I go to work as a hairdresser today for the last time. I always knew it would happen, maybe not so soon though.

I started hairdressing school in 1993 but I didn’t really begin my career as a stylist until 1996. That was the year hairdressing became my career, or maybe more my identity. 

I have gone from a starving apprentice to a fully booked stylist, to a platform artist, to a starving salon owner, to a fully booked salon owner working five days a week, to four days, then three days, then two… I stopped being the highest earner in my company about three years ago. I still hold the record month, though I suspect a 26 year old member of my team is going to beat that pretty soon. She easily could if she worked four days a week instead of three. And I will celebrate it when it happens.

Salon ownership is hard. It is usually ego that made us open the salon in the first place. “Asshole is taking half of my money. And he doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m going to do it better.” So we open a salon built around us and make ourselves the star of the company. And this is the right way to do it. In order to be an inspiring mentor, you need to have climbed the mountain yourself. But this is when most owners go wrong. They like being at the top of the mountain and they want to stay there.

Once I figured out that I couldn’t do everything alone and that I needed my team to be stars in there own right rather than just my supporting cast, it became my mission to make them all develop mastery of my knowledge of hairdressing and success. My ceiling needed to be their floor, because if they all knew what took me years to develop and figure out (it’s not complicated, but I had to sift through a lot of nonsense and have a lot of experience to develop my systems), then they could use it as a foundation to branch out and develop their own. The sky would be the limit.

By taking myself off the floor, I am now going to be able to truly dedicate my energy to helping and pushing my team to success. Since having children, I’ve lost the extra time I had to communicate with my team. I’ve always been a hardass, but I’ve devolved into a hardass who doesn’t have time to nurture. I’ve allowed my company to run itself, thinking to a degree that few people cared anyways. My bad attitude and inability to be present has manifested into a stagnant salon company. I’ve allowed resistance and negativity to develop because of my own resistance and negativity.

So today marks the last day of my career as a stylist. I will miss the relationships I had developed and how incredible it is to follow people’s lives over a long period of time. Telling my clients has been profound, many have been with me for 19 years, one for 21. There have been a lot of tears and a lot of great stories and reminders of how cheeky I used to be. I’ve been overwhelmed. 

I’ve had an amazing career as a stylist and have also had a pretty great career as an owner. But it’s time for me to make some big changes in my life in order to help my team have great careers. And I know that some of my staff will be resistant to my increased presence. Some will likely quit or perhaps be encouraged to seek employment elsewhere. But I am excited to be able to fully commit to my company and team once again. 

It’s an old adage we often say without really thinking about. But what does it really mean?

I had an experience a few weeks ago with Aeroplan. I wont go into the details but after being transferred to the Customer Service Manager, Albert, I was immediately met with defensiveness. Now if you’ve never heard me on the phone, you should know that I am not the one. I get serious very quickly.

Within seconds, Albert was talking over me. There was literally 2.5 hours of drama and arguing and waiting while the customer service MANAGER went on a mission to prove me wrong. He absolutely disagreed that I could have interpreted things differently. He was arguing over semantics.

I finally asked him if he even knew what it was I wanted. That perhaps all of this could have been avoided if he had just taken a second to find out what I was looking to do. So he asked and I told him. Within a minute, he said he could credit me and I had gotten exactly the result I was looking for. I told him he needed to learn empathy as a customer service person. Yet he was still angry. And Aeroplan and Visa lost a reasonably large account.

I see hairdressers do this all the time. The client feels the colour is too _____ and the stylist pulls out the swatch to show how it’s exactly what the client asked for; to prove the client wrong. But at what cost?

In our efforts to be right, we often spend time trying to “win” rather than fixing the issue. I’ve seen 20 minute conversations/ arguments instead of action. When all the stylist needed to do was recognize the client doesn’t like their hair and is unhappy. Just shut up and listen. Agree with them. And then bring it down or brighten it up. Break it up with a little highlight or lowlight. Just shut up and fucking fix it.

Even worse, I’ve seen hairdressers try to sell shitty work. Or tell a client to live with it for a few days, “it will lighten up.” The client is there and they are unhappy and you know it isn’t your best work, fix it! Right then. Letting a client leave less than happy is a bad habit to get into and a recipe for disaster, to you as a hairdresser or to the salon itself. And there are many owners who are short-term thinkers, who value the cost of a tube of colour more than they value their reputation.

