How This Bald Guy Helped Rebrand a Hair Salon
We just launched a rebrand for the amazing Coloroom Hair Salons in Loveland and Fort Collins, Colorado. You should check it out at www.coloroomhair.com.
I’m not sure when a person officially goes from “balding” to “bald,” but I know that for me, emotionally, it was the day I realized at age 21 that I could either accept reality or continue to apply Kirkland-brand Rogaine twice daily for the rest of my life.
Nowadays I buzz what little is left of my hair myself, and while it’s definitely not awful being bald, I do recognize that it can feel really good to get a great new haircut. Thankfully, wigs exist.
This picture is from our friends’ wedding, where the dance-floor portion was a wigs-only affair. I wore the wig that Kelly had previously used for her Lindsay Bluth Fünke Halloween costume (that year I utilized my bald head to go as Tobias):
With the wig I felt like Thor, like a Hemsworth brother, but there was even another level to get to because in the corner of the dance floor, one of the grooms’ uncles, a hairstylist, was styling people’s wigs with hairspray and a brush. I watched person after person go to him before I timidly walked up and asked someone to do my hair for the first time in my life.
He teased and feathered the wig until I felt like Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who people actually called “The Golden God” because of how he looked, and I just could not stop flipping my hair back and forth to enjoy it. I mean, look at this smile:
Between that experience and the years I spent working to support hairstylists as part of Associated Hair Professionals, I have a very deep respect for the craft of cosmetology that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from my lack of locks. For me, it’s a combination of recognizing the hard work and complex combination of people skills, geometry, chemistry, and commitment that go into being a professional hairstylist who can connect with their clients and create feelings of confidence, change, and freedom.
In working with Stefani, Coloroom’s amazing, impressive master stylist and owner, we talked a lot about how her team of exceptionally talented, exceptionally caring hairstylists create a salon experience that helps clients leave feeling different than when they arrived, and how we could bring those IRL feelings to the vibe of the website via visuals, design, organization, communication, and copywriting.
One of my favorite places on the site to see this is on the “Our Team” page. Choosing a stylist is important because the relationship with one’s stylist is very important—case in point, lots and lots of people say they love their hairstylist, but I’ve heard way fewer say they love their dentist—and so we decided it was very important to show who the stylists were as people in addition to describing their expertise as hairstylists.
To do this we ran a personal branding workshop with the team to help them get in touch with what makes them unique, and how that might appeal to their most perfect clients. I was very proud and impressed to see the personal brand pillars they developed as a result, and I bet you could pick your preferred hairstylist just from these if you had to:
Dream Builder, Grounding️, Bold Soul
Committed to the 4 Agreements, Lover of Deep Conversations, World Traveler
Storyteller, Genuine, Personable
Creative, Hobby Enthusiast, Adventurous Mama
Empathetic, Passionate, Resilient
Bookworm, Dog Obsessed, Video Game Lover
Joyous, Bookworm, Tenacious
Every brand we work with (and every Personal Style Soul Search we do) provides at least three of these “pillars” that combine to describe the unique person or business in a way that makes ongoing decision-making easier.
I can do this for hairstylists even though I’m bald, and personal style even though I wear t-shirts from 1997, and just about anything else because my personal brand pillars are curious, enthusiastic, empathetic.
And I can also do this because I have a creative genius as a partner, and because we work with interesting experts like Stefani and her team who shine in their own special ways that are easy to appreciate whether I have any hair for them to cut or not!
Do you know what your personal or business brand pillars are? We can definitely help you find them! jed@kindandfunny.com.