single visit. You need to remember things that that would demonstrate that you've heard them and if you can't remember it, write it down. If they're going on a cruise, write it down. Ask them about it the next time. If they have a dog that they talk about, write it down. Ask them about their the next time. If they have a dog that they talk about, write it down. Ask them about their dog next time. If they have a favorite food that they mentioned, or a favorite restaurant, or maybe they were celebrating something, ask them about it next time. They want to know that you remember these things. Now I know, as a hairstylist and standing behind the chair, you don't remember every little detail about every single person. You can't, but you can write it down. So the next time they come in, you can review their file and it'll jog your memory just a little bit.

Speaker 1:

But don't just go through the motions of this. Try to pay real attention, especially if it's a nervous client and you could tell by body language. You can tell if they don't talk very much or maybe it's their first time. Follow up with them, maybe text them if they're not a phone person to say, hey, I was just thinking about you. It goes a long way. That's all I can say is just accept everyone as they are and just really show empathy. I read this a long time ago is almost you mirror how they're acting. So if someone comes in and they're talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, then that gives you permission to talk, talk, talk as well. Or if they're really fast talker, you want to talk fast. If they're slow talker, or if they don't talk very much, then you don't talk very much and you slow down or you get quiet. You mirror what they're doing. It's going to make them feel a little bit more comfortable with you.

Speaker 1:

What about taking away the fear of mistakes? Oh my goodness, oh my goodness. I think every single person who sits down in any chair has this fear. I'm sure of it. I know I do. So. Constant communication is the thing that's going to melt away the fear. Telling the client what you're going to do next and why you're going to do it and then getting them to agree on that. This is vital. Vital and not only avoids doing something that the client doesn't want, but it also puts their mind at rest, knowing that you're going to be doing what you said you're going to be doing, and they're not like mentally going through it in their mind and sitting there in agony and silence. I've done that before.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of weird when you sit down in a hairstyling chair, you talk about all these things but you don't tell them to stop doing what they're doing. I remember I sat down in a chair one time I was pregnant with my son and I was growing out my hair and I went to this salon. That was supposed to be great and I was kind of treating myself and I just wanted my hair trimmed because it'd been a long time, but I was growing it out. I was on prenatal vitamins, so my hair was growing, it was thick, it was wonderful. I said I just want a little tiny trim. And I sat there and I watched three, four inches of my hair come off and I didn't say a word. Have you been there? Yeah, I don't know why we do that. I was just so disappointed. It happens, it happens to everybody.

Speaker 1:

So what you can do as a hairdresser is tell them exactly what you're doing. If you can sense that they're feeling like I don't want you to cut too much off, show them how much you're going to be cutting off and only take that amount off, and then talk about everything you're doing. Talk about the products you're using, the color options that you've agreed upon. Overdo it. Overtalk what you're doing, your cutting technique, why you're doing it a certain way and why you think that might work best for them. That's going to take away most of their fears. You'll probably sense them kind of loosening up and relaxing, and their shoulders will go down. Another thing you could do about fear in clients is get yourself one of those cutting collars. It's a weighted cutting collar. It's almost like a weighted blanket. When you put that on the shoulders of your clients before you start haircutting, you can almost feel them go. Ah, it's kind of weird. It really is. I like it, though.

Speaker 1:

All right, let's talk about lessening their underlying anxiety. Now, you can't do this, because there's some level of anxiety in everybody, but we can make this journey as smooth as possible. That means doing our utmost in all the areas that we've just talked about, so that our client can feel at least at ease. There's going to be some kind of personal anxiety. Everybody has a little bit. So, look, we're hairstylists, we're not psychologists. Sometimes we feel like we are Based on some of these things that we just talked about.

Speaker 1:

All we know is we want to create a positive experience for our guests. That starts on your website. That starts if they phone the salon and how you answer the phone. That is also how they're greeted at the salon. That's also how they're talked to through their consultation. That's also how you shampoo their hair and when you're talking to them about their products, and then how you're cutting their hair or coloring their hair, servicing them. It's the whole thing. You get it. It's how you walk them up to the desk afterwards and talk to them about what products you use and tell them that they need to pre-book for their next appointment. It's all these things. It's being professional. It's the approach that we use on every single guest, every single time to make them feel comfortable in our salon. You want that guest to make sure that they feel like they are in the right salon to look after them. Look, we're pretty privileged, wouldn't you say? As stylists, we get to transform each of our guests every couple of hours, and what other profession could say they could do that? I can't think of any. So we have to think about what it really truly means to our guests and if they truly are afraid of coming to the hairstylist, how can we make that experience better for them?

Speaker 1:

I know a lot of the conversation out there lately has been books aren't as full as they typically are. Well, this could be one thing that you can control to help your books. It might take some time, but make your books fill up. People talk. You know your guests are going to leave your salon and they're going to talk about how you treated them, how you followed up with them, how you made them feel they might not go to the store and and get a compliment on their haircut. Maybe they will, that would be great. But they're going to tell their friends that, hey, my hairstylist actually listened to me. I trust her. They didn't take too much off when I said I just wanted to trim. They didn't over, blonde me or fry my hair, whatever that is. You want your client to feel secure and comfortable in your space. Hope this helps.

Speaker 1:

I know we are in such the most wonderful industry, but there's so many different facets to it I don't think people understand that. We have to do a lot. We don't have to just know how to cut hair, color hair, the chemistry. We have to do a lot. We don't have to just know how to cut hair, color hair, the chemistry, all those things. We do have to read people. We are in the people business.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening this week. I will talk to you next week and until next time, remember, when you know better, you do better. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of All About Hair. Here's what I'd love for you to do next Take a screenshot of this episode and share it on your Instagram stories. Be sure to tag me at Denise Kylitz so I can see that you're listening. Sharing on your stories helps more people discover this podcast, allowing them to learn how to build their salon business more easily and faster. If you're really enjoying this show, please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave All About Hair a review. Your support helps boost the podcast and it makes it easier for others to find. All right, let's wrap this up. I'm Denise Kylitz, and until next week. Remember, when you know better, you do better.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Danise Keilitz

Host