In this episode of Last Client of the Day, hosts Shanalie, Daniel, Skya, and Jozlyn dive into some of the wildest client horror stories from AITA posts. Join them as they react, share their own experiences, and discuss what they'd do if faced with these shocking situations in the beauty industry.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: There's that saying where it's like 90 percent of your clients will be amazing, lovely, never argue about price, and they'll just do everything. They'll book, they'll pre-book, all the things. And then there's 10 percent that will drive you crazy. And that 10 percent will take up 90 percent of your time. And I think this is just like the perfect example of that.
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Shanalie Wijesinghe: Hey everyone! We are super excited to be here today and just do a fun little reaction episode. I think everyone likes to talk about some of the content that's out there and I know everyone finds a good, am I the a**hole story super riveting. So we have a couple that we're going to discuss that are based around hair salons, medspas, you know, all that fun stuff. So excited to see what you guys think. You're ready?
Jozlyn Miller: Let's get it.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Awesome. So here's our first one. Okay. So I, 22, female, have been seeing the same hairstylist, Talia, for a few years now. And because we always chat during my appointment, she knows the basics of my life. I've always had long hair, sometimes going a bit shorter. [The] shortest has been to my shoulders, adding bangs, adding layers, et cetera. Nothing crazy. Well, I had an appointment yesterday and decided to go for a super short pixie cut as she shared the picture, which I showed everyone prior to this. We'll put it up for everyone. And, my hairstylist was shocked, but then she made a joke like, ‘Oh no, this isn't breakup hair, is it?’ I was weirded out by that, but I confirmed that yes, actually my boyfriend of a year and I broke up a few weeks ago, but it had nothing to do with my hair.
She then tells me that she really doesn't want to cut my hair short because my hair is so nice. Her words, I really don't care. And it would be a waste to cut it. She then remembers that I'm going to my sister's wedding. I'm gonna be her maid of honor in a couple months and that I'll have a graduation In the spring and she said I'll regret having short hair in those photos. Honestly, I was pretty offended at that. As a grown woman, whether or not I regret a hairstyle down the line is none of her business, as long as she does the cut well.
She told me the shortest that she would go was a long bob, and so I told her that I would be leaving, and that's not what I want. She tried to get me to pay the cancellation fee, as she was now going to lose the two hours that she had booked. I told her that wasn't my problem, and I left anyways. On my way out, she told me I wasn't welcome back.
It keeps going, y'all: I relayed this story to my friends today, and the response was mixed. A couple people told me she was trying to look out for me in case I did regret the haircut, and that after the past couple years, me walking out may have really hurt her financially. I feel really torn. I don't like conflict, but I really felt like Talia crossed the line when she refused to do my haircut the way I wanted. Am I the a***hole?
Skya Jones: I feel like the whole thing's just really dramatic. I feel like the hairdresser was just trying to help her out and be like, ‘hey, I get you're going through a breakup. Maybe, let's do a mid in between what you have now and what you want.’ I would appreciate that down the road.
My hairdresser is always like,’This is crazy. You don't need to do this.’ I'll be like, ‘dye it pink.’ She's like, you don't need it. And I'm like, okay, I'm glad I didn't do it.
Jozlyn Miller: I do think that if you've been going to someone for a certain amount of years, they know you [and] they know your personality. So I think it makes sense for her to give her a heads up like, hey, this is a big chop. This is a big adjustment. So I do think it makes sense for her to do that. The whole not coming back, I think that's a little dramatic. We could've come to a resolution.
Skya Jones: Or making sure to pay a fee.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, I'm wondering if there's just some sort of breakdown in communication here. Because I know I've seen this personally where people come in and they're like, like ‘buzz it off, I want it all gone.’ And then you find out that people are either going through a breakup or a really traumatic time in their life and you know, even I've been there. I remember I was cheated on. My boyfriend cheated on me and I was like, ‘I'm gonna cut my hair short.’ I got a super cute short cut, but in reality for how I feel comfortable with myself and how I look, even my curls, it was a big difference for me because my, you know, you guys know, there's like some shrinkage that happens with curls, right?
