Motivating your salon assistants - the creative approach

Tasking your assistants with producing the salon’s annual collection may seem a tall order, but Sophie Laidlaw and her partner Liam Wickham – the owners of Wonderland, a small salon in Livingston, West Lothian – saw it as a great way to motivate their less experienced team members. Here they talk about the experience. What gave you the idea of letting your assistants direct the shoot? Liam: Education has to be about more than going through the essential steps. The fundamentals are hugely important, but you also need to inject an element of excitement and risk, so trainees can see beyond the chair and get an idea of what a ­career in hairdressing can mean. We were looking at ways to spice up training and fire trainees’ ­creativity, but also give them insight into every aspect of photographing their work – from ­inspiration through to sourcing stylists and photographers to producing the images on the day. How did the trainees react to the idea? Sophie: They were a little intimidated at first. They’ve seen me developing ideas for photoshoots with ghd, so they were already aware of the commitment and hard work it takes to do it properly. Of course, we didn’t just leave them to it. We started by talking through what they thought would work, where they could go to find inspiration. Then we asked them to work together to come up with ideas and create mood boards. Where were they with regards to salon training at the time? Liam: It was a completely new experience for all three trainees. The trio joined us from school, and I am currently leading them through their SVQ Level 2. Lauren Barclay has been with us longer, so she is a bit further on than Amy Brodie and Chloe Hardy. Did they work on the shoot from scratch? Liam: Pretty much. We already had some ideas, but it was fantastic to have their fresh insight. We were confident they understood trends as we talk about them constantly – especially with Sophie doing the shows at London Fashion Week every season. One of the most important lessons was how to find ways – quickly and under taxing conditions – to turn their vision into reality. Sophie: There was a lot of hand-holding, gently nudging them to stay on task, but they rose to the challenge. We sat in on the initial meetings with the photographer, but more as observers. We only gave them the occasional nudge when choosing models, deciding on the clothes and working out make-up styles with Wonderland’s beauty director, Saraid-Jane Newton. Did you have a session before the shoot to work on the hair? Sophie: Definitely. I always practise before a shoot – and I’ve been doing them for years. Our team is committed to their training, but even so we were pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm to stay late and get their friends in so they could run through their ideas with us. We had some really good nights just focusing on technical training. With the end goal of the shoot, they were super-committed. How did the actual shoot go? Liam: It’s difficult for those with less experience and confidence to work as quickly as, say, Sophie and I would – but they were amazing. Between them they managed to get 10 images. Are the shots good enough for publicity? Liam: I’d say so. We’ve got them up in the salon and we’ve used them on our social networks. When you are investing so much money in what is effectively a training day, you have to make sure you get something tangible from it. Looking for ways to inspire your team? Take a trip to Salon International!

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