Episode #17: Assisting and Having an Assistant with Andi Burke

Are you ready to take your styling career to the next level? If you're considering becoming an assistant, then this episode is for you! Take a deep dive into the world of assisting and see what it can do for your craft. We'll discuss the role of an assistant, how it can transform your life, and how it can give your styling an edge. This is just the beginning - stay tuned for more episodes to come as we explore the incredible power of assisting!

Transcript

Cameron [00:00:17] Welcome to another episode of The Chair-apist. And I'm excited because I have Andi on today and we are going to talk about assisting and assistance behind the chair and all of the fun things. Her experience being an assistant in a celebrity environment. And, you know, all of the questions that we might have about when are we ready? Do we need an assistant? I definitely need an assistant and a life assistant. For all the things. Yes. So welcome. Welcome to the Chair-apist. 

Andi [00:00:57] Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's so exciting. I know we've talked about this for a very long time. I think a couple of years, actually. So it's exciting that we're actually going to get to do it. 

Cameron [00:01:06] You were actually one of the first people that I said, I think I want to do a podcast. 

Andi [00:01:11] Yeah, I was assisting you and you were telling me that. 

Cameron [00:01:15] I didn't have enough things going on then, so why not add something else?  

Andi [00:01:20]  Yeah, I mean, it's not like you had 99 things on your plate, you know? 

Cameron [00:01:24] So, Andi, I met Andi through a hiring app. Was it? It was Indeed. Right. We hired you for our blowout bar that we opened during the pandemic. And it was just by happenstance that you said, do you need an assistant? And you knew I did.

Andi [00:01:47] I saw a need and I jumped right into it. 

Cameron [00:01:51] And I will say, I've never had I've never been more organized. I have never had somebody who could think for me or know what I was going to do before I knew I was going to do it. Having someone who holds foils for you is amazing. I felt really bougie, actually, when you were holding foils, but I was like, I don't know if I could do this, but then once I got it, I was like, okay, I can do this. This is amazing. So, for anybody out there who's thinking about getting an assistant or you don't know if you're ready for an assistant or you just want to know what it's like to have an assistant take it away. Andi. 

Andi [00:02:28] Or even what it's like to be an assistant, because. 

Cameron [00:02:30] That's true. 

Andi [00:02:31] Yeah. I think a lot of times people look at assisting kind of, you know, they turn their nose up to it and I feel like. Everybody knows when you're in beauty school, you only learn how to pass state board, like you learn the basics to cut and color, but you don't learn specialty skills at all. And you don't really learn what it's like to be in the salon in real time, real life, you know? And so when I started right out of beauty school was like, man, I really want to I want to go to L.A. and I want to assist celebrity stylists. That was my goal because I wanted to do hair and makeup for film, which is still a goal of mine. So, I went to L.A. and I got my first job assisting a celebrity stylist, and I have worked for a few people, a few stylists within my career. And every time I feel like I learn something new, like I pick something up from each stylist that has made me a better stylist in the end. So I think, I think the one thing I really want to convey is that being an assistant is kind of really important at the beginning of your career, you know. Because you can't let's be honest. You can't just like jump out of the gate of beauty school and go rent a chair somewhere and just start cutting hair and having a million clients. You know, really, you have to build your way up there. 

Cameron [00:03:54] I tried that? 

Andi [00:03:56] Yeah. No, I did, too. I did, too. And I was only able to do that because I was still managing at a retail spot. 

Cameron [00:04:03] That was paying your rent, not your actual clientele. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If I could do it all over again. I would have gone straight into it, you know, apprenticing or assisting. You learn so much. 

Andi [00:04:20]  So much. And each person has each stylist has a different set of clientele too. You know what I mean? So it's not just like learning from the stylist. You're also learning from that set of clientele because I have a different set of clientele than you do. And another stylist and another stylist. So you kind of learn how to, you know, work with a bunch of different types of people. And I think that's super important too. And honestly, being an assistant for so many different stylists have kind of made me a better assistant. So by the time I got to you, it was like, okay, we're in the pandemic, we're non-essential, right? So what are we doing? What am I doing? I had just moved to Washington and I'm like, I don't have any clients. I have an awesome, you know, blow dry job at Air, which was amazing and totally kept me afloat for a long time. But then when you and I started talking, I'm like, man, I'm going to need to pick up clientele at some point. And you definitely needed an assistant at that time. So that's when I approached you about it, because I don't have I don't have that like taboo weirdness of like, oh, I've been, I've been doing hair on my own for X amount of years by now, so I don't want to go back to assisting. I don't have that taboo because I feel like, shit, I would probably assist for another like ten years. If I had to. If I could. You know what I mean? So that's kind of what I'm doing now is, by the way, I have gone back to work with my mentor, Sheri Rahman, in Beverly Hills to assist with her because I've moved back to L.A. now. 

