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The Messy Hairstylist
Whether you are a mess literally OR figuratively we are here to help you take imperfect action to find your success as a hairstylist. Each week we deep dive in to tough topics to address the struggles we face in our industry. We push the boundaries, break the stereotypes and go hard against the "norms" that make us feel inferior.
The Messy Hairstylist
Are You Forgetting About Your Bread & Butter Clients?
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No one’s asking, “How do I market to my bread & butter clients?” anymore. It’s all about the big blonding transformations—but is that really the best long-term strategy? So many stylists are ditching gray coverage and routine color clients from their menus, but those are the ones who keep your books steady and your business sustainable. In this episode, we’re breaking down why bread & butter clients matter, how to market to them, and why building a business on loyalty (not just big-ticket services) might be the smarter move. Let’s talk about the clients who actually keep the lights on!
Follow Abby on Instagram and TikTok at @theabbywarther
Follow Kelsey on Instagram at @kelseymorrishair
You're right, I think it's like the cool thing to be like. I don't do color retouches anymore, I don't do haircuts anymore, and it's like it's not that it's cool. It's just that's where your business is at and it's fine. But I think it's super cool to still do haircuts and color retouches.
Speaker 1:So do I. I have a lot of retouches.
Speaker 2:I think it's a strong business. Love them. Welcome to the Messy Hairstylist podcast. I'm Kelsey Morris and I'm Abby Warther. Whether you are a mess, literally or figuratively, we are here to help you take imperfect action to find your success as a hairstylist. I'm starting. Okay, I know so. We yesterday got to see each other IRL, in real. Oh.
Speaker 1:I know, and wasn't it funny when people were, we like hug each other, we're like so excited, and they're like don't you see each other all the time?
Speaker 2:We're like no not IRL, not IRL. I will say you have said this before and you do give the best hugs.
Speaker 1:I've said I give the best hugs?
Speaker 2:Oh, no, you don't. I was like that's weird. No, you say you're a hugger, yes, yeah. No, you don't say you give best hugs, but you do give the best hugs, because when I got there which was a tad bit late to be I mean surprise, surprise.
Speaker 1:Can we talk about this, though? Can we just talk about why Abby was late?
Speaker 2:Let me just first tell, say how good of a hugger you are, because you went and we finally got to like say hi, because I was late and you gave me the biggest hug and I was like ready to pull away, not that I wanted to pull away from you, but you squeezed in and I was like, oh, I needed that. The fireworks behind you right now I know my, my, my Mac computer fireworks on the screen. Yeah, so you give the best hugs. I was like, oh, I needed that.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm good, I'm like, I'm said I'm good, I'm glad, I could like feel, I could feel you're probably stressed out and you're like a little bit, you know. I was just frantic because I was and then I was like you know what? I'm just gonna.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna brace her for an extra 30 seconds. Okay, why was I late? You love this, don't you?
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, it was so good. I was like so happy with the reason you were late because you forgot to charge your Tesla. I did, and that is the most amazing first world problem I've ever had in my life. I can't with that.
Speaker 2:When you were like I forgot to charge my Tesla.
Speaker 1:I was like ha, ha, ha yeah.
Speaker 2:You said oh, you know those smart cars. And I said well, you have to be a smart person, probably to drive a smart car. Yeah, I mean, your salon is over two hours away from me and I didn't charge my dang Tesla, so I had to go to superchargers and charge up and it was embarrassing and I was late. And then I walked up to the second level where everybody was. How many people were there at your salon for the class? Almost 30.
Speaker 1:What do you mean say why we were together yesterday? Well, no, it was 20, 22.
Speaker 2:We were together because we all took a Sunlight's professional class taught by the director of education for Sunlight's at Kelsey's salon yesterday. So there's this group of 22 people of all from Sunlight's educator salons and I'm doing like the walk of shame, showing up late. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:I'm going to get in so much trouble. The best part was you announced yourself at the bottom of the stairs You're like I'm here, I'm coming.
Speaker 2:It was so great Not realizing that you guys had actually already started, yeah.
Speaker 1:God, yeah, we were in the middle of class and you came in and it was good.
Speaker 2:I was 20 minutes late. Yikes, I know that was really bad. I'm never that late, but you got me a coffee, I sure did.
