Oh for the love of the Job!

Its Sunday morning 7.30am. My 2 young kids (5 and 1 ) are running around my bedroom with total disrespect for the fact that it is SUNDAY....and it is TOO EARLY....



Ive given up telling them to bugger off or they wont get to go to Disney Land this year. I'm ignored. They are wise to my empty threats (and they know full well its actually ME who wants to go to Disney Land anyway). So, Ive hauled ass from my slumber and what am I thinking about? Work!
For most people this would be a bad thing, but I am one of the few very lucky people who LOVE their job.

Me and My husband

I run a busy 5 star salon in a small town that has a higher population of sheep than people but still we seem to do well ( though not so much call for perms these days.....sheep's wool is curly enough....)
I see my little world as a plate spinning performance. Constantly keeping everything going - 2 kids, husband, house, business, 10 employees, clients etc but I'm HAPPY.

This week I have seen 122 clients through my door. I have smiled for approximately 80% of my waking hours. I have sweat in this heat a higher volume than coffee I have poured. If I sit down, my feet throb, and if I get up again they are so sore it feel like I'm walking on glass. My fused spine is ridiculously painful from standing up all day and I am insanely tired. BUT I'M HAPPY.

Why am I doing this? Is it because I'm "too thick" to do anything else? That I didn't get good enough grades that I had to become "just a hairdresser"??
FYI I got all A's, B's and C's. I studied A level Maths, Chemistry, and Biology before I actually got smart enough to realise that I should spend my life doing something that makes me HAPPY.

You see hairdressing really isn't about hair, well not just about the hair anyway. Its not about asking people where they're going on their holidays, if they're out this weekend or inane chit chat about the weather whilst lopping off inches of their locks without their prior approval.

Before I start the transformation

For me hairdressing is about psychology. Its about meeting someone for 5 minutes and in that time assessing their inner needs, insecurities, desires and enhancing the good things in their life.

6 hours of hard work later!

I enjoy the challenge of creating beautiful shapes and textures and colours and having them walk out of the door actually feeling better about who they are. Hair is my medium for art, and the clients satisfy my curiosity for life and human insight.
To create the most beautiful bob, with shine and movement, using colour to enhance the shape, is one of the most satisfying things. All the while building up a relationship with the wearer and knowing that the few hours they have spent with you will actually change them, change who they are inside for the better well that's just something else isn't it?!

So it puzzles me that there is still a stigma about us hairdressers. The misconception that we are thick, bland and shallow. Would you say that of Vivienne Westwood? What about Picasso?
"oh that Picasso, he's just an artist"
What makes us hairdressers different? What makes our Art any less valuable? People pay thousands for pieces of art to hang on the wall that they don't really look at very often, but yet people will quibble over paying a few tenners for a piece of art that is actually a part of them. That will tell onlookers how they feel and who they are, whilst enhancing the beautiful features they have and disguising the not so desirable ones.

Why is this deemed to be "easy work" that only thick people do?

My wonderful team

Is it because we hairdressers make it look so easy? Because we can snip and colour to perfection and hold down a deep and meaningful conversation at the same time, whilst smiling and laughing and generally making your time a little brighter? Possibly.
 It doesn't mean were stupid though. On the contrary. The hairdressers I work with are some of the smartest, brightest, wittiest and HAPPIEST people I know. I thank my lucky stars that this is what I do every day and I get paid to do it!

So, if I was offered the chance to earn £100,000 a year running around in a suit with a fancy title, getting automatic professional respect from everyone I met, would I trade?

Not on your Nelly.