Cameron [00:06:00] Oh, exciting. 

Andi [00:06:02] Yeah. So I have to build clientele. And the best way to do that is through assisting. 

Cameron [00:06:06] Now, on the other side of the coin, let's talk about people who think they're ready for an assistant. How do you know you're ready for an assistant? Besides the fact that you don't know where your head is? 

Andi [00:06:17] I think that I mean, that's number one. 

Cameron [00:06:21] That wasn't me at all. But I'm just making an example. No. 

Andi [00:06:26] I guess my biggest tell for me would be if you're constantly running late. If you're constantly running late for your clients, you need help. You need somebody to help you with time management. It's really hard when you're booking, you know, back to back and consecutively and say you work, say you work three days a week and your schedule is so jam-packed. And then at the end of that week you're like, God, I'm so tired, I'm exhausted. You shouldn't really feel that way. You should have an assistant to help you take off at least half of that workload. And also if your assistant, if you have an assistant and your assistant is not taking off half of that workload, you need a new assistant. 

Cameron [00:07:06] You know, that's interesting that you say that because, well, you know me in time like I was. I'm a stickler for time. And having you helped me have more time for myself. So if you are a person who is usually running on time and you're like, Oh, that, that means I don't need an assistant, that's not true because I was always on time. But having Andi in my life made it so I actually had time to sit down and eat or actually had a time to walk around the block and take a deep breath. If you have, you know, an intense situation or if you're just overwhelmed because you were double booked for the first half of your day, you want to be able to breathe. And Andi created that space for me. And that's what an assistant should do for you. And you're also giving them knowledge. So when you talk about how do I pay my assistant, know that they're also getting a plethora of knowledge from you about where people who have been behind the chair. Yeah, I think take a lot of advanced education, right? 

Andi [00:08:04] Absolutely. That's that's the key. Like, that's the one thing I just want to stress so much is that free education. It's like, listen, if you when you come out of school, you can't afford to pay $1200, $500 for extra classes. So when you're assisting, you're learning all of this stuff from your stylists like. And also on the flip side, if you're an assistant and you're not learning from your stylist, you need a new stylist. You know what I mean? Like, you need to there has to be a healthy trade off and it has to be mutually beneficial for both of you. And I think, you know, a good assistant. Will take off that workload so that you can do things and have more time. Because I think as a stylist, if we wear ourselves so thin, we can't give 100% to each client. And that's really the idea of having this right, so that your assistant can do the little things that you don't have to focus on, and then you can have the time to give 100% to your client, cause they pay a lot of money to see us. And yeah, and they should be able to get your undivided attention. And that's really the key. Aside from having an assistant who can help you not stress so much behind the scenes, which happens all the time. 

Cameron [00:09:20] It's so true. And sometimes, you know, clients get overwhelmed with a couple of people working on them. But to to people up. I let them know ahead of time, You know, I have an assistant working with me and, you know, you let us know what you're comfortable with. And so if anybody's concerned about overwhelming their clients, that's just a conversation. It's simple. You know, if there's a client who gets overwhelmed, then, you know, like you, we had a couple people who were like, Well, yeah, and you just help me organize my color or figure out what I needed. And yeah, you have my color system. It's still dialed in. It's still exactly. 

Andi [00:09:56] It's still organized. 

Cameron [00:09:57] Yes. One day. And Grace, I had another assistant come in after Andi. Grace who came in and she, it was it was such a great system. We keep following it. So it's been wonderful. 

Andi [00:10:10] Awesome. That makes me that makes me feel good, too. I think it's is I always believe and I think this is from my years in retail management, but I believe in the work smarter, not harder method. And if things are organized and you know exactly where your five N's are, it's going to take you 37 seconds to get them and get it in a bowl and get to your client. 

Cameron [00:10:29] So, five minutes.? 

