Hot Summer 2011 Hair Trends

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011

From coast-to-coast, hair extensions and faded color is all the rage this season. Here’s a look at two hot summer 2011 hair trends.

Hilary Duff

Feather Hair Extensions

Right now you cannot go anywhere without seeing people with feather hair extensions. You can dress them up or dress them down which makes them very versatile. They’re also huge at all the schools because the kids can get away with them; schools haven’t outlawed them because they’re a hair accessory. They can be washed, blow dried, curled, and flat ironed, and are safe for hair since they attach with a simple hair extension clamp.

You care for feather hair extensions just like a regular hair extension. The feathers come in all lengths, colors, sizes, and designs. However, if you’ve ever tried to order some for your salon, you’ll find out that they’re sold out almost everywhere. My salon was even approached by another salon to see if they could buy ours! But if you’re lucky enough to order some, you know that there are slim pickings right now because of the high demand. Feather hair extensions started out as fly fishing feathers from roosters, peacocks and various other birds. The poor fishermen are probably a little peeved at all the crazy hair stylists out there buying their stock.

Jessica Biel

Ombre Hair Color

Ombre hair color, reverse highlights, or balayaging or whatever you call it is also hot this year. Jessica Biel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Drew Barrymore, Hillary Duff are some of the celebrities who have been rocking this look for a while. This look means having a grown-out bleachy and dark-to-light fade of hair color, with the root starting dark and gradually lightening to the ends.

This look is achieved by coloring halfway up the hair strand to create a natural, sun-kissed highlight. Foils cannot be used because they will cause the hair to look too streaky. If the hair has previous highlights and the highlights are too high up on the hair shaft, you will have to create a dark root by coloring the roots to the midshaft their natural color, and sweeping the color down almost half way. Then you will have to go back and color the midshaft to create a natural highlight and to break up the line. Ombre hair color is more economical for many clients because they are able to go between appointments a lot longer.

How to Change Salons and Keep Your Clientele

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Hair has been Anna Craig’s passion since she was 12 years old; this has always been her path in life. In 2001, she went to school in Tempe, AZ, at the Carsten Aveda Institute. After doing hair for about 5 years, she realized that precision haircuts were her specialty, after years of thinking that color was her calling. After doing hair in Arizona for several years, she took the plunge and moved to Texas, and her career took off. She soon opened her own salon, Trashy Roots Salon & Spa. There she became a Certified Deva Stylist, specializing in Curly Girl haircuts. She is also an Artistic Educator for Pravana, which gives her the opportunity to go out to different salons in the area and educate them on new products and techniques. She is very involved in her community—holding annual cut-a-thons, participating in benefit hair shows, and helping with local beauty schools.

On average, stylists lose 50% of their clientele when they change salons. Although some clients were just waiting for a way to change stylists without guilt, there are other reasons for this loss. Here are some stylist marketing tips to help move your clientele to your new salon.

1. Make a list

Gather contact information from your clients when you do their hair. Make sure you at least have a phone number and email address in case one of them changes. Get this from every client as soon as they sit in your chair, or right before they leave the salon. And keep this information at home, just in case something happens, to cover you.

2. Stay close

Don’t pick a salon that is too far away from your last salon. This will definitely discourage your clients from following you. You want to make sure you can still accommodate them. If you choose a salon across town or in a different area, you are guaranteed to lose a huge part of your clientele. Clients are not only looking for an amazing stylist, they want convenience too.

3. Spread the word

Notify your clients that you are leaving, or have left. Some salons will give out your information, some will not. So it’s up to you to tell your clients where you are and about your new salon. You need to get a hold of every single client. Whether you call or email, your business depends on how diligent you are.

4. Tempt them back

If you still notice after 2-3 months that some of your clients haven’t followed you, contact them and offer a 10% off discount at your new location. This will help any of those clients who were unsure of where you are.

5. Don’t burn your bridges

Don’t trash your previous salon; clients don’t want the drama. I had a stylist who left our salon and call all of her clients to share every sordid detail. Many thought it was very unprofessional for her to air her dirty laundry, and started coming back to our salon. So keep it to yourself and brag about your new amazing salon instead. Don’t leave on bad terms; you never know who you have to work with in the future, or at another salon.

Will your chair be empty if you change salons?

How To Get Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding Hairstyle

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Friday, April 29th, 2011

Kate with the famous “Halo” tiara.

Things went off without a hitch at Westminster Abbey today, with Prince William marrying Kate Middleton in typical grand royal fashion. The couple, now known as William, Duke of Cambridge and Catherine, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, made their way from the abbey to Buckingham Palace in a 109-year old carriage, where the couple finally shared the traditional balcony kiss (those royals are so shy when it comes to PDA). The former Ms. Middleton wore a dress designed by Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen.

