17- Clients vs. Reality: Sylist Edition

This episode we breakdown some of the biggest misconceptions of hairstylist's schedule, paychecks, and everything that happens when you are not in the chair.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, and welcome to Two Chairs, No Filter with Sarah Kate and Holly, where we bring you real life, real beauty, and an unfiltered conversation. Good morning.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Welcome to another episode of Two Chairs, No Filter with Sarah Kate and Holly. Happy Monday.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Happy Monday. It's another gloomy morning so far. It's very good.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I know I need it to um I need it to perk up out there because this is my last Monday with my kids before they go back to school this week. So um we were gonna head to um the water park with some friends in a little bit and have a little day at the water park. So hopefully it will, if not not get sunny, at least just not rain on us all day. Would be great. That should be fun. Yeah, so I did not have them this weekend and I just had the quietest weekend. Like no one was here, it was just me and only one dog. So there was only one doodle here. Um, the calmest of the doodles. So um Bear and I just snuggled all weekend and I read, I read a bunch of books. Not a bunch of books, but I finished a book. I started and finished a book. It was called Um None of This Is True. It's by uh Lisa Jewell, and she's kind of a um suspense thriller kind of writer. And I always like her books. Like when we did our little newsletter last summer and put in our book recommendations, she um one of her books was another one of my uh suggestions for people to read. Um and I liked it, it was really good. It was it was a quick read. Um I breezed right through it, super good.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

So that sounds great. I actually would recommend I'm impressed that you said you read books because I really str I love the idea of reading. And this year I made a pack with myself that I was gonna read 10 pages a day. 10 pages. That that was my commitment. And the only time I have enough focus to read is first thing in the morning when it's quiet. And have you ever heard of the book Atomic Habits? Um, is that where like you have to do stuff 17 times? No, the author talks about and there is some truth to that. Like, I think it's a three-week um habit, how you can create a good habit. But he talks about habit stacking. So for instance, like when you have your coffee, if you have a like a ritual per se to do something else along with it, that that's you have your coffee, you take your vitamins, you know, you read the morning paper, and then you move on with your day. Yes. I have heard of habit stacking. Yeah. So anyway, that's been my thing. So, and because my attention is so bad, I usually end up having to go back and reread. So I really say I'm a slow reader because it takes me so long to finish a book.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I am not a slow reader, I'm gonna be honest. But if if somebody asked me, like, what was that whole book about, sometimes I have a hard time summarizing all of it. I did not before, like, I didn't, I don't, I don't think I did pre-cancer. Like, I probably probably could have like told you a whole bunch of stuff, but I feel like chemo really did some things to my brain, and I my recall is not so great on that kind of stuff. So, like sometimes the kids are like, Mom, what's your book about? And I'm like, mmm, uh, some people like they're uh finding out things about each other. Like, I have the worst time summarizing, but I know what's going on in the book and I'm enjoying the story. But to it's like this one was your comprehension, it's reading comprehension. I guess, or just like recalling the comprehension. Like I know what's going on as it's happening, but like recalling the comprehension, I think is where I'm lacking these days. Um or your working memory. It's something that's it's your working memory or something. Something is off, something is a little off for me these days. So this one was about um these wit two women and they end up meeting each other to happen chance on their birthday. It's both their birthdays, their birthday twins. And um one is like a podcaster, and this other one is this like come to find out, unhinged lady. And um the unhinged lady just kind of inserts herself through various different things into the podcaster's life and convinces her to like do a podcast about being birthday twins, whatever the what. Anyways, there's like murder and you know, controlling and lies, and it was um, it was very convoluted. It was kind of one of those things where you like think you know what's happening, and you're like, okay, all right, so yeah, you like feel bad for her. Like she was, you know, her husband was basically a pedophile and groomed her, but then you're like find out that like all of that's a lie, and she actually, you know, is probably a murderer, but is she like you don't know? Does she just it so it just it had lots of turns and I really liked it? Um, it kept me very interested. But I will say I if I am don't have anything to do, reading is what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 5:20

That's neat.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And like to sit at the pool, I love to sit at the pool and read. So I had the kids and all their friends on Friday at the pool, and I just sat there for probably four hours and read. Wow. No one asked me for anything, like they knew where the snacks were, and that was that.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

And they're old enough that they can that you're fine with not having to keep your eye on them every second.

SPEAKER_01 5:42

No, yeah, they're totally fine. All of them can swim so well, and I was like, this is great. This was actually the perfect Friday. So that was how I got so much of the book read. And then I was just kind of into it, and my weekend was so quiet. I just kept going. Um, and then the other book I started, I started yesterday. I'm probably halfway through it now. I read it before, but um Carter wants to start reading it, and I was kind of I was kind of unsure if he was quite ready for it because he's 10, so he wants to read Hunger Games, and I was like, are we ready for that? What's actually it? Like, I've seen the movies, I've read the books, but all that's been a while, so I was kind of trying to reread and make sure that it's something that like he could handle. So I'm about halfway through it.