So I was not loving that look either. So I would have appreciated some conversation around it. I think this individual, we don't have her name, I think Talia. She probably could have handled that conversation maybe a little more gentle like, ‘hey, what's going on in your life? Are you having some big changes?’ It sounds like this client maybe didn't appreciate her acting like she knew everything that was going on and telling her, ‘Oh no, no, no, no, this is what we're going to do.’ So, maybe there could have been a conversation and maybe this client would have said, ‘no, actually, I've wanted this haircut for years. And I'm trying to step out as a brand new me after this breakup. And I just think this is going to hit the nail on the head, you know?’
Jozlyn Miller: Exactly. Yeah.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: What do you think?
Daniel Landroche: Yeah, I don't know. I don't think the client is an asshole at all. I think the stylist is like, I mean to say like, ‘Oh, is this breakup hair?’ Even joking, instantly that puts the client on the defensive and feeling uncomfortable and vulnerable because it is. But that doesn't mean the choice is any less valid. Yeah, and for them to refuse to do it? It's totally respectable to say like, ‘oh, this may not be the best look for your shape and your hair type.’ But to say I'm not going to do it. I feel like that's weird because is that any different? You're gonna lose that client if you refuse to do it and they want it.
Jozlyn Miller: Do they have something like waivers that people can sign when they're going to an extreme? Is that a thing?
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Well, I've had waivers. We've worked at places where we did waivers for like crazy color corrections and stuff like that.
Jozlyn Miller: If you're putting a tattoo on your face, like, you can't get mad at me when you're done with it.
Skya Jones: I think it's more just like, as a provider or stylist, you don't want to do something and then know that the client's going to regret it. So I'm sure it came from a place of love and wanting to do something good, but you also have to give them the desired result that they want, even if you don't agree with it. You could not like someone's preferred color or cut or whatever it may be, but you still have to theoretically be like, ‘okay, this is what they want.’
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, at what point do you give the client what they want versus running the risk of actually losing them. Because I think even where I found it to be inappropriate was even though they've known each other for a couple years now and they chat and everything, but her bringing up her sister's wedding, the graduation and stuff like that. I agree with the client that it is none of her business.
If somebody tried to tell me like, ‘Oh, you have this going on in your life, like you shouldn't be doing that.’ For example, if I just had a baby and someone's like, ‘Oh, you're a new mom. You should leave it long so you can throw it up in a bun.’ I'd be like, cut it all off just because you said that. I'm going to prove you wrong, you know?
So like I said, how I started this off, I do think it was the communication, like how people are communicating with each other because I do think they could have had a simple conversation about, ‘hey, I really love this look. Here's a bunch of different people who look so amazing in this look. I think they have a similar look to me. I love this.’ And, maybe she wanted to let her have some fun with it ‘cause that is something I've talked about with people. Like, we're like, ‘hey, if you're going to chop it all off, have some fun with it on the way up, because there's so many different looks that you can hit that you might not like.
So, if I were going to chop off all my hair, I maybe would do a long bob and go all the way up. My younger sister did that where she went to a pixie, but she kept going shorter and shorter, but had that fun with it when she had a little bit of lane. So I think that's a totally different conversation where it's like, ‘hey, since you're going to cut it all off, why don't we try some of these other looks on the way up?’ Right? Versus it being, ‘Oh no, you were making an insane decision because you're unstable right now and going through a breakup. I think that's what it came off like in this moment.
Jozlyn Miller: Yeah, she made it very personal versus let me recommend something different because I think this might work better for you. So yeah, I agree with that for sure.
Skya Jones: I feel like the cancellation fee is just, it adds, it makes it feel like, okay, so you're friends enough to tell her, ‘hey, I'm not gonna do this,’ but then you're gonna pull, ‘oh, but if you're not gonna get a service, you have to pay this fee.’ I feel like you can't. That's not fair.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Right? ‘Cause she refused to do the service.
Daniel Landroche: Yeah, if you're not going to get the cut that I want you to get, you're gonna have to pay a cancellation fee, which feels weird.
Jozlyn Miller: Sounds toxic. I don't like it.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, I don't like that either.
