The Best Hairstylist: Have you found one?

Going into a salon to get your haircut can be a mystifying, multi-faceted, complex experience, leaving one fulfilled as they walk out onto the sidewalk, looking for every possible reflective surface to peer into, or not.  One would think to get a haircut would be simple-- go in, put on one of those all so attractive smocks, tell the stylist what you want, shampoo, cut and blow dry.  Done.  But how do you find the best hairstylist for you?

Do they have style?  Do they communicate well? Are they skilled?  Are they ego driven and full of attitude? Do they listen to you? Do they give a great shampoo? Do you walk out loving your do?

These are a few of the things I would look for.  I love going to stylists who are highly creative, who aren't afraid to try new ideas, who are easy to be with, upbeat, postive and communicate well about what they are going to do with my hair.  I want to go to a stylist who is kind.  But I don't want this, if it means I need to deal with too much ego, personal drama etc.

It's not just somebody who works on my hair.  They are touching me, I want somebody I hope to go back to and develop a relationship with, somebody I can trust.   This relationship is personal and professional.  Do I give this to my clients?

Therapy vs Hairstyling

Watching my friend give and give and give as a hairstylist, then burn out, was incredibly painful.  Did he need to do it that way?  Seeing his muddied boundaries was confusing, because he was somebody I respected in other ways, he would do just about anything for me.  In fact, he helped me build my hairstyling career. Maybe it's the only way he knew how.  Maybe it is what his clients expected of him. As a budding hairstylist, I could see the position required building relationships, sustaining them, not to mention having great technical skills, but did it mean I had to give up myself as an offering?