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Well, good. Well, I've been reading a silly book. I was bored at my mom's, so I picked it up off her bookshelf and I said, I'm gonna take it home with me. She's like, uh, no worries. So, and it's called Love of My Afterlife, and it's just silly, and it makes me laugh out loud. So, and I haven't laughed out loud reading a book in a long time because I usually like to read nonfiction. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 6:53

I don't think I like to read nonfiction that much.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I like I like nonfiction or self-help or things that I can learn something from.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Okay, I like that. I think I like to check out from reality. So I do kind of like fantasy or you know, fiction just any fiction, honestly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Yeah. I I I want to check out a little bit from reality. Yeah. And the book I've been like a book I read several years ago, probably a decade ago, honestly. I think I was going through my divorce, was called The Alchemist. And I I've heard of that, but I don't think I've read it. It was on my audiobook suggestion on Spotify. So I've been going to sleep to that to re-listen to it. Cause I mean, I do remember a lot of it, but when you re-listen to it, you're like, oh yeah, that's what that's what happened, and this happened. So anyway. Anyway. So this week we had many conversations in the salon about what we're gonna talk about, and we're just gonna kind of cover some what we think as a stylist our client miss or things that we see or deal with.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

I think it's just kind of things that like you know, people think, oh, that definitely happens at the salon, or they have no idea that that's what's going on behind the scenes at the salon.

SPEAKER_00 8:21

Right, exactly. So I think our receptionist, we have two ladies that help us that they don't really necessarily have to work. They come in to work and they know nothing about hair. So probably one of them said, I don't understand why Susie made up name Susie.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Oh, we can't do Susie. We did Rick last time and my dad was losing it. We can't do that.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

We're just gonna Birdie.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Birdie Birdie. Thank you. Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

Love you, Susie. Sorry. Love you, Susie. Sorry. Yeah, so Birdie comes in and doesn't leave any gratuity. Or that's leaves very little. Oh, oh. So which is worse? To not get any gratuity or to get a little like 5% tip?

SPEAKER_01 9:29

So I mean, obviously, like we're not wait staff. Like, you know, everybody we're not making $2 an hour here, right? Like, like a waitress or whatever, where their whole livelihood is off of tips. And I think this is also a hot button topic because like tipping culture's so out of control, right? Right now it is. You know, I mean, it's so out of control. It's everywhere you go, they're asking for a tip. I'm like, I just got a gift card here. I'm not tipping you for the gift card I just bought at Starbucks. Get out of here, you know. So I do think tipping culture is out of control, and people are just like, I think they call it like tip exhaustion or something like that. Like, like there's like a term for it, I think. So all that to say, Holly and I don't ever expect any tips, right? Like, but when people do want to give a tip, um I I I feel like it's the right thing to do to pay the you know 15 or 20 percent of the total. Yeah. Um, I do. I like uh, you know, say it's four, five, six hundred dollars in services, you know, it's extensions, it's color, it's this, that, and the other to just be and hours. That's hours of time to do that kind of client to only tip like $10. I'd rather you just tip nothing. Yeah. Like $10 makes it feel like I did not do a good enough job. Like you sort of appreciate me, but like not really. Right. Um, is I think with the message that I hear, whether that's what the message that they're saying is is, you know, neither here nor there, right? But I that's what I feel. I would rather get no tip in that kind of situation than get like, oh, here's three dollars for six hours of your time. Right, right. No thanks. But I do think that there's um, and maybe you can speak to this a little bit more, Holly, with the like an older generation of not tipping in the salon, um, based on the fact that both Holly and I are our own business owners.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Right. So a lot of times I think that old school way of thinking is you never tip the owner, period. Or in many cases today, you have salon suite owners, you have independent contractors that rent stations within a salon, like in ours. You have so many different models that the customer or the client is unaware of at the surface level. If it's a good run environment, right? You don't understand or see all the separation and division. Um, so I do think that that's kind of old school to think like that, as far as that the owner gets all the money.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Cause yeah, you're actually the million-dollar hairstylist, Holly. I'm not sure if everybody knows that, but Holly is the million-dollar hairstylist.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

So according to my ex-husband. And my our attorneys, our divorced attorneys, joked about that. So, you know, it's not true. That is false.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

And in fact, I mean, uh Holly would probably say that she sees more of her income go out by supporting keeping the salon, you know, supported in the proper ways, you know. So um, so it's definitely not that she's, you know, the one who's rolling in all of the dough. And um, you know, I don't know. I I think it is an old school way to think of like, oh, the salon owner is is the wealthiest one in here. Why would I need to tip them, you know?

