How to Bring Halloween Excitement to Your Salon
Photo source: Flickr user William Warby
Let's set the scene. It's Saturday night, Halloween, and Angela just walked into a living room packed wall to wall with store-bought “sexy” witch costumes and men wearing clip-on braided pony tails in a vain attempt to look like Doth'raki. Angela's robe-clad best friend sees her walk in, tilts her cardboard witch hat, and saunters over.
“Oh my God, Angela. Your costume looks amazing!”
“Thanks! It's 2012 Vampire Lady Gaga.”
“I thought so. Did you do all that yourself?”
“Of course not, dummy. A hired a team of professionals over at the Sweet Styles Salon.”
“That's incredible! I'm definitely going there to spend all the money I have.”
End scene.
Drink in the possibilities, stylists. It's 2015 and people go bonkers over a well done costume. Some people think about it the whole year through. They order robes and dresses and pieces of armor, match themes with other people, and always compare how well they pulled it off to others. It's time you got in on that competition. Costume fanatics will flock to stylists/makeup artists who know how to put that crowning piece together, because getting the face and hair right takes a lot more than finding the right costume shop. It takes skill. And when they venture out into the crowded streets with their polished faces and grand hair, you can bet people will ask where they got it done.
Time is running short right now, so here are a few ideas to get your brain moving.
Show Your Halloween Hair Skills
Before anyone will trust you with those platinum hair extensions for a Kahleesi hairdo, they'll need to know you can use them. If you've styled Halloween costumes before you better be posting and re-posting those pictures. If not, that's okay. You just need to show people you're good with what they need. Here are a few different styling services that will be useful for most costumes:
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Hair extensions
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Curling
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Hair color (probably temporary)
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Pixie cuts
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Updos
There are a few other, more specific techniques like pixelated hair that would be good to have under your belt. Just make sure potential clients know you have your techniques down, and you can pull off some pretty spectacular stuff if they'll let you.
Costume Contest
If someone is already going through this much effort for a good costume it means they want everyone to see, and you do too. Here are two ways to take advantage of that.
In house Competition:
Take a picture of all your costumed clients and post them online (Facebook or Instagram would probably work best). The most popular picture wins a sample basket of products. This is a nice, clean way to boost the activity on your social media with people who already follow you.
Out of house competition:
Ask clients to take pictures of their get up wherever they go and tag you in them. It would help to create a unique hashtag for this like “#sweetstyleshairoween” to keep everything clear. The best one gets the prize. This is a great way to draw more outside attention through your client's social network.
Hair-o-ween Fun Time
Halloween is a great time to market your salon and get people in for extra services. But it's also a great time to flex your mighty styling muscles. Halloween is one of the few times a year you might get to break the same old trim, ombre, and balayage appointment pattern and color and cut to the extreme. There are only so many times it will be appropriate for everyone to don red eyes, fangs, and black hair extensions down to their knees... Unless Comicon is coming up, but that's a topic for a another time. So get your hair clips and colors into the Halloween spirit, and have fun.