I am a very good hairdresser. You can judge for yourself: https://www.instagram.com/crowbarber . I know most of my technical mistakes or most that I can improve, but there are a few areas where I have problems when it comes to my mental game.
NEVER TRUST AN ARTIST
I’ve always had this saying: “Never trust a hairdresser who says he’s an artist.”I’ve been saying this for a long time, because when I was younger, I worked with people who boasted about their artistic talent and I noticed that they never listened to their clients because they thought their ideas were better than their clients.
In truth, they cut a haircut that they liked every time, because that was how artistic they were. I found them pretentious, and I always cared about the service part of this job, not the “I’m too cool for you” attitude anyway.
I understand that this setting works for some people, but I will always bet on excellent Service and a fantastic haircut. I like clients who also like this state of mind, they are much more relaxed.
I’m older now, and if someone calls me an artist, I participate. The definition of an artist is “a person qualified for a particular task or profession”, and I fit this definition. We train all day, so why not take a compliment and run with it.
But, you see, I’ve been struggling with my own Ego recently, so I wonder if I fall into the category of people I despised so much at some point.
“BORING” WORK
I work in a small town, and there are times when I find the haircuts that I cut every day flat or boring or when I judge the tastes of the person in my chair boring or uninformed.
I have another saying that I say quite often: “Sometimes I get paid for my expert opinion and sometimes I get paid for ignoring it.”I know that when I work in a hair salon, I can’t always cut “fun” cuts or technically difficult cuts that I like to see, or I know that they are suitable for this client. Sometimes someone wants something so badly that they pay me to skip sixteen years of training.
When someone asks for something else, I wade in, and I like the challenge of disassembling a haircut in my head and mounting it on someone’s head, navigating the interference zones (Cowlicks and Crowns), the hair texture and the personality of the guest at the same time.
I can sometimes get angry when I don’t feel challenged or when I feel that everyone sitting in my chair has terrible taste.
Big hideous
So, how do I deal with my big hideous Ego when it flares up?
Well, the first thing I have to do is wait for it to calm down. It can take fifteen seconds, an hour, a day or a week, depending on how I feel about it. With a little practice, the time required for this is much less than before.
However, there are days, weeks, months during which I live for a long time with this Facet of my personality, and I still struggle in my daily life when this happens.
I think this Ego crisis ignites when I am disinterested and dissatisfied with my life in general. It can be any number of things, even the fact that I don’t bring my personal opinion about a client’s hair into the conversation enough.
These days I am more aware of how I manage my inner “monster”. I can take a mental step back and remind myself that this person is paying me to cut their hair the way they want it. In the end, the Service is not about me, but the person comes out and is satisfied with the way I cut his hair.
I hope that I will move to the other side without causing too much chaos and conflicts with my clients, but I am sure that it is a deterrent for anyone that I come into contact with the slightest change in mood.
I AM ELIGIBLE
Secondly, I must admit that I am right and that I expect all the hair I cut to be “interesting”.
Part of me (the non-Ego part) thinks that shaving should be about the client, but the other part of me (the Ego part) doesn’t understand when someone asks for something (pushing their hairline back, shaving their crown while staying five centimeters at the hairline, texturing curly and frizzy hair) which, I know, makes the cut less aesthetic.
I try to teach people, but sometimes I’m confronted with a client’s Ego, and when that happens, I usually back down and give them what they want, even though I know it’s better.
I am so tired of cutting Pompadours with super smooth hair, three Cowlicks at the front hairline and two crowns. It’s not that I can’t make it look okay…it is just that, in my opinion, this haircut is not suitable for the type of hair. I don’t understand why anyone would want to wear a haircut for which they have to use a hard maintenance product just to have a facsimile of what someone with much thinner and more flexible hair would wear, and a jacked facsimile to that.
My solution is simple. I speak my Ego in front of the cliff and focus on providing the best possible haircut that I can cut within the parameters given to me. Since I gave myself permission to withdraw from my Frustration and anger, my days have improved.
In conclusion
I’m not a perfect person. I have a way of working, and I have a way that I want people to watch, a way that I believe they make the best of what they can watch. It took me a long time and I made a lot of efforts to get to the point where I can competently perform any haircut on any type of hair.
This does not mean that every haircut I give is in the mood with The guest on my chair. They will have their own Vision, whether I like it or not, and I will learn to agree with it. It’s a struggle some days, but I’m up for the challenge, I’m ok with “boring” as long as I know I’ve executed it accurately.