Who has the time for that?

This post is a follow-up to my last post, If User Extremists Cut Hair.

On Tuesday I met with my hair stylist and told her that my last haircut was perfect and I wanted her to cut it exactly the same. She smiled as she measured different parts of my hair and said “Tell me about your hair. What did you like about it?”

I told her that it wasn’t too short when I left last time, but that it’s wasn’t too long or shaggy now. She acknowledged my description and said “Got it.”

Got what?

At this point I asked her, “How do you know how you cut my hair last time?” And to that she said “I don’t.” I mentioned to her in a not-so-succinct manner, what my approach would be for remembering how I cut a client’s hair to which she responded “Yeah, but who has the time for that?”

Touchè.

I asked her to give me her methods and she did. Here they are.

1. She cuts hair in a standardized way. She can run a system of length/angle measurements on a client’s head to clue into her thought pattern weeks ago.
2. She asks good questions. Her first question to me when I mentioned that I liked my last cut was “What did you like about it?” In my case, most of my pleasure with the cut had to do with the fact that I didn’t have a shaggy hairdo five weeks later. Knowing my priorities gives her the info she needs to please again.
3. She trusts herself. After knowing what she did right, she trusts herself to make that happen again. She knows the haircut won’t be exactly the same (and it isn’t), but she is confident that she can deliver the same level of satisfaction.

The point is this: The common thread in each of those methods isn’t hard to find. She trusts her system. She trusts her interpretation of my feedback. And she trusts her creativity and talent as a stylist to execute a satisfactory hair cut. Maybe hair stylists are some of the happiest workers because projects are manageable, feedback is readily available and systems are easily adjusted.