I don't like that I have to do it, but I love to do it. I thoroughly enjoy helping someone after they have had a bad hair experience. I find my greatest fulfillment in taking a person from absolute sadness and dejection to happy and satisfied.
I honestly wish this was not a part of my job, because it means that there is a stylist out there struggling to provide an optimal service. It hurts me to see that they either don't have the knowledge, skillset, or they don't care. It makes me sad to think that they have caused a person to feel ugly, because they didn't provide well in their service or expectations. I have been the next in line to style someone after a negative experience far more times than I can count. It makes my job incredibly difficult, as this new, to me, client is scared and unsure and doesn't want me to do hardly anything, because of how traumatic the previous experience was. Hair is a very important part of our identity and when a stylist "ruins" it, it becomes difficult to ever trust a stylist again. I already have enough to work through when it comes to gaining a person's trust, to add a bad cut or color from someone else to the mix, it becomes so much harder. Sometimes, I even have to fix something that a "regular" of mine has gone and done. They figure out real quickly that not everyone can do what I do.
However, nothing makes me more proud of the work I do than to create a beautiful experience for someone who has been through some stylist trauma. It creates a wonderful challenge for me, both technically and inter-personally. I feel like such a good stylist when I can take a person from feeling ugly and sad to confident and happy. I suppose I chose the right career, I can help people. When I can be the stylist that makes them feel pretty/handsome, it's the best. I get such a feeling of satisfaction creating magic for my clients. It also means, in many cases, that I now have a client for life. I still have clients that will travel across the country to come and see me, because "no one else can do my hair right". That makes my day every time it happens.
