What makes a good stylist?

Is it their photography skills or their minor in psychology? Is it their impeccable skill, or how long they’ve been stuck in their ways doing cap highlights? The world may never know.

It may seem cosmetologists come a dime a dozen but everyone has something unique they can offer that someone else can’t. If you have a knack for something beauty related, I wouldn’t hesitate to pursue your dreams in the beauty industry but there are many things I don’t think we give good stylists credit for.

You have to time crunch like nobodies business, play psychologist, communicate perfectly; be a mad scientist, and talk people out of making the biggest haircut decision of their life and somehow have time to take a lunch and not eat like you’re at bootcamp. I guess we don’t think about how much we actually do pride ourselves on our appearance.

Imagine the success of your business transaction being contingent upon false expectations? Well, that’s in a nutshell. You could be the most skilled and execute everything properly, even communicate exactly what you’re doing, but if that visual expectation is not sold on the client when you’re done, it might as well be the worst job ever. We haven’t even touched how the person sees themselves in the mirror or how many toxic people are in their lives just waiting to say something nasty about their appearance. And that’s where I say, you got to be tough if you’re going to be in this industry. If you don’t learn how to not take anything personally, you’ll either learn or hate life as a hairstylist. That’s not a bad skill to have and it’s part of what can make you a great stylist!

So does not taking negative feedback personally sound counter-productive? I like to think, only if you’re also not willing to learn from the encounters. It’s all about balance. You can’t self sabotage yourself into not being even better than you were before! But then it should teach us what kind of clients we want as well as what kind of stylist we want. Aside from skillsets longevity, we are all pretty subjective creatures. Sometimes it’s about perception. You could be just as good as the next person but that connection you have with the client made them totally ignore the lack of saturation, grey coverage or proper blending. And that’s aside from maybe not knowing better because you’ve been getting your hair highlighted since the 90s and what’s a toner anyway?

The meat and potatoes of this whole query has to be the education stylists can offer their guests. I think we have all been accustomed to some extent to put on a fascade and therefore not truly take care of ourselves the way we should and that comes with a lack of knowlege and personalized care. It sounds sexy to say you can do all types of hair, but how much that reigns true is the ultimate test and the very thing that gives other stylists a run for their money.

So, please, if you are frustrated and not learning something life changing from your stylists, I encourage you not to settle or think you have to live beyond your means to find quality. Some kinds of maintenance does not require more than a quarterly visit to the salon. Depending on your lifestyle, desires and budget, the sky is the limit if that Pinterest was tempting enough. Just make sure your expectations are realistic and especially if you’ve had some fun playing kitchen cosmetologist. Remember that products and services cost money and be mindful that as long as your stylist has integrity in mind, that’s half the battle of finding a good stylist, along with their skill and education.