Nick Arrojo: Celebrity Hair Stylist, Shares The Secrets To Salon Success

This is Larry the barber man, and today I am at New York. The IBS 2017 show we have none other than Nick our ago and we're just here to do a general interview with Nick find out a little bit about his background where he is now and where he's going. Okay, so by all accounts, you're a highly successful hairdresser. You'Re originally from the UK, you said you've been here for 22 years. Just briefly, tell me how you came from the UK and became a success here in America. I started working when I was 16 in Manchester. I worked for Vidal Sassoon. I had a very successful tenure with them. Then I moved to London, I'm from Manchester. I moved to London. I worked for Weller, and that was where I got to kind of experience, a lot of international events and international hairdressers, and then my dream was always to move to New York City and my dream came true in 1994 and I came to work for Bumble and Bumble and they they heard about me, and they sponsored me and brought me to America. Okay. Yesterday I kind of sat there and watched you doing your demonstrations and something kind of stuck in my mind when they said you was homeless. Tell me about your homeless experience here in America in in 2001, when September the 11th happened. I lived a block away from set from the Twin Towers, so I started my business arose. Oh, I basically was rent in a couple of chairs inside a inside of school and I in Soho - and I was in business for one week and then September. The 11th happened in downtown was a no-go zone, so I had nowhere to live and I was homeless and I slept on people's couches and a friend's homes, and so eventually we managed to get back into downtown Manhattan, but downtown Manhattan was a no-go zone for a Long time, okay, so you clearly have, like I said, a successful product line. You have a successful hair salon and successful educational program. Could you tell me about all of these things? Yeah your product line, be your salon and see your educational? Well, I started my salon in 2001 and I had staff of for two assistants and a receptionist and me and then what happened was I slowly built it step by step step by step? I was building my brand today. I have three salons one in Soho, one in Tribeca and one in Brooklyn and the big salons. So I have a staff of 150 people, so there you know multifaceted, salons. I also developed a cosmetology school because I really think that education is the key to success. Developed a Qadri cosmetology school in America. You have to get licensed, so you don't do an apprenticeship. You have to get a license before you can even work in a salon. I will really want to get into that business because I wanted to effect hairdressing at a grassroots level, so I opened up a cosmetology school. I already have an advanced Academy and then the final pillar was for me to do products. I'Ve helped companies develop products for a Veda kms for Wella for bumble. I'Ve always been a person that they could consult with us, the hairdresser and ultimately, at a certain point, it was time for me to develop my own product line. So today I have three salons. I have two product lines arose. Oh American Wave is our new product line for curl. I also have a service called American Wave. It used to be called the perm and it's not a perm anymore. It'S an American wave. It'S a texture service Academy, cosmetology school. I got a lot going on. It'S been a lot of fun, it's been a big journey and I'm completely independent so through through hard work and dedication, and by always trying to be the best that I could be. I'Ve managed to navigate my business into a multi-million dollar enterprise and, and it's really exciting and being at the trade show here, is a great place for me to meet new friends share. My culture share. My product share everything that we do and hopefully try to elevate hairdressing in America, and my goal is to not only elevated in America but also to elevate it worldwide. Okay, great answer. Another thing that stuck out for me yesterday, when I was listening to your demonstration, is the fact that you said in order to be a success in hairdressing. You need to specialize in something what do you specialize in in the area of education and what do you specialize in in your shop, maybe in terms of trends or hairstyles right now? Well, when I talk about specialization, what I really mean is you got to have? What'S your USP, what's your unique selling point, are you unique styling perspective yeah not to me is what it should be and your USB has to change. It shouldn't stay the same because you're always in a state of reinvention, so I started hairdressing as a specialist in haircutting working for Vidal, Sassoon, the art and craft of cutting hair with a scissor. When I left Vidal Sassoon, I decided to change my technique. I evolved and started to cut hair with a razor, so I cut hair with a switchblade, and that gives me a different finish in a different feel. Now we have American Wave we've reinvented the perm. So basically, that's my specialty and education, something that we really specialize in and now I'm really focusing on his business education salon owners, don't understand a lot of salon owners, don't necessarily understand how to make their business a success, because usually the path of a hairdresser is To become busy once you become successful behind the chair more often than not, then it's time for you to venture into the next step of your journey. I share my unique perspective because I started my business in New York from very little and I've grown into a multi-million dollar business with a lot of employees, and I share all of my trials and tribulations that I've learned I've worked with some of the best companies. We Dow Sassoon. Well, I always keep great company. Some of my mentors were people like Hoss Trek Ibaka, who created a Veda and Michael Gordon, who created bumble and a true mentor of mine, was a gentleman by the name of Jerry Gordon. I found him when I came to America and he was a legend, a legendary hairdresser from Chicago, so I'm just passing information through and as I pass information through, I see that people listen, they learn they evolved and then we create success together. I'M a firm believer that there's enough room for everybody to be successful in our industry, but in order to be successful, you have to learn from people that have been in the path before you and I'm just trying to accelerate that to everybody so that they can. You know they can learn from it and share, and I think your USP is something that you you have to have. So I really try to be a mentor to a lot of hairdressers. That'S what I try to do, okay, so in your