How mentors and young hairdressers can swap experiences

Established hairdressers and their younger counterparts have plenty to teach each other, as Donna Chapman discovers... Hairdressing’s potent blend of youth and experience bears all the hallmarks of a world-beating workforce. On one side there’s expertise and loyalty, and on the other, energy and a hunger to learn. The youthful element brings different skills and fresh enthusiasm to a company, while older workers set the standard and unselfishly share their wisdom. Achieve the ideal balance of age and attitude and everybody benefits. “I demonstrate at a lot of college events and I meet a lot of trainee hairdressers. They view our industry in a different way than I did, which is a good thing. They use social media as a resource and appear far more media savvy than I was at their age. They know who’s wearing what and who’s in or who’s out. This ultra-modern viewpoint can mean they’re dismissive of ‘hair culture’ and can’t see the point of foundation techniques from our hairdressing past. This conversation proves my point: Student: “Why do we have to learn to set hair in rollers?” Me: “What do you mean?” Student: “Well all those clients will be dead soon!” Patrick Cameron “Throughout my career at Sassoon, my absolute passion was guiding the young app rentices and trainees. They were like newborns; to them everything was a blank canvas to be explored. They naturally observed with fresh, inquisitive eyes and a new point of view and were always so eager to learn. It was an incredibly rewarding process as not only was I teaching them, but they in turn were teaching me to see things from a new perspective. I gained so much satisfaction seeing them grow and develop into inspiring people themselves and become truly great hair professionals.” Annie Humphreys “Working with young people, I’ve grown to understand what it must be like to have kids. I experience a lot of the same emotions – happiness, frustration, puzzlement and sometimes even pride. They’re a constant source of fun and inspiration. Some have a great fashion sense, some have natural flair for hair that’s really exciting and some are just great to be around. The flip side is that the very fact they’re young makes me, by comparison, old – something that’s increasingly obvious with each new generation of assistants. Nonetheless I wouldn’t for a second be without my young team and I’ll always have my one redeeming feature – I can still party them all under the table!” Philip Bell, Ishoka “I love working with the younger generation, they hang onto your every word. But what I love most is listening to their ideas. "They’ve grown up with social media, whereas we’ve had to really adapt to make the most of this resource and are still cutting pictures out of magazines more often than using Pinterest for moodboards. "They let their imagination run wild and I learn just as much from them as they learn from me.” Karine Jackson, Karine Jackson Salon “As the FAME team manager, I get to witness the intense enthusiasm of the next generation of great hairdressers. "I’ve always said it is important to learn and share, and my role provides the perfect opportunity to do just that. "We all learn from each other and I feel honoured to be involved with the young talent of today firsthand.” Bruno Marc Giamattei, Marc Antoni salons and FAME team manager   “I often see elements of myself in our apprentices. It’s nice to be reminded of how excited I was when I first started out. "I was a keen 18 year-old who swapped a building site for the sophistication and creativity of the salon and I like the way our youngsters view the industry with such amazement and interest. "Not that I’ve lost that, but from fresh eyes, it’s endearing and gives you the energy to get stuck in just as much as them.” Colin Greaney, Mahogany Hairdressing “My team are constantly teaching me new things, especially when it comes to their text speak and slang. I love it, but the pace at which modern youth do things is staggering. I’ve made ‘slow down and do it properly’ something of a salon mantra. "I spend a lot of my time trying so hard to be the boss, but find myself laughing at their crazy and colourful life experiences. "Hairdressing is a brilliant, fun industry to be in and the new generation so often reminds me not to take things quite so seriously.” Sally Brooks, Brooks & Brooks Hairdressing “I often laugh at myself surrounded by youngsters when I’m old enough to be their dad or granddad even, but I love working with them. They keep me on my toes and challenge my thoughts and approaches to life and to colouring. !The older hair colourist brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table, but if I was to be around my contemporaries all day I might as well just give up. I need the fresh thoughts and ‘colourful’ exchanges; it gives me a young outlook. I also definitely think that young hairdressers are like rough diamonds and it’s my duty to help polish them up to be the brightest they can be, which is what my predecessors did for me.” Jack Howard, Rossano Feretti