Speaker 1:I was like I'll have your coffee, you're going to be fine, just get your booty here, we're going to be good out there.
Speaker 2:Okay so, but yesterday was so amazing and a off and an on-the-side question from one of the stylists at my salon was asked and had nothing to do with what we were learning, which was about Sunlight's professional products and blonding. Yesterday she asked this question, which I thought is such a good question, and it's one that is not ever asked anymore. It's actually something that hairstylists shy away from now, and she was asking how to do more of this one thing and get more of these type of clients in the chair. So that's what I want to discuss today. So she asked the question how do I get more bread and butter gray color retouch clients in my chair?
Speaker 1:I know what a good question.
Speaker 2:How do you market?
Speaker 1:to those people?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I love that question for so many different reasons, and the main reason is because stylists are saying I don't do just color retouches anymore. I hear that a lot. Right, and I still love them. I still think they're a bread and butter.
Speaker 1:I still love them Absolutely. It feels like yeah, no, I was going to say it just when we think about marketing, I think when we think about marketing as a hairstylist in this generation, we think about Instagram, tiktok and things like that. And, let's be serious, most of us aren't posting or we don't really see and maybe that's just my feed or most feeds. It's like a video of a client that's retouched, like looking for you know. So, like you know, people want to show these big wow transformations and that's what's showing up. So I I do feel like it's like um, I think people still do it, I think hairdressers still do it, it's just not something that they put out.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yes, so many here. Yes, color retouch only clients, and maybe some haircuts with them, are such a clientele. They are a great. I still believe they're bread and butter. They're still out there. But you're right, nobody markets to them.
Speaker 2:So, if you want, yeah, and why would we want to market to them? Like this stylist, she does a ton of bonding clients and it kills her. It's hard and she wants to fill in the gaps with bread and butter color retouch clients. Or it's also a great way we do have so many new stylists, new to the industry, stylists that listen to this podcast. They message us all the time and we love it. You guys listen up because these are the clients I think that are really good to get on your books when you're first building, because they're the bread and butter.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Absolutely. And don't you think there's like a little bit of a I don't know what the word is a stigma? Yeah, If you're like for that right now it's like no, I am a niche stylist and I only do blondes and I blah, blah, blah and it's like okay, cool, Great, that's fine, but you're going to kill yourself in the interim, but all right.
Speaker 2:You're right. I think it's like the cool thing to be like I don't do color retouches anymore, I don't do haircuts anymore, and it's like it's not that it's cool. It's just that's where your business is at and it's fine. But I think it's super cool to still do haircuts and color retouches.
Speaker 1:So do I.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of retouches. I think it's a strong business. Love them when they come in.
Speaker 1:I'm like let's go Because you know you're going to see them like every five, six weeks, and then, like I'm, like Kathy, it's great.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm done, okay, all right. So what's your advice? I've got, I've got some. I got some stuff, so I want you to go first. Why do I Well?
Speaker 1:I wanted to hear what you had to say. Okay, fine, fine, I'm going to go first. Here I go, get. I started the podcast. So now you go first you did start the podcast. I was trying to start, and then she's like I'm starting. I was like whoa, I know yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, this is great. It's been making up for being late yesterday.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like I kind of already touched on it. I feel like I already touched on it because I talked about how we don't put that in our feeds and we always want to show really dramatic transformations, transformations but sometimes just the simplest B-roll video or of a gray coverage client is really cool and I think it doesn't have to necessarily be just you applying like a retouch. It's how to like customize that retouch with being able to add accent foils or painted highlights throughout and just customizing this color to them. And really, what's the word I'm looking for? Just beautifying it and making it neat, Romanticizing Romanticizing, that was the word I was looking for Romanticizing the art of gray blending and making that something that you show on your feed. Because if you have a client who is an older client and they're looking through your thing and they only see blondes, constant blondes, and they are beautiful and they're big impact blondes, they're like, well, I don't really fit in with this hairdresser.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to find someone else that that does this.
