Two hair stylists I interviewed recently gave me insight into the way your clientele is determined largely by your salon’s profile and location. Let’s take location first. Jeremy Scheifflee was working in Minneapolis when, already a member of the Brocato Creative Design Team, he was asked to work with Sam Brocato at the new Brocato Salon in New York City, formerly the Oscar Bond Salon.

“The first time someone came in for a blowout,” Jeremy recalls, “I thought, ‘Wow, I haven’t done a blowout in three years.’ In Minneapolis everyone wanted intricate cuts—architecturally strong hair cuts that form the hair’s shape—and then I’d spend a lot of time teaching the clients how to style their own hair at home. In New York, they want one-layer, very conservative hair, and they don’t want to do their hair; they want you to do it. So I’ll blow out their hair and they’ll wrap it up that night, wear it the next morning, put it in a ponytail the day or two after that and come back in to repeat the process every three to five days.”

Robert DiTacchio was headquartered in Los Angeles and traveling the world doing hair education as a Wella/Sebastian artist when he decided he’d had enough jet-setting and wanted to put down roots anywhere but in L.A. He settled on Denver, where he has the opportunity to do all types of hair looks. But all is not as it seems, and we’ll dig deeper next time.

Photo: Jeremy Scheifflee

Only a handful of female celebrities have been true hair icons whose hair styles sent women to the salon in droves: actress Louise Brooks with her flapper bob in the 1920s; model Twiggy sporting a pixie in the 1960s; skater Dorothy Hamill popularizing the cute wedge in the ’70s; Jennifer Aniston and her ’90s “Rachel” pouf; and, most recently, Victoria Beckham, whose bob morphed from asymmetrical to more symmetrically angled in front. Then there’s Farrah Fawcett, whose feathered wings in the mid-1970s gave women of many face shapes and ages a flattering, layered look that they could create themselves with those new, handheld blowdryers.

Other than maybe James Dean in the 1950s, I don’t think individual men have had the same impact. But when Afros became popular in the 1960s, the Jackson Five certainly drove part of the trend. African-American blogger Gary Younge writes: “In our living room, my brothers and I would spin and shuffle to dance like [Michael Jackson]. When we were going out our mother would comb our hair high—until our scalps were on fire—so we could look like [the Jackson Five].” In later years Michael straightened his hair and, while he may have taken criticism for that, he illustrated that, like hair color, hair texture can be a choice.

We never know who the next hair icon will be and when one will come around. To Farrah and Michael: thank you for setting hair trends, and rest in peace.

After the previous blog post I got to thinking about my own hair. I don’t really want a dramatic haircut, and I throw my hair into a quick “back-do” only when I work out or for very casual occasions. Most of the time I like to have hair around my face. I believe it’s the most flattering look for me, and I like the way it feels. But my bob takes a beating in summer’s sultry humidity.

Still, I realized that I don’t mind my summer hair, and that’s because during these months I have a higher tolerance for my natural curl. I said “curl,” not “frizz”! In the dryer winter, with the aid of a few products I can blowdry my hair into a nice, straight-hair bob that lasts all day. In summer? It lasts more like 20 minutes. But as long as I can tame the flyaways and define the waves a little, I’m okay with random shapes that move and sway—a style that changes daily and doesn’t have every hair in place or even know where each hair is supposed to go.

So if you have clients who feel the way I do, my suggestion is to play around with lots of pastes, gels and other finishing products to see how they work with different hair textures. Then show clients how to harness their climate’s humidity to help their hair blossom into a wavy, summertime look they can love just as much as their stick-straight winter bob.

Photo of model in summer/winter looks: photography by Steve Barston; hair by Dee Fortier for Eufora; makeup by Philip Luque for Youngblood Mineral Cosmetics; photostyling by Sharice Massehians.

When summer happens, it often hits suddenly and with a good deal of humidity. Here in Chicago, this year is typical. In a matter of days, we’ve climbed 25 degrees; the storms haven’t totally cleared, so we’re left dripping wet-hot instead of wet-cold. I can hear the collective screech across the Midwest: “Get this hair off my neck!”