SPEAKER_00 13:05

And what I do is in many cases, if you see a stylist that does have an assistant, typically, unless you decipher a percentage to go to the assistant, like when I have Kinsley working with me, I tip her out according to the service and according to what she did. So, you know, there that's coming out of your tip. Yeah, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

The client also.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

Unless they specifically say, Oh, here's money for Kinsley.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Yeah. And you know, in a few cases in the past, because I've had a few of my clients for so many years, they may not leave me a tip every time, but at the end of the year, they give me a nice Christmas gift of cash. Which, you know, a nice, like a tip at Christmas. That's nice. And then recently on one of our potential future weddings, they asked me if we included gratuity in the cost, and we don't. That seems wild to me. That we could just be like, yep, we're gonna tip ourselves. Like, I just find that this is part of the cost.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Like, that sounds crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Like, yeah, you know, every vendor at a wedding should be tipped to a degree if they're providing you a service, like your bartender, your weight staff, your you know, catering weight staff, rather, your DJ, your hairstylist, all of the people that provide a service at a wedding should have a gratuity left.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

I mean, we definitely did at my wedding. Everybody got tipped, like, you know, so I think that's also a little strange when we have weddings and you know, it's a $1,800 wedding or whatever for hair and makeup or whatever. And then it's like, here's $20 for each of you. I'm like, or nothing. Or nothing. Or nothing. Or nothing. Yeah. Right? Like, that's also weird. But um, so I don't know. I mean, take that all with a grain of salt. Like, we're certainly not being like, oh, tip us 40%. We deserve it. Like, that's not what I'm saying. I mean, get, you know, definitely do what you're comfortable with. Um, you know what? Okay, so my girlfriend and I were at Top Golf with our kids last week, last Monday probably, while we were on summer break still. And um we were saying our little like waitress that was there in our little bay for top golf, she was really terrible. Like we had no napkins, we were eating, like, you know, she never filled up our waters, like we had to ask her for everything. And I'm just thinking, like, dang, girl, you know. So then she comes by with the little, you know, handheld blah, blah, blah to check us out. She like doesn't you can't use our gift card. And and so we're like, okay, fine, I guess we'll just pay full price. Why, why would we be here if we can't use the gift card? You know, and she was just like, Oh, yeah, just like call someone else. We were like, okay, thanks for helping us out, you know, whatever. So we pay, and then of course it comes up this tip thing, and I'm thinking, what would I tip this chick on? Like, I had to literally ask her for everything. Like, no, you know, there was no like, oh, it's 950 degrees outside at Top Golf. Maybe I should keep their water filled up, you know. Like, oh, they have three plates of food and four children between them. Maybe they need some napkins. Like, none of this, right? So I'm thinking, what in the heck do I tip her for? You know, and so my girlfriend tipped her first. And so I'm then I'm thinking, dang it, now I have to tip her something. Because I would have just been like, zero. Like, no, you didn't do all you did was drop off things. Like I did the online ordering, like I all you did was walk stuff to my table. That was it. Um, and so I'm thinking, I she deserved a zero tip, you know, but but uh Becky tipped her and I was like, I don't, and and she was like, I didn't feel like she deserved it, but I almost feel like if you tip, like say you just did the five or ten percent or something like that, it's like people don't get the memo that like they sucked. Right. They just think you're cheap.

SPEAKER_00 17:03

And a tip is an acronym, right? To ensure perfect service. I was told that. I've never heard that, but okay. I was told that years ago. That's what tip stands for, to ensure perfect service. But I don't know, I've never heard it, but it makes sense. Yeah, so like why does she think she deserves a tip just because she does that job? You should do your job to the best of your ability.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

And and for that, I'm happy to to pay. Like, I'll pay 20, 25. Yeah, absolutely. Like, if I feel like I've got great service, absolutely, absolutely, I'm gonna, I'm gonna tip. But like you did the barest of bare minimum, and I had to chase you down for literally every single thing. You could have done her job for. I could have done her job for, I just about did, you know. So in that case, I was like, I I really don't want to tip her, you know, and like, but I think Becky's right. The whole point is, you know, you tip them less than their 20%, and they just think you're cheap, not oh, I must have not done a good job at my job. That's right. Like they're not learning a lesson from it, they're just thinking, dang, those chicks were cheap. They got all these kids and they're at Top Golf, and they're just, you know, these whatever snobby, you know, women with their kids. And I like, no, I'm trying to tell you you didn't do a good job. Right. But they're not getting that message, I don't think. And I think Becky's right about that, honestly. So that's that's my two cents, my tip for the day.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

And that's why I guess I feel that way about even with weddings. If I I I just don't, I'm not that person to include a tip to think I'm tootin my own horn before we even get there.

