 Before we start the salon day, it's another Wednesday live streaming, we're gonna go through the consultation, things about a menu that can help your business, also creating the perfect blow drive for the perfect texture of hair, because that's really the goal today is to go over hair texture and what's gonna give you the best result in the salon. So let's talk about the consultation. The consultation really for me is not so much about each question that you're asking. I mean those things are important, that's something we can get into in a different day. We're thinking about hair texture and really what hair is all about and it's really breaking down the guest and understanding every little aspect of the guest's hair before we start touching it. Because at the end of the day as a hair stylist being a professional, the way to be professional is to really understand hair to the fullest. So the first thing I like to look at is obviously we're gonna introduce ourselves, we're gonna talk to the guests and get their name, then we're gonna look at the starting level of their hair. Let's say they're getting hair color. We definitely need to know where we're at if we want to get to where we're going. So we look at the starting level, we also look at the percentage of gray. Then we're gonna look at the hair density. Now if you think about hair density, hair density is really just how thick the hair is. And if you wanna say like how many hairs there are per square inch, however you wanna look at it. But hair density is how thick the hair is. So if I have somebody with a really high density of hair, I'm obviously gonna cut her hair different than I would cut somebody with a low density of hair. So really just going through the questions and asking yourself what type of density does this guest have. They have a high density of hair, they have a lot of hair, and we're obviously gonna use more layering techniques, techniques that remove weight if they're looking to lose the bulkiness of their hair and have a light, airy kind of flow to their hair. Then if they have a low density of hair, we're gonna cut it differently as well. We're not gonna do so many layers. So you really need to understand your guest's density and what you're working with. Our ideal density is really looking at a medium density and so we're gonna use products that are gonna help us get to that point. Then we look at hair texture. Now some people look at hair texture and they think of, is it wavy, curly, or straight? Hair texture is really the actual fabric of the hair. Is it fine, medium, or coarse? So if my guest has fine hair, I'm gonna use things that are gonna help try to bring it to that medium feel or texture to their hair. If they have really coarse hair, then I'm gonna use products that are gonna bring it down to the medium. So really I'm looking for that ideal thickness, I'm looking for the ideal texture, and just trying to get my guests to that place so that they have more success with their hair at home. Then we look at the formation of our hair. Does she have straight hair, wavy hair, curly hair, extra curly hair? We need to know that because a lot of our guests nowadays, they're really good with the flat iron. This is their favorite tool, they're at home frying their hair with it, they don't know how to use it right, but this is definitely their favorite tool. So if they come into the salon and we're doing a whole consultation with them about different haircuts, maybe we want to cut a fringe or a bang in their hair and they actually have super curly hair and we didn't know it, then we need to know through the consultation what type of hair that they really have. So we're gonna look, do they have straight hair, wavy hair, curly hair, extra curly hair? Really that's only gonna change the technique that we use, doesn't mean that if they have curly hair we're not gonna use a razor, doesn't mean if they have curly hair we're not gonna cut it dry. You know, there's a lot of different rules I think people build up in their mind, it's just understanding what type of hair they have before we get into the haircut. So now we're gonna look at porosity. The porosity of their hair is important to understand for two different reasons because your guest is coming into you in the salon to have better hair when they leave. So if they're looking to have better hair when they leave, we need to understand the quality of the hair when they walk in. So if they have a high porosity which means that their hair is very dry, the cuticle is probably very raised, so we're gonna suggest things to them that are gonna help add moisture to their hair. You know, and this is a great way to introduce different things during the consultation that you have to offer at the salon. And we're gonna get into the menu in a couple minutes, but porosity, if you help the guest understand what type of hair they have or what's wrong with their hair, they're gonna fix it. It's the same way if you go to a car mechanic and you're looking to get something done, you don't understand what's wrong, you just know it's not running right, and they tell you what's wrong and then you pay to get it fixed. When they come to us, we may see things wrong in their hair, but we're not coaching them on how they can be more, have more success with it at home and how they can take care of their hair at home. So going through the consultation, looking at porosity of hair, it's very, very important. You're gonna be able to then upgrade in the salon, show them different services you have to offer that will add moisture to the hair. Maybe it's a semi-permanent color that adds protein, maybe it's a gift for that. And then we also look at, do they have medication on their hair? Because one of the reasons we, this is important, because a lot of women are on medications and medication leaves, you know, through your nails and your hair. So it's gonna be sitting in your hair as it comes out of your body. So there's certain chemicals like iron or types of, it's not a chemical, but whatever. Certain things are gonna leave through your hair that they're gonna react to the chemicals that we're putting on your head. So just important to know, obviously we don't know what the medications are, what they're really made of, but we know that you're on a daily medication that we can take you back and do a really deep cleanse of your hair before we color it, and that's really the important thing. So that's something that we look at in our consultation before we touch our guests for the first time. Basically that will help you, you know, throughout your consultation, because I know a lot of people have issues with what to ask and, you know, where they go with the consultation. It's usually like, hi, how are you? What are you looking to get done? Okay, great. You go back, you mix it up, and you put it on their head. So really break down each little part of their hair and then keep a record of it