Beauty school cop outs: jamilla paul’s diary

Rochdale salon owner Jamilla Paul is fast becoming a familiar face to the nation, mentoring the cast of new reality MTV show Beauty School Cop Outs. In an HJi exclusive, Jamilla is sharing the secrets from the set – read the latest installment of her show diary below…

Things are really kicking off in the salon and I feel so motivated by my involvement with Beauty School Cop Outs. This is the time to make changes in my business; to make the most of all the attention. And I’m definitely getting attention. I did a new client seminar for Wella Professionals in Brighton last week with the lovely, and scarily impressive, Sean Dawson. Afterwards loads of the invited guests came up afterwards to rave about the show and I’m actually getting stopped in the street in Rochdale. But then again, that could be to do with my winning Business Woman of the Year. Rochdale might be a city, but it’s a really friendly city. We had the Shave Doctor – Mark Sproston – in the week before last, giving us a training session as we are going to expand our men’s services. Mark was involved in the show and, along with Chris Foster who is in this week’s show, introduced the boys to hair tattooing and convinced me that I really need to capitalise on this growing market more. Next step, wholesale refurb on the second floor. Sunday was spent unpacking new barber chairs and prepping the area, which is still to be named (watch this space). I’m having a new floor laid and new shelving added. With four floors, I’ve got lots of space to play with. Overall, my salon has a vintage feel to it – lots of dark wood with a sweeping staircase, as BSCO fans will have seen, set back from but facing the entrance. It won’t be too difficult creating an area upstairs with a more masculine feel, one that won’t clash with the existing décor. I’ve more dates booked for Wella Professionals. This is one of my favourite bits of my job. It’s good money but it’s not just that - I love meeting other like-minded hairdressers and talking with them about how to create amazing shapes and colours. And on top of that, I get to work with one of my all-time heroes! Let me backtrack just a little. Earlier this year, I had a two-day seminar booked to see this hair hero of mine, which I had to pull out of because I was offered a gig in London styling for a fashion show. I was really torn, but, hey, I thought, I can always see him next time round. I never imagined six months later I’d be on stage working alongside him. It’s Patrick Cameron, by the way. Jealous? With the launch over I am now focusing on my own business. I’m still tweeting and Facebooking all the time about the show, and in contact with the cast and the production team. But I have refocused more on my team. While the main topic of conversation among us is still BSCO, we are now talking about other things as well, including what we are wearing next Monday at HJ's British Hairdressing Awards. The clients still talk about BSCO too. They reckon Peter, my salon director, came over really well. And I agree. It was funny seeing him confuse Tara with posh words. I am more and more convinced by Tara. She did a cracking little haircut on last night’s show. She’s got real promise. There was pressure again to let Tara and Savannah (who did three years at hairdressing college – not that it really shows) loose on a real client. I’m sorry, but as I explained, you need to be properly trained before getting near any of my clients. So for drama, I suggested Sacha and Scarlett did some catwalk styles. Cue lots of glitter from Sacha, who really ought to have been born a man so that she could dress as a woman. We also had a party to show the cast how to network, but most of them were more interested in flirting or gossiping. Except Dan and Calvin. Dan met a pal of mine who has set up a very successful personal training business and they talked for hours, while Calvin hooked up with my PR to chat about salon promotion. He’s got big ideas, has my Calvin. And good luck to him.