With only two ways in your bag of tricks to separate hair from neck, you can show your clients some really cute short cuts or the latest clip-up and tie-back fashions. Let’s take the updos first, where there seems to be a lot of variety lately. I’m seeing shapes ranging from low on the nape to relatively high piling. A loose strand can fall to one side or both sides. And with the help of trendy hair pieces, even your shortish-mid-length clients can carry off a substantial messy knot or tidy twist.

But, really, early summer is the best time for clients to get a dramatic haircut, because this is when they’re the most sick of their hair, plus by fall they’ll have growth again. Today’s popular heavy fringe means that even with a pixie women can feel as if they have hair to play with. Or maybe your long-bob clients will go short-bob for the season. Goodbye sweaty heaviness; hello summer sports! Plus, short hair dries soon after you leave the house with no assistance. I hope a lot of your clients go for it!

Photo: photo by Mark Mann; hair by Don Wyatt for Rusk.

It’s easy to complain, because there’s always something to complain about. The weather is usually good for a groan or two, our favorite sports teams tend to lose about half their games, we have an ache or pain at any given time and, these days, the wobbly economy has us heaving one huge, collective sigh. I’m guessing that many clients give you some variation of why life’s not treating them well. But here’s the contradiction that betrays their miserable frown: they’ve come in for a hair cut or hair color, which by definition means they’ve come to you in a spirit of hope. Don’t disappoint!

After they’ve spouted off for a minute about this or that, instead of agreeing with them, jump in to find out how you can tap into the shred of hope and joy they must have inside somewhere. They already know that you won’t be able to stop the rain or cure their arthritis. They just want you to make them feel better about themselves.

So direct your conversation not so much toward the details of how they want their hair, but more about the big picture of their image and lifestyle. How bold do they enjoy being? How much time will they devote to doing their hair every day? Do they feel that they’re looking older, drabber or less relevant than they used to? Dig deep, and design a hair style geared toward who that person wants to be, and you’ll gain a loyal client.

My April 27 blog alerted you to a contest you could enter to win a $250 “Education Rocks” scholarship toward beauty school or continuing hair education like modernsalonlearning.com courses, offered by tirelessly dedicated salon professional, author and motivator Kathy Jager. On June 1, Kathy chose a winner: Carmelita Marsh, who will attend Regency Beauty Institute in Durham, NC.

Carmelita was just out of high school when she completed cosmetology school the first time. With no mentor or direction, she never even tried passing the board exam. But ever since the first of her four children was born 18 years ago, a regretful Carmelita has wanted to return to beauty school. With her children as her biggest cheerleaders, she finally found a wonderful mentor at Regency and did enroll there, but money is an issue. The scholarship, Carmelita wrote, would get her closer to “my dream deferred, but not lost.” She vowed to get her license and “help others to look and feel great about themselves, something I never received. I want to be able to provide for my children a lot better than working paycheck to paycheck.”

Kathy Jager says Carmelita’s plea won her heart. “I found beauty in the way that she wanted to keep her dream alive even after being discouraged,” Kathy told me. She admired Carmelita’s “courage and determination to desire a better lifestyle” companioned with a passion to serve other people. Kathy asks, “Isn’t that the true essence of our business?” Click here to read more.

Photo: Kathy Jager.

Wrapping up this four-part series, the last woman, Lauren, tells how she overcame her blonde addiction. I’m sure you have some of these clients. They start out with a few highlights, and in the months and years that follow they demand that you streak it up more and more until sooner or later they’re uber-blonde with no place to go but down. And yet they still want more.

Lauren talks about the mythical allure of being blonde: light hair is sexy and attracts men, makes you feel younger, gives you a wild side. “When you achieve that white blonde, it’s noticeable from anywhere in the room,” Lauren quotes Bergdorf Blondes author Plum Sykes of saying. “Carolyn Bessette Kennedy was the perfect example. You couldn't stop looking at her. It was like a halo.”