and make sure that their hair is always getting better every single time they come into the salon so that, you know, that's a happy guest that's gonna tell friends, it's gonna create referrals and create more success for you in your book. So that's the first thing. Second thing is, based on that, going through each little thing in our consultation, we have a menu at the salon. This is our salon menu, and the cool thing about this is you open it up. It's very colorful. It shows every service that we have to offer, including different treatments in our washroom. So if we're able to talk to you about your porosity, then we can show you the different things we have to offer that are gonna better that. We have our color menu part, we have our blowout part, we have different blow-dries. They're gonna help teach you how to be more successful at home with blow-drying. We have our wedding packages, we have our memberships, which is something we can get into in a different class, and we have our men's menu. So, you know, this has really helped us a lot because it's a tool that allows people to know what you're doing in the salon. I think one of the big things when you walk into a hair salon is you don't know what they have to offer. There's never anything up on the wall that shows pricing, which you know, sometimes that could be cheesy as well. It's not like we're at McDonald's. So just having a nice looking menu that you can present to the guests that shows all the different options that you have at the salon will help you upgrade them to things that are gonna better their hair. So now let's talk about creating the ideal texture for a guest. The ideal texture is obviously medium. We talked about that. So what I want to do is put products in the guest's hair. They're gonna create that medium texture. What we're gonna do today is we're gonna do a little bit of a flat wrap, and the reason I want to do this is because that's really gonna lay down the cuticle, and I want to talk about a few key things with the blow-dry. We won't go through this fully in the blow-dry because we're actually gonna shoot blow-drying videos this week for you guys. It'll be a little bit more professionally done. What this will do is I pull this blow-dry down. It's gonna be loud. You're not really gonna hear me talking anyways. So what I want to do is just go over a couple different techniques of blow-drying, and then that'll kind of end our day-to-day with our little lesson that we have. So a couple different things. You have your brush. I like to use a vent-type brush, which is very airy. Depending on the texture, though, if they have a really coarse texture, I'm gonna use something with a lot more bristles, because that'll allow me to get more tension on the hair and smooth it out better. But I do like the vent brush because of the fact that if I'm going to blow-dry her hair, I want that air to flow through, so it doesn't flatten it completely to her head. And I think that's the key to the flat wrap is really, you are flattening the hair and wrapping it around the face and the back of the head, really trying to create that beveled edge on the hair, but you're not trying to flatten the hair completely. So let's look at, we're gonna use our freestyle system blow-dryer, these are my good friends and really cool system because of the fact that it's gonna hang from the ceiling, the cord stays out of your way and you can just really work the blow-dryer around the head. So what I wanna do here is as I wrap the hair around the head of the guest, what that's doing is beveling the hair around, creating that soft bend to it. What I wanna make sure is the air flow from my blow-dryer, from the nozzle of my blow-dryer, this is an important piece to your blow-dryer, so hopefully you didn't throw it away, is work the hair around the head and keep that air flow moving just above the cuticle. So basically you should be able to leave this blow-dryer just like this and work your way around the head, barely even moving the blow-dryer, just everything is all on the brush. So working your way around the head. Then what I like to do, so I'll usually start around the temple area, I like to work in the front of the head first, cause obviously that's what they're gonna see first. So work my way around, then what I'm gonna do is part it and drop some of this hair down, we'll tilt your head over, I'll comb some of it back and then I'm gonna work in diagonal back sectioning and slide that blow-dryer down. So I'm just gonna leaf and work and what the leafing's gonna do is grab the hair, pull tension on it and then also give a little bit of lift at the base. So that's really my goal there. So I'll work my way all the way around the head this way, all the way back and then we'll work our way back around and through again. So it's just really a consistent motion and work in our way. Then when I get to the fringe, especially with a mannequin but you know, people have pretty bad calyx in the fringe area sometimes. So what I like to do is I like to work with a comb and work that comb back and forth. This will flatten the fringe a little bit more than a brush will and it'll also help control the cuticle or control the base and the calyx a lot better. So I'll work this back and forth. The key to blow-drying and creating a dry preparation for let's say a haircut, which we'll get into a few weeks down the road, when we're prepping for dry haircutting, we don't wanna have any kind of partings in the hair. We want the hair to be consistent all the way around the head. That's gonna give you a more consistent haircut. So we'll work our way around combing the hair and just flattening the hair just on the top of the head with the comb. Obviously you wanna be careful. You don't wanna dig too much into their head but this will really help flatten out any kind of calyx, anything like that. So blow-dry back up. So that's pretty much it for the blow-dry. Let me just make sure there was no questions from you guys. So I think we're good. I think I answered everything it looks like. So basically, if you have any questions, please comment, we're always answering you guys back. Make sure that we stay consistent with that. You guys focus on, this week my thing for you would be to really break down your guest's hair, understand it to the fullest and also look at creating a menu with options from your hair analysis because each system has to work together. So the consultation has to work with the menu and then the menu has to work with the service. So really make sure that you put everything together, create this system and see how it works and comment, let us know how it's working for you. Love to hear it. Love to hear what you think about these live classes. They're short and sweet. Next week we're gonna get into actually haircutting. It's gonna be a little bit longer but hopefully you guys take a lot from this and please check out our website, freesaloneducation.com.