SPEAKER_01 18:46

Oh, I just I don't think that's appropriate at all for us to be like, oh, well, we're gonna go ahead and tip ourselves 20% on your total. No, what? Yeah, it like you should tip us because we did a great job and made your day special.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

You know, and I guess that that brings you to other wait staff issues like a major party, like a big party. Do you include a gratuity? A lot of restaurants will include the gratuity. So, I mean, which I can understand too, because you have the bartender, you have the waiters, you have the clean, you know, the people that bust the tables.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

So yeah, I I can understand when you add it to like a big party, a 10 plus party. I can understand that. That's a lot to coordinate. Um, you know, but I I don't know. I mean, even if I was part of a big party, like I would have tipped you whether like if you hadn't added it on, I would have still tipped, you know, just knowing like, oh, this is a big party, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm I guess like, I don't know. I guess they just put it on there because it's it is so much of a hassle. Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I guess. So another myth that I think a lot of our clients think we as hairstylists, generally speaking, do not get a lunch break. No lunch break.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

No. No, not unless we just have a miraculous time in our day that it's like, oh, I could sit down and eat. And usually it's while somebody's color is processing, or there is that 15 minutes between a client or whatever. But it's not, it's definitely not regular, and it's definitely not like, oh, well, I'm gonna go take my lunch hour now. I'm gonna go and pop across the street to Halcyon and grab a salad or whatever. Um, no, it's not like that for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Never.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

And a lot of times, even if there is that time in your schedule where you think that that's there, a lot of times it still gets eaten up with something else.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yes, it does. And um, the amount of time that it would take us to go out and come back if we did even have a 30-minute window, it's your lunch is shot. Yeah. So yeah. And don't you find at least I think because I've been doing this so long, I'm a very efficient eater. I'm pretty quick. Oh, I eat fast. I eat fast too. Yeah. And it's can be embarrassing if you're out to dinner with others and you're like, okay, I'm done now. Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

I eat really fast. Yeah. So and I think part of that is like eating with kids too. Yeah. Like, you know, I had have my kids on my lap and I'm like trying to shovel in food above their head like while they were babies or whatever. Yeah, exactly. I was trying to eat as fast as I could because they were like, okay, they're good at the restaurant for this 10 minutes. Like, I have to get this food in now.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

I know. And I like to have options that I can eat, you know, uh quickly. Like I I try to think about okay, what do I have going on today? What do I have to bring to keep my energy sustained because I need to eat and I can't go hours without eating. I ha I'm small. Eat is small.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

You do you you eat lots of little small things throughout the day, which I think is great. Yeah. That's probably why your metabolism is so quick. Yeah. Which is Lovely. So last night I um a meal prep for Brian, which he's like, meal prep, meal prep, we got a meal prep. And I'm like, he's like, what can we meal prep? I'm like, I know you got a mouse in your pocket. You're asking me, which is fine. I don't mind cooking. That's fine. But like he wants to know what we can both combined eat. Like what can I meal prep that he will eat and I will eat? And like the answer is zero. I don't want to meal prep for a whole week of meals to eat the same thing for lunch every day for a week. I don't really like anything that much. To eat it every day for lunch. So I am just concerned about feeding him because he's you know at school at 7 a.m. and then doesn't leave sometimes with after practice and meetings and all that until 9 30, 10 o'clock at night. He needs two meals. So I I know, I know. So um I made little protein muffins out of the Kodiak protein mix um and put blueberries in them because he's a blueberry fan. Um, did I look at a recipe? Absolutely not. Apparently I should have because they needed some extra sweetness. He was like, these taste very healthy.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

There's a recipe on the bag of the box for muffins.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Well, you have to add- I think there was like some smushed ripe bananas in there, and I didn't have any smushed up ripe bananas.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

So yeah, you missed that, and maybe it's like a third of a cup of egg in there. I I threw an egg in there, I threw uh some vanilla extract in there. You're doing good, and and I think I think it's like a third or a fourth or a half a cup of sugar. Maybe it's a third of a cup of sugar. Is there really?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah, okay, because he literally said, Did you put sugar in these? And I go, Oh. So his healthy muffins, he did eat, but um, he said, we could just maybe tweak the recipe next time. That is so funny.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Or it's honey. It's honey or it's sugar that it calls. Okay, fine. Okay, next time you'll do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Next time I'll read a flipping recipe. Um, okay, so and then um he likes to have hard-boiled eggs, so I made him hard-boiled eggs. He was like, This is like two breakfasts. I was like, You're there all day. You can just have this for a snack. Like, just just eat more. Um, and then I sent him some of those um beef jerky sticks, those chomps, beef jerky sticks. And then I made him, um, which this is so out of my wheelhouse. If you know me at all, you know this is not my vibe. I was ready to gag while I was making it. Um, he bought chicken sausage. So I cooked that in the air fryer. Um, he wanted some rice and he wanted uh sweet potato. So I made him little meals of that. And then he had some like hot honey barbecue sauce or something, I don't know, some sort of sauce, teriyaki or something like that. So I just put that all over it. So that is what he is having all this week. Um, but no part of him. I I would have eaten the sweet potato and the rice, but absolutely not on that sausage for sure. Absolutely not. Um, but hopefully it's good. I don't know. I didn't really have him taste anything last night. So he'll be hungry enough, he'll eat it no matter what. That's it. He goes, I like all of these components by themselves. And also, if I didn't like it, I would literally never tell you. Although he was real quick on those muffins this morning. He left the house and he called me, I don't know, 30 minutes later. I'm like trying to fall back asleep. He's like, uh, I don't think these muffins are quite hidden. I go, is that what all you called me for? Was to tell me the muffins weren't good.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. I add in that mix when I make mine, I do chocolate chips.