Skya Jones: Find a new stylist.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, so there actually was an update on this one. So turns out she got her haircut: I browsed through Instagram under the hair salon stylist in my area and found a stylist that does a lot of pixie cuts. My haircut was yesterday and the experience was so positive. My stylist was amazing. She was so excited to cut my hair and I'm in love with the final result. I did not leave any reviews or complaints about Talia. It's not my style to try and find some kind of revenge. I just wanted the haircut, LOL.
Jozlyn Miller: Oh, good for her.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I know, good for, good for her. I wonder, where's Talia now? Where are you girl?
Skya Jones: Maybe she just was really bad at pixie cuts and she was like, I know I'm gonna mess it up. So I can't do it. Yeah, not everyone can do it.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Not everyone can do that.
Daniel Landroche: Talia, if you're out there, let us know what happened.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: We want to hear your side of it, Talia?
Skya Jones: Write in, please.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Okay. I think someone else should read the next one.
Skya Jones: Do you want me to read it?
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Come on, medspa.
Skya Jones: Oh yeah, this is medspa. Of course I'm gonna read it. I, 23, female, have been interested in getting lip filler for a while now. I've always hated my lips since I feel like they are too small for my other features on my face. And I used to get made fun of because of my lip size throughout school. I constantly see before and after pictures of lip filler on social media and I decided I might as well go through with it since I have enough money saved up and I just want to feel a little bit better about myself. Keep in mind I have yet to even book any sort of consultation since I want to have an idea of what to ask for before I do. Recently, I've seen a TikTok on my For You page with an influencer who had the most perfect lips. I won't name any names out of privacy, but they are pretty well known in the beauty industry world. She was showing off some new lipsticks she got sent from a company, and her lips looked perfect. You could tell she had gotten work done, but they were the perfect size, shape, and a gorgeous top to bottom lip ratio.
I commented something like, ‘hey, if you don't mind me asking, how much filler did you get and what did you ask for? I was wanting to get some as well and yours look beautiful.’ And then went on about my day awaiting a response. This was like two days ago. Just yesterday I got a reply, but it wasn't what I expected.
She said something along the lines of how rude it was to ask such a question. And I was, obviously, never taught manners since you don't ask stuff like that. I can no longer view the reply since she blocked me as of today. And one by one her followers began to chime in saying how offensive I was being and that I'm just jealous.
All I wanted was an idea of what she asked for. I didn't even bother replying since most of the comments came off like they thought I was being sarcastic. But the majority of people commenting thought I was an a***hole for saying such a thing. I don't think it was offensive to ask a question about filler since it isn't frowned upon and it's quite common nowadays, but others seem to disagree.
Am I the a***hole for asking an influencer about their filler in the comment section?
Jozlyn Miller: I have a lot to say about this.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Do you? Let's hear it.
Jozlyn Miller: Because I think for someone that has not received filler, aka myself, I would not know what kind of questions to ask. So it could just be not ignorance, but just not knowing. You just don't know. So you're asking to get an opinion so you know exactly what to ask for when you get to the medspa that they're going to.
Skya Jones: I don't think she's an a**hole, but I also just don't think, most people aren't gonna in their comment section publicly say like, ‘oh, I got this work done,’ if they're not already sharing it. If she's not posting videos about her injectables, she's probably not open about it. And, just from a medspa perspective, I just could not stand when patients would come in or clients would come in and say, ‘I want to get exactly what this person got,’ because it just doesn't work the same for everybody. You have to see what's a good fit for you and what your injector thinks you need. So I get where she's coming from. I don't think she's an a**hole. I think it's just how social media works.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: You think her question should go to a professional and not an influencer. That makes sense.
Jozlyn Miller: I feel bad. I honestly feel the opposite. She doesn't know. And then you're an influencer. Everything that you have on, even if she doesn't promote it, she knows that it's a filler. The influencer knows that it's a filler. The nice thing to do would have been, ‘you know what? I actually don't know, but go to the medspa and find out, like talk to a consultant about it.’ It's not, I don't know. I think she was being a little harsh.
Daniel Landroche: I don't know. I think it's always best to be transparent about those things. And it's clearly, she didn't say, ‘I don't have filler.’ She said, ‘that's rude. You shouldn't ask about it.’
Skya Jones: Which is like a dead giveaway. Like, hey, we know you got it now.
