Skills I learned From My Role Models

In my career I had many stylists that were my role models, now called mentors. They may have not known that I looked up to them and learned from the talents they had. I learned from watching them, and asking them questions to help me understand. 

Are you learning skills from those around you? Education doesn't have to be a day in class learning from one person. Use the talent around you as an example to become. Or are you to the level where you are helping others understand and learn?

When you have someone around you willing to share lessons and invest their time into guiding you, that is gold! Don't waste it.

Thank you for listening. Share this episode with a friend that you think would enjoy it.

I would love it if you took the time to leave a rating or review for the show.

Want me to go more in-depth about anything? Let me know.

Send an email with questions to skahrhoff@live.com.

Transcript

Shannon Kahrhoff: 0:02

Hello, welcome to Decoding Clients for Stylists. I'm Shannon Kahrhoff Today I wanna go over some of the history of how I actually learned and processed through my career as a hairstylist behind the chair for 29 years now, almost 29 years but I was talking to a friend that was through cosmetology school, working together for years and. We were doing each other's hair, and it's crazy the stuff that comes up that you kind of forget what you went through to get through the whole process of becoming a hairstylist and building clientele and understanding. The whole business mindset of what we have in store for us. You're in school and you think you're just going to go do hair and school blows you away because you have so many different things that you have to learn. You have to learn the body, the bones, the muscles, the nerves. You have to learn. So many things that you, I personally did not think about. Having to understand that now that I've had all these years behind the chair, realizing the stuff that we should have been taught on top of it, or offered classes that we could extend our knowledge to it. But. You don't realize that at the very beginning because it would've been great to learn about how to build clientele more distinctly. The details, the thought process behind it, how to handle your finances as a business owner, how to invest in your business would've been great. But we are taught basic fundamentals. We're taught electricity and how to make sure you don't have too many. Appliances or tools on each fuse to make sure that you don't blow'em out. We understand location is the best part for opening a salon, but the fundamentals of how to. Start up a salon, how to create the hunger for people to want to come and join your salon. Those are different things that we are not really taught, and I might have been totally delusional in my youth, who knows, but I don't remember many business classes out there offered to us. It wasn't until probably 10, 15 years ago that I realized there were classes to learn how to work on the business of a, a salon, a stylist, and it was crazy when I was thinking about it, I didn't even take it serious. It was like, oh, please, whatever. Well, that's huge. It's really huge to understand the business mindset and how to do your financial thinking of how you keep a certain profit aside to make sure that you have it for your future expenses and how to cut out the money you need for your benefits for days off and vacations and retirement and all those things. That would've been a phenomenal thing to understand at the beginning. Whenever I was, when I graduated in the first 10, 15 years, the mindset about being a hairstylist is very slim. We don't have a high expectation of making a lot of profit or profit at all. We are taught basic things to how to pass the test at state. And they specified saying, now this will be on your state board exam. So remember this aspect that you need to remember this and this and this and not that, but we learn the basics and it's up to us if we have something that makes you get excited and it's something that we really liked for us to go out and get more experience and understanding behind it. You dabble with it. It was play with it here and there outside of the school hours, but we didn't have access to online classes like we do now. These younger stylists where you can open up. Any app and search out a hair artist or a hair company and get that education. We had to go to hair shows and we had to go to specialty classes, and sometimes you had to drive a good distance to go to it, and you invested your own money in your own time, usually on your Mondays to go and get this knowledge done. And that was the growth that we were offered back then. It wasn't a constant learning mindset. It was okay, we got the check mark, we got the hair show education for the newest trends and the hair color companies that would come out with the new haircuts and the color blends, and they're. New ideas for the next season, and then you'd see it on the celebrities and you'd have your clients see it in magazines and on TV and movies, and that's where the ideas would come from. Now it is so much faster, so much easier, and sometimes complicated because you have to work harder and faster to keep up with the newest trends and the newest supplies. Everything is happening at hyper speed compared to where it was back in the day whenever it was. Yeah, it was more company driven. Now it's an individual artist driven on how they promote themselves and