Susan Hayward - Colouring Inside The Lines
Susan Hayward’s earthy agenda puts clients first!
Salon Magazine – Oct. 2005 by Kim Hughes
Toronto colourist Susan Hayward has what your mom would praise as a practical perspective, a kind of sensible-shoes approach to her craft and her career. In a business fueled as much by competition as caffeine, Hayward’s earthy attitude is at once refreshing and worth stealing.
Consider some of her views, conveyed over early morning coffee at Taz Hair Co., where the disarmingly affable colourist is spinning magic on a co-worker before the doors open for business. Though she admits winning awards is very nice- she scored both the 2005 Contessa for Canadian Makeover Colourist and NAHA title for Hair Colour- Hayward says she’d gladly trade both for the simple joy of showing up for work every day with a slate of clients booked.
While she acknowledges that colour for men is the last frontier, she also correctly points out that it wasn’t long ago that women also felt stigmatized by beauty enhancements, insisting to friends that trips to the salon were more about conditioning than combating grey.
Ask her about ambitions for world domination and Hayward smiles politely, insisting that a chair full of happy clients and evenings spent listening to music and reading historical non-fiction or horror novels alongside her husband and cat beat the rat race any day.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that the 31-year-old Hayward, who has been professional for 11 years and almost dropped out of hair school when cutting (which she hates) was the key item on the curriculum, says the most important thing a colourist can do for clients is to listen to them. Ongoing professional development through education isn’t a bad strategy either.
“I was very lucky in that at the first salon I ever worked at (the former Tresses Hair Salon in Etobicoke), education was really important. It was one of those situations where the salon owners said, ‘Ok, if you’re going to work for us, you have to go to the trade shows, and when you come back we don’t want to see shopping bags. We want you to tell us what you learned.’ I’ve kept that up my whole career.”
These days, Hayward helps spread the gospel as an ambassador technical consultant for L’Oreal Professionnel while attending hair shows across Canada. Though she has done some editorial work, Hayward says the fact that she doesn’t do any styling limits her opportunities. Not that she cares: she loves where she works and what she does.
“Growing up, I never would have believed I’d be working in a Yorkville salon,” she says of the chich district where Taz is located. “But I never thought Yorkville would be like this.
“When I was in hairdressing school, I was told that I could make a career out of only doing colour but that I might have a hard time finding a job,” she laughs. “Well, I’ve never had a hard time finding a job. Maybe I would if I lived in a smaller community but so far, so good.
“The thing about doing colour is, ther’es lots of room for imagination, but I like the fact that fundamentally, there is a core set of rules. And I’ve seen lots of innovations. The chemical compositions have become gentler over the years, and the conditioning aspects are better. It’s easier to customize colours for your clients, and it seems as though people in salons are speaking the same language. Things are much more organized now.”
