In my last update, I was hoping for more haircuts. Immediately, the universe provided. The weather's been spotty in Chicago, and with it, the ability of customers to get out and about, I've averaged serving four clients a day. That's up from two cuts a day for the two weeks prior.
I did my first kid's haircut. His dad brings him and his brother in almost every week and they are particular about their fades. While most of the high school barbering students, attending in the afternoon, have been cutting hair far longer than I have, if you come in the morning I'm one of the more seasoned barbers in the shop now that I'm six months into this journey. So when they had to get looking right for a family wedding last weekend, the kids fought over who got to sit in my chair. I loved having the opportunity to take care of my guy. He presented me with all new challenges, in terms of sudden movements, body shifts, wanting to have conversation with me.
I feel like I've developed a comfort with women's cuts and styling, long and short. My mom needed a trim, which evolved into a graduated cut. I three clients in the shop the last few weeks with alopecia. I remember feeling quite good about one such client who walked in with her wig on, but walked out with her fresh haircut. Not quite, but almost half my clients the last two weeks were women.
Logan wanted to turn her purple and pink hair green and orange, so I helped apply neon yellow dye after work earlier this last week. In the last two weeks I passed both my haircutting and my hairstyling exams; I'm not even on hair coloring for a bit yet but I'm all in on opportunities to grow.
a few days later, the orange is even more 80s Body Glove electric orange
Prior to Logan, I had one male client who got a beard trim, a taper cut with a freestyle clean-up of his hair with clippers and shears and color for the grays up top. From that experience I sub-sectioned Logan's hair with the end of the dye brush to make sure the color spread evenly from the roots on. It's all a process.
Adulting-wise, it's been a good but tough two weeks. Boo and I saw LCD Soundsytem last week and that show made me a fan. They played four nights at the Aragon Ballroom. We saw night 2. I haven't danced that much in a minute.
James Murphy, with LCD Soundsystem, doing "New Body Rhumba"
The family got together for Sunday dinner to celebrate Mom's birthday. Norrin started working at the fish market around the corner and decided on Northeastern Illinois University for college next year. Great stuff happening.
Last post I predicted I'd have online booking by the end of March and that's looking a lot more like reality as I'm already testing out some approaches. I'll write some detail on the business idea/business model very very soon.
Keep Doing
I'm beginning to recognize that some degree of what "ships" a great haircut is my own confidence and care for the craft. To that degree I think the last two weeks has demonstrated visible growth in my skills and confidence in them. I had a few clients in the chair who were doubtful in my abilities to tend to their specific needs but I kept chill, kept with it, and surprised each of them with (at the very least) a haircut that came out much better than they anticipated. That kinda surprise and delight fuels me. I have most of the skills, however raw they are. Now I need to trust the process.
Less Of
I'm getting a good bit of inflammation in my knees and ankles. The weather is NOT helping but neither are my snacking habits, which kind went out of control this last week as I got deep in the zone after school between figuring out a mobile barbering business model and a new season of Diablo IV. If I want to get a handle on aches and pains, I need to really cut back on snacks after dinner.
More Of
I did a better job this last sprint of making it into the gym and increasing the intensity of my workouts by starting to incorporate intervals and boxing activities. Nothing grounds me like hitting the bags. I need to do more of this.
Stop Doing
Along with the late snacking, I've been staying up later this last week because I'm mentally wired from new brain activity between both increasing barbering and a very fun new season of Diablo. Overstimulation can be fun to self-inflict but not when it's the fourth morning in a row of recovering from it. I need to get to sleep at a more reasonable time and turn off the screens.
Start Doing
Before I formally launch a mobile barbering business, I should really get a handle on budgeting and making a habit of checking and reconciling the finances so I can grow this business smarter than previous enterprises.
