Spinoff:Why are SO many hair stylists incompetent?

[JenJen2721]

Fortunately a lot of them *not braiders* learn natural hair techniques online, go to seminars *like Taliah Wajid* and learn from books. My natural stylist whom my FI goes to now, has lots of natural styling books, is a member of Nappturality, and has done the tapes. She's really good at what she does.

I put him onto her because the lady he went to before was a "braider" and she blew out his hair everytime to twist or cornrow *not neccesary* was rough during the blow-out and told him he had dandruff, when he just had a dry scalp from the wack products she used.

Thanks Ms_Kenesha.

 

[dreemssold]

Tracy, I agree with much of what you said, but I would even take it a step further. I think that much of the incompetence we see in salons is indicative of a broader issue. I think that we have come to a point where people no longer take pride in their craft. For example, let's say, I visit 10 businesses in the course of a week...at least twice, I will feel that the clerk/owner/worker/someone was incompetent. People are working just to work now, rather than building a business and honing a skill. I think this issue is prevalent in many fields and hair styling is just one. Please don't get me started on nail salons, restaurants, heck, even schools. It might seem extra, but I really believe this is the case.

 

[Tracy]

Tracy, I agree with much of what you said, but I would even take it a step further. I think that much of the incompetence we see in salons is indicative of a broader issue. I think that we have come to a point where people no longer take pride in their craft. For example, let's say, I visit 10 businesses in the course of a week...at least twice, I will feel that the clerk/owner/worker/someone was incompetent. People are working just to work now, rather than building a business and honing a skill. I think this issue is prevalent in many fields and hair styling is just one. Please don't get me started on nail salons, restaurants, heck, even schools. It might seem extra, but I really believe this is the case.

I COMPLETELY AGREE.....

Totally....

 

[brownhaired_bonanza]

My only advice is to seriously check out the person whose hands will be all up in your hair. If they look a little something like this: :Clown: . Run. If they look 'tow up from the flo up: :borgsmile , then chances are you will be leaving the shop looking alot like them: :assimilat .

 

[Healthb4Length]

I know that a lot of us has experienced really negative hair dressers who were unskilled or just did not care about our hair, but let's not forget that there are genuine stylists out there that actually want the best for us. My hairdresser is a perfect example. I have just graduated college and I am going to hair school because I seriously love doing hair (not just because I felt that I had no other options in life. I want to get to really understand the field before I go into the chemistry) and I eventually plan on becoming a chemist so that I can create the ultimate hair formula for anyone with curly/kinky hair. So please let's remember the people out there who wants to make a difference and not just the few bad apples...

 

[Tracy]

Alli,

Please don't take anything here as an indictment of stylists altogether. Most of us here who DO have good stylists FEVERISHLY sing their praises when they deserve it. We recommend them to friends, we give them fantastic tips, and we generally treat them really well....

So if you're gonna be one of the good ones, you won't be able to keep LHCFers out of your chair. We know a bad stylist when we see one, and we call them on it when we do....but we CHERISH the good ones and give them thier due as well.

This thread just wasn't about the good ones, this time.

 

[Healthb4Length]

Thanks, that made me feel better, I know it's not against good stylist. Damn those bad stylist!

 

[Tracy]

Good. Cause I mean it.

And I bet you'll be an excellent stylist! Just the fact that you're here assures me you will be. So go to it girl! We need ya!

 

[candibaby]

Well I'll tell you this, I will NOT be one of those incompetent stylists!

 

[MizAvalon]

bumping for more responses

 

[taraglam2]

I also agree that a lot of stylists - not all - count the money. The more heads the more money. The more chemicals - color and cuts--xtra money. Many of them start out with a love of hair and it changes. And some stylists just do not learn at all. I worked as a receptionist at a Major Hair Care Company part time when I was in college----- they had an on site International Cosmetology School and I remember interviewing one of the students and she stated that although she was licensed to do hair in her home state---she knew that there was so much more to learn. So she was completing course work with that cosmetics company with plans to go to Europe for more studies the following year. I truly believe they just do not know and they are driven by the money---not all stylists---but some.