what trends and what's not on what you see walking in the door for ideas of what they want. So. These newer stylists are coming in and they're being bombarded with all of this new stuff coming in, and it can get very overwhelming. If they don't spend the time and the money to invest in their education and their training, they're just trying to figure it out on their own and the limited knowledge they have how they're learning from the stylist in the salon who have been there, done that before is just a new trend or a, a new technique that this new person has come up with. Because you can come out with the same look, but you can come go at it in 10 different directions. It all depends on how your eye sees it and how you lay out the technique too. Get it done to achieve the look that they are wanting. There's no right or wrong answers. Everyone is creating their own flow with it, and that's fantastic. We have more open thinking and the ability to get all the information out there and the new looks and color blends, and it's just amazing how fast that all can get out there. But when I started out, it was, you figure it out as you go. You find a stylist that you work with that will give you the time of day and. They will help guide you and, and explain different concepts to you if you find that person. There are a lot of stylists that don't wanna take the time with the younger ones to kind of guide them and, and figure stuff out. Because when you're new, you don't have the crazy schedules So you have more time to sit and watch. And that's honestly how I learned a lot of my techniques is I sat back with whatever stylist I wanted to learn the technique from, and I just watched her technique and the scissor over comb haircuts and the blends. How they do certain things. It was learning by observation and then trying it on the next client and saying it now is kind of, eh, a little scary, but that's really, trial and error is how you learned, and it still is. The difference between a stylist that lasts the long way or lasts a year or two is their dedication, how hungry they are to learn and become better. There's a lot of people that get tired of constantly learning and struggling to become better without seeing the financial benefits yet. I think it's also lessening now where people get paid better, even if they have a lower experience level because. People don't go with the old range of charging less. When you're new, you kind of jump into the middle and you just roll with it, which is great. But I think it's amazing watching the different transitions through everything, because whenever I was learning it was from the people around me in the salons I was working at. The people, their thinking is what I learned from. Which was a big flaw of mine because everyone that I worked with had a limiting belief of what they could achieve. Oh, you're just a hairstylist. You just have to, you know, deal with not getting much money, and it's fine. We only think you're worth this much when in essence. They don't understand how much time and effort and money we invest in everything we have. No one ever explained your value with your pricing is your education and how much effort you put into it, and how good you are at achieving the looks that they're wanting and making the style something they can have an easier way of recreating at home. It's hard to explain that to someone who's used to just going into a nine to five job and you learn the steps of the techniques and then you just go do it on the computer. It's, I know that there's many companies that let you create the techniques and the strategies a little bit more on your own and achieve it, but. You have someone there walking you through constantly and then you can ask questions. As a hairstylist, you don't wanna be that hairstylist that walks to the stylist next to you and say, okay, now what do I do? Because that scares the client. So you have to do a lot of this in the back room and, it's intimidating at times because there's so much in the mindset of how you achieve color. That depends on each. On so many different things from the natural level of their hair, what color they're gonna pull up that you have to balance out. And there's so much stuff that if you're blessed to have a coworker that will help pull you aside and help walk you through and answer your questions that you have, even if it's the same question for five different clients, that is gold. You really need to understand how wonderful that is so that you have the ability to. To learn and grow in your own space. You don't have to travel somewhere else. Invest thousands of dollars into learning this over time. You have someone holding your hand through the whole thing. Well, they have this wonderful thing called assistance. Now, I wish they would've had that whenever I graduated or explain that possibility to me at a young age.'cause that would've been the dream for me to have someone take me under their wing and. Guide me through different things. I was a shampoo girl starting out in high school. My friend was working in a salon and she said, Hey, they need another shampoo, girl, would you wanna come work there?'cause she knew I was going to cosmetology school just like her. But it was perfect job because I got to experience. Hours of being in the salon and hearing the conversations from the four different personalities that work there and their different techniques. I shampooed their clients and learned how to have the conversations