The Tiara

For those of us that planned our own royal wedding as little girls, here are the deets on that tiara! Kate wore the famous Cartier “Halo” tiara which was crafted in 1936. King George VI (you know, the monarch spotlighted in the movie The King’s Speech for his stutter) purchased the tiara for his wife, Elizabeth. Their daughter, Queen Elizabeth, received it as an 18th birthday present, when she was but a mere princess. The beautiful, delicate tiara was lent to Kate for her wedding by the Queen.

Kate Middleton’s Bridal Hairstyle

With her casual elegance and natural beauty, we wouldn’t be surprised to see brides everywhere wearing similar styles this wedding season. Stylist Anna Craig, of Trashy Roots Salon, gives us how-to, step by step instructions on getting Kate’s wedding hairstyle (she’ll always be Kate to us).

1. Do a big blow out with a a volumizing mousse and a large round brush.
2. Part your hair on the side—if you do it with more exaggeration, it will create more drama. Then, spray your entire head with an aerosol hair spray so your hair will hold its shape and curl.
3. Using an inch and a half curling iron, section your hair and start at the bottom and curl all of your hair. Be careful not to over-curl your hair or you will get a ringlet look—you want loose, flowing curls.
4. Pull back each side and lightly twist and secure with a bobby pin, but do not let the pin show.
5. When finished, spray hairspray all over with a fine mist to hold your regal style all night.

Not everyone gets, or wants, a bona fide prince, but you, too can have the hairstyle of a princess—er, Duchess. As for her makeup? You’ll have to ask her yourself—Kate did her own makeup for the wedding.

When and How Do You Raise Your Prices?

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Monday, April 25th, 2011

Hair has been Anna Craig’s passion since she was 12 years old; this has always been her path in life. In 2001, she went to school in Tempe, AZ, at the Carsten Aveda Institute. After doing hair for about 5 years, she realized that precision haircuts were her specialty, after years of thinking that color was her calling. After doing hair in Arizona for several years, she took the plunge and moved to Texas, and her career took off. She soon opened her own salon, Trashy Roots Salon & Spa. There she became a Certified Deva Stylist, specializing in Curly Girl haircuts. She is also an Artistic Educator for Pravana, which gives her the opportunity to go out to different salons in the area and educate them on new products and techniques. She is very involved in her community—holding annual cut-a-thons, participating in benefit hair shows, and helping with local beauty schools.

Raising your prices too often cause cause you to lose clients.

Should anyone just increase their price because they just want to? No, you need to be fully booked out at least 3-4 weeks in your schedule. If you’re not, then you are just going to ruin what clientele you have. But if your schedule is full and the demand for your service is high, then it’s time for an increase. If you are getting a promotion, then this warrants a price increase too (moving from junior stylist to senior stylist). If you have been taking a lot of different classes and now are certified in a variety of different techniques and your business is full then you should increase your prices to help cover your classes that benefit your clients. But you should never raise your prices just because you need the money or just because you have been doing hair for a long time. If your books aren’t full, you still have room to grow and you still need new clients. You don’t want to price yourself out of the game before you’ve even started.

How much should I increase my prices? You should not increase your prices more than 10% at a time. Clients come into the salon with a predetermined budget—especially during these hard economic times. So if you increase it too much at any given time, your client may not be able to afford the service you just performed. Keep your prices consistent so clients know what they are going to pay each time they come and see you.

How do I notify my clients? There are several ways you can handle this. You can put a notice on your mirror in advance giving your clients a 30-day notice of the impending increase. Some salons send out a nice email explaining the promotion or the product-price increase. Either way you choose, you still need to notify them prior to their service so they are not angered or in shock. And if they ask questions, explain that this is like a promotion for you.

How often should I have a price increase? This depends on you, but I don’t recommend more than twice a year. If you increase your prices too much, you will start to lose clients. They will not be happy if every time they sit in your chair you are charging them a higher price. If you keep it to once a year then try to keep it around the same time of year so it’s consistent.

7 Ways to Increase the Money You Make Every Day

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Monday, April 11th, 2011

Hair has been Anna Craig’s passion since she was 12 years old; this has always been her path in life. In 2001, she went to school in Tempe, AZ, at the Carsten Aveda Institute. After doing hair for about 5 years, she realized that precision haircuts were her specialty, after years of thinking that color was her calling. After doing hair in Arizona for several years, she took the plunge and moved to Texas, and her career took off. She soon opened her own salon, Trashy Roots Salon & Spa. There she became a Certified Deva Stylist, specializing in Curly Girl haircuts. She is also an artistic educator, which gives her the opportunity to go out to different salons in the area and educate them on new products and techniques. She is very involved in her community—holding annual cut-a-thons, participating in benefit hair shows, and helping with local beauty schools.