Daniel Landroche: And yeah, maybe it's just a thing about like, she shouldn't be looking on social media for this. She should be asking. Why does she need to go on social media before she goes for a consultation? That's what a consultation is for.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: So, I'll admit, I feel like I'm caught between the two, because I agree. We shouldn't be looking at social media and influencers to give us any kind of advice. But, you know, for example, I told you both, I don't know if you knew this, Daniel, but I've been suffering from terrible, TMJ, right? And I recently did some Botox in my masseters to release that tension. I was in so much pain. And I don't think it's going to necessarily be a regular thing that I'm doing, but I needed it in that moment because it was just so intense. Apparently, it's something that happens after you give birth, very common when your hormones are kind of balancing out. I learned that through social media. I learned that through some influencers out there. And again, I didn't go to the comments. I didn't ask those people questions. I went to professionals to get the advice. I talked to my dentist, I talked to folks in the medspa. I talked to friends who've experienced it, a lot of it.
But, you know, I wouldn't have really thought about that as a solution if it wasn't introduced to me through social media, which I think is very obvious. Everyone needs to be doing everything on social media because that's how you can attract new clients because that's exactly what happened with me.
It's definitely a place where we can learn about that stuff. And to Daniel's point, I do agree. For example, anytime I have something that isn't mine, if I've had acrylic nails to fake lashes, and someone compliments me, I'm like, ‘It's fake, girl! Let me tell you where to go get it. Here's where I did it,’ like, immediately. And that's me. I think I would be the same if I were to get any type of work done. If someone complimented it, I think I would have the same approach to it, but I understand that's not everyone. Some people get very, ‘no.’ And listen, we do these things because we're insecure about them. Right? And, we want to feel secure. So when someone points out, ‘hey, that was like your insecurity, you fixed it. Like, tell me about it.’ It might be like picking at a scab a little bit, you know?
Jozlyn Miller: I'm happy you said that because my next question is, so my first thought was why is there a stigma around not necessarily sharing what work you've had done? I think and I'm the same way as you, if somebody's like, ‘oh your hair's pretty,’ I'm like, ‘it's a wig, I bought it.’ So I'm wondering what is the stigma around it? But when you bring up insecurity that makes perfect sense because people don't necessarily want to have that focus on them when it's something they were trying to fix. But I guess it just depends on that person and their feelings.
Skya Jones: Honestly, with the plastic surgery world and with that, I think injectables just became naturally in the same kind of breath of people didn't want their husbands to know. When it first started, like Botox, it was very much kept quiet because generally wives were like, I don't want my husband to know I'm spending money on this and he doesn't think it's worth it or he doesn't want me to look fake or overdone.
That's honestly, I think the most common thing is people don't want their significant others, especially straight males to know because for some reason, there's this disdain towards it. And I think now more people are open about it, but there are some people that are very private about it. They don't want anybody to know that they've had injectables. I've worked in the industry. I'm totally like, ‘Oh yeah, this is Botox.’ If it's something that is offered, I've probably had it done. But there are people that don't even tell their kids, their husbands, their sisters.
They're very much like, ‘oh, no one can know.’ And I feel like in the other aspects of the beauty industry, like hair, makeup, nails, everyone's very willing to share and be like, ‘Oh, this is what I ask for. This is what I do.’ So I feel like it is changing and people are more transparent, but I agree. Like Shanali said, You should see it on social media and it's a great way to market yourself, but you still need to go into your provider, whoever's doing your skin, your hair, your nails, and be like, this is what I like. You're the expert, tell me what I need to get to get these results. I wouldn't go into my hairstylist and be like, I want this formula on my color, and I want this dilution of lightener and volumizer or whatever it is. You just show them what you want, and they're like, okay, I see the idea, this is what I recommend.
So I don't think either of them are really the a**hole per se. But I definitely think the influencer could have been more open or been like, if you don't want to admit it, just say you don't have them. Just be like, they're natural, I guess. I don't know. Yeah.
Daniel Landroche: Or don't respond.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: She's a little rough on someone who is a follower. I know on Instagram or any social media where there's a following, those are your fans, right? These are people who look up to you, or they're looking to your content for something. You're satisfying some sort of need. So yeah, that's the sad part where she immediately cut her off.