with them. Shampoos don't take that long. They really don't want you to talk to'em most of the time. So that was pretty simple for me. They had me wash and fold towels. I've been folding towels since I was 16 years old, so 17, however old I was when I started there. So that's a lot of years of folding towels. I learned how to clean product shelves. I learned the different. Types of products that they have there and hearing how they talk to their clients about them. Not a lot, so I didn't hear a lot about the sales of products, but I learned how to answer the phone, how to make appointments I learned the timing behind different surfaces, and I learned the different personalities of the hairstylists. One was outgoing, always running late. One was very meticulous and calm and always on time, and there was another one that talked all the time, but she was very direct and no nonsense. And then you had another one that was very soft spoken and very laid back, but. Very nice. I never thought of it. They had all four personalities working there. That was pretty incredible. But I actually learned about how they each handled their clients, how they have their conversations and how they scheduled their clients. And not all of them had me shampoo their clients' hair. Some of them shampooed their clients themselves and, and didn't have me do everything. I would apply perm solution and rinse out and I would rinse out colors. It was amazing the skill factors that I got there, but it would've been even better if I interned after I knew the knowledge of how to cut hair, how to apply color, I would've probably gone a little bit further understanding, watching their techniques of cutting hair because it was. I had no concept of it, of how haircuts actually got done, and I never thought of watching that part. Silly me, By being a shampoo girl, it was amazing because I got to see the environment of the salon. I knew what to expect. I knew how to. Keep the salon clean and organized and taking out the trash. And they had me mix up color at certain times too, and it, I got a, a little bit of a step up of learning the proportions of mixing color, but thinking about if I would've. I had that experience after I graduated from school or even during school, if I would've had the ability to have that enough hours to get into the salon, well, if I would've had the experience to get in back into the salon while I was in cosmetology school, I think I would've picked up a lot more because I would've been able to watch them get it done instead of just the before and after techniques. Through the years of me working in a salon, I, I learned a lot of different things and I listened to other people how they thought about things, and I realized if I just work my butt off and I work the hours that I'm there, I don't complain. I don't think about cutting anything short. I just do the best I can. And at one of the chain salons. They have of course, or did I have no idea how they do it now, but there's a percentage of your work, productivity, and you got a bonus kicked up higher, the more productive you are per hour, which meant more haircuts in that time. You got stuck with a perm, your productivity went down the manager had this chart on the wall and each stylist had a time of an average haircut for them, and I looked at the, the ones that had been there the longest on how quick they could do a haircut. And I looked at my timing on a haircut. That was probably the the best thing for me because they taught me precision, how to do the precise haircuts. I learned how to do things better, but I also learned, I had the momentum and the challenge in me to get my haircut times down to shorter times. So my productivity worked up there. It was just a game in my head because I respected those ladies and I wanted to be like them. And I think every hairstylist, if they had someone that they respected in their space, they would. Work even harder to become better quicker. Because if you have a role model in your salon that you want to become or they. Motivate you to become better. That is gold because you are gonna find a reason to motivate yourself to become better and want more. Because you're gonna realize if you can get your color applications and everything a little bit quicker, you can cut down the three hours for our one color retouch to. Two hours to one and a half. Most of the clients don't wanna sit there for two hours, three hours. They have a life to live. So the quicker you can get them in and out, they are so much happier. I have a few that love the chill downtime and just enjoying the peace of not having the hustle at home. There's a few of them, but most of'em, they don't wanna sit still for three hours in my chair. I can do a men's haircut and a beard trim in under 15 minutes, and boy, those boys look happy as they're running out the door because they don't wanna sit in the chair for any longer. They might have to have a long conversation with me, and it's not always something that they want. They want a quick haircut. Great. No big deal, but. It's all different things you learn. When I moved into a full surface salon, it was intimidating'cause I had to learn color at that time. I could apply color, I knew what to do. Mixing the color for different color tones, that was a challenge for me at the beginning. And there was a lady there that actually took the time and explained different things to me and helped. Me formulate colors and over time I realized what I was looking