Recognize that when a client is expressing her unhappiness, most of the time she is substantially more upset then she is letting on. IT’s HER HAIR! There is no “living with it for a few days.” She is going to ask every one of her friends what they think. And if it’s not great, every single person now knows your name and how you let her go into her weekend with hair she hates. And people love some drama. And some gossip. Don’t be the centre of it for a circle of friends or co-workers. Your reputation will forever be tarnished.

And the client will will almost never tell her friends that she asked for this shade, or that she was warned about the result and she went with it anyway. It will just be that you made her hair “black.” When she calls her brown hair black, just agree it’s too dark and put in 4 or 5 foils around her face to break things up a bit.

This is not to say there aren’t some crazy people out there, who say “It’s too light.” “Now it’s too dark,” when you fix it. Or chronic complainers who always need something fixed. I see those people too, and once you determine the client is like this, you need to put your foot down knowing you may lose them as a client. And that is OK. But there aren’t that many of them. The vast majority of people just want to look pretty and have nice hair.

The mark of a good hairdresser is not just the great work they do, but how they deal with things when they go wrong. And ultimately it’s the client who decides when it’s right or wrong.

You’ve heard it before and it’s a wonderful ego stroke; your clients praising your genius and telling you they will follow you to the ends of the Earth.

“I can’t live without you, I will follow you anywhere.”
“Nobody has ever done my hair as well as you.”
“I need you to come live with me and do this every morning.”

And then suddenly you realize it’s been months since her last visit and she isn’t booked for anything upcoming. You stalk her Facebook page and see she doesn’t have roots. Maybe she even unfriended you.

You did her wedding hair, you were with her through the tough times, supported her through the break-ups, did her baby’s first haircut. You were a part of all her major milestones. She was more than just a client. What happened?

There are a lot of reasons clients move on. And it is usually something small that we aren’t even aware of. But often it comes down to a couple of things:

• If you are always running 10 minutes behind, she eventually got sick of it and started walking in already expecting to be frustrated with your lateness. And you probably delivered.
• Someone somewhere along the line didn’t treat her like the valued customer that she deserved to be treated as.
• The parking became more trouble than it was worth.
• You were too hard to get in with or your schedule changed.
• You were no longer delivering on the hair.

But there is a common issue that confuses most of us, given the relationship we thought we had established; you became too familiar and too casual with your service.

Maybe it started with you telling her to help herself to coffee, or making a small crack about something you thought would be OK but for her was off-limits. It didn’t happen right away, it had built up to a point where once you could do no wrong, now you could barely do anything right. In her mind. It might have been that she was just having a bad day and there was one tiny thing that set her off.

Here is a list of things you can do to try to retain your clients for as long as you can:

• Never become too familiar. Always treat them like a VIP. You may make jokes but be incredibly protective of their experience with the salon.
• Pre-book your clients. It protects you from her co-workers and friends trying to lure her to their stylist.
• Have a plan for her hair. For the same reason as above. But even more importantly, a plan means you are always making her hair priority number 1 during visits. And this is where we often fail with longer-term clients.
• Sit down each visit and have a consultation. Shut up and LISTEN.
• Good hair is not enough. Everyone expects good hair or else they wouldn’t go to you. To make someone a raving fan, you have to go way above and beyond a good haircut or colour.
• Be enthusiastic about her appointment. When you see certain names on your book you get excited to see that person. Tell them.
• Mirror their energy. If your client is up, be up. If she is quieter, be quieter.
• Always finish her hair. Even if the assistant or another stylist does 99% of the blow-out, get in there and apply some product, tweak the look, fix the bangs up and do a little dry cutting.
• Try to stay on schedule at all times. If you are always late, fix it.
• Raise your prices. Yes, raise your prices. For me, it makes sure I am always performing at the highest levels. You can’t raise your price without improving service. So set yourself up for a few months by performing at the highest level you can. And then raise your price.
  And understand that for a client to see value at your $70 haircut price, you have to give a $100 service. For this, if you don’t know what that looks like, go to the Four Seasons and have lunch or dinner. You will see the difference. But raise your prices for new clients even more, so that your older clients are still rewarded for their loyalty.

I have lost clients I have gone way above and beyond for, who have begged for favours and to be squeezed in repeatedly. My wife has lost an entire family she adored and thought she was very close with because they found someone a little closer to home a $5 cheaper.

