Thursday, June 21, 2012

Find the Love



      In 2004 James Morrison, artistic director for Sassoon salons at the time, released a movie called One life. From the back cover, it is quote "An inspiring, heartfelt tale of a young hairdresser. Bringing together top hairdressers, business owners and motivators of the beauty business to tell the story of this young man and the family that lost him. The One Life Project delves beneath the exterior of this normally aesthetic business to uncover its soul...ultimately revealing the beauty of the beauty business. Erik Knudson is interviewed about many things, but his interview about clients has stuck with me all these years. He says..

"Learn to love your clients, it's that simple. The return is amazing. The greatest lesson of all I ever learned, I learned from my wife. And that lesson was and it's a little story about what happened. When we had our children Carol and I had been married for about 15 years and she said Eric, I can't do two children and work also so I think what I want to do is step back, take care of the children, raise them. And I said fine, that's fine. we were established at that time so that was fine. And so we spread her clients around, we give them to different people and they all find happy homes, except for this one client. And I noticed that you know she goes to different hairdressers every time she gets a haircut. And so I'm thinking she's not happy, something is not right here. So I went up to her and I said Mickey You know I've noticed that you know you keep coming back but you always keep changing , you're searching for something. I know it's not about your haircut, it's not about because your hair looks beautiful. I said so would you allow me to cut your hair the next time you come in? And she said yea I would love that so I said great and I brought her in 6 weeks later, I'm up early on my way to work and I've got this plan for her you know I mean I'm just ready, set to go. And I get in, I cut her hair, I had this very special haircut I mean I had just been to Paris and you know I came home with this new haircut it was really cool and hip and happening and I put a little extra twist to it, I was so proud of it. And she looked great I mean she truly looked great. And so I'm brushing off and you know do a little make up touch up and the things that we do in our salon And I said you know everything ok? And she said yea, everything's just great. and I said you know Mickey I can read cuz I'm a sensitive person, I can read there is something missing. And I sat down in the styling chair next to her and I looked her into her eyes and I said Mickey, tell me, what is it? She said you're gonna think I'm silly, I said no just lay it on me. And she said the difference is Carol Loved me. Well I, all I could do is say well I will learn to love you too."

      Do what you love, with who you love, on who you love. I know this is a daily challenge, for me as well. I like to try and find the positives, even slim, that I can truly relate with people and find the love. I have one client that has been an EGR client, that's extra grace required. She is always late, scatterbrained and the list goes on. Instead of letting her aggravate me I have tried to connect. I have come to find out she has a lesion on her brain. She lives on anti-seizure medications and God knows what else for her condition. The worst part is the surgery to correct her condition may not even work. So this is her daily struggle, a much different one than mine. I have learned to love her.

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