for, what I needed to process and, and things like that. And she actually was very helpful and that helped me get. A lot farther in my career once you add the skillset of mixing colors to the right techniques. Now I don't even blink an eye. I can understand exactly how it all works because I know the the color theory behind everything and how one tone can neutralize a different tone. But at that time, I had no idea what the color wheel was for and how it worked and what the heck it meant for a mixing color. But it's everything. Who knew? Having her help me with that was amazing because she understood the art of mixing hair color. I learned how to sit on my butt. A lot at the beginning because you have to put in the time in the salon to wait for someone to walk in to get that haircut. You need to build a presence in the salon. People need to be familiar with your face, with your personality, because if you're helping out in the salon, they see you, they know you, they get more familiar with it, with you. And if a stylist doesn't have time to get their client in for a retouch, they feel comfortable sitting in your chair for you to retouch their hair and. You become indispensable to the older stylists so that they respect you a little bit more. If you put in the work and the time and the effort, you'll be respected more in that salon space. Now, I did a lot of washing and folding towels. I did a lot of organizing magazines and watering the plants and cleaning out the shampoo bowls, and I put my foot down on the cleaning the bathrooms. That's just not my thing. But I constantly did laundry, and I would run and grab food for everyone when they were busy in their schedule and I was sitting there, I would have to escape the salon every so often just to burn off some energy because I was going stir crazy, just sitting there for hours waiting for a client. But that's what had to happen back then. Now we have social media. You can post yourself in the town and create a presence for yourself. People will feel more comfortable seeing your name and a post saying that they have openings. To this day, you become known a little bit more just by how you post on social media and. Oh God, life is so much easier with that. But I will say as of like, it was probably Covid that I actually really dug into Instagram because I used Instagram as the learning tool. All the, the color companies and trendsetters were on there, and they were posting videos and trainings and different things. So I went from barely touching it to just using it as a learning tool. I. To understanding how important social media is really for our career at these times. So for those ladies that aren't busy in the salon yet, create content, start learning how to do something and show it. Bring in your friends, bring in your family. Just charge'em for products if you have to, just so you have pictures to post, because it's amazing whenever you start showing your work on how much different people think of you, because they're finally realizing the skill level that you have and the creativity that you have. If you have a friend that you can just style and post pictures of the style. It's just making yourself present in the social media world and posting your town is going to be very helpful. But I will say as of three years ago was the first time I ever really understood the value of social media to, to grow and become more in your town because of a class I took and it was not easy for me to transition to remember to take pictures, which I still struggle with. But getting comfortable, taking pictures of your clients, asking them if, are you okay with me posting this on social media? Some of them are like, oh God, no, I look horrible. I just finished work. Or I don't have my makeup on, or I have my old clothes and. That's fine. There are some of them. I don't post faces or anything, but it's still a habit. I'm trying to create more. I get busy in the salon and I'm so excited about how it all turned out. Totally forget the taking the pictures so I can post it, because I love transitions. I love a new look and a new haircut and different things, but. It's still a skill I need to get better at, it's crazy to me how much easier it is right now to get your name out there, your use, Instagram, Facebook, I. TikTok everything as your business card, pretty much a portfolio of pictures and and of your different clients and looks out there to become known or to make yourself more of a specialty stylist, knowing that there's only these type of services that you feel that you want in your chair, and creating an expectation of how talented you are in certain services. Because if you focus on certain services, you'll actually get more respected in that area because of that, because that's all you're posting and you're teaching them knowledge and understanding and different things. And. Yeah, three years ago and all the way through is pretty much how I became more comfortable on social media advertising me, my business, my services. It is crazy how much easier it is. I had to go buy newspaper ads back in the day and hope for the best. You have to be careful also because as you're working with people around you in the salon, you can pick up a lot of bad habits. Instead of getting there hungry for a new client ready to wow someone with their color or their cut or anything, they're in there resentful because it's one client holding them there for hours. Instead of enjoying that extra time in the salon, understanding