Do the "Do"
because a cut is not a style

Over the last three decades hair styling industry has undergone a vast change in it's outlook and approach toward styling. Prior to 1970 you would have been hard pressed to find a handful of haircutters. Now however, the opposite is quite true, most stylists who have been in the industry less than ten years know very little about "styling" hair. Most stylists today would say that they learned to cut hair because that's what the styles dictate. While there may be some truth to this, the reasons are not so simple or obvious.

The result of this shift is that now in order for a stylist to have a thriving business they need 500 clients where they once only required 50. Why? When stylists focused mainly on combing and styling hair clients returned on a weekly basis to have their hair done. A stylist with 50 weekly clients was busy about 50 hours a week. Now, a stylist who cuts hair must maintain a much larger client base to stay that busy (if you cut each person once every six weeks, and you can cut one person every thirty minutes that's a minimum of 480 clients). So, why did stylists want to make their work so much more difficult? 

the economic origins of hair cutting

The primary reason most stylists today focus on cutting, color, and perms instead of styling has almost nothing to do with wanting to work harder, it's rooted in the economics of the cosmetology school industry. Prior to the nineteen seventies there were very few schools, and very few chain salons. The salon industry was mostly a cottage industry run by mom and pop operators, with a few stylists working with them for a percentage of their sales. There was not a great demand for hairstylists. Then came "Fantastic Sam's," the McDonald's of hair salons, and first nationwide chain of haircutting shops.  

Why was this an important development? There were other chains, mostly in department stores, and some independent salon chains, but they were limited in size and reach. In other words, they were few in number and limited to a small geographical area. Their limited impact didn't increase demand for new hairstylists. On the other hand, the emergence of national chains of haircutting salons did. 

These salons were located in strip centers and malls instead of "Betty's Garage" or a department store. Their visibility alone increased demand by consumers. New customers, mainly men, began to visit "unisex" shops with more frequency. Consequently this put a strain on the available workforce that was not prepared or trained to deal with these new customers. 

schools needed more students

Where were these new stylists going to come from? The beauty schools that existed at the time were just as unprepared to deal with this new demand as the salons. Schools were scrambling for teachers who knew anything about cutting hair. There just weren't many. It would take some insightful people, a talented barber, an architect, and a movie to put all the forces in motion that would change the way most hairstylists learned, and thought about, doing hair. 

product companies needed to sell products

Add to this mix a couple of product companies that were struggling to develop their concepts and find their niche, and all the ingredients that were needed to cook up a new recipe for success in the salon industry were assembled. 

Most stylist won't remember this but Jheri Redding was one of the first stylist/product entrepreneurs to hit the scene with Jheri Redding products back in the 50's. His organization and the people associated with it have affected dozens of major professional product lines, teaching systems, hair styles, and have left a lasting impression on the salon industry. Some of these people went on to work with Vidal Sassoon who is almost single-handedly responsible for the largest shift in the industry paradigm for success in the past half-century. 

history of the bouffant hair styles

Most stylists know that Sassoon popularized the idea that "the cut is the style, " but how many know why bouffant hairstyles became popular in the first place? Well for the answer to that you have to go back to the thirties and forties the time of the Great Depression, bootleg beer, bathtub gin, and war looming on the horizon. 

During this time hair styling was largely a kitchen business. There weren't many salons, the ones there were catered mainly to the wealthy, and most people combed their own hair into fingerwaves and pincurls. Stylists didn't have to be licensed, and schooling wasn't a requirement, consequently there was not a big demand for cosmetology schools. 

Schools needed a way to attract more students and licensing was the answer to that, but where were all those students going to apply their trade, in their kitchen? Stylists during this time faced a similar problem as today, they needed a way to get a larger number of people into the salon, or they needed a way to get the people who were already visiting the salon to come back more often. Considering the economics of the time it probably seemed more likely that people who were already visiting the salon would return more often if they had sufficient reason to do so. 

It was during the fifties that the National Styles Committee of the NHCA (now the NCA) developed the concept of bouffant hairstyling. These styles were based on a French technique of interlacing hair called coiffing (hence the term Coiffeur for hairstyles was born). The beauty of this technique was that the client could not do it themselves, which meant if you wanted to be "in style" you had to visit your local hairstylist to have it done for you. So, why did stylist stray from this successful formula?

why we changed

For the answer to that we have to go back in time five paragraphs to the sixties and Vidal Sassoon. Sassoon was an enterprising barber with visions of world domination. He wasn't a great stylist, but he was a great haircutter. In order to promote himself he looked for a niche he could fill. The sixties were a great time of change in the world especially in America and Britain. "Mod" was IN and mod clothing looked just a little weird with some of the bouffant styles. 

Schools just didn't have the tools to turn out haircutters. There was no system for them to follow. One of Sassoon's artistic directors, a young man named Paul Mitchell, working with an architect, developed a method of representing hairstyles as two dimensional drawings and a system for teaching stylists how to cut according to a plan. That's all the schools needed to churn out thousands of newly trained haircutters creating a wave of change that would sweep over the world of professional styling and fashion like a tsunami. 

That's how it started. If you look at the early sixties most of the styling was still backcombed, but that was before Mia Farrow and "Rosemary's Baby." Mr. Sassoon got the job of cutting Ms. Farrow's hair for the film, and on top of this he managed to get his name worked into the film's script. The movie was controversial, which was the greatest thing that could ever have happened to Mr. Sassoon. The film took the heat for it's subject matter but EVERYONE was talking about Sassoon and Mia's cut. 

He must have struck a chord because women flocked to salons demanding Mia's cut. It was cute, but more than anything it was simple. The cut WAS the style, and women looking for freedom found a new freedom in this type of non-styling, and a champion of that freedom in Vidal Sassoon. The rest is pretty much common knowledge, Sassoon turned the styling world on it's ear and bouffant styling died a not so natural death. Dorothy Hamill nailed the lid on the coffin with her wedge haircut during the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria. Cosmetology schools, armed with the tools they needed to turn out mass quantities of haircutters, dug the hole where bouffant styling  would be laid to rest.

what we lost

Sassoon may have won the hearts and minds of women everywhere but in doing so the styling profession lost it's foothold in the fashion world. Clothing styles changed more often than the weather in Texas, and the new cuts were the rage with designers. Bouffant hair was out and has never returned. That's not to say it's a bad thing bouf do's are gone, just that all the benefits of weekly visits left with them. Some of those benefits are being realized today with the advent of coloring as a salon staple. In the time vs money struggle stylists wage today, color seems a pretty sure bet as the tool salons need to keep clients returning on a more frequent basis. 

why we need to change now

Coloring does require greater knowledge and skill to perform successfully, but with the availability of color on supermarket shelves clients are going to perform this service for themselves at home. This leaves stylists and salons vulnerable to the fickle nature of consumer perception of economic conditions. If a client thinks they need to save money they'll probably be the first to grab the Preference and head for the kitchen sink. 

how can we get clients back more often

So the challenge stylists and salons face today is how to attract 500 clients for each stylist in the salon, or how to get the clients that currently visit to return more often. We put the challenge to you the salon professional, what do you think the answer is? How can you as a professional stylist get your clients to sit in your chair more often? We have a couple of ideas that we will be presenting over the following weeks. Stay tuned and keep styling!

Pro Salon Solutions
pro-salon.com
Dallas, Texas 75248
phone: 469-441-8771