SPEAKER_01 26:01

Oh, so I do, I always make them with chocolate chips with my kids, and I don't add any other sugars. So that's why I didn't really even think about it. Like I do the same thing for my kids. I don't even think I add an egg usually, honestly. I'm like, here's your muffins, kids. Yeah. So I think because I always make them with chocolate chips, that is sweet. So I never thought, like, oh, you have to add more sweetness to this protein pancake mix. So, anyways, uh, it was a relative fail, but you know, better luck next time. The thought is there, you know.

unknown 26:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

When anyways, all that to say, no, I'm not bringing, I'm not meal prepping for myself either. The only thing that I basically meal prep to bring for lunch at work is a salad, and I'm too scared to eat salads. Although last night I ate a salad out. I ate a salad out. So hopefully I'm not getting the the poop bacteria. Oh, good. I mean, it takes two weeks to develop, so we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 26:56

That's insane. That's insane. I uh you know, when Nick was on the road doing his landscape job, I was making his lunch every day. I was like, make a lunch. He can eat lunch meat. I I could do it once in a while if it's a certain kind of lunch meat, which I would try to buy the kind that's like free of nitrates.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Nitrates, night, yeah, all the things. All of that.

SPEAKER_00 27:24

Yeah. But still, I just can't do lunch meat. So I typically for lunch at work will bring leftovers, or if I have nothing, it's tuna fish.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

So if I have nothing, I'm having some cottage cheese. Like I'm just having a big scoop of cottage cheese, and I'll just like eat it with some little pita chips and call it a day.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

Yep. So no, your stylist does not get a lunch break, period.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

She but she's probably stuffing down a couple bites of her protein bar while she mixes your color. Exactly. That's what she's doing. So she comes out of the bag chewing, it's because she's eating her protein bar 100%.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

That's that's why I had that little mini fridge back there. So I have to think about it. If I know I'm gonna have no time, I could just keep my food back there and take a couple bites in between. Yep. So if you look at our color table in the back, it usually has drinks, someone's lunch, someone's lunch, and a mess. Chemicals and food and hair and brushes, and we use hair clips to keep our chips sealed. Right?

SPEAKER_01 28:33

It's true, we do. Yeah, all of that. We do. So and not and if we're like coming back to our lunch, we'll put a piece of foil over it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

From our foil bin. From our bin. We're real fancy. Real fancy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

So speaking of supplies, supplies cost a lot. I don't know that our clients quite realize how much a box of foils is, for example, or how much our shears cost.

SPEAKER_00 29:05

You know, the year of the pandemic, I think our gloves went up three to four hundred percent.

SPEAKER_01 29:16

I would believe that, because that probably sort of fell into like PPE that people were like really buying and there was probably just a shortage on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's probably around the time uh well, no, maybe not. Uh maybe that was about the time when I switched from buying foil at this lawn store to foil from Sam's Club.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 29:40

Because that it's the same exact stuff, and it is exponentially more expensive at this lawn store. At least double.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Yeah. Yeah. And even the other day, one of our part-time temporary college girls, she said, You need to do what Deborah uses for foil. I said, I can't. I I go through that. Oh, the roll? Yeah, I can't. I'd go through too much of that. I would too. And the roll's expensive. It's expensive.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

It is expensive. I don't feel like I would be that good at it either, but that roll's expensive. It's cute and it's pretty and it's like fun and fancy, but I I would go through too much of it for sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

Me too. So it's not worth it for me. And I I tried lately, I've been buying um my my gloves are green, but they're literally green. They biodegrade, so I've been using those instead of regular ones. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

Oh, I should use those. That would make me feel better about the world.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Yeah. And I mean, once we get our because I I use that brand, but I all of them aren't biodegradable, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 30:42

Just the green ones.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

Yeah, I think I had I think I order them direct, but I try to use those. And because at home this year, I've been on a real um recycling um kick. And so when Sean came into the salon the other day with his all his plastic water bottles to dump, he's like, Where's your recycle bin here? And I was like, I don't have one here, but in our new space, I'll have one to put our plastics in. But um anyway, I just trying to be more conscious. I'm not going, I'm not gangbusters with anything, as you know. But if I can make small changes, subtle changes for the environment, I'm down with it. So I'm here for that.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

I'm here for that.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

I like it.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

So, and how much do a pair of cutting shears cost?

