Job Hunting and Client Frustration

Summer break is over and after a week of studying and YouTubing myself silly, I am focused and ready to knock these last few weeks out. I have four weeks and six pedicures left, so my plan is to complete two pedicures a week during the next three weeks. That way I won’t have to scramble the last week of school for procedures and delay my graduation.

So far I’m off to a great start. I’ve already completed three pedicures and one final. Woo hoo! It looks like the final road to graduation won’t be stressful after all. Well not too stressful. I had a difficult client who was refusing to be happy. My client came in and wanted a full set. No problem; I can do that. Before I began applying the tips I started to push back and remove the dead tissue on her nails. She’d never had that done before and didn’t want me to do that because “they don’t do that at the nail shop”. I explained that removing the debris on the nails will keep the product from lifting. After several minutes of explaining this I was able to continue her service.

Moving on from the cuticles, I began to apply the tips and the acrylic. Then it happened — she was now upset because I don’t e-file. I’ve been practicing my acrylic forever, and since I hand-file that forces me to lay my acrylic properly so I won’t have to file that much, but she was hearing none of that. I explained (again) that every tech chooses whether she would like to e-file or hand-file and I choose to hand-file. That wasn’t good enough; she wanted the “drill” even though she didn’t need it. The instructor came over and helped explain things and she unhappily accepted that there would be no e-filing. I even got her to grudgingly agree to take a photo so I could show you.

I’m going to be honest; I was annoyed, but surprisingly not with her. I was annoyed that the only experiences she had to compare to were salons where corners were/are being cut. What do you do when you are doing things properly and there are clients who think you’re wrong? What is really going on when clients come to expect discomfort and think you’re not doing your job if they don’t feel a bit of pain? Some of the clients at the school will ask us about our procedures and I have no problem explaining the application process to them so they know what’s going on. One client came to the school and mentioned how a salon became defensive when she asked about their sanitation process. I told her if they get upset when you ask, then that’s not somewhere you should go. As a matter of fact, that isn’t someplace I’d want to work.

This leads me to the job hunt. My husband’s job was planning to transfer him to a nearby city, so I found a job there. However we found out a few weeks ago that they decided to keep him here. So now I’m back to square one. No worries, in the time since finding that out I’ve been able to add a few more photos to my portfolio and it gives me a reason to go out and really learn the city. I freaked out a little when I first found out, but I’m staying positive. I don’t want to work anywhere just for the sake of having a job, I’ve already been there and done that and it’s not fun at all. I know I’ll find something awesome; I just have to keep looking.

— Starr