On some of your clients, though, white blonde is less white-hot than it is white-bland. According to this article, Clairol’s Marcy Cona, one of my favorite colorists, stages blonde interventions in her salon, with stylists together confronting a client who has lost perspective. “At a certain point, there are so many highlights, the client simply doesn’t see them anymore,” says Cona as quoted by Lauren. “The color relies on contrast to have any impact.” So what happens to Lauren? She eventually embraces the warm brunette image she abandoned long ago. Shore up your color correction expertise and practice your lowlights, because come autumn you may have to do a blonde intervention or two yourself.

On to the third story from women who recently made major hair changes. I’m hoping these stories give you ideas for working with change-resistant clients. This one had difficult hair and so many issues with her hair styles that she finally just cut it all off to make it easy on herself. I have a friend who did the same thing, and once that’s decided these women are very reluctant, not to mention impatient, about growing it out again.

A cute pixie can be a great look and at least the client has to book frequent visits, so I’m not saying that everyone should have a mid-length. But for the woman who would like longer hair if she only knew how to make it look good, help her achieve a goal she may not even be aware she has! The way to tell is if she’s always saying, “I have the worst hair in the world,” or, “I’d let it grow but my hair is so fine (or frizzy) that it just looks terrible longer.”

Often these women cropped it short before some of the great products and techniques we have today were developed. They don’t realize that frizz doesn’t have to happen, that texturizing can tame hair and that limp is so last century. The woman in this particular story didn’t know how to make waves sleek and pretty. When you take your hair classes, think about how to enlighten clients about taking care of that style.

Photo: Hair and photography by Luis Alvarez; make-up by Wanda Alvarez; fashions by Sofia Perrey; production by Don Wismer.

The second in the series of four women’s hair epiphanies that I’m discussing here is told by an African-American woman, Chee, who talks about pressure to have straighter hair than she could ever hope for naturally. She calls the first relaxing service a black girl’s “rite of passage into womanhood.” Eventually, Chee rebelled and did a 180, chopping off 21 years of relaxed hair growth in favor of a tiny-short, non-haircolored, completely natural afro. She had not anticipated the reaction her new look inspired from both friends and strangers. People assumed she’d become more of an activist for African-American causes. Yet she hadn’t changed at all.

I relate to Chee’s story. After I’d finished chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, as soon as my hair had grown back enough to provide head cover I stopped wearing bandanas and wigs. Suddenly people started paying attention to me in a different way. I realized that my hair communicated the image of a more daring person than I am—perhaps a radical feminist or fashion pioneer or free spirit, certainly someone confident in her facial features.

I let my hair grow so that I could be me, and now Chee has arrived at an in-between point of partially relaxing and coloring her hair when she feels like it. If you can identify a woman’s political self-image, you’ll be of great help in choosing a hair design that makes her comfortable in her own scalp. Read the whole Chee tale by clicking here.

Photo: Hair by Irene Meikle for Mizani.

Timing is everything, and as a hairdresser you probably see that old adage play out often. Over the weekend I read a four-part, online article that offered women’s stories of how they reconnected with their truer selves when they finally changed a longtime hair pattern. Before the moment of change, they simply weren’t ready, so if you have clients like that I’m not sure there’s much you can do to rush the process. But when they do arrive at the decision, be ready!

The first woman, who I’m betting represents many of your clients, had clung to her long hair too far into her 30s. The problem wasn’t that she was necessarily too old to wear her hair that length; it was that her hair no longer kept pace with her life as an energetic, trend-focused Manhattan professional. Her hair was more tired than she was!

When you take our hair classes and others, you learn how to create the latest, cutest cuts for clients just like this woman. It’s frustrating when, visit after visit, they ask for a “trim.” So click here if you want to print out and show clients this first-person account of the great sense of freedom and power this woman experienced when she cut the length to reflect her current lifestyle and attitude. In my next three posts, I’ll discuss the other stories in this article series. Please note that the photos here are appropriate to, but not from, that article.

Hair by Nicholas French; color by Daniel Roldan; photo by Roberto Ligresti; make-up by David Maderich; photostyling by Fallon Sinclair.