SPEAKER_01 31:27

Oh my gosh. So I think people are always surprised with uh by that when we tell them how much our shears cost. They're like, What? So I mean, it can be just like a couple hundred dollars with for a fine pair of shears for sure, but then it definitely goes up into the thousands for just a single pair of shears. And then like add on top of that, like getting them sharpened, you know, several times a year, and like which is not crazy expensive, but still like the maintenance on them has to be done. Right. Um, you know, to keep them in good working order. But I mean, by the same token, both Holly and I still have our shears from hair school. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't I don't use them. No, and I've never had those sharpened. Never. I I might have, I might have. I can't remember if those are I think they're here, I think they're at my house. I think I might use those um on trimming around the dog's faces. So I still have them, but I don't use them on like humans. Not usually. I mean, I could, but not usually.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

Yeah, so the maintenance on them depends on how freak how well you take care of them, what kind of metal they're gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 32:33

I mean if you're dropping them, whatever, like that's you have to get them sharpened if you drop them. Yeah. Um, because they get chips in like the blades. I don't know, in the blade. Yeah, sorry. It's like what's the way they need to have a little oil on them to keep them, you know. But I mean, just like your kitchen knives, you know, that like they just start to get dull. You can't cut through a piece of chicken to save your life. I mean, that's how you know hair shears are, so you have to get them sharpened. Um but we can't do that ourselves. No, we have to pay somebody to do that. Um, so that's expensive. Um hair dryers, curling irons. Oh my gosh, yeah, all that is a lot, you know. Um, I I'm still limping along with my um Dyson, which if you're my client, you know is like not my favorite hairdryer that I've ever had, and I never recommend it to people, and I would never get another one, but I'm just limping along with it because it's like not broken, and I just don't want to spend another $400 on another professional hairdryer. Exactly. I'm like, it's still working, so I'm just gonna leave it.

SPEAKER_00 33:33

You know, and this one I've had to I bought two, had to return both of them on warranty. And then your green ones, your new ones? No, my Dyson. So I'm I'm still running on one Dyson, which I had been using more lately because my green one, I couldn't figure out how to get the back end off it to get the filter clean. Yeah, because it wasn't blowing air much because the the filter was so filled, but I got it clean and it doesn't sound bad anymore because it was louder. Oh. Because uh think about it, the engine was working harder, probably the motor, yeah. So, you know, for those of you at home, definitely maintain your hairdryer. Take that little filter off the back, clean it out. If you can run it onto water or get an old toothbrush or something and just get the dust off because you'll be surprised. And that's what owning a Dyson taught us is oh for sure we have to maintain the filter and get that off weekly for me. Try to anyway. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

I don't think I'd ever cleaned a hairdryer filter in my life before I owned a Dyson. I agree. Uh ever in my whole life had I even thought about a hairdryer event or filter, right? Not once. And Dyson was like, funny story. Now it's gonna be your obsession. Yeah. Have I cleaned my filter? Is this the clean filter? Is this your filter? Is this my filter? Because you know, between the three of us at this lawn, we had five Dysons. Yeah, you know, and so it was like, filter is this, is this yours? Like, I need a filter, my filter is dirty. Do you have more in your cabinet? Like, yeah, we're obsessed with this Dyson filter because we none of us wanted our our um dryers to break, and they're so persnickety over cleaning this daigum filter. So, anyways, now we're all filter conscious and all of our dryers, whether it's a Dyson or not. Yeah, you know, I've even cleaned my dryer at home. Yeah, the filter at home, yep.

SPEAKER_00 35:39

Which is not a Dyson, but I have cleaned it. Yep. And I have an air wrap at home, and that thing, the filter's a little different than our hair dryer filter, but it does blink like our dryer does to tell me that oh, you need to clean this filter, get it together, get it together.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

So, yes, I th our supplies and and I would say since COVID, they've gone exponentially up.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Yes, and you know what's gone up? And if it wasn't for one of our um inventory girls at work, keeping the cost, supply costs in the computer, 30% hair extensions have increased due to tariffs so much. I would say due to tariffs and just like demand, wouldn't you say?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yeah, I feel like so many people have hair extensions in the past five-ish years, right? Exactly. Exactly, you know, so that has definitely gone up a lot, definitely hair extensions really a lot, and that's just the hair, you know? So then that just the cost of the hair, let alone you know the time of putting them all in. Like it's I mean, it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

It's a lot. So with that being said, if how do you feel if one of your clients can't get into you but they really need their hair done?

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Oh, um, you know, that doesn't hurt my feelings because like I think I mean, uh at the end of the day, I just want all my clients to feel good and and feel pretty every single day. So if I can't get them in to get their hair color done or whatever, and they're about to leave town, like I absolutely will look to see if we can put them in on somebody else's book. Um, you know, see if you've got time or see if Deb can get them in or something like that that works with their schedule. Um, you know, I mean, we keep all our color formulas in the computer for the most part. And if it's not in there, we know each other well enough to just say, hey, so and so's coming in, what do you use on her? Um so it's not like you're gonna get some bad service by coming with somebody else. Um, you know, and even if it's just like, you know, I'm so nervous about my haircut with somebody else, like, but I really need my roots done, then just come and get your roots done. We'll get you in for a for your haircut later, you know? Yeah, I agree. Um, and that doesn't ever hurt my feelings. And and if, you know, Holly's clients sometimes come to me, uh, like when they're paying, I'm like, okay, do we need to like find your next appointment to book with Holly?