1. Deep Conditioner
When a client comes in complaining about how dry and brittle her hair is, this is the perfect opportunity to upsell her a conditioning treatment. Just adding $20-30 to a couple of clients in a day will increase your income dramatically.

2. Feather & Bling Hair Extensions
Hair accessories are so big this season. Add a little hair bling to each client that comes in the door or add a little just to a walk-in since they only take 5-10 minutes to attach to the hair. Put some in your receptionist, assistant’s, or esthetician’s hair to start getting traffic on the bling. Clients will start asking them what’s in their hair and they will refer the clients to you.

3. Vivid/ Punk Colors
Fun colors are all the rage right now in all of the hair magazines. They are a double service, because you have to prelighten the hair first. Brighten up any style with a splash of crazy color and see your wallet grow.

4. Shine Treatment & Glazing
These are great services to add to any color service to help keep the color from fading and to increase the vividness of their hair color. If you could add this to every client who comes in your door you would make a killing.

5. Retail
The more you sell, the more you make and the more likely your clients are to come back to you. This is a hard thing to do for some stylists. But the more you talk to your clients about the products you are using and the difference between grocery store products and good salon products, the more they are going to listen to your advice about what they should be using on their hair. They look to you for advice on how to look good, so show them.

6. Overlap Your Appointments
This is the best way to increase your daily dollar. By taking a haircut while a color is processing or starting another color, you are able to double your totals at the end of every day. This also helps get in any clients who are trying to get into your busy schedule. If you get a last-minute cancellation or a no-show at least you have another client coming in soon.

7. Upsell
If a client is just booked for a haircut, talk her into doing a color, too, or vice versa. This will increase your tickets and your service-per-client amount. Sometimes clients book an appointment not really knowing what they want, and then when they arrive they want to do more. This is a win-win for you.

Selling Products: It IS Your Job

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Monday, March 28th, 2011

Hair has been Anna Craig’s passion since she was 12 years old; this has always been her path in life. In 2001, she went to school in Tempe, AZ, at the Carsten Aveda Institute. After doing hair for about 5 years, she realized that precision haircuts were her specialty, after years of thinking that color was her calling. After doing hair in Arizona for several years, she took the plunge and moved to Texas, and her career took off. She soon opened her own salon, Trashy Roots Salon & Spa. There she became a Certified Deva Stylist, specializing in Curly Girl haircuts. She is also an Artistic Educator for Pravana, which gives her the opportunity to go out to different salons in the area and educate them on new products and techniques. She is very involved in her community—holding annual cut-a-thons, participating in benefit hair shows, and helping with local beauty schools.

It’s crazy the number of stylists out there that don’t sell or know how to sell retail to their clients. A common thing that I hear is “I’m not a salesperson.” But you are—sales is our business. Not only do you want your clients to use the best products out there for their hair, but you want them to come back to you. If a client can’t replicate her hair at home like you did in the salon, she’s more likely to find another stylist because her hair never looks good. If you show her how to style her hair with the proper products and educate her on how to use the products, she will keep coming back.

From the moment a client sits in my chair, I ask them about what products they have been using on their hair. This will also give you an idea of what kind of client they are. If they use tons of different salon brand products then you know they probably frequent a salon more often. If they use generic grocery store products just based on price, you might have a harder sell, but if the product is right you might have a deal. I then educate my client about what type of product my salon carries and how our products differ. I also let them know about any specials we might have going on. I talk to them about the different products I am using on their hair when I start to style their hair. Then, when I walk them up front to check out, I go over to the retail section and show them exactly what I recommend for their hair—and why. This is the chance to put products in the client’s hands so they can look at it. If a client touches the product they are more apt to buy it. I will again go over special sales when I am up front.

Salons should always have a product on sale or have a special. This helps put a focus on different products every month. If a particular product isn’t moving off the shelf, highlight that product this month so clients can get interested. If you receive a new product line, put a special on it, like 10% off, to get people to try it. Once they see how spectacular the products are, they’ll be hooked. Offering a trade-up program helps get the ball rolling—trade in 1 generic grocery store product for $5 off a salon product. Make sure your shelves are fully stocked, especially on the most popular products.

Retail plays such an important role in our salons. Salon products to a stylist are like a prescription to a doctor—they keep the clients looking good and happy just like a medicine keeps a patient healthy. It’s your job to keep your clients looking good at all times.

