What Kind of Work is Hairdressing?

From a recent post you’ll see my claim that everyone seems to want to raise the bar, increase the respect, or make the hair care “industry” somehow more professional. This is a great goal but I wonder why it comes up, year after year? Why is it still a topic? Hasn’t it become more professional enough? There is some amazing work being done out there but my perspective is that no, the industry isn’t professional enough. The first reason I cited was the role salon owners play as business managers.

Here’s my perspective on the second reason: Not enough stylists understand how get all the value out of their roles.

If a stylist were working out of his home, or in a one-person studio, the only thing that is rightly required of him is between him and his clients. His work, in its most basic form, is manual in nature. It’s like a skill or a trade. Just because a pair of shears is small and lightweight, the work is still skilled manual labor and not so different from a carpenter or a dental technician. That is, the work results from manual dexterity. His measures of success are efficiency, productivity, and cost.

If another stylist aspires to something more than manual labor, she may choose to see herself as an artist. Artists also use their hands, or even their whole bodies, to accomplish their work. However, by looking at her work as art the stylist sees her role as creating more than just a product or just a service. Her measures of success are beauty, truth, and imagination. To the extent that this perspective increases beauty and creativity in the world, I think it is a valid shift in her thinking. On the other hand, if she uses the title of artist to elevate herself above the clients she presumably serves, it’s certainly not valid; at least not from a business perspective.

Let’s say skilled workers and artists want to make a business out of their work. In other words, they want to rise above the low pay, uncertain demand, and long hours that go with their current jobs. What can they do to improve their situations? Should the skilled worker stop developing his technique? No. He needs to constantly improve his skills to stay relevant. Should the artist abandon her “vision”? No. She needs to nurture her creativity and to think of hairdressing as more than utilitarian.

To achieve more, to get the most out of their roles, they need to completely reimagine their work. They must learn what they can accomplish with their brains—not just their hands. They must transcend work that is rooted in manual labor and become knowledge workers.

In our society, knowledge workers are the most respected and professional. They are the doctors and lawyers and computer scientists. For our industry to achieve the level of professionalism it craves, being more skilled with our hands and more creative with our vision will not be enough. For us to achieve that, every stylist needs to become a knowledge worker.

If you are interested in learning how to become a knowledge worker and make the industry more professional one stylist at a time; please contact me.

Jim

Lucavia
gojimlucas@lucavia.com
www.lucavia.com
(925) 980-7871

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