We are therapists, shoulders to cry on, part of a select few they share their darkest secrets with, yes. But ultimately we are their hairdressers. They have a lot of options out there and eventually will find themselves in someone else’s chair. Maybe they will come back, maybe they won’t. So we keep giving great hair and being whoever they need us to be at that time. And it’s OK to love them. I currently have several clients I feel so strongly about. I absolutely love them. But I know at some point I will likely lose them for some reason or another.

Never forget, clients are where your living comes from and we are where their professional hair services come from.

Addendum: A quick story about how I lost a long-term client.

2 years ago my father was in the hospital and given 6 days to live. Leukemia. He had battled cancer and had been in remission for the 3 months prior to this so it caught us off guard.

I was visiting him every night after work but never missed a day. I never miss a day.

My long-term client “Brenda” had been incredibly high maintenance for years. She was funny and dramatic and always needed to be squeezed in because she always had an “event.” She was shallow, exhausting and kind of awful but fun for a visit every month.

On Tuesday my wife calls me while I am doing highlights on another client. She has been in a car accident with my 2 young boys. She’s about 2 miles away. I pass off the client to another stylist and go straight there. It’s a bad accident but thankfully nobody is badly hurt and the kids are fine but scared.

We deal with the paramedics and police etc and I take my family home in my car, about 45 minutes away. I had decided to cancel the rest of my day as it would have been another 45 minutes back to the city and I was kind of emotionally drained at this point. And it was only 2 clients and I would squeeze them in throughout the rest of the week. One of those clients was Brenda.

Later that night my wife told me I should go see my dad. I didn’t want to but decided to. I spent an hour with him and he was in completely different condition than he was the day before. He died a few hours after I left.

I had to cancel my week for obvious reasons. I was suddenly in charge of setting up a funeral, dealing with things I had never done before.

Brenda was now angry. “I don’t want to sound like a bitch, but I have an event.” I made sure she was set up with a stylist she had been with several times for blow-outs and that I would take care of her the following week for her roots. Or she could see the other stylist. I was dealing with these calls from the funeral home.

Brenda never came back. She cancelled her upcoming appointments and said she had found someone else and she was happy with them.

I had put up with more drama from this one person than any other client ever. I am glad she is out of my life, but am still am insulted and hurt that after 8 years she would leave me because she was inconvenienced.

PLAYER ALERT! I have just signed the largest paycheque I have ever written. It is to a 26 year old hairstylist who works 3 days a week in a location that is only 3 years old, and not one with walk-ins.

I write a lot of paycheques every month; I have 50 employees. And my business model is to not hire people with a clientele. We develop talent rather than recruit it. I see some succeed, some stagnate and a few achieve success very quickly. And some, like the aforementioned superstar, create real, meaningful, long-term success. Perhaps I will write about her one day.

But tonight I thought I would share a story of two young stylists I hired at the same time, with very similar skill sets, both very attractive. I mention their looks because let’s face it; sometimes the really pretty ones can have an unfair advantage on ugly scrubs like myself, regardless of ability. I will refer to them as “Kim” and “Khloe.”

“Khloe” graduated from hair school and started apprenticing. But she struggled with the role of apprentice/ assistant. She would sometimes refer to herself as a “new stylist” and imply she was above certain duties. She looked great and every day had clients compliment her and ask the stylists in the salon for hair just like hers. She would often dress it down though and would sometimes have to be talked to about laziness. She also had a tendency to have drama surround her. She always seemed to be either sick or fighting something, or in the middle of a break-up. She had other passions and interests and she always seemed to be inspired and energized when it came to them though. She was given her first floor day and the rest of the week she assisted and apprenticed.

“Kim” graduated hair school and started apprenticing, working hard, keeping quiet and focusing on the task at hand, which was to reach a financial goal with her one floor day a week. By hitting this goal, she would earn her second floor day the next month. She started dressing better and making sure her makeup was right, and focused on self-improvement. She was very pretty but started taking more risk with her makeup, and her hair always looked great.

Khloe would often complain about not being busy, not earning her next floor day. She could often be heard complaining that Kim had been given a better floor day, one with more walk-ins. That’s why Kim was busier than her. She would sometimes talk about moving back to her small town. She received a warning letter about her attitude, and was actually let go and then re-hired. She was nice and had talent. We just had to try to get her to push herself to succeed, to see a clear future.

Kim started to get busy. It seemed she had a mission to get her next floor day immediately and she went about making sure her chair was as full as it could be. She also showed up to every thing she could. Her positive attitude and increasing professionalism drove us to put her into our academy as an assistant to the instructors. And she got her next floor day that next month. And the following one as well. She earned her full-time floor days as fast as you can, in 4 months.