Andi [00:10:30] Instead of five whole minutes. Yes, absolutely. 

Cameron [00:10:34] Style Sharp Shears is the best sheer sharpening service. I love it because Trey comes in here and he sharpens my shears here. He doesn't take them with them. He will do mobile orders as well so you can ship out to him. But for those of you who are local or ones he can travel to, he is great because he comes in and he does your shears in salon, totally blends in with your environment, makes you super happy. And then he's off and he makes your next appointment for those who need to ship in. He is super fast and efficient and soon he will have his own shears. That is Trey with Style Sharp Shear Sharpening Services. 

Andi [00:11:11] Going back to what you were saying about the the clients who are kind of weird, that's not surprisingly, that happens a lot because they come in and they're like, Well, I'm paying for Cameron. Like, I don't I don't want Andi to shampoo me. I'm paying for Cameron, you know. 

Cameron [00:11:24] Until you shampoo them. And then they're like, I'm paying for Andi to shampoo me, not Cameron. 

Andi [00:11:31] You know, I still to this day, I don't brag about a lot of things when it comes to my hair skills, but I do brag about my blowouts and my shampoos. So, you know, I'll take that compliment. 

Cameron [00:11:41] They're on point. And I still I'm like, in the bowl every time. Like, this isn't an Andi massage. I feel so bad. It's like a half half-assed Andi massage, because this person was 10 minutes late today, and if only I had Andi to help me, we would get 20 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Andi [00:12:00] Right. There you go. 

Cameron [00:12:02] No, it's awesome to have an assistant and that we all work together. So yeah. So if anybody's worried about going into assisting and feeling like they're below anybody? That is not the case. You are the glue that holds everything together.

Andi [00:12:18] Yes, yes. And that's kind of what I touched on a little bit earlier, too, about how people feel in this industry. They kind of look down on the assisting, like, I don't want to assist. I already know how to do hair. It's like. But you don't though, because you just got out of beauty school and nobody knows how to do hair right out of beauty school. Let's be honest. 

Cameron [00:12:34] A little unknown fact about me is that I did hair for three years and dropped back into an apprentice assisting. No, it was almost four years and dropped back, you know, to get my foundational work. Really. You know, it wasn't a step back for me. It felt like a step in the right direction. And foward and, you know, there was a moment where I was like, What am I doing? But I'm so glad I did it, and I wish that I would have done it right out of beauty school instead of being like, I got this, you know. 

Andi [00:13:02] Yeah, I feel so...Do you feel like when you what do you feel like when you need an assistant the most? Like, like right now when you. Well, I think it was like last week or something. You texted me or the other day, you said I need an assistant so bad. Like what? What made you feel like that? 

Cameron [00:13:18] Mostly just the overwhelm of, you know, my system is I do your, you know, the hair gets done, you get your appointment booked. And sometimes if we have a moment, I'll do it while you're sitting in the chair. But that's where things start to get behind on me is the checkout process, because I don't really have it streamlined where I can set an iPad in their lap. I have my iPad actually attached to the wall. So, you know, I set them up and they swipe their card and do their tip and whatnot. And it's it's pretty streamlined, but I probably could make it more efficient where it's not taking 20 minutes to make an appointment and check out. And I'm being I'm being a little dramatic. It doesn't take 20 minutes sometimes when you have a client sitting, waiting and you're already 2 minutes behind schedule, which you know, for me that feels like 20 minutes. It's like, oh, okay, I'll just text you with a couple of available appointments, you know, And it's like you feel bad because you don't want to rush them out. You don't want to be mean. So because I you know, me, I'm like, don't hurt anybody's feelings and everything that puppy dogs and candy canes, you know? But it's hard when you're double booked, when you're back room's a mess because you've been double booked and you're trying to it's just about keeping things organized. Because the more organized I am, the better I work personally. And so I when I'm not double booked, you know, it's a little easier to do that. But holiday season, I'm definitely double booked. Summertime, I'm definitely double booked. I'm actually double booked almost all of January right now because trying to get people in from being sick during the holidays and getting them back in before they go on vacation. You know, so many stylists are just slammed more than they ever were. When people walk into the salon and they're like, why? Why doesn't anybody take walk-ins anymore? I'm like, because they don't exist. Because we're all so booked. 

Andi [00:15:05] Yeah, not after COVID either. People don't. People don't just walk in. You got to call. 