Skya Jones: It's giving insecurity. Yeah, it's major.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, she could have educated her like, ‘hey, you know, it doesn't matter. That's actually a really personal question to ask. I know my life is very public, but that's a very personal question to ask. If you're interested in doing that for yourself, I highly recommend going to your local medspa and things like that.’ I do think there is like a nice marketing/PR, answer that she probably could [have given].
Skya Jones: She could have even messaged her privately.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Hey, everyone's human. Everyone's going to make mistakes, just like both of these people did. I don't think either one of them is the a**hole to be honest. I think it's one of those unfortunate situations.
All right. I have a question for everyone. What do you think about clients asking their colorist for their formula?
Skya Jones: Clearly they're just going to take it and be like, can I go to somebody that does it for cheaper or somebody else and be like, can you do this same exact thing? And it's not going to turn out the way they want it to because it's an art form. You can't just take that and translate it to the same exact thing.
Jozlyn Miller: Yeah, I think the same. They're only asking to give it to somebody else. They're not keeping it for themselves. There's nothing they're going to do with it.
Skya Jones: If they're in the industry and they're like, ‘hey, I really like this and I want to use this on my clients’ or ‘I love this. What'd you do?’ But if you're not in the industry, there's really no reason to need to know.
Daniel Landroche: I mean, I think sometimes people do it. I heard it a lot when somebody was traveling and they couldn't get back. But again, if you're going to see a capable colorist, they're talented, they can formulate, they know what they're doing. They don't need that. It really comes, I think, from a client who's, again, very insecure about their color. And they think that if it is like a shade different, they're not going to be happy, they're not going to feel beautiful or themselves with it.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I've seen it in a lot of different ways where people have been traveling, where we've been a part of that, or someone's gonna be gone for the entire summer. We're gonna give this person their base formula and make sure they're taken care of if they're a great loyal client. There's a lot of trust involved in that where we don't even think twice about it. But somebody actually put it to me the best way and they're like, when you go to a fine dining experience and you have a dish that you love, do you walk into the kitchen and ask the chef for the recipe? You wouldn't even dream of it.
Skya Jones: No. Right. They'd laugh at you.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: They would be like, get out of here. Pay the bill and get out of here. Right, so It's funny how people cross those boundaries so often in the self care industry, with hair especially. I think some of it comes from this lack of education and respect for what they're actually doing. There's a true science to those formulations. The color wheel is no joke and figuring out how to cancel out certain tones and bring out others and really achieving that on so many different heads of hair. It's very impressive. I do agree that a lot of times it's like, ‘Oh, I'm going to take this formula and I'm going to go to the person down the block ‘cause it's a lot cheaper than my nice high end salon or whatever it is.’ So I do think it is very problematic behavior. So if you're listening and you've ever thought about asking someone for a formula, please do not do it.
Skya Jones: Well, it's kind of almost along the same lines of price haggling. When clients come in and they're like, well, can you do it for this price? You wouldn't go to a five star restaurant and be like, well, can I actually get it for [or] this is the price that someone else quoted me? Can you do it for that price? You just pay whatever your bill is when it comes. When I get my hair done, I just say whatever you need to do, do and stylists have given price ranges before. But there's even people that are like, it has to be this amount. It can't go over and I feel like that's a lack of respect for the artists that you're seeing.
Jozlyn Miller: Yeah, I mean honestly as that artist, I would take it as a compliment because that I'm doing my thing, like I'm kicking a**. Yeah, you want to duplicate this, but I would still say no.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Absolutely gotta protect the proprietary information.
Jozlyn Miller: Exactly.
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Shanalie Wijesinghe: All right, do we want to jump into some client horror stories?
Skya Jones: My favorite type of scary stories. A stylist I used to work for suffered a heart attack while at work and an ambulance had to be called. One of his clients who was waiting to be taken, asked me if he would have time to just trim her fringe before the paramedics came.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I cannot.
Skya Jones: I think that this is insanity. I cannot imagine looking at a person being like, yeah, you're having a heart attack. Do you think you could just trim me up really quick before you get into the ambulance? 'Cause if I don't have my trim, I'll die.
