Hair Stylist Business Advice | And Lessons From The Pandemic

Do so in today's feature, i want to introduce you guys to this young lady robbie hargis. Did i pronounce that right? Okay, thank you for joining me. This is a long-term friend of our family. The guilty sheep actually was one of our stylists in the salon. Shortly after she finished school she's, an amazing stylist, an amazing and like when i years ago, i would never have expected her with these little kids and now he is married with a family, and i just want to say thank you for joining us on the live Chat it's my pleasure. Today'S topic is lessons from the pandemic and it's not like we're out of the pandemic, but at least hairstyles are back to work. So far. Now right, dallas and california got shut down again. Oh man brandon do the right thing in illinois so that we can open services servicing these clients and making our coins right. Yes, absolutely yes, well, give us a little bit of background about you, robbie um, how long you've been in the industry and what you love to do, and what you're inspired by um in the salon industry um. So it has been i'm about to stun you sharon. It has been 15 years really. Yes, i got my license um june of 2005. um. Oh, you know because we opened in 0-4 yeah well. So it's been 15 years now and um my original plan wasn't it was to do hair. While i went and got my bachelor's and whatever that was going to be, and all these years later, i still love what i do um. I love everything about the beauty industry. My mainly what i do is, i cut i used to color, but the salon i'm in now is departmentalized, so yeah. So i i have let that go because it's just too much to still try to do um and we have great people at our in our salon and um yeah. I just i miss it. I do but i like to see my finished product and i think i enjoy styling and cutting a lot more um sculpting. As i've learned, you know from you guys it is that's my strength, uh and i definitely do love to sculpt hair. But i do. I have my days where i miss color. I know you do because you are homegrown color. Oh, thank you all the vibrant, colors and techniques and designs yeah. This is amazing, too, because i i mean i love to cut some hair when i say with cutting, but i know that's exciting, right, yeah you're cutting all all textures all nationalities. That'S it now, that's exciting! It is um. I ever since i've been in the industry. I just never wanted to be pigeonholed. I know how to do black hair. I love black hair, the the amount of textures and but it's just so many different techniques. I love to air form uh where i'm you know blow drying with my round brush and i like to have the the the diversity and the variety um and i get to do a lot of a lot of fun, stuff um. I love cutting like asian and indian hair because it's so heavy and really really shows off those cuts. I'M i'm happy being a a cutter and a styler, and i still get to do. Relaxers i'll, probably do maybe one relaxer a month, not a whole lot. Um and i do still offer keratin what products do you guys use for your character, complex, okay, cool yeah and that's probably one of my favorites. I'Ve worked with a couple, but that's the one i like the most so tell us robbie. What lessons did you learn from from the pandemic based on family? Oh ooh, you better, like your husband, just don't get me weary just just for we already spent a lot of time together because of our work schedule. He works in the airline industry um. He has rotating days off so at least two to three times a month. We share off days, so we do spend a lot of time together anyway. So i think that was helpful and we both have our hobbies and interests um. So when everybody kind of like tight and a little bit too much on each other, you go play a game and i'm gon na go. You know, do some writing and you know it works out, but yeah it was. We had to start finding activities, especially for the boys they're four in one um. Yes, so constantly constantly, we have to lock the baby in because he knows how to turn doorknobs, okay, so cause i'm i'm in another room. He was like well, i'm gon na have to lock him in so he don't come banging on the door and just opening it because he will and connor is just a ball of energy constantly. He runs everywhere. He goes. That'S the four-year-old um, so yeah girls. It'S a lot was the four-year-old in daycare previously, so he was in preschool. I had signed him up for pre-k three, so this was this was his first year in preschool. He was in cps, so it was an all-day program from eight to three um and first the strike then being coveted right right right right. So i don't we my husband and i decided we're not going to send him back to school in the fall. I just feel like the schools aren't really prepared, and i don't want mine to be the guinea pig. I want them to figure out what works and what doesn't work. First, um we're considering finding a tutor, maybe bring somebody in one to two days after week, um and just try to play it by ear and figure it out, but my dad is 90 and i don't want to risk him bringing anything back to the family. Okay, so he does he stay with you guys. No, but we go see them often. I mean because he's i got ta go check on him and you know i cut his hair for him since he hasn't been able to go to the barber um, and i just