It’ll Take Longer Than You Think

convince them a service can be done quickly and we know it’ll take longer than you think!  There is an amount of time you can expect to complete a task but it sometimes doesn’t go as planned!

Here are some instances at the salon where we can safely say: ‘it’ll take longer than you think”:

Hairstyling 

A person (not a regular client) will ask for a last-minute appointment for a “quick wash”.   You had a cancellation which gives a short window of time to do it.  You ask the right questions and they give all the right answers, but..

• person shows up with extensions half taken out; 
• extensions taken out but hair not combed out in weeks; 
• extensions still all in but they have to leave for work soon;
• they inform you their head is sensitive and they only finger comb the hair;
• hair is badly damaged but they refuse to have it cut because they are “growing their hair”.

• The person wants locs they have had for years taken out in one day.  There is no way of knowing how long it will take plus their budget usually does not consider the cost for the time to have it done in a salon;
• People ask for a loc style but have not retwisted their hair for months.
• Locs are broken and thinning but they want the look of an influencer immediately.

Braids

• Buying less than the amount of hair needed to complete a service and expecting the hair to look like in the picture.
• Buying a different extension than the one agreed on.
• Experimenting on a new hairstyle and being upset when it is does not look the same on them.

By Paula Barker, Silkie Locks Hair Design

Books:  “Talking Hair”, Filling My Head” & “Dreadlocks, A Hairstylist’s Manifest”