So why Buenos Aires? Well that story is almost 5 years old now, the salon back in NZ was doing very well, but my then wife was working abroad on a film project which took a couple of years and the distance took its toll so I decided to get up and go before it got up and left without me. After cycling through Sth East Asia for a couple of months, visiting Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam it was then back to Australia for some surf and detox recovery before continuing on to Brasil for carnaval then supposedly up to NYC Canadian jazz fest then onto London, Bangkok again before heading back to NZ or Oz. Well that was the idea, I ventured into Argentina the first time to do the Vipasanna 10 day Silent Meditation Retreat, and took the bus from Florinapolis to Bs As unfortunatel, the bus arrived late (corte the route) and after being told "ojo" by the bondi bus driver I stepped off onto the street somewhere in or near la boca at around midnight. Of course I was an hour late for the course, I thought it may have begun already and so they couldn´t use the intercom, so with no traffic or taxis or anyone around I thought it best to stay put and try to sleep until dawn then find a hotel. Sitting on my backpack on the edge of the road I threw my black tarpauline over me so I was disguised a an ominous pile of rubbish, I tried to sleep, finally drifting off until I was woken by the sensation of a warm hand on my lowerback. My arms flew up into the air and the tarp seemly came to life, "what the fuck!" it yelled, and a scared voice replied "woah! Muy loco muy loco!" then it was quiet again. I peeked out from underneath the plastic onto the cobbled street, and there was no-one there. It was almost dawn so walked past Brown St and up into San Telmo. the first Hostel was booked and they directed to Hotel Carley, which is where I stayed for the next 9 nine months..
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I know plenty of people who have had couple of really bad experiences with hairdressers here and most times it wasn´t from lack of skill, it wasn´t because they were too flambouyant or flashy, couldn´t speak English or anything like that, I´ll get to why in a second.
I had a team attend a seminar that was held by the most well-known salon in the commercial capital of NZ, in Auckland. At this particular salon you could easily spend $300+ for a shampoo/conditioner cut & blowdry service, (we were only asking half that!) At our usual weekly meeting we discussed what they had learnt and they presented us with a mini seminar, which is a great way of cementing what was learnt and sharing and for developing skills to use as future educators etc. After talking through their experience of how things were done in an "up market" salon it was immediately obvious to me what we were doing differently. I told them then why they, as first year student stylists were better than these guru stylists.. our consultation system. They didn´t have one! I explained that simply by following the system of consultation that we used for every client, every time, (even the ones that had been coming for years,) they were in fact giving better service than a $300+ an hour hairdresser! You can imagine how good that made them feel. I can teach anyone how to cut hair, the basic theory is not that hard, but that´s not what people want. You go to a hairdresser and say you want a haircut, that´s what the hairdresser hears, (or if they don´t speak your language well, that´s what they "assume" you´re there for,) so that´s what the hairdresser gives you, but that´s not what you want and that´s why people have bad experiences. When you go in for a haircut you want an interactive conversation about what isn´t right with your hair and how to fix it. It´s too...thick,curly,wavy,straight,dry,oily,limp,dull,long,short a GOOD HAIRDRESSER can communicate an empathise with you about what is wrong with your hair/look and discuss ways to improve/correct them, punto. This is why we were always busy, this is why we could charge $160 an hour, because the money became irrelevant, this is why we were producing good stylists and why they were staying with us once they finished the "studies," give people what they need and they will get what they want. More on our consultation system soon.. Good waves & hair days, R |
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