My GHD, not only one of my most prized possessions, but apparently these three letters are code for Good Hair Day. Yes, yes…I am actually having a good hair day! To be having a good hair day does not happen often and as much as I love treating myself to a visit at the local hair care professional, time and budget inevitably curtail this guilty pleasure.
I realised earlier this week that I am way overdue for some tender loving hair care. Fact is I have been avoiding this topic for much longer than I would care to admit. For the past three weeks I have been paging through my little black book of haircare professionals (hp’s). Paging over and over, I have asked friends for referrals, I did some research of what is available at what cost, still I could not get myself to commit to doing something about the state of my hair. I even considered the unthinkable; to contact my husbands’ hp, but I realised this would just be madness, especially considering my long history of hp hopping (he wouldn’t look good with an hp rage induced Mohawk).
Allow me to share a brief rundown of this long history. I have had a sum total of six hp’s in my life. Believe it or not my mom was my first hp (with the longest tenure as well – you can’t fire your mom). Till the age of 16 my mom used to cut my hair, I had short hair, it was easy. Besides my mom believed that the more you cut your hair the thicker it becomes. Fact or myth? I don’t know, what I do know is that today, many moons later, I have incredibly thick hair. The thing with your mom doing your hair is that you have almost no say in the matter; looking back I really looked very unfeminine in my school days. I was very sporty so I guess having the short hair was a good thing but I do remember I wasn’t a fan of this home hp business.
The day I left school was the day I ‘broke free’, I did odd jobs and was thrilled at the fact that I could afford to have my hair done by someone other than my mom. I also decided that I have had enough of this short hair boyish look, it was time for change. I started growing my hair…
This took some time….I discovered the wonders of colour with my first gay hp. He worked from his home ‘salon’, so did my next hp and the next……so clearly I have a thing for the noncommercial setting and having my hair done at ‘home’ (thanks mom). For the most part the drill has always been more or less the same. Chit chat, you get asked the infamous question: ‘what are we doing for you today?’ I would give a suggestion, even show a gazillion photo options and end it with ‘but what do you think?’ To this day I am yet to find a hp that will actually answer this question honestly. This is then followed by the colour and the style debate, ‘which colour, warm or cold, black, red or blond, highlights, lowlights, straight, curly, to fringe or not to fringe….’it can go on and on. Once both parties are in agreement about the way forward this is the start of the time vacuum.
A hair appointment with colour or highlights can take anything from 2-4 or even 5 hours. I have never understood why this takes so long, it is almost as if though this is a deliberate ploy of every hp to make you think you are getting your monies worth. Value for money = time in the salon. A penny for a minute.
I am also yet to find a standard in the industry, some hp’s are busy doing 4 people’s hair at once, some keep customer cards to ensure that there is a record of the colour combinations done previously, some have ladies offering massages, coffee, cake, magazines, some have background music, some have none, some make a concerted effort to ensure that your clothes, belongings and your skin does not get any hair dye on it, some sterilize the used hair brushes and combs, some don’t, some will not make you leave without ensuring that you have made another appointment in 6-8 weeks’ time and then some will always try and sell you products. The latter is one I have always been a victim to because I have difficulty saying no (but that’s another blog post altogether).
My past experiences with my hp’s has certainly been interesting and I have befriended almost all of them to a point where things just got comfortably uncomfortable at the expense of my wallet and my time. For the most part I left the so-called ‘treat’ feeling like I have been robbed and 90% of the time I have been grumpy the entire day because my expectations were not met. I have felt tremendous guilt for parting with each and every one of my hp’s because I reached a point of no return – the “hp friend zone”.
This is why booking an appointment with yet another unknown hp is such a traumatic thing. Nevertheless, I booked a new hp at the local hair salon at a nearby mall, notice I chose the non-home option for a change. I booked it for the Saturday morning and as one of my intentions for this year is to do and try new things I was pleased that I actually followed through and booked an appointment.
Saturday morning broke, I made my way to the salon in time, the receptionist had me penciled in the calendar. I was taken through to the ‘waiting section’, joined by three other ladies and plenty of magazines. I scanned the salon and noticed a mixed unisex team of hp’s…I have actually never experienced this. I decided this was a good decision, thinking why have I not invested in a commercial salon type setting before? I was then introduced to the hp of the female gender that would be looking after me. The hair drill started, the debate was more a conversation and I felt at ease with her opinions and I was hopeful that this would not be a disappointment. We started a conversation, as we do, I learnt that she is a mother of two, in the midst of a divorce, travels every day from Fochville (dis Fochn ver!) to be at work 6 days a week and that it is a numbers game. The more clients she has the more commission she earns and the better her chances are of getting an assistant to do the crappy bits like sweeping the floors, applying the colour etc. She finished applying my colour treatment and so the time vacuum started.