Khloe was still struggling. Her floor day was switched to Saturday in order to help her get busier but the same issues persisted; drama, talks about how to get busier with no action, spending a lot of time in the staff room complaining about something. She was getting a little busier but not really getting many repeats. Which was strange, because the hair she did was not bad and she was pleasant with her clients.

Kim would come to work excited and would approach her clients fearlessly. She learned from those around her and immersed herself in learning the type of hair she wanted to do. She had only been doing hair for a few months but would speak to her clients as if she was an expert. Her colours became huge makeovers and she bit off a little more than she could chew more than a few times but she started to get pretty good, very quickly. And her styling was getting to be very good as well. In her second full-time month on the floor, she broke $7000 in service dollars on a 4 day week charging $45 a cut. This was 6 months after graduating hair school.

Khloe wasn’t really building much of a clientele at all but had reached her third floor day, nearly a year later.

Kim had very quickly positioned herself as an expert in her area, and was building an on-line portfolio and presence that backed it up. She was getting more and more referrals, all new business to the salon. There can be ego and entitlement with success so soon and at such a young age, and Kim decided she wanted to take her career in a different direction and do some things online that weren’t really in line with who we were as a company. She was told that if that was the direction she wanted to go, it wouldn’t work for her to stay with us. So she left, no hard feelings on our side, and apparently is doing very well at another salon.

Khloe was fired shortly after for badmouthing the salons’ policies and management, while on the salon floor and within earshot of the GM. But she oddly enough went to the same salon Kim was at. She could have used the opportunity to reinvent herself and start fresh but she chose the path of least resistance and went where things were comfortable.

Why did Kim succeed so quickly where Khloe didn’t? They both on paper were the same person. When they both worked in the same salon and had the same information and training available to them?

Kim knew she was going to be a success. She spent her energy learning how to master commercial hairdressing and developing a clientele that believed in her and her work. She took what is relatively simple and gave the impression to her clients that it was special and could only be done by her. She named her techniques and talked her work up, not herself. She sold product with the same sincerity and passion. The people that sat in her chair believed she was an expert.

Khloe waited for things to happen. She serviced whoever was put in her chair and was happy to have discussions about how to get busy but never actually got busy. Now she probably will eventually get busy. She has the skill and she’s very nice. But her path is a long, meandering one because she doesn’t actually know where she is going. She might not even know if she wants to get there. She is sitting on a bus going for a ride, taking the scenic route.

Where Khloe took the bus, Kim decided to buy a car . In fact she may even have stolen it, because she’s driving it like it is. She jumped in, grabbed the wheel and stepped on the gas. Hard. She knew exactly where she wanted to go, at least for the short-term, and she drove that car directly there as if on a mission.

Because that’s how success is. The most successful hairdressers (and people) are entrepreneurs at heart. It doesn’t mean they all need to be independent or self-employed, but they understand that they are in charge of how well they do, and how quickly they succeed is up to them. They don’t waste time. They see what they need to do, who they need to hang around, and what they need to know in order to get to where they want to go.

This can be developed and learned/ taught, but ultimately it is always up to the person. You can lead a horse to water…
Most people talk about doing things but don’t actually do them. Most people fantasize about being rich but don’t dedicate any real energy to living their dream. And it’s fine if people don’t achieve everything they are capable of. But they shouldn’t complain, because they know the answer; it’s not complicated and it’s not new information. Believe in yourself, immerse yourself, get out of your comfort zone, truly dedicate, evolve and become. Some say fake it till you make it. It’s not quite so simple. You have to truly believe.

You want abs? Get off the couch and get in the gym, cut out the bread, sugar and alcohol and you are there within 6 months.
You want to be a successful hairdresser and make money? Dress the part, live the part, get out of your comfort zone and promote yourself to strangers all day every day. Know that you need to become a better stylist so that you learn from every client you work with. Be dialed in to your success at all times and you will double your income in 6 months, guaranteed.

But look in the mirror and know that if it isn’t happening you aren’t doing enough. It’s you. So either do something about it or quit your bitching. Believe, do, and act, or shut up and accept the mediocrity that you have chosen, whether consciously or subconsciously.

…is the mantra of many in the business of beauty. But what those people don’t see is that retail numbers are really a wonderful barometer of your skills and effectiveness, not just as a hair stylist but of someone who cares about providing good service and is actively trying to make their clients’ hair better.

