the ramblings of a chronic over thinker

anyone know a thing or two or three about marketing?

welcome back! so this week i’m focusing on marketing. during our last staff meeting we got into a pretty interesting conversation about exposure, promotions and marketing. all kinds of suggestions were given. my personal favourite was that jumbo inflatable person-like thing that grabs your attention. i mean, i’m watching it move, but i’m not sure i’m going to come in for a set of highlights because of that guy…

a very long time ago i remembered someone saying your marketing budget should be 10% of your gross, blah, blah, blah. in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a lot, but it’s also sometimes not enough. the way marketing works is this: you plan, you execute, and then you wait for the results. hopefully the ‘plan’ was fool proof and the execution timely. even with a flawless plan and meticulous execution, do marketing groups or plans have a guarantee? like the inflatable tube guy, if i bought him, is there a guaranteed number of folks that would come into my shop? can the formula of marketing promise me more than 1% return on my investment?

can this convince you to get a haircut?

in my industry, the best marketing is you guys! the best promoting is from the patrons that use our services and can attest to the quality of the goods and services we provide. word of mouth is still killing it aaaaand you don’t need 10% of your profits to implement it.

she’s telling everyone about her new haircut!

there are two main topics i’d love to market and promote. fresh knowledge and a styling line for afros. fresh knowledge offers courses integral to our industry because there is no formal training for afros and other hair types (from the government) and there is no formal product lines either (from our suppliers). the powers that be have made it very clear that afros and other hair types are not a priority in the hair industry. this course could help so many stylists equip themselves so they can provide services for afros and other hair types. the government and the supply companies only let hanging hair have a seat at the table. hanging hair! you know what that is. essentially everyone whose hair grows out of their head and is effected by gravity. it hangs straight down and when wet, has absolutely NO VOLUME. if you have hair like that, you’ve never had a problem getting any hair service (well maybe you did, but it wasn’t because the stylist didn’t know what to do). for the rest of us that fall in between hanging hair and afros, we had to figure out cutting, styling and colouring on our own.

so i can spend thousands of dollars to use a company to package and promote fresh knowledge but will it work? could they guarantee me more registrations? maybe? how about the product line? after i create it, produce and package it, would marketing help me sell it all? i mean, maybe some, but could i get a guarantee?

two incredible ways to increase my revenue and make a difference! the reality is, the cost to communicate my new ideas isn’t feasible for my business in this current climate. how long does one wait? when there’s marketing money available? when i have all the time to plan, produce and execute a product line? well, stay tuned.

✌🏾

-p

the ramblings of a chronic over thinker

i’m not really in the mood for introductions and ‘get to know me’ type talk. if you know about our shop, you might know about this blog. this blog, yipes. if you know about this shop you might also NOT know about the blog. it’s like a thorn, not in my side, just there. thorn. looking thorny and useless. i’m hoping that writing again will turn the thorn into something nice like, i don’t know, a flower or a cookie or something calm-ish.

this space is calm

leah and i signed up for a 4 month business course and one of the items i must complete is to spend 90 mins a week on my business and all the things that my business entails. i have taken it on to also, during this 90 min session, write here. i love to read and sometimes i dream of writing. i’m not sure I have what it takes to be a legitimate writer, but the internet and this platform make me feel like i may have a little something?

when we first opened 14 years ago i was diligent with the writing and i did some decent work (i wrote an opinion piece on george zimmerman that i was really proud of. it’s lost now. thanks wordpress 😐). then life, kids, stuff started taking up the time. i began to slow down with the writing and then every once in a while, i would come back to it. this course, i’m hoping, will help me maintain the writing and in turn, boost me somehow? who knows…

bathroom selfie from the past when i may have been boosted, by youth…

so I’m gong to be here once a week, chronicling my limp digital life (and actual life as well). there is the hope that i could be growing something helpful, useful and maybe a little supportive? i mean, i won’t know if anyone will read this or will care, but i can at least start. if you do read this, please drop me a line, let me know you exist. it would be really nice to know that i’m not just writing into the abyss. tbh, i should be working on taxes right now and then making a video… should i post those here? …i dunno.

these sunday posts are going to be just like this, random thoughts that rattle in my brain. not fully edited thoughts and concerns, probably some weird judgements and ideals that only make sense to me but i think that’s the point? this post is a sorry excuse for an introduction but boom! have a good week, and…. that is all.