Jozlyn Miller: People are selfish. That's the most selfish thing
Skya Jones: Yeah, just a French trim. That's all.
Jozlyn Miller: Horrible.
Daniel Landroche: Get out, leave, get out. Yeah. Never come back.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: That's when you shouldn't even have to think about firing a client where you're like, ‘hey, yes, somebody outside of this business can trim your bangs.’ To be honest, I don't know if anyone's ever been in the room and someone's having a heart attack and an ambulance coming. When the ambulance is coming into a building, I can't think about my hair. I'm like, rubbernecking like crazy, right?
Skya Jones: I would be fight or flight. Like what's going on? What can I do? Right. Right.
Jozlyn Miller: How can I help? How can I move things out the way?
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Especially your hairstylist, because you know how the folks that do any of my services, I know about their lives, I know about their kids, know about their partners, all the stuff. And if I saw somebody who I was connected to later having a heart attack, I'd be on the floor trying to help.
Skya Jones: That is my longest term relationship. I'd be on the floor giving her CPR, like we're gonna save you right? I don't even think that you don't have to give good communication. I think you just tell that client to get out. Leave.
My grandma was in the hospital passing away and I had a client calling and getting upset that my co-worker wouldn't give her my personal phone number to see if I'd come in just for her. After I went back to work, she came in and while in my chair said, I hope you understand why I wanted them to call you or give me your number. I just needed my hair done. I said, ‘Oh, funny because I needed my grandma not to die.; It was an awkward appointment after that.
Jozlyn Miller: You know, these kind of stories are, like, do I need to make a different career move at this point? You want to spend the last moments with your grandparents. That's horrible.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: You know what there's that saying where it's like 90 percent of your clients will be amazing, lovely, never argue about price, and they'll just do everything. They'll book, they'll pre-book, all the things. And there's 10 percent that will drive you crazy. And that 10 percent will take up 90 percent of your time. And I think this is just the perfect example of that, where people just don't get that we are people who have lives. People like our grandmothers are what make us be so wonderful behind the chair or or you know behind the desk, whatever it is, right? So yeah, I know it's really sad and kind of disrespectful. Very disrespectful. Yeah.
Daniel Landroche: I think we've all dealt with like really entitled clients before. I don't get it. You are not entitled to get a service, unless you have an appointment and you're paying for it, there's no other situation in which somebody needs to make time for you. If they're not okay with that, if you're sick and somebody wants to get in or if you're fully booked and they think they're deserved to get in like
Skya Jones: You're not entitled to have that access of having a personal phone number and being reaching out to your provider, your stylist and being like, ‘I want to get in right now.’
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I mean, listen, we're in America at the end of the day where people go to work sick all the time. So I do think we have some of our cultural things working against us, some of the cultural norms. You guys know I’m like, if you are sick, if you're even slightly sick, stay home. Make sure you're a hundred percent before you can handle people or anything. I don't think folks really understand how much willpower it takes to be on. Yeah, the way a hairstylist, the medspa injector, anyone behind the front desk. Oh my gosh, the front desk. You have to be very on and you know. There's times where you and I work the desk together where we had stuffy noses and we were talking like this, right?
And people will call it out. Our clients would be like, ‘oh like you're sick.’ You know the ones who cared about us. And then there were folks like, yeah, I got my appointment, keep going. I do think it's a little bit of society too, that makes people think like, ‘Oh, you're just sick. Oh, you're just going to a funeral.’ Like, come on. Like, walk me in.
Jozlyn Miller: And that has a lot to do with people, even thinking of, when you are trying to mourn, what's that amount of time until you get back into it? And I do think in America it's the same. That we're just, quick.
Skya Jones: Okay. Take one day off.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Not me, not me, honey.
Jozlyn Miller: I feel like we're the only culture or not. Yeah, it's horrible.
Skya Jones: Shanalie is the only boss that I've ever had that has said you can take as much time as you need. Other than that, they've been like, ‘when’s the funeral?’