Cameron [00:15:10] Even Rudy's Hair Masters, Regis They don't do like you can call, but they don't do. You can't walk in and get an appointment unless somebody's sitting around and you see them sitting around, maybe. 

Andi [00:15:21] Maybe. They might be sitting around for 5 minutes because that's all the time they have for the day. 

Cameron [00:15:26] That's true. That's true. But and, you know, as a stylist, we all know, this is the fact. But a lot of clients don't know that. 

Andi [00:15:32] Right. I think, too, if you're double booking, that is a great indicator that you need an assistant because when you're you can't be in two places at once. You really just can't and you're going to run yourself ragged. So if you're double booking, you need an assistant. And we should touch a little bit about like what a good assistant does, right? 

Cameron [00:15:53] Absolutely. 

Andi [00:15:54] But let's talk about that, because I think this is really important. I have worked as the first assistant for a celebrity stylist, and they had a second assistant and a third assistant. And those people like the pecking order goes to the first and then second, third. Right. And I have seen some of these people who are assisting and they don't want to work. They don't want to put in that work. They don't want it. Because, again, it's that stigma of like, oh, I'm better than this. I'm a hairstylist. I have a license. I can do hair on my own. So for me, I always thought to myself, like, man, this is like this is my income. Because the second your style, your client gets out of your chair and goes into that shampoo bowl, they're my client, then. Because I'm going to finish that service. I'm going to rinse them. I'm going to shampoo them, and then I'm giving them a blowout unless they're getting a haircut. Right? But then even after the haircut, I'm still going to blow them out. So they become my client and they're going to tip me for the shampoo, you know? And that happens all the time. They just give me cash because it's the best shampoo they've ever had. 

Cameron [00:16:58] I can attest to that. It's the best shampoo I've ever had. 

Andi [00:17:03] Thank you. And so I feel like for me, I kind of saw that at the first, the first assisting job I had and I was like, Man, these people, like, complain all the time about not making any money as an assistant. I don't have that problem. I never have had a problem where I wasn't getting tipped as an assistant. I think when I first even started with you, your clients weren't used to tipping the assistant, But toward the end, when I was getting ready to move, like they were tipping me cash because they got used to like, Oh, Andi, she's going to give me a great shampoo, here's five bucks, here's ten bucks and that adds up you know as part of the income and what I make. So I kind of always looked at it like that and having a good assistant as far as when you're following a stylist, you always anticipate the needs before your stylist needs them. If you're doing foils of any kind, have the foils folded and ready to go. If you're holding foils, you want to have that second foil ready before before the stylist even gets the section ready because it just makes everything go so fast. Like, how fast would you say you were with foiling before I assisted you? 

Cameron [00:18:08] I could do a partial foil and 20 to 26 minutes, depending on a full foil and 40 to 55 depending on, again, you know, the hair. But with you, I could do partial foil in 15 minutes and I could do a full foil in easily 25 to 30 minutes. 

Andi [00:18:27] Yeah. And we did. We hammered them out real quick. Yeah. 

Cameron [00:18:30] And people love that because they don't want to be sitting in the chair processing and like sitting while you put foils in. Some people enjoy that. But most clients are express, they want, they want to get the pampering, but they want it to get done in an hour and a half, 2 hours. They don't want to be in the chair for 5 hours unless they know. 

Andi [00:18:47] And I think for an assistant to there's really not a whole lot of downtime as an assistant, like if you have time to sit in the back break room in your color room, texting on your phone or like looking up Instagram videos or whatever. You're doing it completely wrong. I think there were a few times when I had enough time because I had everything done that I was able to like sit in the back and check my phone and sit down for a few minutes. But you know, you want to pamper that client. So when they come in, you know, we were talking earlier about the checkout process. I did your checking out and an assistant should do that for you because you should be. then switching gears mentally for your next client because you know who's coming in, right? So you're like, oh, gosh, I have Susan at 1:00 and she really, really likes X, Y, and Z. So you have to prepare yourself mentally for that client to come in because they're different people and they need different things. So a good assistant should be anticipating your needs before they even come there. I know I always for you, I always got there early and would set your tray up. I would look at your schedule and see what you had, if you had a highlight or whatever, I would set your tray up with all your combs and your brushes and your clips. 

Cameron [00:19:54] Mhm. 