Make Your Salon More Environmentally Friendly on a Budget

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Tuesday, March 8th, 2011

Hair has been Anna Craig’s passion since she was 12 years old; this has always been her path in life. In 2001, she went to school in Tempe, AZ, at the Carsten Aveda Institute. After doing hair for about 5 years, she realized that precision haircuts were her specialty, after years of thinking that color was her calling. After doing hair in Arizona for several years, she took the plunge and moved to Texas, and her career took off. She soon opened her own salon, Trashy Roots Salon & Spa. There she became a Certified Deva Stylist, specializing in Curly Girl haircuts. She is also an Artistic Educator for Pravana, which gives her the opportunity to go out to different salons in the area and educate them on new products and techniques. She is very involved in her community—holding annual cut-a-thons, participating in benefit hair shows, and helping with local beauty schools.

Make your salon earth friendly with simple tips.

Without doing a major remodel, you and your salon can do a lot for the environment. Start small, but make sure your clients always know about your efforts—they will appreciate it. Brag on your website, email or Facebook about what your salon is doing to help your community.

Recycle

Put a recycling bin in the salon and in the back room. Collect all of the color tube boxes, developer bottles and anything else recyclable. This will reduce your amount of waste and trash. Recycle hair—donate all your hair clippings to help clean up oil spills. There are amazing programs out there for salons that help clean up different oil spills all over the world and they have tons of marketing strategies for the salon. This is a great way to promote your salon and to tell clients about a great program.

Eco-Friendly Products

The products you carry represent your salon, so let them speak for you. Are your products: sulfate-free, paraben-free, cruelty-free, organic, gluten-free, silicone-free, natural, vegan, formaldehyde-free, etc.? Even if they are only one of these, let your clients know—the more you educate them, the more involved they get. Tell your clients what sets you apart from other salons and tell them about the difference you are making for them. If you don’t have any products that are environmentally friendly then talk to your local sales rep about different lines. Sometimes they have a trade-in program to help you trade up to a better line.

5 Ways to Motivate Your Staff and Build Your Business

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Monday, February 28th, 2011

1. Retail contest

A monthly retail contest not only encourages stylists to compete with other stylists, but it helps your bottom line and increases retail sales. Encourage the stylists to give you ideas on the prizes they might want to win. Then post every week where everyone stands in the contest. This will light a fire under any stylists that might not being doing so well and want to win.

2. Photo Shoot

Do a photo shoot to put creativity back into your stylists. Sometimes, days in the salon become monotonous and stylists need a pick-me-up. A photo shoot is perfect. Let your stylists choose their themes and let them go crazy. Leave it up to them to choose what they want to do and you’ll see their ideas flourish. This helps the stylists build a portfolio and allows clients to see what’s going on at your salon that is creative and new—they love it! You could even create an advertising contest; whoever’s photo turns out best, you could use in your next advertising campaign.

3. Education

Offer different classes in your salon. Talk to your product line representatives to see who can offer different styling classes, apart from regular product-knowledge classes. This is great to amp up the atmosphere in the salon. Stylists learn new techniques and how to use new tools. Prom and wedding season is coming soon, so get an updo/couture styling class in your salon. All of a sudden your updo/styling business will double.

4. Upgrade/Remodel

This is a harder one and not everyone can do this, but if you can, everyone benefits. Upgrade or remodel something in your salon, not the whole place—just one thing. Especially if you have something that is driving your stylists crazy. If your waiting area is an eyesore, then change it up a little. Clients will love that you did something new in the salon, especially if it enhances their experience. Stylists will love it because it betters their work environment and it shows that their thoughts matter, too. If this is too hard due to financial reasons, then do something little like deep cleaning and de-cluttering the salon on a day that the salon is closed. This will show your passion for your business.

5. New Client contest

Have a contest to see which stylist can bring in the most new clients in one month. This not only benefits the salon but also the stylist, because they will be making more money. Encourage your stylists to upsell extra services when the new clients come in and to give the clients a tour of the salon so the new clients can see all the services your salon offers. You could even turn this contest into a referral program; refer 3 clients and receive a FREE haircut.

Oscars: How to Give Your Client the Looks!

by Trash Talk with Anna Craig on Monday, February 28th, 2011

Rock these hairstyles like the superstar you are!

Scarlett Johansson with a sexy bob

Scarlett Johansson’s a-line bob was accentuated tonight with sexy, messy curls. Use a hair spray as a setting spray before you use an 1″ iron to wrap the hair around, but leave the ends out to create an imperfect curl. Then flip upside down, and with pomade in your hands, mess up the curls to give it that vixen look. The idea is loose and messy, so don’t go for perfect.

Jennifer Hudson looked gorgeous with her posh updo

Jennifer Hudson looked svelte tonight in her Versace gown and curled pompadour. This posh updo was created by using curled hair, or hair extensions, then setting them in place with bobby pins on top of the head to create more volume. Do not brush the hair out—instead use pin curls, which is pinning a set curl—this way you don’t lose the curl pattern or shape. Spraying hair spray throughout each pin will guarantee your style will stay in place all night.