The Importance of Mentors in Your Career

I was recently asked by the creator of the very successful, Facebook Hairdressing Forum "Hairdressing Advice, Tips & Education" for my "Best Tip" for their Hairdressing Holiday Daily Tip Advent Calendar.

The topic I chose was “The Importance of Having Good Mentors” as you journey through your career as a hairdresser…I truly believe that learning from mentors is the best way to learn any subject and save you years of waste of time and effort by trying to get this kind of information on your own.… It’s always easier to learn something from the people that have gone before you and are willing to share their journey with you.

CLICK HERE to go to the Facebook page where you can watch this short, five-minute video yourself, or if you prefer, you can read the full transcription of the video below… Have an awesome day. David

The Importance of Mentors in Your Career

Hi, my name is David Velasco. I've been a hairdresser for the past 50 years and for most of that time I've been a hairdressing instructor, and I presently have an Online Haircutting Course at VelascoHaircuttingSystem.com….But today I want to share with you a bit of advice that has helped me immensely throughout my entire career and that is the importance of finding mentors in your hairdressing journey.

A mentor to me is not just an educator. A mentor will be an educator but they're also someone that will take the time to take you under their wings and really show you the ropes. The best thing to do is to find mentors that are doing something that you want to be doing. For example, very early on in my career I wanted to be an excellent hair cutter, that was my big thing.

So, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to New York City and meet a couple that were very famous haircutters and haircutting instructors back in those days named John and Suzanne Chadwick. And I was fortunate enough to get a job with them basically as their assistant in the beginning and then as years progressed I became a member of their haircutting team and as part of the Chadwick haircutting team, we taught haircutting classes all around the world. And then I eventually became an Artistic Director with the Chadwick Hairdressing Team. And that was my first introduction into what a mentor can do for your life.

Quite a few years later I decided that I really wanted to learn how to do haircolor. So, I attended all the usual haircolor classes that were being offered back in those days, and I eventually found a lady named Dee Levin.

Dee Levin was an instructor for Clairol back in those days and she was also a platform artist for Clairol, but she also had a huge salon in Philadelphia where she specialized in nothing but haircolor. And I told her one day that I really would like to study with her and she invited me to come to her salon and spend a weekend with her and watch her work. And basically, that started a long, very long relationship with Dee where we actually worked together for many years. Once she taught me how to do color, we taught haircolor together to other hairdressers and eventually Dee and I ended up being partners in a salon as well.

Then again quite a few years down the road I ended up becoming the National Artistic Director for the Wella Corporation. I was doing some platform work for Wella back in those days and the CEO contacted me one day and asked me if I'd be interested in becoming the National Artistic Director for the company.

I met with him. I was honest with him. I said, look, I feel very confident in my hairdressing abilities, but I don't know anything about being a corporate guy, so to speak.

And his name was Mario Argenti, the CEO of Wella in those days. And Mario told me, I'll never forget, Mario says, don't worry Velasco, we'll teach you everything you need to know. And he did….And so, I consider Mario to be my mentor in understanding how the corporate world or the corporate side of the haircolor business worked.

When I decided to leave Wella because I wanted to get back behind the chair at a mainstream salon, once again, I was in New York City, and I met a guy named Michael Gordon. And Michael Gordon was the owner of the Bumble and Bumble Salon in NYC.

After a few conversations with Michael, and Michael had heard about me and of my work, he one day asked me if I would be interested in taking over his haircolor department and becoming the Director of Haircolor for Bumble and Bumble, which of course I did.

Michael Gordon, besides owning Bumble and Bumble, was also a fashion photographer. So, he taught me everything I needed to know about doing hair for photographic work, and how to deal with models and celebrities and all that kind of stuff.

And that's the kind of information that I'm talking about, because you can only get that kind of information or knowledge from a mentor, you could never do it on your own. There's no school to teach you that kind of stuff. But the four people that I just described to you, John and Suzanne Chadwick, who are my mentors in haircutting, Dee Levin, who was my main mentor for haircoloring, Mario Argenti, who was my mentor to understand the corporate world of the business we're in, and Michael Gordon to help me understand more of the fashion forward side of the business. All these people came together really, in my mind, to shape my career and my life really and I owe a lot to them.

That's the importance of having mentors in your life….So they're not just educators, they're true mentors who want to take you under their wing and show you the ropes and help you develop your own skills to do what you want to do.

So hopefully this little tip will help you along your journey and becoming an excellent hairdresser. And who knows, maybe someday you can become a mentor to someone else as well.

By the way, if you’re looking for a mentor to help you develop your haircutting skills, check out my haircutting course at VelascoHaircuttingSystem.com where I teach how to cut 56 different haircuts “Step-By-Step” and along the way you will learn a system that will allow you to do any haircut that you will ever want to cut for your entire career.

Cheers,

David