A bridal hairstylist (Marissa Brennan) narrates realizing over seven years that recurring client complaints — brides saying styles did not match inspiration photos and frequently choosing other stylists — stemmed from a hair-skill problem rather than pricing. She describes clear signs (no repeated inspiration photos from brides, clients not referencing her portfolio, detailed critique at trials), her inability to reproduce looks consistently, and a lack of deliberate practice or content creation (no mannequin practice, limited photography), which prevented developing a signature style.
If you saw this post and you thought to yourself, I'm at beginner 2.0 level, this is for you. Here's the signs. I had a hair skill issue, not a pricing problem, and it took me seven years to figure this out. Yeah, that's crazy. I would get a lot of complaints of brides in my chair saying, the style doesn't look like the inspiration photo. And it wasn't like, oh, I want to adjust this quick little thing, or can we adjust this? No, it was like them sending me an email of a 10 page paragraph, literally screenshotting and using the drawing tools saying, this piece doesn't look like that piece. And it was very detailed of them saying, hey, this doesn't look like the inspiration photo. But the worst part was I knew they were right. Brides would constantly be saying to me, oh, I'm waiting to hear back from another stylist and then I'll let you know. I was never seeing the same inspiration photos twice. I was constantly seeing different reference photos at the trials or for bridal parties. It was all across the board. Now, when it comes to bridal parties, you will typically see a lot of different inspiration photos, but when it comes to your brides, if you're not seeing the same ones over and over again, that is a clear sign that you do not have a signature style. And what ends up happening is she's going to decide that for you based off of what she actually wants. And if she's not showing you any work from your portfolio, pulling up photos from your Instagram, that's also another sign of a hair skull issue. I was never able to recreate the same look twice and this was something I didn't want to believe. But brides would come in for their trials, I would do a look and then I would try to recreate it on the wedding day and it did not come out the same. Same. The only time I was practicing my hair skill was when I was actually working a wedding. I was never pulling out my mannequin on weekends. I was never practicing my hair photography, my photo taking skills, content creation. The only time I took content was when I was actually working a wedding. So I didn't get to build this muscle and get my reps in.