 

[Jenai]

Eactly, Ebony88. Some new sylists have to purchase their own equipment, pay chair rent, and other fees. When all of those other things are paid, a $35 shampoo and style may only pay them $10-15 for hours of work. Plus that client is taking up a chairspace slowly drying under a hooded dryer after a rollerset while the stylist could be making more money either geting that same person to add a color or just quickly doing their hair with a brush and handheld dryer and culing iron? Rip out some hair and burn the ends a little? No problem, just have them come in for a deep conditioner weekly. More money. My stylist would tell me about the pressure to have x amount of clients per hour, use cheaper products, push certain overstocked items, etc. She doesn't own her own place yet so she works under someone. She had to buy a lot of her equipment out of pockect - she knew ceramic irons were better than the plain ones that the salon used so she took some of the paycheck and bought a Chi. Because she took her time with clients she told me that some days she only averaged to make about $7 an hour.

 

[webby]

Tracy, ITA with everything you said.

AllMine, I have to completely disagree with you. There are far more positive comments about experiences at salons than there are negatives. Also, let's dare to compare experiences at a salon to experiences with a doctor. It would be far more shocking to hear that a doctor, who had years of "experience" and degrees up the wazzoo, botched up someone's surgery than to hear about the doctor who saved someone's life.

You are paying for a service, expect quality work, right?

Just like all the Racial Thread floating around on this board.
People only remember the "bad experiences" they've had and dwell on it more than the great experiences.

Also the experiences of the ladies on this board does not account for "SO MANY"
Just less than a few

 

[MizAvalon]

Bumpity-bump!

 

[Samaria]

yall can give me the link to the messed up head?

 

[LovelyZ]

I keep seeing post about stylist reciting outdated, stereotypical and incorrect information about our hair. Is it possible that hair schools are not teaching all the latest information?

 

[Honey]

Well, I am a former stylist and here is my perspective of why some stylists appear to be incompetent.

1. In general, black people are not educated on how to properly care for their hair.
2. Cosmetology schools really do not teach students how to care for kinky hair.
3. It is extraordinarily difficult to balance maintaining the health of your client’s hair with their desire to have the latest hairstyles.
4. It’s a business and while they may love working on hair they still need to earn a living.
5. Lack of familiarity with an individual client’s hair – I have seen excellent stylists totally jack someone’s hair up because they did not realize how that person’s hair would respond to relaxer, color, heat, etc.

 

[HairPhoenix]

Well, I am a former stylist and here is my perspective of why some stylists appear to be incompetent.

1. In general, black people are not educated on how to properly care for their hair.
2. Cosmetology schools really do not teach students how to care for kinky hair.
3. It is extraordinarily difficult to balance maintaining the health of your client’s hair with their desire to have the latest hairstyles.
4. It’s a business and while they may love working on hair they still need to earn a living.
5. Lack of familiarity with an individual client’s hair – I have seen excellent stylists totally jack someone’s hair up because they did not realize how that person’s hair would respond to relaxer, color, heat, etc.

Thank goodness for LHCF and others like it. We can learn here from one another how to best take care of our hair. One day it will catch on everywhere and all black women will have fewer bad experiences going to salons.

 

[CurleeDST]

There are physicians who destroy people's health. It doesn't primarily have to do with how much education one has but their innate ability and talent. If someone is poorly skilled, they are just poorly skilled not enough training could make them competent.

Hairstylists typically are high school graduates who proceed on to hair school for six months to a year. Then they take a test for certification and if they pass they get a license - I mean how hard is that really? Some are born with talent to just have the 'eye' when it comes to styling people and some have to really study hard and learn it.

Either way - it is not guaranteed just b/c they have a license on the wall that they are good that is why it is up to the CUSTOMER to perform their due diligence and consult w/ the stylist BEFORE allowing them to touch your head. ASk questions, ask for references and call and check them out. If possible, check out other people they have styled, interview those people until you have all of your questions answered and you feel comfortable with the person's ability to work on your head.

This thread is inspired by the "What the worst thing you've ever seen done in a salon" thread. I'm not picking on stylists, am certainly not implying that they are ALL bad and I don't want this to turn into a bashing thread. But I think this really needs to be addressed.

What is it about this profession that draws people like this? That thread had me absolutely appalled. I mean, how many other professions are there where such a huge amount of the practitioners are so incompetent? These people have gone to school, trained for this and are still destroying people's heads?

Why do you all think this is? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[CurleeDST]

I do not give ANY stylist that much power b/c I find they start to get SLACK and disrespect my time. For me time is money and when I have an appointment I expect to be seen PROMPTLY when I arrive on time. Not 5 or 30 minutes late. I am a busy person so if I am kept waiting most likely (regardless of how bomb a job they did) I will think twice about returning.

