How one Hairdresser ensures his team are able to make the cut.
Artistic Director at Blush + Blow, Gianmarco Rinna makes all new Hairdressers cut a ladies hair blindfolded, before allowing them to cut hair on the salon floor.
Rinna from Rome has very high standards of Hairdressing. After delivering intensive training in Styling and Colouring for all of his Hair Team members, the final test is that they must cut their clients’ hair whilst blindfolded and do a good job.He explains: ‘Once they know they can do a great job blindfolded then cutting without a blindfold is easy and they do it with great confidence.’
The staff at the Luxury Salon on the New Kings Road in Parsons Green were apprehensive when Gianmarco first asked them to cut ladies hair without using their eyesight. But he leads by example, Gianmarco cut his first client both blindfolded and with one arm tied behind his back just to prove his point to his team that it could be done. ‘One armed is difficult and slower but that is the point of doing it. To do something difficult is to grow.’
Julie his client who allowed this to happen to her said, ‘I’ve been coming to Gianmarco for my hair for years and I trust him completely. If he says he can do it, then he can do it.’
Rinna explains, ‘If you can play the piano well then you can also play it in the dark. It is the same with Hairdressing.’
I asked him if he ever had any staff members do a bad job when blindfolded?
‘Never, the training really works. Rozina has even done her blindfolded haircut whilst standing on one foot’. I was still very proud of her.’
Salon Owner Bridget Hannon says, ‘If you come and visit Blush + Blow you are unlikely to see any blindfolded, unless we are finishing the induction training for a new starter.’
‘The last staff member to do their training said during their blindfold test; ‘I don’t see the point’. That made me laugh.
If you want to see the team at Blush + Blow cutting their clients’ hair blindfolded then simply phone them and ask when their next member of staff is starting and you can go in and watch their blindfold test from the waiting area in the salon. It’s quite a sight to see. Or not as the case may be!