i don't want that to happen where we all have to isolate any further yeah. So now that that's what you learned about family, but what did you learn about robbie in life like like? Did you come up with some new, exciting things? I know you did tell me about that, but we'll get we'll get to the whole situation. A little bit later, but what did you learn about you? Did you have time to spend with yourself? Did you just block them out and and just go into your little shell? So i did um i had to i'm an extrovert, but i need decompression time um and i need my quiet time and that wasn't happening. So what i did. I started waking up at like 4 35 o'clock in the morning, so i have my coffee and buy it and be still um and i was just able to kind of find my voice like. I knew who i was as robbie in her 20s and 30s, but i just turned 40 and i got to figure out where robbie lies in being a mom and being a wife, and you know finding those things that still motivate me and inspire me um and Keep my creative excuse me my creativity, moving um, so i started reading in the mornings i started meditating. I was able to pray more and just kind of dive into some of the things that really just give me pleasure, not just something that is going to benefit the family, well yeah, but the things that keep me happy um because it was. It was really starting to affect me and just as a side note, i i suffered from postnatal depression with my last one okay, so my postpartum went unchecked and went into eight nine months of him being on this earth um, and so that was a huge aha Moment for me, because those conditions don't present themselves how we see them on television, so it's easy to discount it, as i'm just tired or i had to snap out of that - and you know get myself back together, talk to somebody and be like hey. You know this is what i need for myself to be healthy, because if i'm not healthy, this this whole thing falls apart. Exactly, and i always i used to say that all the time and i experienced postpartum with taylor really yeah, so i know what that feels. Like firsthand, it was at least six months yeah when you talk about like spending time with you meditating, because i make that a practice as well, meditating repeating and just really getting into yourself, and i just feel like as a wife of a mom if you're not On on the up and up, nobody else can be because it starts with us. Yes, we have, you know our eye. Vibration is not high, it's low, it's like it affects the whole household, and it's like when you're, when you're feeling you, yes, you feel good about. You you feel good about your life, your business, you know your career, then everybody it kind of like it's like a little it trickles down to everybody else. The baby, the four-year-old and your husband, so yeah everybody's got this nice little nice little household, but when it's the opposite, it's just like it's bad bad, like anybody right. Yes, yeah and everybody's snappy at one another, and you know irrita, irritated and irritable and cranky, and it was just i'm like okay. This isn't going well because i wasn't able to set up systems to make us work better and and make our make us more efficient and it just it just. It can fall apart really quickly. So earlier we were talking about you in this uh the salon, and when did you actually start there? I started february 19th. That was my first day there wow and then we shut down in like march 17th, i went back home march 17th, wow yep. So how was that for you after being off for a whole year of not because i know you guys moved to texas and then you moved back to chicago yeah um. Were you working when you moved right back to chicago, or did you get pregnant with the baby so both? So when i came back, i came back um in texas. I worked for aveda. I was a textured hair specialist in the experience center, so in the actual retail store um an aveda is very product knowledge heavy. So if you don't know what you're looking for, you can end up spending a lot of money and not like what you have so my job was to set up workshops, events and explain to people what it is they're getting and help them find exactly what they're. Looking for it was so, i was in the nordstrom locations in chicagoland um, so i was going to four different stores every day, i'm at a different store and i would set up events with the in the advanced skin care and technology departments in nordstrom. So, where all the high-end skin care is the um blow dryers and hair care and everything is in that area, so i did that for about two months. It was too much on my car. My car just died. They weren't paying me for mileage. That'S a whole other story um. So i was like look y'all. I can't do this anymore, so i lost my clients going back to texas, so i'm like trying to figure out okay. What what do i do? What do i do? Uh started really heavy doing digital marketing and everything started blogging just to try to find different ways to get myself out there, and it just was all to no avail, and i'm just like frustrated i might have been making after paying blue friend, maybe three or four Hundred dollars a week, um and then august, i took a four-hour nap and my husband came home with a pregnancy test he's like dude, i'm like we were so that i worked a little bit up through having him in the end