Salon Takeover
I've been watching Tabatha's Salon Takeover on Bravo. When I saw the trailers I cringed; her appearance alone made me dislike her. She just looked mean, and the clips showed a woman with a sharp tongue. But I decided to give it a chance.
As expected, I did cringe when I watched, but not because of the reason I expected. It was the clients, not Tabitha, that make some of the episodes painful. In one situation the owners were too controlling, with stacks of books, procedures and scripts for everything such that when a situation arises that isn't covered by the manuals the hairstylists freeze, worried they'll say or do something wrong. In another episode the owner was a boy in a man's body, spending cash he doesn't have on his condo and cars and clothes while his business bleeds money. In yet another, the owner, a former real estate agent, arrives late, takes naps in the back room, told the renowned director of a hairstyling school she made a mistake and not him, and is disrespected by his workers. In a more recent example, the “business partner” invested no money in the salon yet take home all his earnings, averaging about $8000 a month, while his “partner”, a non stylist, takes home $2000 a month for her wage and is depleting her savings to cover the rest of her expenses, yet he sees no problem with not paying back his half of the investment until he makes “a lot of extra money” because “he has expenses too”. Multiple salons had floors unswept, hair in the drains, color splattered on counters, brushes uncleaned, etc. As a result, I found myself cheering for Tabitha multiple times; the owners and staff deserved every harsh word.
A problem on more than one episode was that the owners were not hairstylists themselves thus had no passion or even interest in hairstyling, yet for some reason they’d thought opening a salon with no knowledge of or experience in the business was a good idea. Perhaps they saw the glamor, sparkle and high prices of a good salon and thought it easy money. It's akin to the ads I read by people seeking a comic or children’s book artist. They see the blockbuster movies and the big conventions and they think it's a fast and simple road to success yet have no real writing experience or examples, no drawing ability, and don’t even bother to research the industry. Whatever you want to do, it makes sense to me that, especially if you plan to invest a significant amount of time and money in it, you learn as much as you can about it. But common sense, in reality, is not universal.
As expected, I did cringe when I watched, but not because of the reason I expected. It was the clients, not Tabitha, that make some of the episodes painful. In one situation the owners were too controlling, with stacks of books, procedures and scripts for everything such that when a situation arises that isn't covered by the manuals the hairstylists freeze, worried they'll say or do something wrong. In another episode the owner was a boy in a man's body, spending cash he doesn't have on his condo and cars and clothes while his business bleeds money. In yet another, the owner, a former real estate agent, arrives late, takes naps in the back room, told the renowned director of a hairstyling school she made a mistake and not him, and is disrespected by his workers. In a more recent example, the “business partner” invested no money in the salon yet take home all his earnings, averaging about $8000 a month, while his “partner”, a non stylist, takes home $2000 a month for her wage and is depleting her savings to cover the rest of her expenses, yet he sees no problem with not paying back his half of the investment until he makes “a lot of extra money” because “he has expenses too”. Multiple salons had floors unswept, hair in the drains, color splattered on counters, brushes uncleaned, etc. As a result, I found myself cheering for Tabitha multiple times; the owners and staff deserved every harsh word.
A problem on more than one episode was that the owners were not hairstylists themselves thus had no passion or even interest in hairstyling, yet for some reason they’d thought opening a salon with no knowledge of or experience in the business was a good idea. Perhaps they saw the glamor, sparkle and high prices of a good salon and thought it easy money. It's akin to the ads I read by people seeking a comic or children’s book artist. They see the blockbuster movies and the big conventions and they think it's a fast and simple road to success yet have no real writing experience or examples, no drawing ability, and don’t even bother to research the industry. Whatever you want to do, it makes sense to me that, especially if you plan to invest a significant amount of time and money in it, you learn as much as you can about it. But common sense, in reality, is not universal.