28 March 2024

#StrongBonds Storytelling: Defining the Love Between Hairstylists & Guests

Schwarzkopf Professional’s ASK Artists embody belief in the power of knowledge to shape futures. Rightly so, their educator also represent the top talent in the industry, slicing through wigs at the runways and flying around the country spreading their technical tips and tricks.

One of the most important assets of a hairdresser, however, is something that cannot be bought, but can only be earned, and that’s a loyal clientele, which is what #STRONGBONDS is all about.

Schwarzkopf Professional launched the #StrongBonds campaign to place these moments on a pedestal and honor the beautiful connection that even the leaders in the industry have experienced and continue to experience in their lives. They got submissions from all over the globe in various languages, evidence that this friendship is a phenomenon that happens in chairs around the world. Check it out here!

Being a leader in the hair industry, a billion dollar industry, does not depend only on the numbers and being the best in what you do, but rests greatly on the ability to create loyal relationships, based on trust and dependability. Using the latest learning tools Schwarzkopf Professional equips their artists with all the technical and business skills they need for an authentic connection with their clients and here are the stories that they have encountered in their accomplished hair journey.

We asked SKP Guest Artists Cody Ferro, Christopher Fiffe and Sharon Tranter why they believe this is such an intangible, but essential, aspect to being a hairstylist straight from their personal experiences!

“The importance of remembering little life details”

Cody Ferro, Schwarzkopf Professional’s Guest Artist, says that taking notes and remembering things is a vital part to creating these #STRONGBONDS. “There’s all these stories that you hear in beauty school but it wasn’t something that I realized because of a couple years in through their life stories. It’s interesting. The way I talk to someone in college is different than how I talk to the Senator’s wife! And the important thing is remembering little life details. Remembering what they were up to last time they were sitting in your chair shows them that you are involved in their lives. ‘Oh, you just had your grade school reunion!’ Remembering that is special to that. There was a referral and it was funny, because it was more of a murmur, or offhand remark, and then the client that referred her comes in the next time and tells me about how she was so happy that I was so thoughtful. So that was an A-Ha moment for me because I realized how special that had been to her beyond just her highlights.”

“The bond formed between stylist and client can help your business in many ways”

Christopher Fiffe, Schwarzkopf Professional’s Guest Artist, says it feeds his inner spirit to know that he has just helped to change someone’s feeling about themselves. “Mrs.Abell was one of my first clients that came to me in beauty school over 28 years ago. She was a school teacher, and had been a client of the beauty school for almost 30 years. I began doing her hair and she became a friend. When I graduated she followed me out to my first salon. Shortly after she became a very important person to me. She attended my wedding, was there when my daughters were born, I was there for her when she lost one of her sons, our families began to unite. She supported me through many of my life changes, and was always one I could count on. We had our conversations every Thursday afternoon at 1:30. She had even made me promise that when the time came, I would style her hair one last time when she would pass. We had formed a strong bond. She was more than a client, she was family. I did her hair up until December of 2014, before I moved from Ohio to California, and to be honest, I had just as much of a hard time telling her I was moving away as well as my parents and children. The bond we had formed from the styling chair definitely changed my life. I believe the bond that can be formed between stylist and client can help your business in many ways. You meet a new client for the first time you start a conversation and they begin to trust you. There is a feeling that you get when the client sits in your chair of how can I help to change this person, and you begin to think that what you do on the outside whether it be new haircut a new hair color or just a new style will make them feel different on the inside. When that bond is formed with a new client, that’s how you gain their trust, once you gain their trust they become loyal and a loyal client to the stylist means that you’re moving in the right direction with your business. They begin to tell their friends about how you made them feel and how you made them look, and those friends start to come to you and it begins to be a circle of trust.”

“Hairdressing is a vehicle to create, share and connect with everyone on a deeper level”

Sharon Tranter, Schwarzkopf Professional’s Guest Artist, says that being a hairdresser is so much more than the service you provide. “It’s about how we connect and share our journeys. Hairdressing for me is simply a vehicle to create, share and connect with everyone on a deeper level. I learned this though a journey with a very dear client of mine. Every four weeks Nellie would come in for her touch-up pixie cut and every time she brought me banana bread. Nellie was diagnosed with cancer and her world changed in a heartbeat. She found out it was terminal. We had always joked that if she ever died I wasn’t going to do her hair for the funeral “I’m not doing it, that’s final”. Over the next months Nellie didn’t want to see visitors so I was surprised to get a call asking me to visit her in hospice. Upon arriving and making the normal pleasant comments of “how are you feeling “I knew in this moment in time, I knew she wanted to be treated normally. So I said “Nellie, you hair looks terrible”. Everyone in the room took a deep breath and waited anxiously to see how Nellie would respond. At that moment she burst out laughing through tears said “that’s why I wanted Sharon to come and see me.”  Years of tears and laughter had brought us a connection deeper than just my services.
I received the call from her daughter telling me Nellie was gone and could I do her hair for the casket. Pushing aside all my fears I agreed. I put the receiver down and cried. My final appointment with her was to make her the best I could for her family. After months of long hair it was time to take Nellie back to her glory pixie cut. She had got her way after all.
The wake came and her daughter pulled me to the side ‘Sharon, thank you for giving me my mom back to me… she looks beautiful.’ In that moment in time I realized as a hairdresser I was able to give her daughter comfort knowing the last time she kissed her Mom… it looked like her Mom.

For more stylist stories, visit www.strongbonds-stories.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Subscribe to Estetica's official newsletter and receive all the latest news and information from the world of hairdressing - no charge, spam free!

Search