february. We just took a whole year off so yeah. I was home with the baby for a year, which was very hard for me. I'Ve worked since i was 15 years old, so i think that that added a lot to my depression, but it sounds like now. Robbie is back on the road to building rebuilding her business, her life and her brand. So tell us a little bit about what you have going on, because i know you got some exciting stuff going on outside of the salon so uh it was funny. My husband tried to encourage me to take a job at tsa and i'm like i don't want to wear this blue shirt like so i got to - and this is. This is a very step heavy job. You have to go because it's the government so you're going through a lot of a lot of steps of it um i landed the job at maxine. I got there, and so i was like. Oh okay. All right. Fine well ran into some issues with taxes and my um license so long. I'M sure y'all take care of y'all tax business, and so i had to wait and then we finally able to start work. Then we went out for covis. So i'm just like okay. How do i i need to generate some income, and so i started paying attention to like affiliate links and, and things like that now these things are just in the back of my mind, i enjoy writing. I got published on 2190, which is glavity's beauty, site um. So it was little stuff happening, but nothing that was really had the momentum i was looking for. I got a call from a classmate um named leanne and she was like hey. Are you interested in starting a beauty group now her and her girlfriend? Have a group called mama needs, love too, that they started for moms uh, and it's really good information. You know they do a podcast, so it really took off well for them, and i was like that would be cool literally i just dove in like i was all in. I had like the things that were coming. It was just coming so naturally and organically. I i really couldn't believe it and i'm just like i have so much information to share people are stuck at home. They don't know what to do with their hair, because i knew one of the things two things was gon na happen was people either they gon na come back out of this with their hair. Just ate up right or their hair could really take time to rest and flourish. So how can i help people with their hair and rest and flourish so from there? It ended up being like okay beauty. Let'S talk about beauty, skin care body care wellness, just everything that encompasses beauty to me and beauty is really balanced. That'S that's truly, how i feel and instagram and all of the social media has made us think that all of a sudden, we can go from. Looking like this to looking like that, without steps in between without taking care of yourself like, i would do brides and they would want this. You know you want this magnificent skin. You should have started six months ago. You can't it just doesn't work like that. So, the better that we take care of ourselves physically and mentally, then we exude that beauty because we're balanced we, we have everything that we need and that's where the beauty comes from right. So that's just really what i wanted to convey to people started working on better diets. I had clients who talk about you, know scalp issues and skin issues, but we take out six days after week. We already know american diets are terrible. These companies don't care about your health, we have to take more control of it and we have to advocate for our own health and take better care, take better care of ourselves internally to get a great external output, and that's just what i really wanted to share. In the community, so our group is called your beauty defined um and i just wanted people to know from facebook right. Yes, it's a facebook group yeah. I put the link down in the comments too. Okay, cool i'll i'll. Send you everything you need to have, but it's it's been great um and the feedback has just been amazing and i've been able to teach people so much about things that, like just simple stuff, that you know we as stylists use as tips and techniques that people Overlook um skincare was huge, like we did, um skincare back in may, and a lot of people had the same problems with dark circles and and hyperpigmentation, and you know just and not doing proper steps to skin care. You don't have to spend a ton of money on skin care. You can get what you need really from the grocery store for good skincare, but actually taking the steps and knowing what works for you and what type of skin you have. What type of hair you have um and it's it's just been - it's been really fulfilling like this month, we're doing makeup and i don't want people to feel like they got to have this instagram beat face because that's not most of my group members are probably late. 30S to early 50s um. So that's not what we're looking for like we're. Looking for good skin care, just a simple everyday look like glow on your skin white girl. My they talk about me so bad because my favorite phase is. I need my jlo glow girl. Exactly do you know what i tell i tell parents, i tell like younger women. Y'All gon na need some makeup on every day and i'm not talking a full face of makeup. You could do your brows liner, a little blush or a little some kind of skin glow, and that's it and a little lip gloss and it doesn't have to even be a color. I could just do