Low retail numbers indicate one of 2 things happening (or not happening) during the clients’ experience in your chair:

1. You are not listening to your clients’ needs regarding their hair, therefore it isn’t your agenda to give them better day to day results with their hair.
2. The client doesn’t trust you or believe you to be an expert in hair. They simply don’t see you as a professional.

Either way, both scenarios don’t look good for you as a professional doer of hair. If you can’t sell a bottle of shampoo, you certainly can’t sell a colour to a cutting client. You definitely can’t promote yourself to potential clients or ask for referrals because all that involves selling yourself. If you can’t sell yourself, you will probably will die alone and unhappy because you never bothered to sell yourself to any potential life-partner or friend. Because you “can’t be fake,” “people need to like you for you.”

Great service is not about being fake, it’s about knowing why you are there. When we do hair, and aren’t caught up in the “I’m an artist” thing, we put on our best behaviour for the client. We dress the part and act the part; we are excited to see them and we are enthusiastic to be given the opportunity to do their hair for them. This is why new clients are so great. They generally help us to behave like professionals, as we aren’t familiar with them. If your dialed in and focused on your career, you will absolutely elevate the customer service experience for the new client. You will be focused on giving them a great experience, doing your best work in an attempt to win them over and make them regulars.

But there are a lot of hairdressers who can’t bridge the gap between doing great work and giving a great experience. A story:

A very famous haircutter spent 3 days in one of my salons prepping models for a show. This was a very big deal and it was an absolute honour to host him. I had the luxury of observing this person, and while his cutting was impeccable, his bedside manner was atrocious. I witnessed several models in tears after he had done whatever he wanted to their hair in absolute silence. I watched him walk past a model being hugged by her mother and she was absolutely sobbing.  He didn’t even lok at them, he just shook his head. He is the extreme version of the “artiste.”

Another soon-to-be famous hairdresser was teaching a cutting and styling class in New York and I was in the classroom. He was very warm to the two ladies who rudely left when they found out there was going to be no colouring. His model then came in over 30 minutes late, with a coffee, and without an apology. Something about the subway. He sympathized with her, apologized for her experience and thanked her for still coming in, after all she had been through. And then he demoed  a beautiful cut and style on her. He has since become very famous, even more successful, and charges an unbelievably high rate to sit in his chair. He is the extreme version of someone who knows what his job is; to create an amazing, memorable experience for his client.

And he does that at the same time as giving a great haircut, because he knows that the 2 things don’t have to be mutually exclusive. This is what they artist-mentality generally doesn’t understand; that giving a great haircut is expected. It’s the bare minimum. Nobody goes to the salon expecting a shitty haircut. They expect you to be good or they wouldn’t be there.

Thankfully, to get back on track is pretty easy. It may be tough to change your approach with old clients who have gotten used to the way you operate behind the chair but if you practice these ideas with every new client, you’ll find that behavior becomes part of your daily routine and begins to feel natural.

During the consultation, almost all clients will complain about the same two things: They either want their hair to be bigger or smaller. Curlier or straighter. Establishing what the client wants in a result is your job. And picking the right products for them to do their own hair at home and then teaching them how to do their own hair is your job too.

At the shampoo bowl, describe what you are using and why. Be brief, as you want to destroy the client’s will with your incredible massage. If the client comments on the aroma, discuss it. This is where product knowledge is important.

When back at the chair, use a styling product right away, before cutting if it makes sense for the situation. I like to use one of 2 of my foundational/ prep type sprays, Coconut Milk or Miracle Mist. Both smell amazing and the client always asks what they are. This may be unique for the client and gives you an opportunity to explain what you are using and why. Make sure to bring any products you are using to your station and dispense and apply them in front of your client. Then put them down in front of the client with the label facing them and go about your work and getting to know the client.

Once the cut or colour is finished and you are about to style their hair, give the client a styling lesson. Explain why you’re doing what you’re doing and how they can do the same thing at home. Explain the finishing product selection and show the client exactly how to use that product.

After completing the service, put a few products on the desk for the receptionist to complete the sale. When saying goodbye to the client, explain that you’ve left the most important products she needs for her at reception and that you will see her in X weeks.

That’s it, that’s all you have to do. It involves behaving like a professional hair expert for about 10 minutes of the one hour appointment and it will make all the difference to your career.