educational programs, because one thing I did find quite impressive when he was talking and educating them for free on your stand yesterday, it seems like there's a whole vocabulary and there's a whole psychology to being successful in Hairdressing industry: do you go into that much detail in one of your educational courses, because I think that that information that I heard yesterday could absolutely transform a hairdressers, career and, ultimately, their business yeah. I think that the I think that what we're doing is we try to systemize everything. So when you systemize something you have a system, it's a path. It'S a game plan. If people follow the game plan, they will succeed, the keys have been successful is through education. So you have to have education at the forefront of your mind. If you're educating, if you're giving, then you don't live in fear. What you do is you live in the learn and when you live in the learn, you create success because you're learning and you're pushing forward for me once we systemize things and we focus on education that education helps to pay us back. I tell you what I bought my company on. I built my company because I never had any money I had. I had no money, I don't come from money. Nobody gave me any money. I built my sister I built my brand on on on a on a keep catchphrase and the key catchphrase was give unconditionally and what that means is. It means that if you can try and help somebody by doing something to help them on their way without having anything given back in return, you actually get a lot back in return. So it's kind of like walking the walk, talking the talk and they're trying to strive to be somebody that can help people and when you're doing that you get caught up in the in the motion of it and today, even on my trade show booth down here. I'Ve got salon owners that are flying in from all over the country to work alongside me and just be a part of what we're trying to create and, and you know, in order to create something you have to create some noise and we're constantly trying to create Noise, so that people can have something to listen to yeah, but it's all my business philosophies based on practical knowledge. I always say the best hairdresser starts off as being being the best sweeper, the best miracle ena, the best shampoo were the best coma yeah. I think these real basic fundamentals that have helped me on my path: ok, two more questions: 2007 tene. What do you see has been the trends for 2017 well, 2017, we're already focusing on the trend and it's just the beginning of the year textures coming back yeah. I'Ve been in this journey for 35 years. He was at the show here, a few years ago, everybody had feathers in their hair if he was at this show a few years before that everybody was buying hair extensions because of the shackles of the shell. A few years well that everyone was making their hair smooth what's coming back, is permanent wave with putting curl back into hair, and i'm pioneering that - and i know it's working because last year my american wave service grew by over a hundred percent and this year it's Already grown by 50 % on last year, and at this show we have had countless hairdressers sign up to get certified in it. So we start trends in the salon and i'm starting a trend by creating a service that when I got into the industry, everybody did, but I can tell you, for the last 20 years nobody's been perming here, textures back, it's a great thing for a salon owners To have a new service to offer to their clients and we lost it. We skipped a generation with the perm so now it's time not to bring back the perm but to bring back waving and we call it American wave, okay and last question what practices or what things do you see in the hairdressing industry at the moment that you Feel are killing it or doing it, dis justice, and what do you think should be done to change that? Well, the biggest challenge that all hairdressing salons have is they used to be a thing called professional product professional product doesn't exist because of the internet and because of all the retail stores that carry all of the professional, supposedly professional lines. I think salon owners have to rethink where the money comes from. The money really does not come. The profit in a salon does not come from service, it really comes from retail and until we start getting focused on that seriously, we will still have a low profit business. When you think about a restaurant - and you know it's New York - there's a restaurant on every corner, the money is not in the food, the money is in the bar. So that's where restaurants make a living here's what we need to do. We need to think of the retail area as the bar and we need to get hairdressers to understand that if they recommend professional products or the products that they carry and if they engage with their clients, they can raise the revenue and their profitability. And we need to take ownership of being the professional stylists and I think that's a big piece of what we're trying to do as a company. The truth of the matter is no one gets into hairdressing to sell shampoo, but the reality is if you're, not selling shampoo you're not going to have a successful salon, because the reality is. Is you have to look at that bar otherwise known as the retail? You have to look at that and say: hey the number one restaurant in New York probably makes more money on the bar than they do on the food. The chef is a great chef that people come in, but they make the money on the liquor. It'S the same thing in a salon: we've got to turn that retail into real dollars and and we're trying to pioneer that and we're doing it in a different way, we're doing it in a different way from distributors, we're doing a different way as a manufacturer, and I'M in salons every day, all over this country sharing my culture and my unique perspective on how to retail and we've mentioned. We have an academy we actually have in our Academy. We have a retail class, we can spend full day learning the tools to sell and if you understand the tools, then you're going to win okay, I love that analogy about restaurants, making the money from the bar, because sometimes in industries, when they're on the inside, looking In you can't see it for what it is, so what that analogy, does it takes them out of the box and they can see their hairdressing English? What it really is so Nick! Thank you ever so much or sharing your time with me, showing your words of wisdom. There'S tons of nuggets at both hairdressers and barbers can take away from this interlude. So I salute you and carry on doing what you're doing and bring it back over to the UK. At some point I hope so I look forward to it. Thank you.