Speaker 2:Yes, because I think a lot of those clients I've heard clients say these things before like, oh, clients, I've heard clients say these things before like, oh, I'm older I don't know if you take clients like me and because of marketing, showing just long, blonde, brown hair, highlights, balayage and whatnot. So I think I have a couple different ways that I think that people can market to gray retouch clients. So, first of all, whenever we're marketing anything, you're not just selling a gray retouch, right? So if you're just being like I do gray retouches, do you need your gray covered? Do you need your gray covered? That is the service you're doing. But what are you selling, right? So are you really going to get a lot of people's attention of, like, come cover your grays?
Speaker 2:No, that's not exciting, but what actually are you selling? So when someone covers their grays, what are they actually selling? Achieving? Like a client of yours that comes in every four or five weeks to get their grays covered and that's it. That's all they do. Maybe they do haircuts. They are always looking forward to it?
Speaker 1:Yes, well, it makes them feel better about themselves. It makes them feel better and I don't want to use the word younger, but just more, put together youthful and they're always so excited, like oh, what's the first thing? I always say my gray, so bad, yes, yes. And as soon as they get done, they just have this like immediate glow to them because they just feel better about themselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what you're doing is you're refreshing their hair, you're refreshing everything about them. They finally feel put together again, they feel polished, they feel finished, they feel like they're taking care of themselves. It's like a form of self-care. So if you're going to start actually marketing on, I think, facebook, are we going to Instagram for our gray retouches?
Speaker 1:I would say Instagram too. I would say Instagram too. Of course both, but don't forget about Facebook.
Speaker 2:Don't forget about Facebook Right I agree.
Speaker 2:Don't forget about it, Right, and so talk about, not so much about like I'm just the, the just, I'm going to cover your grace. Talk about the experience of coming into the salon and what's the experience that they're going to have? The relaxation, the connection, the conversations, um, feeling better, perking themselves up. What can they add on? Add some sparkle, add some shine, add some moisture. What are the problems that we're solving? Dry, brittle, flat hair. There's so many rabbit holes. You can go down with clients who get quote unquote, so I don't like it. Just a retouch, Because if you are the stylist who also is just, I just have a lot of retouch clients. I hear that a lot from stylists who want to start painting hair or getting into more custom foiling. Well, I just have a lot of retouch clients and they don't want anything else. That's not true. They do.
Speaker 1:No, they're just not educated to know that you're not enticing them Exactly.
Speaker 2:So I think I um, I've I've worked with a couple of stylists and I've actually suggested that they start marketing to gray retouch clients and I don't think anybody's really totally pulled through with it. But I think that if somebody really started to market to that, you would blow up.
Speaker 1:I think we've talked about this before 100% agree. So, when you're okay, the two words that just came to my brain when you were talking about this were romanticizing and normalizing. Romanticizing and normalizing aging and and and that part of our life, that that journey for a woman as she is coming into a new part of her, her life, and I don't think it's like talked about enough. So make it romanticize and make it beautiful, make it exciting, like you said, but also normalize that. This is, this is a normal part of aging, aging, but there's things that we can do. And it's exciting, you know, make it exciting.
Speaker 1:I have a couple girls who are trying to build as well, and I had a conversation with one of them yesterday and with my girls who are trying to build, we have a small group and it's like I give them challenges, weekly challenges of like do this, do that, you know, and just see what happens, and the ones that listen, it actually does work. So when you were talking about that, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the challenge this week. Let's make, let's start putting that in your feed and come up with, you know, and I think that's really, really cool and something that needs to be seen.
Speaker 2:I think also another. I love that you give them different challenges every week. I like that. I think another thing that you can market to with these clients are you can easily speak to the people like tired of seeing your roots every in two weeks, right, Because that's what a lot of them have. And here's your options. Think your only option is to cover your gray. Here's your option and there's so many options for these clients. You can blend out their gray with foils. You can blend out their gray with balayage. You can start blending out their gray with a demi-permanent color. You can help them grow out their gray and still keep doing glosses on them or adding just a few accent highlights here and there. I like to educate my clients who, even if they do grow out and live with their gray, that there are still color services we can do that enhance their gray.
Speaker 2:So it doesn't mean that you stop taking care of yourself.
Speaker 1:Or treatments.
Speaker 2:Treatments are really good for gray hair coarse hair. Especially Malibu treatments. It's something I talked about instead of BBA is their hair gets oxidized on the ends and sometimes we have to Malibu that out. So yeah, think of all the content ideas you have right there Endless possibilities.
