'I'm a hair stylist of 57 years - here's how COVID changed our hair and why I don't like tipping'

Sky News

3 days ago

If you've ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you. Each week, our Money blog team speaks to someone from a different profession to discover what it's really like.
This week we chat to 73-year-old hairstylist Ron Fairfield...
It is possible to earn above-average money in hairdressing... it's down to the individual. Most salons pay either a basic salary, usually around the minimum wage, plus a performance-based commission. After training, it depends on the salon and the passion of the stylist.
I meet young people who think they are stylists after less than two years... I feel there is a lack of passion and an open mind for learning. I started a formal apprenticeship in 1968 for five years - three years of training and then two years of putting that training into practice, formally designated as the "improvership period".
The industry has suffered from a dumbing-down of training and standards... driven by today's "I want it now" attitude, and the "fame game", rather than quality and high standards driven by a passion for excellence. Becoming famous for the sake of fame has damaged many of the arts industries, and I consider hairdressing as one of the arts.
The biggest challenge to the industry is... fewer visits to the salon and the squeeze on the family income. The salon model will have to change considerably as the current model was created in the 1980s, a very different time with different style needs. When I started in 1968, women visited the salon weekly; now it may be as little as two to four visits a year, which has major financial implications for the industry.
COVID hastened many of the changing trends in the industry, particularly appointments being less often as people discovered styles could last longer. Also, many women grew out their colours or embraced the grey or changed from full head colours to multi-tone techniques that lasted much longer, therefore needing fewer appointment visits.
Tipping has always been a contentious issue... It is a compliment or a show of appreciation over. However, I would prefer the industry to charge the correct prices for the value of what we deliver, so tipping wouldn't be necessary. I would rather a client were generous enough to recommend me to their friends.
Being a man in the industry... the main difference is we don't have to leave to have a family, so the average time spent in the industry tends to be longer for guys, perhaps meaning more experience. That doesn't mean better, and the women I have worked with overall tend to have less ego and are more consistent. I think the idea with some women clients that men are better comes from the idea that we look at women differently, but I'm not convinced of that.
I miss the glamour of styled shiny hair... I feel that casualness is missing something and a lack of attention to how we look. Then came along the Sassoon precision looks with the classics like the five point haircut, the Isadora and the evolving looks from there. I think one of my favourites was the Purdy. I do, of course, love the abandoned choppy unstructured looks that had their beginnings in the 1980s with the punk revolution.
There is an over-reliance on hair straighteners... and over-colouring is damaging hair substantially. Often, the pressure for young stylists to upsell leads to wholly unnecessary colour treatments and a lack of supportive haircare makes it worse.
The use of clients as models for a social media platform feels invasive... They are clients wanting to feel and look good, not act as models for my ego.
My most memorable case of a client being unhappy was... a woman with her arm in a cast. She needed a manageable style, so we discussed a shorter bob, which I was convinced she understood. I started the cut when she freaked out, saying it wasn't what she wanted and made a dramatic exit mid-haircut. I learned the lesson of confirm, confirm, confirm.
My wife is autistic and I am ADHD, so I am acutely aware of how the salon environment is not suited to the needs of the neurodiverse community... particularly the autistic community. I always start every appointment with a lengthy face-to-face conversation to find out who the person in my chair is and their needs. After that is established, I adjust the rest of the interaction to suit them (not me). I ask if they want to chat or not. If they do, I use the time to inform as much as possible. An informed client is a collaborative client, and no, I never ask where they are going on holiday!