you're making a presence for yourself. So if you have someone else that's. In a bad mood because they don't want to put in the time and effort and it starts rubbing off on you. This is very, very dangerous territory because no one wants to get their hair cut or colored by a stylist that doesn't really wanna be there because you can feel that. It's in your attitude, it's in your movements, it's everything. So you have to find a way to make sure that you don't create bad habits. Don't just not show up one day because you don't have any anyone on your book. You have to create the expectation in yourself that you need to be there four or five days a week from this hours to this hour, and you have to go above and beyond as you're building. The older stylist will not respect you for not being there unless you have a client. Why are they going to want to book you appointments or give you their special clients if you can't guarantee you're going to show up for work this day or that you have to be holding yourself accountable. Because if you have your older stylist in the salon. Suggesting that you need to show up on the days that you're supposed to show up, or you have them suggesting that you need to be a little bit more dedicated to work. It's, it's red flags right there. That means that you're, you're not putting in the effort that they need for you to be useful in the salon and. I've been there. It's hard sitting there all day. You find something to do. I started reading books more. I created more habits of different things. I would sketch at times, but most of it was just a book or reading magazines from cover to cover and doing the crossword puzzle in the back of the People Magazine. And it was finding ti, finding ways to fill your time. If you're a newer stylist now and you are wasting time. Get on social media, start doing research on different hair color techniques and products and whatever else you can get interested in over consume education. It'll make a huge difference for you because you're gonna be more likely understanding a client that comes in saying they want a new haircut that someone named. Make sure that you spend some of your time into learning new things. You have to be aware of. Learning and growing is important. If you don't have the money to invest in education yet, then put yourself out there on social media. Start looking for, someone that just did a hair color that you just absolutely love, or a haircut that you just love and start searching their other videos and see if they're followed by other people or they follow people that have even more talent that you appreciate. And follow'em. Keep searching. Go down that rabbit hole of learning all these new colors and techniques and different artists. You'd be amazed how much knowledge you can get from it, but the bad habits, make sure that you stay away from. Resenting your time in the salon. Make sure that you are putting the effort. If you're sitting still, go throw some towels in the washer. Go fold some capes. Go sweep up someone's hair that has a pile around them. Don't sweep their feet. That's a pet peeve of so many people. But you can sweep the hair around and if you go and you sweep up the whole salon. That owner, our manager, is going to notice. The stylists will notice that you're making their work environment even better. If you invest your time into creating good experiences for everyone, it's amazing. If you help someone's client that's struggling with something or solving a problem, it's, it's gold because you're making yourself indispensable to the salon and they're gonna appreciate you more. So take that time, learn the classes, expand knowledge. I had to do it through hair shows and classes, and it wasn't enough for me. I was so hungry to learn, but there really wasn't that much around that was easily accessible, and I know some of it was my excuses through because I didn't understand the value in educating myself more. And going above and beyond for it. I didn't also understand the value of investing big dollars into education because I didn't see anyone that ever did that and got anything out of it. I worked with one person that she went and invested money into certain classes and. To be honest with her, I didn't see any value come out of it. She did it, but she didn't retain anything and come out on the other side better. So she wasn't a good example for me of how to do it because she did it to say, yes, I did it, but she didn't understand how to carry it back to the salon to make it useful in whatever she needed. So. As you are learning and growing through your process as a hairstylist, I know I figured out what kind of stylist I wanted, I represented. More, or I appreciated certain stylists because they did certain things and that's what I learned through everywhere. I worked of how to become a better, softer person to show that I cared to be a nice, friendly hairstylist. That was a lot of learning for me. It was very challenging to be honest. That's why I read a lot of books. But I learned how to become a stylist that I would want to be serviced with. I want a certain way that I would be talked to and treated. And the, the nice thorough massaging, shampoo is key for me. That's the most relaxing part. That's what people love and remember, but you pick out what you. Want to become as you're going through your career, if you're smart and you also picture what person you don't wanna be, you want to make sure that you don't get overly