Speaker 2:And I feel like you can. Just I envision showing healthy, shiny, luxurious hair on your gray coverage clients all in your feed. Like that would entice me. Because women who are really dealing with a lot of gray hair their hair is coarser right, it's frizzier, it's dull looking. It's not the same hair they had when they were in their twenties and thirties and they're feeling lost. So they feel like they can't have beautiful, pretty luxurious hair anymore. So why can't you be that stylist? Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1:Well, you have gray right. Not to call you out.
Speaker 2:I'm on the. I'm on the. Yes, I'm on the journey. I'm not crazy, but like I'm staring at you.
Speaker 1:No, but I'm a redhead. We don't gray, we go white. So it's like it's later in life and then all of a sudden I'm white. But I'm looking at you via Zoom right now and I'm like gosh, your hair is stunning. It's like that, you know. And you don't necessarily have to market to someone who's completely white or all gray. What about someone who just has a few grays and doesn't really know what they're supposed to do with that?
Speaker 2:I love that you said that, because, all right, I'm going to be 42 this month and I have in my sideburns, in like four to six weeks I really start to see the gray and then I just have a few little speckles throughout the rest. So the only thing that bothers me is those sideburns. But I have a lot of clients who are my age, with dark hair like mine, having the same amount, maybe more or a little less gray, and they just think they have to start boom coloring it hard color.
Speaker 1:What do I do?
Speaker 2:Yes and I take them all on different journeys. So start talking to those 40-year-old trendy women that want to take care of their hair but they don't know how. And they think it's either because they might just pick up a box color Not because that's where they want to go, but they don't know where else to go. Yeah, sure, yes, yeah, okay. Do you want to hear my like ultimate, not so obvious hack for building a great coverage clientele? Yes, okay, this is it. I'm telling you, and we just have a couple minutes left because I have a hard stop, so I'm going to leave you with this. This is a shorty episode, so the fastest way to build a great coverage bread and butter clientele is to start marketing yourself as a French haircutting stylist. I'm telling you Okay, really, yes.
Speaker 1:Follow up. We have two more minutes Follow up. I know.
Speaker 2:I'll go over two minutes for this, okay. So the second I started putting French haircutting on my menu like I don't know five years ago or something like that. Now I started getting a whole new wave of clients in, and I still do to this day. And then the stylist that I have trained with French haircutting it brings in a whole new wave of clients because French haircutting catches people's eye.
Speaker 2:You have to stand out in our industry, right? So, when you are marketing yourself and talking constantly about the French haircut and how seamless it is, how it's customized we talked about that in our class that we took yesterday how customization is everything. Everyone wants to customize something, right, right? So, by marketing yourself and putting yourself out there offering something different, like French haircutting, those bread and butter color retouch clients. They want a good haircut. They're not all wearing long, flowy hair, right? Oh, you're so, right, okay, they want a solid haircut, and what I hear time and time again from new clients is nobody knows how to cut hair, isn't?
Speaker 1:that crazy.
Speaker 2:Which is a little bit of the truth these days. Yes, hair cutting education has lacked in the last 10 years and because stylists gravitate towards color, which is just what it is not good or bad. So if you can be a solid haircutter, I think French haircutting is going to really catapult that. Because it's French haircutting, it's different, it stands out. But even if you're just a solid haircutter and you show your short haircuts online, you're going to get the attention of those and having a good haircut, having a French haircut, that's what gets people in the door to try you out. And then they're like I was also wanting to ask you about my color. That's what happens. That is the flow of getting those new color clients in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's mind blowing and amazing and I'm like, wow, you really just thought outside the box there and I just learned it from and it's so smart experience.
Speaker 2:It's, from my experience, like putting French haircutting and truly practicing that and only doing that in the salon has just. It is the way to build a book. It is a way to build a book. So, if you're new, learn how to French haircut, haircut or get good haircutting training and really market your haircuts, because we do not have a ton of stylists out there that market their haircuts. So start with marketing haircuts. Then you're going to start getting those clients in. They're going to want the color retouches and then, far and beyond, the best way to build a color retouch clientele is word of mouth.
