ShareThisBy JUDIE SCHWARTZ and EVELINDA URMAN
Scripps Howard News Service
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Divorcing your stylist, part 2:
Judie: Last week we shared the sticky stories of severing ties with your hairdresser. This week, we talked with several stylists about the best way to handle a dilemma that plagues many women.
Evelinda: They told us they want to be treated as professionals. Tara Nalty, whose been styling hair for six years, wants clients to tell her they want to try someone else. She suggests clients say: 'Thank you for the time we have spent together, but I am ready to try somebody else.' I tell them that they are always welcome to come back. We have an agreement among our salon's stylists that we want the client to be taken care of."
Stylist Pam Grieve agrees and adds: "I would hope that the client would tell me why they are unhappy and give me a chance to fix the problem. I have had clients who leave and come back. I take them back and have no hard feelings."
She also passed on some very valuable advice should you switch chairs within a salon. "I think that when clients go from chair to chair, they forget that we are all friends. Don't gossip about your previous hairdresser. Don't burn your bridges. Remember: they know a lot about you and can be more like a therapist when you tell them everything about your lazy husband to your annoying girlfriend."
Believe it or not, stylists will even help their clients transition to new ones, according to Ron Lyle, a stylist for 30 years.
"Seven out of 10 clients will tell me that they are going to someone else in the same salon. The new stylist should tell the old one that the client is moving over to them."
But Lyle understands that some clients wish to avoid any embarrassment. He recommends coming in at a time when the stylist is not there. "Then clients should say to the old stylist: I needed to come in, and you weren't there, and I like what the new person did.' Stylists need closure."
Donna Stein, manager at a spa and salon, even went further to reveal that sometimes stylists want to fire their clients. One of her stylists has this philosophy. "If I am not making my client happy or feel I can't please them or if my happiness is in jeopardy, I tell them I'm not achieving their goal and that they should find another stylist who can." But like clients, not all stylists are this honest. They unload clients by increasing their prices or by not being available.
Brenda Hunt, vice president of creative and education for hair products ghd Professional USA, has worked with hundreds of beauty salons around the country. Her suggestion: "The client should be frank about what they want. Give the stylist the opportunity to rectify the situation. The stylists will learn from your suggestions, and you will get what you want. After this, if you still want to move, talk to the salon owner and have them handle it."
Style Matters: What did we learn? Honesty is the best policy, courtesy counts, and sometimes change is necessary. As Hunt explained it to us: "You need to make a change so that a new stylist can see you at your current age and from a new perspective."
(Judie Schwartz and Evelinda Urman write on corporate office wear and the art of personal style. E-mail them at stylematters(at)comcast.net.)
