"All My Scissors"

Work has very much become a soap opera lately.  We now have a new stylist, which is very exciting.  Her name is Erica.  She graduated last fall, so she's FRESH, which is nice.  Complete breath of fresh air, really.  And, she's doing well, considering she's fresh out of school.  I see her building a client base rather quickly.

The shenanigans going on:  Rita, lovely, Rita....sigh....always an angle with her.  She asked for April 28th off, as she had "tickets" in NYC.  She went of one of those bus trips to see Morgan Freeman...when I asked her if it was a play, a presentation, whatever, she had absolutely no idea what she was going to, just that she had tickets and was going.  So, we (meaning myself, Shezoa & Tammy) let her go.  Luckily, Erica was hired in the meantime, so the schedule was somewhat covered.  (Erica is slow, she's new....if all of us were on yesterday, it wouldn't have been a huge issue)

THEN, Rita also wanted Saturday, May 12 off.  To her credit, she asked for it WAY in advance, thinking I'd just give it to her.  When I looked at the schedule rotation, it would actually give her an entire weekend (Fri, Sat, Sun) off, which is a big no no.  When Erica came on board (mind you, Erica is on a training schedule, so she's not able to do things like open & close just yet.  I want her getting used to the "system", the pace, etc.), she immediately presumed she would be able to cover the schedule and Rita would get what she wanted off.  Uh, NO.  Nice try, though.

This past Monday, Rita tried, yet again, to pester me about May 12. (which is in the middle of prom season...we don't get much in the way of updo's due to the fact that we don't book appointments, but it's also a Saturday, which means all hands on deck).  I told her I would have to look at the schedules and see if I could switch anything around (which, really, I didn't want to, but I looked at it anyway).  Well, lo and behold, she's scheduled 10-4.  Not a big deal.  I also asked her WHY she wanted that day off.  "I'm doing my niece's hair for prom".  DA DUH DUM DUM DUM....

A side note:  Doing hair at home, no matter whose it is, according to Regis, is considered a "conflict of interest" and can get you written up and/or terminated.

I went on my two days off, which were Tues & Wed.  When I came back, there were notes galore in my station.  Rita and Tina put their heads together and plotted around what Rita wanted and presented me with their "solution".  Which got instantaneously shot down when Rita asked me about it.  "No.  You can't have that day off,  nor can you switch with anyone.  You are scheduled 10-4.  I'm not changing the schedule."  Mad doesn't even begin to cover Rita's feelings about that one.  She stomped around, slamming things.  When the phone rang and it was for me, she barked at me about it.  (I was on my lunch at the time)  When I took my cellphone with me to go out onto the sales floor in Walmart to call my boss, she was standing just outside the salon, away from the door way, griping to a friend of hers about what a witch I am. (didn't hear the words...didn't have to)  I placed my call (left a message) and went back to work.  It took Rita a good two hours to calm down.

Tina's shenanigans:  I had called her Tuesday morning to tell her about an issue with the ladies at the bank when she told me that the closeout book wasn't right, that Rita had left a note for Tina to talk to her about it when she came in later that day.  So, after I got dressed (Katie and I were heading to the mall) we went over to the salon first, so I could check out the issue.  A miscount in the deposit money.  Easily fixed.  When I walked in, Tina was at the desk, with a purple binder, a client log, really(one that can be purchased at any beauty supply distributor), and was copying down information from the computer to the binder.  Guess what that is??  A big no no.  I said nothing at the time, letting what I saw process a bit.  And, Tina is good at distracting people into not seeing what she'd just done.

While Katie and I were having lunch at the mall, I texted (not the best form of communication, really) Tina, letting her know that it's not okay to have that binder.  When I got home, there was a long winded message on my answering machine (not my cellphone, as she didn't want to "waste" my tracfone minutes leaving a text or message) telling me she's doing that to help trigger her memory with her clients, blah blah blah, THEN, she completely threw Rita under the bus by telling me that she was a good 1/2 hour late with no explanation.   She's such a good "friend".


Friday morning, I had a most excellent 20 minute conversation with Shezoa regarding all the shenanigans going on.  Rita is to be told that doing hair at home is a conflict of interest and it is to STOP.  Particularly since she struggles with commission, she needs to have all of those "buddies" in the salon to fill her chair.  It can lead to write ups as well as a dismissal.  Tina, the binder is considered theft and she can also be fired if it happens again.  I have already confiscated the pages she had and threw them (along with my notes I'd made regarding clients from way back) into the Walmart dumpster out back.  She wasn't quite willing to hand over the binder, but it is empty and it is not in the salon any longer.  I informed her that if I found it again, she would get an instant write up.

The other thing they tend to do is when they go to do the deposit, they make stops along the way, to get lunch at Subway, or where ever, which isnt' allowed, as it's stealing company time.  Which, wait for it...wait for it....can lead to a write up, and a dismissal if it continues. 

Stay tuned for another exciting episode!!

"Chunk" highlights. Who thought of this and WHY?!?!?

I have done "chunk" highlights twice in the last 3 weeks.  I think they are the ugliest highlights I've ever done, period.  Why anybody would want them is beyond me, but, hey...I'm here to serve you.

What they are:  Large bands of color throughout the head, as opposed to small, more natural looking highlights.  While this falls under the more "creative" side of hair coloring, I have a really hard time with it.  Mostly because I'm a little stuck in my ways, and really, I need to branch out a bit.

Anyway.  The first time I did them, I truly had no idea what the heck I was doing.  And they came out too subtle for my client.  She wanted BOLD highlights.  The blonde ones needed to be an INCH wide.  Which, in hair, is HUGE in size.  So, she came back a week later for me to fix them.  Because her hair is so long, (shoulder blades), it took me 3 hours to get all the foils in.  Part of that, I believe, is over thinking on my part.  Anyway.  In the end, she liked the colors, but it wasn't bold enough.  So, she came back.  That appointment still took two hours to complete.  Again, mostly because of the length of her hair.  However, when I was done, she had wide BOLD stripes in her hair.  (Don't you know, she wondered if the blonde was too much after I was done??  Sigh...)

The second one was just this Friday night.  A partial highlight, so not as lengthy, but it still took some serious time.  Again, her hair was long, however, not as dense as the last one.  I did the highs/lows first:  Lightener & 20 vol on regrowth, lightener & 10 vol on ends (previous lightening done) for blonde, 3/4 6N & 1/4 5N for dark stripe, and 6RV & 15 vol for the red stripe.  Since this was a partial, I only had to deal with from the crown forward.  The underneath stuff in the back was the 6N/5N mixture.  Let it process (took a haircut while she was processing, so that made timing that much easier!), then rinsed it off, taking the stripes out, one section at a time and rinsing the daylights out of it so they wouldn't bleed.  And they came out just as she wanted them (THANK GOD).  Cut her hair, dried it up, checked her out, sent her on her merry way.  PHEW!

Something else I discovered about this:  I don't charge enough for this one.  Need to figure it out for next time!