HairLooks - What We Do
HairLooks - What We Do
Author: Jenna White
May 5th, 2020
May 5th, 2020
I wrote this post to give people a better idea of who is behind the HairLooks company, what we do, and why now is the time for everyone to think about what the future looks like for the hair industry.
WHAT WE DO ♢ WHO WE ARE ♢ WHY HAIR MATTERS ♢ SMART CITIES
I believe that working as a hairdresser earns you a degree in people. It has always struck me how different someone feels after leaving the salon. When a client is able to show something they want to change on the inside visually on the outside, it gives them control in the middle of chaos. There are jokes about stylists being like therapists. Listening is a small part of the job compared to understanding and reading between the lines.
Has it always been that way? I think so. In Vidal Sassoon’s autobiography, he talks about his early days working at a salon in London during World War II. The U.K. was bombed for almost two months day and night from 1940 into 1941. Perms were popular, but required being locked into a machine for several hours during processing. Salons had to hang signs that read “During an air raid, you are permed at your own risk” because the machine couldn’t be taken underground during attacks. People were willing to face the odds of being hit by a bomb to have their hair done at the time. It’s an example of a population longing for control in the middle of war.
We can also see this represented in culture today. The short film “Hair Love”, produced by Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver, won an Oscar in February of 2020. It takes the viewer through a range of emotions, from not knowing what to do with your hair, to not having someone to help you achieve the look, and even to hair loss towards the end. In his Oscar acceptance speech, Matthew said “Hair Love was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation [and] we wanted to normalize black hair”. When speaking with the press, Karen added “freeing black hair means freeing ourselves, and we really want to get stories out that allow us to express ourselves and make it okay to walk the streets however we look with our hair.” The theme of this movie is a powerful present-day example of aligning self-expression with control over your hair (see my blog post titled “Hair Discrimination” to learn more).
Has it always been that way? I think so. In Vidal Sassoon’s autobiography, he talks about his early days working at a salon in London during World War II. The U.K. was bombed for almost two months day and night from 1940 into 1941. Perms were popular, but required being locked into a machine for several hours during processing. Salons had to hang signs that read “During an air raid, you are permed at your own risk” because the machine couldn’t be taken underground during attacks. People were willing to face the odds of being hit by a bomb to have their hair done at the time. It’s an example of a population longing for control in the middle of war.
We can also see this represented in culture today. The short film “Hair Love”, produced by Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver, won an Oscar in February of 2020. It takes the viewer through a range of emotions, from not knowing what to do with your hair, to not having someone to help you achieve the look, and even to hair loss towards the end. In his Oscar acceptance speech, Matthew said “Hair Love was done because we wanted to see more representation in animation [and] we wanted to normalize black hair”. When speaking with the press, Karen added “freeing black hair means freeing ourselves, and we really want to get stories out that allow us to express ourselves and make it okay to walk the streets however we look with our hair.” The theme of this movie is a powerful present-day example of aligning self-expression with control over your hair (see my blog post titled “Hair Discrimination” to learn more).
HairLooks is reinventing the way people connect with stylists and barbers.
Takes 5 minutes and it's free.
