Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover Roy Caccamo INTRODUCTION 3 Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover Contents CHAPTER 1 4 Don’t Wait Too Long CHAPTER 2 6 Tips for Avoiding a Bad Hairstyle Experience CHAPTER 3 8 Fearing Hairstyling Nightmares CHAPTER 4 11 To Sue or Not to Sue: Dealing with Disappointment CHAPTER 5 13 Get the Right Idea about Hair Consultations CHAPTER 6 15 Getting Cosy with Your Stylist CHAPTER 7 17 Hairstyles and Cold Hard Cash CHAPTER 8 Copyright 2008 TheHairStyler.com Everyone Deserves Great Hair! Author: [email protected] 19 Editor: [email protected] Design: [email protected] CHAPTER 9 21 Finding Time for a Salon Visit This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncom- mercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ or send a CONCLUSION letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, 23 Some Tricks of the Trade California, 94105, USA. Introduction Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover! It’s free, it’s packed full of goodness, and when you print it out (preferably on recycled paper), it’ll be thin enough to put under your pillow. Why would you put it under your pillow? Well, you usually put something under your pillow that you think will keep you safe, or that you think is particularly precious. This e-book will keep you safe, and it’s certainly precious. I’m a professional hairstylist with over 25 years experience, and in this e-book I pinpoint and discuss all the things about getting a hairstyle makeover that might worry you. I think you might be surprised when you realize that your little anxieties may actually be big worries for many others. I give you my honest and experienced opinion about whether you’re right to worry about these things, or whether you should forget them. And if you’re right—if these hairstyling concerns you’re worried about are serious—then I talk you through how to deal with them. If you’ve read this far then I’m pretty sure some of the chapters in this e-book will probably apply to you. Are you someone who has been talking about getting that hot new style for the past 6 months? In Chapter 1 I iden- tify a big problem many people deal with when it comes time to getting a hairstyle makeover: procrastination. In Chapter 3 I talk about something eve- ryone dreads: a hairstyle disaster. There are many more important chapters, Only 1 out of every 100 and after reading this e-book you’ll see that no hairstyle is ever really that people surveyed thought bad because there’s always something you can do to make it better. they didn’t deserve to have a [email protected] “ new hairstyle.* * All the statistics in this e-book are taken from TheHairStyler.com’s consultation “Get Ready for a Hairstyle Change” (27/5/08) and its survey of more than 200,000 people.” Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover 3 Chapter 1 Don’t Wait Too Long This first chapter is about timing, about how long you should wait before you’re ready to make your thoughts and dreams about a new hairstyle a reality. I also give you my advice about what you should bear in mind when deciding on a new hairstyle. 1. You’ve Been Thinking about a New Hairstyle for a Couple of Weeks A week or two is the perfect amount of time to weigh-up the important things you need to consider when getting a new hairstyle. These are: • whether or not it is the right hairstyle for your face shape and other personal attributes (hair texture, complexion and growth patterns) • how your maintenance routine might be changed with your new style (for instance chemically treated/colored hair may require slightly different maintenance, and you may get regrowth, and you may even need more regular trims to keep your new hairstyle in perfect shape) Most people surveyed are so • how much time you’ll need to dedicate to styling your new hairdo at home unsure about getting a new “ hairstyle they think about it for months, and about 1 in 10 people think about it for years! Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover” 4 2. You’ve Been Thinking about a New Hairstyle for Only a Few Days In a nutshell: everyone thinks about new hairstyles before they commit to one. It’s important to think about whether the style will suit you, how the Sometimes being impulsive is great (like when you’re deciding whether new style might alter your maintenance routine, and how it might alter your to have tomato sauce or BBQ on your burger), but it’s not such a good styling routine too (if you’re like me, you just can’t afford an extra minute in idea when it comes to deciding on a new hairstyle. If you don’t give close the mornings). Thinking these things over for a couple of days isn’t enough enough thought to what it is that has made you decide on a change, you and for a few months or years is too long. Planning your new hairstyle for a might end up with something you hate. couple of weeks is just about perfect. If it’s just that a new style is different from what you currently have, that’s certainly okay, but you need to consider other things too. You need to read the important things to consider when getting a new hairstyle (see 1. above). Another thing to ask yourself is whether your makeover plans are only a result of the fact that you’ve been feeling a bit down lately. If so, try giving yourself about a week to see if you still feel positive about the change. 3. You’ve Been Thinking about a New Hairstyle for Months or Years If you’ve been thinking about changing your hairstyle for months or more, then you’re stalling. Maybe a bad hairstyling experience is putting you off a change, maybe you’re afraid what people will say, or maybe you simply haven’t the cash—if these apply to you, then it’s time to develop a strategy for overcoming them. Start by thinking practically. I recommend addressing the important things to consider when getting a new hairstyle (see 1. above). Also, how to over- come the memory of bad hairstyling experiences is something I talk about in later chapters, but some other things you can do right now are make a list of pros and cons for the new hairstyle, talk to a professional consultant and formulate an action plan. Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover 5 Chapter 2 Tips for Avoiding a Bad Hairstyle Experience Almost everyone I have ever come across has, at some time or other, had a bad hairstyle experience. I’m going to explain why they happen and give you some tips for avoiding them in the future. 1. What is a Bad Hairstyling Experience? A bad hairstyling experience isn’t a good one. A good hairstyling experi- ence should leave you with a hairstyle that suits your face shape and other personal attributes (hair texture, complexion and growth patterns), and it should involve a maintenance level and home styling routine that’s right for you. A bad hairstyling experience means you’re not getting one or more of these things. 2. What is the Main Reason Your Hairstyling Experience Might Turn Bad? Your hairstyling experience will almost certainly turn bad when your under- standing of what you want is different to your stylist’s. For example, imagine you want “soft waves.” To you soft waves could mean “a very slight bend in your hair,” but to your stylist soft waves could mean “soft curls.” More than half the people surveyed have had a bad It’s important to take steps to prevent this kind of miscommunication. Go into your hair salon armed with information and pictures about exactly what hairstyling experience at you want (hair length, or color etc.). Also, get used to clearly describing “ least once in their lives, and what you want using direct language such as: “I’d like my hair to sit above, on, or below the shoulders...” This will set certain parameters that any hair- about 5000 people say they stylist should be able to follow. have one every time! Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover” 6 3. Is a Bad Hairstyling Experience Putting You Off a Change? Don’t let it! Bad hairstyling experiences can leave a lasting effect on you and they shouldn’t. I’ve had customers in the past who’ve had a bad color or perma- nent wave, yet the real mistake they’ve made has been letting things like that put them off for ever. It’s probably likely they had poorly trained stylists who simply got everything wrong; and also, their bad hairstyling experience was probably the result of an inadequate consultation too. You need to get over it, move on, and prepare yourself better for the future. In a nutshell: these are the main reasons why a hairstyle might go wrong, and if you bear them in mind you should be able to avoid them: • an inadequate hair consultation and bad communication between you and your stylist • incompetent skill or lack of care on behalf of your hairstylist • low grade/quality chemical products used by your hairstylist • you may have had unrealistic expectations • your hairstyle choice may not have been in line with your lifestyle needs • you may have been making an impulsive decision that your stylist completely missed • you were given a new hairstyle change before you were mentally ready Get Over Your Hairstyle Makeover 7 Chapter 3 Fearing Hairstyling Nightmares Before I was a hairstylist, I worked in a cafe, and I’ll always remember an elderly customer with a grey beehive that didn’t quite suit her.