SPEAKER_00 38:07

Yeah, I do the same.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Uh say that because I'm not trying to be like, I'm not trying to poach anybody. Like it's, you know, this is somebody who's come to see you for years, and you know, of course, she wants to be with you. She just couldn't get in on your schedule, which life life life. Yeah, you know, life life. So I don't that doesn't hurt my feelings at all. So um, and I and probably not every salon atmosphere is like that. You know, they're probably I would have said that the salon we met at was probably not quite like that.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

That salon was like, you can't even look, or why are you saying hi to my client? Why are you looking at her?

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Like literally, I mean Yeah, it was very um aggressive. Oh, was it ever? It was very aggressive. So um if which I mean, Holly and I are just these kind of people in the first place, but we would have never brought that salon atmosphere to another salon because that's just not who we are. Um, both of us just want our clients to feel beautiful, I think.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

So 100%. So, I mean, at least in our salon, if you can't get in with me, can't get in with Sarah, you are free to go. Like, we'd rather you go to one of us than to go elsewhere to try to find something. Absolutely. Yeah. And with that being said, too, I mean, that even leads into like last minute cancellations and and vacation time and all of the time that we may not be able to be at the salon, or if you last minute have something come up, we don't get paid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

Somebody we definitely try, I mean, I understand like life life. Yes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

I do understand, but I I I mean, just common courtesy to me is to let people know as soon as you can.

SPEAKER_00 39:56

As soon as you can. Like you can't help it if you wake up that morning and your kid's sick or you have a flat tire, your car doesn't start. All of the things happen and we get that. But I mean, then on the other note is somebody asked me when I was directing from doing a shampoo. I was telling the receptionist what to do in the case of a client scheduling a keratin uh treatment. That's basically we reserved two and a half to three hours on our schedule for. And the client didn't understand that for that, those three hours, say with you, you're not booking anyone else in those three hours. So three hours of your time is basically taken up from another client from being able to schedule with you and taking money away from you if they don't show up. Right. So that's why we take a deposit.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

Now, for my regular people, I don't, but in general, but if it's somebody new who's like calling in and they've like seen that we offer certain products and they're like, hey, I really want this smoothing treatment, and I'm coming to your salon, I'm not a regular client there, da-da-da-da. We do take a deposit for that. Because at the end of the day, like if you change your mind, I don't want to be out three hours worth of making money.

SPEAKER_00 41:17

Plus, like, if we have to buy the product, whether it was hair extensions or for um keratin treatment, we have to buy that product. And that product is substantially more expensive than just even not saying hair color isn't expensive, but it substantially costs us more too to have on hand. So we have to be able to protect our time and our boundaries as well. Yeah. And our costs because we're all just small businesses trying to make it.

SPEAKER_01 41:49

Actually, yeah. Truthfully, like we are just small business owners trying to make it and trying to keep it affordable for everybody, but also make sure that we can still pay our bills at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

And pay, you know, our overhead to stay open because that's a whole nother ball game for a lot of uh small businesses paying their rent and and doing all of the things that it takes.

SPEAKER_01 42:11

And like obviously, Holly and I love what we do.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

Oh, I do.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

I love what I do. I love going to work every morning. I never feel like, oh, I have to go to work, you know. That's never, I never feel like that, which is such a blessing. But like, let's be real. At the end of the day, all of us are working to make sure that we can support ourselves. And to support our life, right?

unknown 42:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:35

To support our kids, to support ourselves, like keep a roof over our heads. Like all of us are doing that. Um, so we're, of course, so thankful that we can do this and love what we do. Um actually, we had a conversation um at the salon the other day about winning the lottery, that huge lottery.

SPEAKER_00 42:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 42:53

And how we were like, um, because the Powerball is like almost 800 million, I think.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Today.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Um, and so I was saying something like, you know, because in Georgia you can claim it anonymously, which obviously would be the way to go. I was like, so you can claim it anonymously, but like there would be signs, like for sure there would be signs, but I still feel like there like there, we would want to do something, right? Like we would still want to like have a salon that was like totally free, or we would still want to work some, right?

SPEAKER_00 43:26

I have a soft space for single moms, especially single moms with small children in less fortunate situations. So I would figure out a way that I could educate them if it whether or not it was doing hair, like some sort of grant program or something. I would do something with that realm, you know.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

Yeah, I I don't know how it would work out, but I just feel like there's some way that like we would offer our services or our knowledge or something like that. Yeah. Like at a such a reduced cost. Yeah. I don't know. Just something. You know, like where it's where there's, you know, the charities or whatever that, you know, you can go shopping for clothes.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Do the same feels like dress per dress like dress for success kind of thing. Something. Yes, but like hair for success.

unknown 44:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

I don't know. Because if like you feel good when you go to your interview, or you know, you have this corporate job and like, you know, it's but you're just starting out, so you don't have all this money to do, or or you have kids and you can't be pampering, not pampering, but pouring into yourself, you know. I don't know. I would totally find some way to like still do what I do, but at a rate that could be beneficial for people who needed it.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

And what was your first luxury that you would do? Mine would be a chef. I don't want to ever go to the grocery store again, and I wouldn't be mad about never cooking again.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

Okay, that's a pretty good one. Um a masseuse? Can I have a masseuse on hand?