After some time, I had already paged and read through three magazines, I looked down to get some lip gloss out of my handbag and the honeymoon was over! I noticed some hair colour spilled and landed on my grey handbag. I had not been offered any coffee or tea or cake by anyone, no one was really talking much or having fun and I started feeling the disappointment setting in. I had a sense of regret for not sticking with what I was comfortably uncomfortable with.
My thoughts were disrupted by my new hp thanking me for my patience and apologizing for the delay 
and asking me to please go to the basin. When I got to the basin I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my hair will be rinsed and washed by a person of the male gender…….never ever has my hair been washed by a man, not even my darling husband would volunteer to wash my hair (not that I have asked). To my surprise the hair rinsing and washing turned out to be rather pleasant, except of course for the re-enforcement that men are simply not as thorough…water was running down my neck and I could swear that there was still shampoo in my ear. I was escorted back to the main salon area where I waited for another 10 minutes. My hair was eventually cut and dried and cut some more. All things considered I was happy with the end result, I looked different and my hair looked ‘healthy’ again.
All done, we completed our transaction and I was greeted farewell by my hp, who was clearly in a hurry to attend to the next customer. I was never asked to book a follow up appointment nor was I ever pushed to purchase any products. Three and a half hours later I left the salon a little broker but a little happier.
I was having a good hair day.
I am convinced that many of you share my wows about haircare experiences, I think the industry as a whole should really consider standardizing the service delivery they are providing to their customers.
Salons should be run like a business and inevitably every second, every move matters and you need to get bums on seats. Perhaps, a salon setting is slightly different to a work-from-home setting but I do think that for the price and the time one pays for a decent hair makeover it is suffice to say that the haircare industry has a long way to go in improving the perceived value clients get from a haircare experience. Salon owners can and should learn from one another’s successes and mistakes.
The question is this: what will make me go back to the last hp in 6-8 weeks time? I would like to argue that in the end it is not about the time wasted or the money spent in a hair salon but it is all about the experience. Hp’s around the world should really tap into this reality and realise a good hair day experience is the ultimate minimum requirement. What is in it for them? A solid reputation, the most powerful marketing of all: ongoing word by mouth referrals and most importantly increased profit.
I am hopeful and optimistic about my next GHD and wonder who will get the booking for my next hp experience !?!
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I realised earlier this week that I am way overdue for some tender loving hair care. Fact is I have been avoiding this topic for much longer than I would care to admit. For the past three weeks I have been paging through my little black book of haircare professionals (hp’s). Paging over and over, I have asked friends for referrals, I did some research of what is available at what cost, still I could not get myself to commit to doing something about the state of my hair. I even considered the unthinkable; to contact my husbands’ hp, but I realised this would just be madness, especially considering my long history of hp hopping (he wouldn’t look good with an hp rage induced Mohawk).
Allow me to share a brief rundown of this long history. I have had a sum total of six hp’s in my life. Believe it or not my mom was my first hp (with the longest tenure as well – you can’t fire your mom). Till the age of 16 my mom used to cut my hair, I had short hair, it was easy. Besides my mom believed that the more you cut your hair the thicker it becomes. Fact or myth? I don’t know, what I do know is that today, many moons later, I have incredibly thick hair. The thing with your mom doing your hair is that you have almost no say in the matter; looking back I really looked very unfeminine in my school days. I was very sporty so I guess having the short hair was a good thing but I do remember I wasn’t a fan of this home hp business.
The day I left school was the day I ‘broke free’, I did odd jobs and was thrilled at the fact that I could afford to have my hair done by someone other than my mom. I also decided that I have had enough of this short hair boyish look, it was time for change. I started growing my hair…
This took some time….I discovered the wonders of colour with my first gay hp. He worked from his home ‘salon’, so did my next hp and the next……so clearly I have a thing for the noncommercial setting and having my hair done at ‘home’ (thanks mom). For the most part the drill has always been more or less the same. Chit chat, you get asked the infamous question: ‘what are we doing for you today?’ I would give a suggestion, even show a gazillion photo options and end it with ‘but what do you think?’ To this day I am yet to find a hp that will actually answer this question honestly. This is then followed by the colour and the style debate, ‘which colour, warm or cold, black, red or blond, highlights, lowlights, straight, curly, to fringe or not to fringe….’it can go on and on. Once both parties are in agreement about the way forward this is the start of the time vacuum.
