Last week I encouraged you to elevate yourself to "hair whisperer" status. But how? I think your strategy must be three-pronged. As usual, I urge you to take all sorts of
hair classes, because education certainly is one of the three
considerations. The second is your natural gifts; I never underestimate not only the raw talent required to achieve a great cut, color or style but also a person's need for creative expression that typically drives a passion for the work. The third prong is the repetition inherent in experience.
A fascinating book I picked up recently,
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, addresses how we make instant, instinctual decisions that end up looking like true brilliance. We subconsciously base decisions on a combination of the first two prongs, training and natural skill, with our lifelong experiences. We use every ounce of personal history and seasoning that have become part of our very fabric.
I'll bet that sometimes when a new staffer asks you how you know where to cut or how you figure out a color formula, your response is, "I just know." That's blink power. It isn't conscious thinking, but it's still a thought process. It's a magic that you rely upon every day in order to make the split-second decisions that lead to a great hair cut or color. But it's not really magic. It's based on your experience, your inborn creativity and, my favorite, a lifelong schedule of
hair education.