SPEAKER_00 45:15

Like just for dinner.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

Anytime I want to have a massage, I would just like have a masseuse on hand. I think that might be it. Maybe that's just my feelings today. Because I also don't really want to cook and go to the grocery store, but I also don't want to drive anymore. Like I don't want to drive. I don't want to fill up a gas tank. Like, I no, I don't want to do that either. So like I do want a chauffeur and a chef. Like housekeeper.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Somebody to clean my house for me. I don't want to live in like the Brady Bunch. I don't want to live in Alice, you know. No, just come do the audios. Yeah. Yeah. That's fine. Weekly.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

So okay, okay. Maybe like a real a masseuse or a real deal housekeeper that cooked and cleaned.

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00 46:03

That's two hats. A cook is very like creative, I think. I mean, how creative are you with your eating, Holly? Not very. And that's what I was thinking when you were talking about the eating part. Like, I would say I was a clean eater, but clean means like no chemicals or no bad stuff. But I don't like sauces and mixtures of stuff. I mean, literally, Nick messaged me on Saturday and says, I'm gonna pick us up barbecue. You don't even eat barbecue. Thank you. I said I said, just get who's us. Who are you picking up for? I said, Nick. You and the dog. Just get some bar chicken with no sauce. No sauce. And what I open the fridge, and I kid you not, and I love him, and I know I should be building him up for even doing this. He gets like a quart-size Ziploc of chopped up smoked chicken. He gets like the pints, but the big ones, they look like 24 ounces of sides. Sides. Exactly what I asked him not to do in the text. I said, I eat no sides at barbecue. There's not one thing I like at other than cornbread. I'll eat cornbread and I'll eat meat and add a little. Like, what about like some baked beans? Were there baked beans involved? Will you eat a baked bean? Not out of a can. Oh. And I know I won't even try them. I won't even try them. And I hate potato salad. It's the texture.

SPEAKER_01 47:41

Oh, okay. Textures? That's fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 47:44

In the mixture. Like, I don't like a lot of mayonnaise. Even when I make my tuna, I do a lot of mustard and a little bit of mayonnaise. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:52

So I don't like a potato salad. I don't like to order a potato salad out because 100% they're gonna have sweet pickles in it and it's gonna be sweet. And I don't like that. Me either. I don't like a sweet pickle, not for anything. I don't make a sweet, I don't put a sweet pickle in anything. I don't even have a jar of sweet pickles in my house. Like, ugh.

SPEAKER_00 48:09

No. And I grew up, obviously, in New England, and there's such a thing as Boston baked beans. Yes. So my mom would make baked beans. I swear it was Saturday night thing. Saturday night baked beans. So I will eat those because they're very, very small navy beans. And you soak them and cook them in like molasses and brown sugar and stuff. So they have a little sweetness, but no barbecue sauce. So I haven't had those forever. I would eat my mom's beans, and but I'm on beans. It's the texture.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

Okay. That's fine. That's fair. I can I can appreciate that. I don't even eat, I don't like cooked fruit, so that's a texture issue. I don't want a cobbler. I don't want a pie. I didn't even try one of those blueberry muffins I made. Obviously, I should have because they weren't good. Maybe with sugar in them. Oh he goes, try it, try it. And I go, I don't want that. He goes, uh, cooked fruit.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

I was like, I don't want that. That's right. So we're all finicky in our own little ways, but I don't know what this has had to do with hair today. No, we really over the board. We really did start out trying to like talk about some myths about the tipping and about stylists in case you didn't know. Yeah, and we're all off in left field talking about food a lot today.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

And I ate breakfast before we started. I have not eaten breakfast yet. I've had a cup of coffee, but I've not eaten breakfast yet. So well, we we'll get there. Today was today was a day, girls and boys. Yeah. Thanks for listening. Thanks for hanging in there with our chatter. Just like another day in the salon with Sarah Kate and Holly. In case you wonder what it's like with us, this is it. Um sort of run on a script and then we go into left field. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:07

So it could go from good to worse. So but today was kind of funny and talking about all of our distaste with food.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

You know a little bit more of the inner workings of Holly and Sarah Kate now.

SPEAKER_00 50:21

We hope that you guys have and girls have a beautiful week and do something fun with your hair and clean your blow dryers. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Clean your tools, um tip your stylist.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

Go see somebody else if you need your yeah. On yeah, only tip your weight staff if they give you perfect service. And you know, all of to ensure perfect service. That's right. On that note, we'll talk to you later. Have a good one. Bye.