comfortable. You don't get lazy. You don't take a phone call all the way through someone's haircut because that, to me did not feel like a good customer service perspective. So learn what's right, what's wrong, but also expand past what people in your salon. Talk about or what they know. Because I went to an accountant to learn how to do my taxes. I learned what deductions I could have. But then through the next few years, I was able to file my own taxes for so long because I took the time to learn what deductions I could do, what deductions I can't do, and learned from all this. And that's how my whole goal has been. I learned from someone else and try to consume enough and ask enough questions so that I can take it to my, to the next level for myself and recreate it. It was shocking to me one time when I was working in a salon, Like to help people. I, I know how much I learned from people I worked with, so if there's someone that asks me questions and really wants to learn, I have no problem answering questions and helping. And I try not to over push anything. Everyone's at different levels, but someone was asking me. For help with mixing colors and doing different things and different services, and I didn't realize that they were watching me on how I was doing things, and it was very eye-opening, realizing that what I learned how to do through my youth is repeating to a new youth and when. I was leaving the, the salon, she was most concerned because the senior stylist was gonna be gone. Who are we gonna learn from? Who are we going to ask questions to? And it was a legit concern at that place.'cause everyone was dropping like flies pretty quick. But I. It. That's when I realized, one, I was old and also that someone is actually looking up to me because I've learned and grown through so much, so much and I've, I was able to make someone feel comfortable to ask me questions along the way. So to me that was success because. I am helping repeat the pattern that I learned from and I absolutely loved. So I hope I didn't teach her bad habits'cause I know I have them. But I understood that it was helpful that I was helping the next generation and I have a lot of knowledge through my years of doing this and that's why I decided to do this podcast. But. It is so much of just being the hungry student and wanting to learn more, become better. That will put you over the top and make you more unique because you're willing to constantly learn and grow. And because I love to learn and grow, I want to a younger stylist who has more experience to learn something and become better. It has no age limit on if you're an old stylist or a young stylist. If they have the talent and they took that knowledge and they're willing to talk to you about it, it's huge. You don't have to be an old stylist just to be able to help someone. If you dug in and you learned and you grew and you're successful at it, it's amazing how much you can help someone else grow and learn and not be scared to ask questions. It's, it's huge. So watch your mindset of how you recreate what you want to be, how you create. So think about not only the financial goals of your career, but you need to figure out your mindset. What do you wanna achieve in your career? Do you wanna just focus on one thing, or do you wanna constantly learn and grow? Do you want to help other people? Along the way, or do you wanna stay in a hole and just focus on yourself and your clients? Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect for each person, but you have to figure out what goal you want, what's gonna make you happy in your career. But I will suggest. Learning, growing, finding someone to learn from hands-on is always the best way to learn. And if you can graduate college and go straight into an internship and they take it seriously and they teach you, and to mix color, how to think through a haircut, how to have consultations with your clients. How to set goals would be huge. And if you have someone that's there to help you understand how to manage your money as a stylist and they have good results, that's huge because that's not something many people know or willing to teach because it's a struggle in our career. We have good days and bad days, good months and bad months, and it's figuring out how to survive the bad months. And not overspend on the good months. So you have to under understand so much through this. But sorry, this is, this was my thought process from my whole starting to where I am right now. I'm not at the end. I've got time to go. I love to learn and I wanna keep learning, but be hungry. Watch your mindset on what you want to keep an eye on your mindset of keeping things positive, keeping it in a upswing mode to make sure that you're creating the experience for your clients that you want. Because if you're watching the experience they have, you're going to have more loyalty than you're gonna believe. Because you treat them so well, they want to come in and relax and enjoy. So if I could say one thing, you can start anywhere and you can get anywhere. If you take the time to learn and get better at everything, one step at a time. One service at a time. And if you get that mindset of wanting to improve and to become better, nothing can stop you. You can become the best stylist, the best person, the best influence in your area, your salon. If you just put one foot in front of the other, keep improving and focus on positives. Thank you. Hope you have a great week, see you next week.