A hair appointment with colour or highlights can take anything from 2-4 or even 5 hours. I have never understood why this takes so long, it is almost as if though this is a deliberate ploy of every hp to make you think you are getting your monies worth. Value for money = time in the salon. A penny for a minute.
I am also yet to find a standard in the industry, some hp’s are busy doing 4 people’s hair at once, some keep customer cards to ensure that there is a record of the colour combinations done previously, some have ladies offering massages, coffee, cake, magazines, some have background music, some have none, some make a concerted effort to ensure that your clothes, belongings and your skin does not get any hair dye on it, some sterilize the used hair brushes and combs, some don’t, some will not make you leave without ensuring that you have made another appointment in 6-8 weeks’ time and then some will always try and sell you products. The latter is one I have always been a victim to because I have difficulty saying no (but that’s another blog post altogether).
My past experiences with my hp’s has certainly been interesting and I have befriended almost all of them to a point where things just got comfortably uncomfortable at the expense of my wallet and my time. For the most part I left the so-called ‘treat’ feeling like I have been robbed and 90% of the time I have been grumpy the entire day because my expectations were not met. I have felt tremendous guilt for parting with each and every one of my hp’s because I reached a point of no return – the “hp friend zone”.
This is why booking an appointment with yet another unknown hp is such a traumatic thing. Nevertheless, I booked a new hp at the local hair salon at a nearby mall, notice I chose the non-home option for a change. I booked it for the Saturday morning and as one of my intentions for this year is to do and try new things I was pleased that I actually followed through and booked an appointment.
Saturday morning broke, I made my way to the salon in time, the receptionist had me penciled in the calendar. I was taken through to the ‘waiting section’, joined by three other ladies and plenty of magazines. I scanned the salon and noticed a mixed unisex team of hp’s…I have actually never experienced this. I decided this was a good decision, thinking why have I not invested in a commercial salon type setting before? I was then introduced to the hp of the female gender that would be looking after me. The hair drill started, the debate was more a conversation and I felt at ease with her opinions and I was hopeful that this would not be a disappointment. We started a conversation, as we do, I learnt that she is a mother of two, in the midst of a divorce, travels every day from Fochville (dis Fochn ver!) to be at work 6 days a week and that it is a numbers game. The more clients she has the more commission she earns and the better her chances are of getting an assistant to do the crappy bits like sweeping the floors, applying the colour etc. She finished applying my colour treatment and so the time vacuum started.
After some time, I had already paged and read through three magazines, I looked down to get some lip gloss out of my handbag and the honeymoon was over! I noticed some hair colour spilled and landed on my grey handbag. I had not been offered any coffee or tea or cake by anyone, no one was really talking much or having fun and I started feeling the disappointment setting in. I had a sense of regret for not sticking with what I was comfortably uncomfortable with.
My thoughts were disrupted by my new hp thanking me for my patience and apologizing for the delay
and asking me to please go to the basin. When I got to the basin I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my hair will be rinsed and washed by a person of the male gender…….never ever has my hair been washed by a man, not even my darling husband would volunteer to wash my hair (not that I have asked). To my surprise the hair rinsing and washing turned out to be rather pleasant, except of course for the re-enforcement that men are simply not as thorough…water was running down my neck and I could swear that there was still shampoo in my ear. I was escorted back to the main salon area where I waited for another 10 minutes. My hair was eventually cut and dried and cut some more. All things considered I was happy with the end result, I looked different and my hair looked ‘healthy’ again.
All done, we completed our transaction and I was greeted farewell by my hp, who was clearly in a hurry to attend to the next customer. I was never asked to book a follow up appointment nor was I ever pushed to purchase any products. Three and a half hours later I left the salon a little broker but a little happier.
I was having a good hair day.
I am convinced that many of you share my wows about haircare experiences, I think the industry as a whole should really consider standardizing the service delivery they are providing to their customers.
Salons should be run like a business and inevitably every second, every move matters and you need to get bums on seats. Perhaps, a salon setting is slightly different to a work-from-home setting but I do think that for the price and the time one pays for a decent hair makeover it is suffice to say that the haircare industry has a long way to go in improving the perceived value clients get from a haircare experience. Salon owners can and should learn from one another’s successes and mistakes.
The question is this: what will make me go back to the last hp in 6-8 weeks time? I would like to argue that in the end it is not about the time wasted or the money spent in a hair salon but it is all about the experience. Hp’s around the world should really tap into this reality and realise a good hair day experience is the ultimate minimum requirement. What is in it for them? A solid reputation, the most powerful marketing of all: ongoing word by mouth referrals and most importantly increased profit.
I am hopeful and optimistic about my next GHD and wonder who will get the booking for my next hp experience !?!
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