-p

Wordless Wednesday

Locs of 🩵💙🩵

you better behave…

cutie glasses

it’s the green for me…

doing a root re-tighten, ‘interlocking method’

-p

✌🏾

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRESHAIR BOUTIQUE!

Celebrate!

We made it to 14!

Enjoy these celebration photos and pop by today for some cheer and joy! 😉💙🩵

…you know i like to party like a rock star

great team! great times!

🎶🎵 celebrate good times! come on! 🎶🎵

just living the best life!

…that hair though!

Here’s to 14 more years! 😜

-p

I am not my hair analysis

I like to think about hair a lot. As a hairstylist, this should make sense, but sometimes I think hair might be taking up too much of my brain space. Lately, I’ve been noticing a lot of it in music, so I’ve decided to analyze a few that mention or talk about hair, in a short and simplified format just to put a little rock in your shoe. So that maybe next time you turn on your favourite Spotify playlist or absentmindedly turn the radio on in your car, or while you’re walking down the aisles at Safeway and you hear a song you know arbitrarily, you’ll stop and think a little bit more about the words.

I’m writing about the song “I am not my hair” by India.Arie featuring Akon. If you’ve never heard this song, I would suggest you stop reading now, go listen to it, and then come back. 

The song opens with rapper Akon taking us back to a time in his younger life, trying to get girls and trying to land a job, but having problems with both because his hair is deemed unattractive for one and inappropriate for the other. What would you do it this situation? Style your hair so you can land the girl? Cut it all off so you can nail that job interview and impress the big guys in suits? Either way you’re sort of forced to compromise what you really want right? He says so himself at the end of this verse; he didn’t see success, until after he cut it all off anyways.

Then bops in India Arie. She she gives us a timeline of hairstyles in her life from a young age up until adulthood, dealing with harmful hairstyles, harsh chemicals, and dealing with hair loss. All of these are very common scenarios for young black women with tight afro hair. And along with that comes, shame, embarrassment, sometimes bullying, all in an effort to conform to an image that other people want you to be. 

Later on in the song, India asks a very important question: does the state of her hair actually matter? And that question can be extended to us, and even beyond hair. Does our appearance inherently change our value as human beings at all? I think the easy and obvious answer is no. But if we all believed that as a society, songs like this wouldn’t be written, right? 

There are people who look different from us, who behave differently from us, who speak differently from us, and we judge them. I think all of us are born with prejudice towards others not like us, whether we like it or not. 

The answer to this question is given in the song specifically in the chorus as India sings: 

I am not my hair

I am not this skin

I am not your expectations, no 

I am not my hair

I am not this skin

I am the soul that lives within

One of my favourite things about this song is that the answer is in you. 

It’s 2024. We all know racism exists, that’s not a secret. If you pay attention to the news, you will know that there are still children in the U.S. that have been suspended from school because they refuse to change their hair to meet the standards of the school dress code. Standards that are inherently racist. You may know that we’ve come very far since this song has been released. There are laws that have been enacted so that people with different hair textures can’t be refused jobs based on their hair. (For more information on this, I highly recommend you Google “the Crown Act”). 

This song is almost 20 years old, and its message is still incredibly accurate to today’s society. But I think this song is really trying to get across the message that it’s about self acceptance first. It’s about the soul that lives within. It’s not about placing the blame on the people that create the expectations, or even making them change their perspective. It’s about you accepting you for who you are, knowing where you’re worth comes from, and that your hair has nothing to do with that.

Chanté 

💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵Happy Valentine’s Day💙🩵💙🩵💙🩵

The Fresh Perspective...

So fresh and So clean!

Hi-hi to everyone that cares about our blog! I am back on! Full disclosure, I’m back in school and for some reason, that helps me focus on writing. My classes finish in April so here’s to hoping the posts continue past that! Ha! I make no promises…

As most of you know, new years bring on new goals, challenges and dreams. That’s the same for the shop as well! Since the pandemic, and the changing of our lives, much has shifted. Our goal to have an eco-friendly boutique was stymied by the pandemic and the new and strained shopping habits of absolutely eveyone. Now that we all seem to be back on track, the boutique is as well! We found some new items for all of you to try as well as some new gift ideas and joy bringing jems!

moisturizer? sunscreen? you use this stuff?

There will be a new skin care line we will be revealing next month for our birthday celebration. We have been on Academy Rd. for 14 years and are honoured to still be a part of this street and it’s surrounding community. Come check us out on the 23rd of February and celebrate 14 years with us!

-p

….aaaand if you wanna bring ME joy, like this, comment or share! 😉