Hairlucinations are delighted to be featured in the Liverpool Echo’s “Day in the Life” series.
Staying at the cutting edge of hair and beauty trends; Lyndsey Helm is salon manager of Hairlucinations in Bootle. This is her day…
8.30am: Arrive at the salon in Bootle Strand Shopping Centre. I spend this time in the office every morning. I check my emails from the previous evening and get back to booking enquiries, meeting requests and organise the managing director Barry Cochrane’s diary.
9.30am: I have a meeting with the guys from Matrix, our hair care provider of choice. We have had a great working relationship with their team for 15 years. The meeting is to discuss a new exclusive Oil Wonders, their most complete oil-care range using the latest micro oil technology. We are adding this to our Biolage and Total Results range. We are the largest Primer Matrix Salon stockists on Merseyside. 11am: Nip next door to us on the ground floor of the shopping centre to the Centre Management Offices. Meet with the marketing manager of the centre, Lucy Kirk, to discuss up-and-coming events. There is a lot of buzz around the Strand at present as it is undergoing a major facelift, re-brand and development this year with a lot of new investment. This has resulted in more incentre event opportunities for us, and we discuss some of the summer period events we can get involved in.
12.30pm: Meeting with our PR agency and web designer to keep each other up-todate with developments, and today we are discussing the company’s marketing. We, as a business, have been around more than 40 years now and this year is a big year for us. We have some exciting new products in development that will be rolled out this year.
2pm: Grab a quick bite to eat and catch up on some more emails. Great news! We have been asked to do the hair for another up-and-coming high profile fashion show. I have been working with our guys on a small ‘ready to go’ team for such events.
2.30pm: Financial meeting with Barry to go over all our weekly and monthly figures with reports on stats. We monitor all our trade both off and online. The salon advance computer system automates marketing, text appointment confirmation, on-line bookings and more. Coming soon is our new mobile phone app, following clients to control booking with latest offers and promotions. Digital media and online booking are very popular as enquiries can come through at any time of the day.
4pm: My favourite part of my job, spending time with customers on the shop floor. We have such a wide range of customers, from eight-yearolds to 80-year-olds; from young girls getting their hair done for prom nights to customers coming in for a complete new style with one of our creative directors. We also have a separate men’s barber shop in the salon and the atmosphere at this time of day is always amazing.
5pm: Last meeting of the day. Briefing our senior creative director and floor manager, Angela Kayes, on a Matrix creative session with Jamie Stevens the international ambassador for Matrix. Jamie is the resident hairdresser for shows like ITV This Morning and the X Factor, so this is another amazing opportunity for one of our team as only a small number in the industry are asked to attend these sessions per year.
6pm: Off to a networking event in Colin’s Bridewell in Liverpool city centre with one of the city’s hair and beauty magazines. These events are a great way for me to help develop the business externally, with some great contacts to be made when out at such events. It’s also good to see what is happening in the city centre, as our industry is so fast-moving.
7.30pm: Home, and get to spend some quality time with my husband and our young twins.