I got to a young lady now who has a boutique shop meaning she only has 2 chairs in the entire shop. She gets you IN and OUT on time, guaranteed! I am in and out for a trim within 45 minutes and that includes wash, trim, rewash, dry and styling of my natural hair.

She is no joke and I wish everyone could be as professional as she is. Time is MONEY!

I'm definitely sticking with her. If she picks up and moves I do believe i'll be going with her. I might have to live in a cardboard box but my hair WILL be looking fly.

 

[MizAvalon]

Bumping in light of recent threads.

Any of you newbies have any thoughts?

 

[beyondcute]

Yall do realize that when people do go to bcosmetology school most of the class is focused towards caucasian hair... AA hair is just touch and go. Learn as you go along.

 

[testimony777]

I have not read the entire thread so forgive me if this has already been said, but, in the case of stylists who have predominantly Black clientele, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we still don't know enough about how to care for our hair to hold them accountable. We put up with a lot of things because we don't know any better. And putting up with it sends the message to some stylists that what they are doing is ok. In fact a stylist can have horrible practices when it comes to caring for the health of a client’s hair, but if he or she is able to style well, they will have folk lining up outside the door.

I have tons of friends who go to stylist and the things that they tell me their beauticians do is often horrifying. However, they are still going, and in most cases they are VERY satisfied. Why? Because they do not realize that what is being done to their hair is likely going to leave them bald at some point. They like that their stylist can get their hair bone straight even if it means that every time they get a touch up the relaxer is applied from root to tip. It is usually not until all of the years of bad practices catch up to us and something dramatic happens, like our hair falling out or breaking off, that we realize something is wrong.

In high school there was a beautician in our neighborhood who had a shop and none of my friends would patron. Whenever someone would talk about wanting to get a relaxer or going for a touch up people would say "don't go to _________'s she won't get your hair straight." This woman did not believe in relaxing clients hair bone straight. She used rollers sets instead of irons and was very careful about the amount of heat she used. Her reward for being competent was a small clientele. Meanwhile, the brotha up the street who would do anything you asked him to do to your hair, including give a jerricurled client a relaxer, was constantly booked. I think the more informed we become about our own hair the better stylist will become because they will no longer be able to get away with mess.

 

[GoGoChik]

What do you call a medical student who graduates last in their class...

A Doctor


What do you call a beauty school student who graduates last in their class...

A Beautician

I've noticed around here, there are a lot of mom and pop type beauty schools that actually graduate people who then become "hairstylists".

 

[MizAvalon]

Bumpity-bump!

 

[Hair Iam]

In almost 32 years of stylists “styling” my hair I have only had one who “cared” about my hair. “Carol ”, she is also the only stylist I ever met with bra strap length hair. She helped encourages me on the path to wearing my natural hair. She told me it wasn’t necessary for me to perm but could texturize. When the time came to texturize she said just flat iron my hair. At least she took an interest in what was best for me. She could have made more money by saying anyone of the two. She used Elucence serum in my hair, which lead me on a search for more Eluncene products. She is a little scissor happy so I haven’t seen her since June 2006. Still I truly appreciated her seeing to my individual needs. I was not one to damage my hair; I had years where I had regular appointments, used brand name products. It would only be a matter of time before someone would over process my hair, burn it with a curling iron, cut off what ever length I had just achieved . After many tears, loads of frustration, much money, I finally stopped going to salons in the summer of 2002. Until I met Carol in 2005, I was using kiddy perms at home and wearing a pixie hair cut. I figured if anyone was going to damage my hair, it might as well be me . Since praying for the Lord to show me how to care for my hair, finding Carol, then discovering this and other hair forums. I’m now in hair heaven . I pray all my paths in life lead to this kind of blessing.

 

[Precious_1]

I also agree that a lot of stylists - not all - count the money. The more heads the more money. The more chemicals - color and cuts--xtra money. Many of them start out with a love of hair and it changes. And some stylists just do not learn at all. I worked as a receptionist at a Major Hair Care Company part time when I was in college----- they had an on site International Cosmetology School and I remember interviewing one of the students and she stated that although she was licensed to do hair in her home state---she knew that there was so much more to learn. So she was completing course work with that cosmetics company with plans to go to Europe for more studies the following year. I truly believe they just do not know and they are driven by the money---not all stylists---but some.

Girl, I remember one of my old stylists saying that every customer walked in the door that was a pair of pants, shirt, shoes, etc. Money is a motivator which is not necessary a good thing.