Andi [00:19:55] Your foils. I mean pretty much everything that you use and I remember like texting you like hey what do you use for, you know, a Balayage And you would tell me all the boards and all the things you used for Balayage and then get them ready for you. Yeah. Because then when you come in, you put your stuff down, you get ready, you tell me what we're doing. Client comes in, we greet them together, you know, And I always kind of thought of myself as more like, not really in the shadows, because I don't believe in that. I believe that an assistant is like a co-stylist, almost like would always be there front and center. But I was never, like, in the main focus. I would never stand in the mirror when you were in the mirror talking to your client or whatever, I would just kind of be off to the side a little bit where they can see me so they don't feel like I'm like gawking at them from behind or something. You know what I mean? 

Cameron [00:20:39] You are really good at reading the room and you know, you would talk when you knew that it was appropriate, you know, just kind of like we do as stylists anyway. It's like if they want to talk the whole time, go ahead and talk the whole time. Right. So, you know, in my Chair-apist podcast, they always talk about what's the craziest thing that ever happened to you? And I know you've got some good stories. 

Andi [00:21:02] Oh, man, the craziest thing that's ever happened to me. Oh, there's a lot of things. I had a client who was in the L.A. area and she was like an older lady, and I think she was like some executives, wife or mom or something like that, but really, really big to do kind of lady. And she would always carry this Gucci bag with her, like this expensive, like white, beautiful Gucci bag and like, would not leave it at the station. So I'm shampooing one day and I got water, like I you know we spray it sometimes. 

Cameron [00:21:38] Yeah. 

Andi [00:21:39] We tell people all the time, right? 

Cameron [00:21:41] It's a splash zone, we just you got a free facial. Sorry. 

Andi [00:21:44] Oh, my God, I'm sorry about that. I'm really sorry. And I got some water on her Gucci bag, and she was. This is the first time I ever cried as an assistant which, mind you, I have cried often. I think maybe this should be a two-part podcast because it. 

Cameron [00:21:57] Totally should be.

Andi [00:21:59] We should talk about the hardships because it is hard work and you will work very, very hard as an assistant, but it's so rewarding. Anyways, she started screaming at me like, and I just remember I think I was very, very new, very green in the industry. And I was like, Oh my God. I just burst into tears right there at the freaking shampoo bowl. And I'm like, and I didn't mean to. I was just so overwhelmed because I was like, It was a new, it was a high-end salon. It was like a really, you know, high-end human. I got water on the Gucci bag and all I kept thinking was like, Oh my God, I hope she doesn't make me pay for this thing. Like, probably more than my frickin car is worth. You know, That was. I can't say that that's the craziest thing that's ever happened, but that was the most humiliating thing. I think that's the most humiliating thing. The most humiliating. Cause it was in the it was in the salon, and the salon was packed full, like 27 people. Like, Oh, my gosh. 

Cameron [00:22:53] She was yelling at you. 

Andi [00:22:54] Not yelling. She was screaming like veins out of the neck. 

Cameron [00:22:58] Oh, no. 

Andi [00:22:59] Yeah. And I'm over here like, I don't understand why you're so mad over water on the Gucci bag. 

Cameron [00:23:05] I've got a towel right here. 

Andi [00:23:07] But also, like, clearly, I mean, she was elderly, so, like, clearly you've done your hair time or two, in your life. You should probably know to never bring your bag. And it was like sitting on her lap like. Like gold. You know what I mean? Like, didn't want to let it go. Yeah. And then I've had some experiences with stylists and with other clientele that we can talk about some other time. 

Cameron [00:23:28] You have really good stories. And then a little-known facts about you. 

Andi [00:23:32] I sing in a rock band. 

Cameron [00:23:34] Yeah, that's true. Not a lot of people know that. 

Andi [00:23:36] Not a lot of people know that. But they will soon because I'm, I'm putting some music out this year. 

Cameron [00:23:41] That's exciting too. 

Andi [00:23:43] Me, right? Yeah, for sure. 

Cameron [00:23:46] Well, thank you for coming on. The Chair-apist you had awesome information. Thank you. Thank you. 

Andi [00:23:52] Thank you so much. We should definitely do this again. 

Cameron [00:23:54] Go on and on about assisting. We'll probably have to do a three-part series. 

Andi [00:23:57] I know. I think we should really, because I would like to break down a little bit more about like what assistants should be doing, because I think everybody needs to know that.