Why I love my hairdresser. Why my hairdresser loves the Best of Croydon. And what you can learn from this.
By marketing copywriter, Jackie Barrie of Comms Plus
Twice, so-called comedians have picked on me for having a perm. It’s not a perm – I have naturally curly hair! I daren’t tell them that though, for fear of being picked on even more.
As a child, I dreamed of having straight, blonde hair like ‘Those were the days’ singer Mary Hopkins. Then the shaggy perm came in, and at last I was fashionable for a while. Some people paid good money for hair that looks like mine, and I had it for nothing! Now, we’re back to an age where hair that looks ironed is the norm.
Throughout my life, I’ve struggled to find a hairdresser that can make the best of my curls; most of them leave it looking like a frizzy mop. Then, one day, at my weekly dance class (at David Lloyd, Beckenham, formerly Amida), I saw a woman with hair just like mine but cut in beautiful spiralling waves that tumbled to her shoulders.
After class, I grabbed her and demanded where she got it cut.
She told me she worked for a hair magazine. “Oh no!” I thought, “It will be some horribly expensive London stylist.”
It wasn’t. She’d had it done by Sacha New at Wickham Studio in Shirley, only a few miles away.
Despite being in the industry, this woman had also had trouble finding a hairdresser who knew how to cut curly hair well, and told me Sacha had this unique way of twiddling a curl and cutting into it that really worked.
I phoned Sacha. She told me lots of curly-haired people go to her but she only takes new clients that are recommended by existing ones. Phew! That meant I got an appointment. She also told me she came up with that cutting technique “by commonsense”.
I’m so delighted with the results that I’ve gone back to Wickham Studio year after year, and recently wrote a review on Sacha’s The Best Of page.
At my latest appointment, she told me at least four new clients have found her thanks to the reviews.
As a marketing copywriter, I’m always telling my own clients about the power of word-of-mouth marketing. That is, what someone else says about you is more convincing than anything you say yourself. This story is proof that it works!
So if you sell products, you need reviews. If you sell services, you need testimonials. And if you sell yourself as an expert in whatever you do, you need recommendations (such as on your LinkedIn profile).
I’m happy to recommend Sacha to anyone (curly or not), and the Best Of to any local business that wants more clients. Just tell them Jackie Barrie sent you!
Despite being a curly girly, the picture below shows Sacha drying my hair in loose waves for a change.
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