If it’s done properly, it’s not selling. IT’S ABOUT TRUST

You see, if the client buys some of the things you’ve recommended, then that means they enjoyed your service and are happy with the result. If the client is happy, that means you’ve at least met and possibly exceeded her expectations. If you’ve done that, then the client is more likely to refer you to her friends, which means more clients for you to service more fully than you were previously. This equates to more money and more success, which actually does equal happiness.

And one of the most important things you can do? BE ENTHUSIASTIC! You need to mirror your clients’ energy, but you need to show your client you are passionately involved in doing their hair. That you are excited and you have a plan. That they are inspiring to you. I’ve never met someone who was passionate about both hairdressing and people who wasn’t successful.

If you want a fulfilling career, you need to be seen as a professional hair dresser. If your retail numbers aren’t where they should be, you have work to do.

I’ve had an overwhelming response to my earlier blog post, How to Survive and Thrive as a Hairstylist and Salon Owner, and while I am so thrilled with the amount of people the post spoke to, I’m even more blown away by the amount of people who wrote messages like, “It will get better” etc. So I thought I should make it clear how much I love this business, my salon company, and my team, (at least while they work for me,) and write about some of the amazing things that have happened to me through hairdressing and salon ownership.

• I met my wife through hairdressing. I fell in love with a girl I worked with at a salon, eventually I wore her down and we got engaged. We now have 2 amazing boys who keep us very busy.
• I have traveled because of hair. 2 years ago my wife and I spent time in Madrid with Wella at Trendvision (amazing event). We tacked on a week in Ibiza and a few days in Barcelona. 3 weeks ago I was in New York, for the 4th time. Paris is my absolute favourite place in the world. We went for a show. New Orleans, San Diego, my wife once did a show in Alaska. And the airmiles I collect from salon purchases has paid for a lot of airfares for me and my team.
• Teaching and mentoring my team has made me a much better hairstylist. And more importantly, it has allowed my to impart everything I know to a future generation of stylists. It’s my goal to have everyone of my team have master my skillset and make what took me years to learn and discover simply become their foundation.
• Flexibility in my hours has allowed me to be a more present father.
• I have had the freedom to create some pretty cool hairshows and stage presentations  with my team.
• I have built my dream salon in Space. I have done it a few times, as my dream salon has evolved over the years, but with Space, I had the finances and raw open space to create what I think is truly me. Pretty cool.
• I watched and coached a 16 year old girl into a pretty incredible and successful talent. She went on to win the 2013 Canadian Hairdresser of the Year, among many other awards and accolades. I am beyond proud to say I had a big role in her life.
• My life has been absolutely exciting. Highs, lows… it’s never been boring.
• It has given me character, and I know I can dig deep and do whatever I need to do to survive. When we opened our first larger salon, I bounced a paycheque for one of my staff. I was sick about it. We were broke. I didn’t pay myself for 6 months so I could afford to keep the doors open, grow the salon and not lay anyone off. When we opened our Space location, the buildout cost twice my budget and we were broke again, just 3 short years ago. I had to close a location to keep the new one open.
• Hairdressing has made me a deeper, nicer and more empathetic person. I have evolved so much through this business. I used to be a huge asshole. Now, a lot less.
• I get to listen to whatever music I want and hang around with cool people doing creative things, all the time.
• I have reached a personal goal of having 50 employees. I can’t seem to get higher, and whenever we hit 50, 2 people quit and 1 gets fired within a week, but 50 is pretty damn cool.
• I have helped make a lot of people’s lives better through hairdressing. That has made me feel really good.
• The relationship with clients can be incredible. Having someone sincerely tell you they consider you a best friend is amazing. Seeing a couple come together, doing wedding hair, being with them through pregnancies, the baby’s first cut. And we have actually done that baby’s hair for their high school graduation. Pretty cool to be a part of people’s lives.
• I have satisfied the young, rebellious teenager version of me. If I traveled back in time, the teenage version would give me shit for getting fat, but I lived almost all his dreams. Platform artistry can be very rock and roll, and I’ve gotten pretty far by being true to myself and doing things on my terms.And for me, the most powerful and important experience I’ve had (beyond meeting my wife) was this:
  At the opening party of one of our locations, one of my stylists wrote the most meaningful not in a card. It simply said “Thank you for helping me become the person I’ve always wanted to be.”I absolutely still love what I do, and I still love hairdressing. Once in a while we hit bumps in the road, but it’s a road I happily drive.