that. We'Ve lost the same color because i look at some people, like the difference in your space and skin, looking dry to the difference in a little lip gloss. Yes, it makes the world of a difference in women every single day, like i don't care where i'm going. I got something now today i got a little dye on my eyes, so i don't have a liner, but i just add a little powder, a little on my cheeks and a little bit barely a little bit on my lips, and it just makes the world of A difference it makes you feel better when you can look, it makes you feel better girl. I just i wear a lipstick under my mask because i took my mask out and i had real lipstick because you a little bit more finish. I feel more polished. I feel like i'm really ready to like take on the world and get the things that i want when you have that confidence - and i just want everybody to have that. I want everybody to feel feel great about themselves, because that's the best thing about this job. When somebody has that aha moment, like somebody who've, been wearing hair down to their elbows for years, and then they get a short vibe and they see how gorgeous their collar bone is, and they see how much slimmer they look and they walk out differently and you're. Like yes, i did that, but i didn't do it for me. I did it for you, i did it, so you can look good and now you feel better yeah. So what kind of feedback are you getting in starting? Your group? Are people actually posting pictures of the results that that you might share with them like adding a little lip gloss? Are they actually doing selfies posting pictures in the group, so we were doing facial friday? We had a lot of feedback from facial friday. People would start, you know, carving out time on their friday evenings to do masks and do different treatments, and we were seeing before and after pictures, so for the month of july, since we're doing makeup this last week, i really i really fell off really bad, because I was doing some other writing, but i want to get people to just kind of show like what have you worked on on your eyes and just give us feedback about. What did you learn this month? That you feel like has made a really big difference in either your morning routine or just how you take care of yourself and by applying a little bit of mascara or a good brow outline. So um we'll get some more feedback on that for this month, though, and people just like, i learned a lot and if they have a question about something you know we talked about the vaginal steams. The these things and a lot of people have questions about that. So it's stuff i see like the cbd, i had one of um, a friend that sells cbd the weight loss products to come and talk to us about that and she's actually a doctor of nursing. She just got her phd in nursing, so she gave us some good information about how those products actually work. So it's really stuff i see and i'm like. I don't know about that and then i'll dive a little deeper, get some more information and and just share it with. So what other lessons did you learn from the pandemic when it comes to business? Were you already creating? You were already creating the articles and the blog posts right in the different magazines. Had you already been doing that during your year off with the baby? No, no! I wasn't so. I would barely create content um one of my best friends she's an author. She was like your writing is going to be the key for you. She was like i'm telling you to start right now, i'll be like i don't know um, so i did i just when i would hear about something or i would think of something that i think could help people. I would start writing it, and i would just like just do a total brain spill with no organization to it and i would come back later and just kind of fine tune it and everything. So i had like a lot of stuff, but it was all in my computer. Well at maxine we have a pr agent and they'll throw out stuff for everybody. If you want to bite like hey such and such is looking for an article about curly, hair or blonde highlights, or the nutrient for fall and bobs cool, and i started writing like a lot and when black lives matter happened and then well not happen when it Came back to the forefront after george, exactly in the end right, because it's been going on, um, pull up or shut up happened, um about the beauty brands and my representation literally like in one week i wrote like six or seven contributions um, because now every major Magazine wants a texture, hair expert right, so i pitched an article about porosity because i think that's the best way to differentiate from european hair down to african american hair and everything kind of in between it's really about the porosity of our hair and how well that Cuticle holds up and what it does why curly hair acts like this and why straight hair acts like this and it's it went nuts, so i've literally written probably about seven or eight contributions. So i'm not writing the full articles, but i'm giving the writers or the authors of these articles my perspective as a stylist, okay, cool, that's cool, and that that requires you not to have to write so much right right, but it ends. Up being i mean, i write a lot because it's a lot of information, then they can just kind of pluck from it what they want um, but i'm about to