Finding Your Creativity Sweet Spot

Photographer: Myles Pritchard Hair: Sarah Laidlaw Makeup: Sarah Laidlaw Stylist: Marianne Malafosse Model: Baya Kolarikova

When it comes to creative fulfilment as a hairdresser, it’s all about creating work that excites you.

For some, creative joy comes from perfecting that exact shade of blonde on a hectic colour correction … for others it’s a mad avant garde shoot published in a magazine. No matter what your thing is, the ideal is to do a lot of that. For me, my creative joy moments come from high fashion editorials and glamorous red carpet styles.

So how do you get to the point where your creative heart is full?

The first thing is working out what you love. The second thing is to start working on how you can move towards doing a lot of that in your daily work. If you work full time in a salon environment, sometimes that feels like a challenge to achieve. It’s not about waiting for your clients to ask for something out of their usual - it’s about giving them a reason to believe that you can bring them something new and exciting.

In the same breath, building your clientele is always the goal, so how do you balance the creative with the business of hair?

Just for a moment, think about the Haute Couture fashion houses of Europe. We see the magnificent fashion moments on the runways from Chanel, Dior etc. We observe the gorgeous dresses and the hair and makeup but what do the majority of people buy? The black handbag or the t-shirt. People want a piece of the magic. They choose what level they want to invest in that fashion house’s aesthetic, and they choose how much they can afford to spend, but they want to be tapped into the creative juice flowing from that top level of high-fashion. Building your clientele is very similar in theory.

A lot of hairdressers just do what their client requests and offer nothing above and beyond that. Now, I’m not talking about doing free services here; think more along the lines of ‘perceived value’. There’s a kind of reflected glory that a client feels when you’re doing exciting creative work or achieving in other areas of the industry, like winning awards or having your work published in magazines. Even if all they want from you is a simple cut and colour, they’re buying into the magic you’re projecting. So, where do you start?

Here’s something important I’ve learned over my 29 years as a hairdresser and session stylist - if you wait to do highly creative work until someone books you to do it, it will never happen. No-one is going to give you an opportunity to do something amazing if they aren’t sure you can pull it off. No product company is going to knock on your door and ask you to do the hair for their next campaign if they’ve never seen your photographic work and no celebrity is going to hire you to do their hair for the red carpet if they’ve never seen your ability. The key is to start doing the work you want to be doing. Now “work” can be taken loosly because at first you will most probably need to take part in unpaid creative work.

But why should you settle for unpaid work? If you can’t do creative work when you don’t have an audience and you’re not being paid, then you simply don’t want it enough. With any creative pursuit, whether it’s hair or music or fashion, if you don’t have enough love for it to do it when nobody is watching then you may as well just do your basic trims and regrowths for the next 30 years. One of my favourite quotes is “The secret? 1.Do good work 2. Put it where people can see it.”

My advice is, if you want to be doing amazing red-carpet hair styling on your clients then get a few models and start doing those kinds of styles and photograph them. Do this every month. Put it out there on your Instagram account or your website. Show people what you are capable of. Now, a lot of people answer that with “but I don’t know how to *insert skill here”. If you’re not strong at the kind of work you want to do, do a course. Assist someone for free. Do online courses with hairstylists all over the world. We live in the age where information is readily available and accessible. If you want to do something, search how others started, search tutorials and inspiration images and give it a go. The magic time is when you’re learning something without any pressure from a paying client. Make sure you practice in your down time rather than trying something for the first time on a client in the chair.

If you want to move into working as a session stylist, start doing shoots. It’s that simple. Start doing what it is that you desire. If you don’t know anyone to shoot with, look to student photographers to do some play time with where you both are learning together, search for people in your area you could collaborate with. Just start moving towards your dream. Be willing to do it on your day off or stay back after work.

While you are playing creatively your normal salon work ticks away as per usual. It won’t change immediately, but that’s a good thing because you want that time to get confident and strong at it (and reach the point where you can earn money to cover rent from your passion). As you keep expressing your creative dreams by doing them, the cogs will begin to spin. People will start to take notice. Clients will begin speaking about you to their friends and your word of mouth recommendations will take off. As you grow your network, you will be recommended for shoots or magazine editorials or red-carpet clients. Just remember, nobody will recommend someone that they’re not sure of. So, give them a good reason to talk about your work.

So, start doing the work you want to ultimately be booked and paid for. Hone those skills, practice the craft, create magic in private so you have something to show. Once you’re expressing your hearts love, that is when the tide will turn from basic salon work to finding your creative sweet spot and getting paid to do it.