Jozlyn Miller: I was just about to say that. You taught me healthy work habits.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Yeah, you're a person first. Yeah. I know, you both said this: Oh, you're so good at this. And, I'm not. I don't think it's about me being so good. I think I'm just being a person. I'm being a human, a good human. And I think the others are doing a disservice to the rest of the folks, becauseI hate those sayings that are like, leave your s*** at the door and come in and just be this blank person and don't worry about your lives. I just don't think that's real life. If I'm going through something, you're gonna feel it at work. You're gonna see it. I'm a fun loving person. I'm always cracking jokes. If I'm not cracking that joke, people are gonna feel that. Right? And, that's okay. You can't be happy all the time. You're not gonna be healthy all the time. I think we need to make it very normal in our businesses, especially as leaders, owners, managers and setting that tone. I know we had an awesome episode with Sandra where we talked a little bit about that, our lovely therapist that was on with us. But it starts from the top. We have to make sure, the positions that we're sitting at as owners and managers, that we are driving that type of culture because the other side of it is very negative.
There's burnout and people end up really angry, right? They haven't taken care of their own lives. They haven't taken care of their own bodies. They're sick. They're going through different things and you have them over here doing like bang trims.
Jozlyn Miller: Or, even the massage world. Can you imagine having to then go and massage someone for an hour 90 minutes with that type of energy already inside of you.
Skya Jones: If I was a client, I wouldn't want my provider or my professional having to perform a service if they aren't mentally okay ‘cause I know I'm probably not gonna get the best service. It's not gonna look the best, It's not gonna feel the best.
Jozlyn Miller: And that could be passed on. I do believe energy can be passed on to people, especially if you're very intimate and touching. That can be passed on to another person and I don't want that bad juju. Get that out of there. No, I don't want that
Skya Jones: That's a powerful thing. Yeah. Okay last one: I had one client ask me, if you die who's gonna do my hair? This is days before I went in to have an emergency c section with my firstborn.
Jozlyn Miller: She probably laughed after she said it. Like this is funny.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I know, I put that one in there because when you're that pregnant, you're already thinking about everything that's going wrong.
Jozlyn Miller: You're close to that. Yeah, I can't even.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I was like, wow. So, I know she's probably joking, but it just goes to show that sometimes we do have some clients that don't realize that we are people first.
Skya Jones: Yeah, humans. This reminds me of something that we've talked about a lot. If you are to die, a lot of employers, you think that they would be distraught and that it would change the entire business, but really, they would replace you the next day. They would try and fill your spot. And so that's the whole thing of, when you're like, I can't call out sick, I can't take time off. I can't do this. I can't do that. You have to realize that your employers are looking at you as not always a human, but as you're providing a job and filling a role. And if you weren't there, they would just replace you. So it's kind of like that. You just get a new hairstylist.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Next. Onto the next.
Daniel Landroche: I feel like I've heard the kind of from the opposite perspective, too as an employee from the employer. If you died tomorrow how would I do the things that you do, which again is the same thing. They're not really thinking about the trauma of you dying. They're thinking about how the role would get filled if you're not here? How is my business going to function?
Jozlyn Miller: Or am I going to have to have start doing your job for you? Because you're not here.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: I'd love to hear it because I know we've heard this. I want to and I feel like you've heard this. I feel like we talked about this. But, Skya, have you ever been told, you need to document everything because if you get hit by a bus tomorrow, I need to be able to hand over a book to someone of how to do everything and they just need to do it. I'm like, did you just hear what you said? You're like, if I die, first things first, how do you book appointments?
Skya Jones: Oh, a hundred percent. I think the most telling thing is if you've ever been in the role of being a key employee or you've had a key employee that does so much and they ask for a raise or they're like, ‘hey, this is what I want to be fulfilled in my role.’ And the owner of the business says no. And they're like, okay. They stay for a little while, but then when they go to leave or quit, the owner's like, well just give them whatever they want. We can't lose them. It's like, so what happened four months ago when they asked for a raise and you said no? But now, when they're threatening to leave and you realize, yeah, this is gonna be terrible, you're like, anything they want, I'll do it. Whatever they need.
Jozlyn Miller: Yeah, that's a weakness. And I would still leave. F that, no, I'm leaving no matter what.
Skya Jones: Same. Yeah.
Shanalie Wijesinghe: Well, amazing everyone. Thank you so much for your awesome feedback on all this cool content. More to come. Thanks for listening everyone.
Group: Bye.