start pitching for my own articles, because now mama needs to make some money off of it. Now now that you're back into the salon and you're working on focusing on the hair cutting because i know you would make a great educator or some kind of company - but have you talked about any of that right? So i am i'm trying to get some brand partnerships um right now. I need to bulk up my instagram following because i was kind of all over the place on my instagram. There was no strategy to it, so i i'm hire somebody to kind of help. Me hone in and just really hit the targets that i want to hit um, i'm actually working on turning your beauty defined into an affiliate website, because that's what people are asking for they're asking for products. I'Ve had about four companies reach out to me. Smaller companies about doing an affiliate link with a code um, so i'm hoping that can be a really good main form of passive income. For me, uh and my co-founder um to be able to do the affiliate links, and i want to do it with integrity. I want good products, i want to be aware of the ingredients and be able to tell people. I just don't want to kind of do it just for the money right right yeah. So what kind of product do you guys use and is it an aveda salon or no? No, no. We are actually a carista salon or a laurier, but they're. Not we do so. We use orbe as our back bar, which is um. If everyone doesn't know it's an extremely luxurious hair care line, like bottles of shampoo, are probably about 46 for our 8 ounce bottle um, that's our back bar and we do their styling products as well, and we also have carrot stocks. I'M a huge care size fan. Um, i was greatly disheartened during pull up or shut up to see what their numbers were in terms of black representation in l'oreal as a company being that they are the owners of mazani and they are the owners of um they're, not carol's, daughter, carol's, daughter's estee Lauder, but i was just really disturbed and i started to feel bad about telling people about these products and you're. Just not you don't really care about us and representing your brand when we have a lot of clients who buy a lot of care stocks. The masks are amazing, like the treatments help to restore and repair hair. So i started finding out about more black hair care brands that i like um, so it's been. I have that duality in that, because this is the salon that i work for, and this is what i have to use, but i do really want to urge them to kind of rethink their marketing and start to include other groups in it because um, it is A good product line and y'all got the money exactly. I was reading a lot of articles during this that time and i feel, like some companies were just pushing stuff just to say stuff. Just to you know, you can look back because i did a feature um. My cousin he's a celebrity makeup artist and esthetician in new york, and he was just he's. He'S worked for a veda for years, too, he's no longer with the veda, but he worked in the veda the company for years, and you know just him explaining the fact that he looked back like in january to see what their numbers were based on, what their Numbers are now you know and see who actually rushed to the finish line, to figure out if, okay, this is what we need to be doing. But what did you really need to be doing up until this point and going forward? Will you continue to have that same? Is it like a fad right? Is it just a hashtag for you yeah exactly right, please. I really deep down feel like it's going to be a fad, but others next year, this time, they'll really be seeing a difference in their company because it can benefit their company as well, not just absolutely putting the black face, or you know on on a model. You know on an ad or marketing um material. It can really because we spend a lot of money on products sharon. There are three markets in makeup and i just had three markets in makeup. You have your mass, which is walgreens your drugstore makeup right. Then you have your niche, which is like too faced the real kitchen stuff for the kids um stuff that smells good, lipstick that tastes good all that stuff. And then you have um prestige. Black women are 78 of the buyers of prestige makeup, so this is foundation that costs 45. These are concealers that cost 38, like your lancome brands. Brands like that. Yes, your department store brand 79. The only ones who out shop us in beauty is the hispanics wow. You see representation for neither one of us and then when we stop buying, though, because you know, we want to look fabulous right right and you know it, but at the same time, when the black companies do come out and they do well, they they sell to. These larger brands and now you're back in the same boat. Again you had the representation for this very small window, but now that unilever or png now owns it is just this little carved out market and it's not really that big of a deal. And, oh just you know, we'll put one or two people on the board, but there's no one in management, there's no one in leadership that is really contributing to help the brand develop into something that we need your lectures from the pandemic. What would you do differently if we ever have to go through this again? What would you have have in place now that you didn't have in place before? I would find a better way to communicate with my clients. I was using mailchimp um previously, but i wasn't as diligent about it as i should have been. I would keep constant communication with them so that way, they know that i'm there for them. If i need them what i did do with a few clients, i did zoom sessions, one on one-on-one zoom sessions, teaching people how to blow-dry uh. So i'm thinking about adding lessons on caring for your hair yourself as a side, another streamer of revenue for myself. You know because practice makes perfect, that's why we do it well, because we do it five to six seven times a day on different types of hair. Some people like i wish i could do my hair like that. That'S because i do it every day and i've been doing it for a long time, so just teaching them the repetition teaching them how to section properly teaching them how to apply products to their hair properly to get the best results and make it a habit. That'S what i would like to incorporate into my branding like, let me teach you how to take care of your hair. Come see me for your haircut. Some come see me for your relaxers, but in the in the interim. You can do this yourself, because the better you take care of your hair yourself at home, the better your hair is going to be you're. Only seeing me once every two weeks, sometimes once every three months - and i i'm not greedy, like that - i don't want to take all your money every two weeks. Let me just see you every three months: we do a good trim and a keratin treatment or whatever you feel like you need, if you're here for color and give me some more people in here like. Let me keep my rotation higher, but my visit's less. You don't have to see me that much. Let me teach you how to take care of your hair yourself yeah, because what we learned in cosmetology school. I know you learned it too, even though we went to cosmetology school way um, but you know the haircut is the basis of every haircut of every hair style. Absolutely you got that good cut. Like i tell i used to tell people if i cut your hair, if i gave you a bob and i don't know i had to leave out because it was an emergency or even a short cut, and i couldn't curl your hair. You should be fine when you walk down the street yeah yeah, that's a good haircut! Yes! Yes, all i'm doing is finishing, like i'm just giving you that extra finish to seal the deal on what you paid for, but you're preparing me for my skills and my expertise as a cutter, yep yeah. So any la any final words you would since you're a seasoned pro now, first of all for anybody, that's starting off. If you have newbies that are watching. I want to say this, and i didn't do this because i was you know how i was wrong. I was ready, i'm find a good, strong foundation of a salon to be in. I learned so much from you guys a lot of the girl, the end papers when you mow. I still do that. I learned great tricks from you guys and tips, and i learned a great work work ethic and i learned how to try that yeah. I learned how to talk to my clients. I learned how to listen from to my clients from you guys, because you guys were deliberate in setting yourselves apart from the black salon shop culture, because david would snap on you if you call his solana shop and rightly so, because it wasn't the same. So you all definitely created that standard of being able to be in america's beauty, show and see different techniques and see different chemical processes and learn color. You all set a standard for me in the industry, where i knew i couldn't go back to yeah something different. Exactly um, so it's get somewhere to start off. That'S really gon na give you everything you need. If you got to be a system for two three years, do it do it, because the knowledge that you're gaining is is invaluable and when you get into the industry and you behind the chair, don't be scared to pivot. You have to stay open to every opportunity. This is a 90 billion dollar a year industry, it's enough money for everybody and a whole lot of heads of hair out there and it's a whole lot of people. That'S losing hair that need help growing, hair back or creating replacements. It'S money to be made, but you have to stay consistent, you have to stay educated and you you got to stay passionate in your craft and you got to love people. We have to love on our clients, like we have to love on our clients and, if you, if you're, not willing to do that part, then walk away because you have to take care of them like we have so much in our hands when we're dealing with People i know stuff about some of my clients. They husbands, probably don't even know so it's an intimate relationship, but we also have to learn how to keep a professional and it's a tricky balance. This is it's a very tricky industry that we're in and it takes a special type of person to be able to thrive, and we have to learn from one another and just love on each other as stylists. So this is great what you're doing by giving something back to stylists, so they they have a well to draw from. Well, congratulations girl and thank you so much. I appreciate all the kudos and all that you learned from the events. Absolutely you know that we imparted the knowledge, and i just appreciate people actually letting us know what they got from it and how it benefited your career. You