The importance of a good 'Hairlationship'

Some artists have canvases while others have hair—the big difference is the canvas doesn’t need to trust you to perform well and if you aren’t happy you can just toss it. While styling hair, scrapping and starting over isn’t really an option for other people.

But we trust out stylists immensely, something stylist Alice Addams refers to as ‘hairlationships.’ It’s a bond between a stylist and their clients that is hard to describe.

“I love people,” Alice said was the genesis of everything. “I actually wanted to go into social work, believe it or not.”

It’s hard not to be aesthetically taken by her appearance, at first sight, clad in bold and unconventional style, her kind smile and excited expression are more than welcoming, however. It’s impossible to miss the joy she has in meeting new people and building those hairlationships.

But it all has to start someplace, and for Alice, it started when she was a Disney princess—at least in spirit.

“As a girl growing up it was all about Disney princesses,” she said. “And then I saw a Tim Burton film and that was The Nightmare Before Christmas and that movie blew my mind. It was the first thing I had really seen that was so quirky and crazy, and it was about an individual who was searching for something more. I think that helped shape me into somebody that would a little more unique and wasn’t a Disney princess.”

It became such a turning point for her in life, it became a physical part of who she is, earning one of the first big tattoos—a half sleeve dedicated to the unorthodox Christmas movie.  

More than that, colours had always been important for her growing up. From oil paintings long ago to playing with hair colours on her head in high school, Alice’s creative gears turned, searching for an outlet, but it would still be some time before she found her calling.

For the time being she knew she wanted to help people, so she set her path to becoming a social worker.

“I thought I could help people this way—feel better,” she said. “But very early I realized I was way too sensitive and empathetic for a job that can really be heartbreaking.”

It was about two classes in she knew it wasn’t for her, but sometimes things work out pretty quickly. Within what seemed like a few days to her after leaving the program, Alice was getting her hair done and thought: ‘wow, I feel confident, amazing, and like nothing in the world could bring me down that day, I felt great.’ It was then a spark went off inside her.

“I wanted to make others feel that,” she said happily. “I feel like with hair I can fulfill the aspects I was looking for in social work, I create art that inspires people to be confident and great about themselves. What more could you ask for?”

So from there, she looked into how she could make her life as a hairstylist a reality.

“I first booked an appointment, ironically in the Modern College of Hairstyling & Esthetics North Bay, and I traveled here because I didn’t know the Sudbury one,” Alice said. “So I had the tour, fell in love, the teachers and everybody were awesome.”

But during her signup process, she was notified she could attend the Sudbury College for convenience, so she went back home and started up within the next six months—their next start date.

While attending school part-time, Alice also started working at a salon in downtown Sudbury to accumulate her apprenticeship hours quickly, but it was a challenge.

“I was really thankful to start working at the salon,” she said. “My first day on, I was given a bowl of colour and a brush and was told to apply it to a client’s roots in under 20 minutes. They were hard but I’m very thankful for that.”

And so her journey began, for the next three years, she would complete her program and apprenticeship hours, finally getting licensed in 2012. Afterward, Alice continued working, building her portfolio, clients, and reputation to a point that caught the eyes of a North Bay business.

“Polly Hatter, at DeLuxe Tattoo Social Club, found my Instagram page and got in touch with me in 2014 asking what he had to do to get me to work here, in North Bay,” she said. “But I was building a rather solid client base and the idea of leaving that behind is really scary to me, so I just wasn’t ready.”

But sometimes fate takes over and we do what we can. For Alice, that meant that she was once again pulled back to North Bay, this time by meeting a nice guy from a local band at a concert in Sudbury (the two now engaged, but that’s for another none-news feature kind of story).

Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but in the world of hairstyling, the relationships, client, and reputation built over time is an incredibly difficult and daunting task. As a stylist, it’s your livelihood, your craft, your life.

For Alice, it meant coming to a new city, with new people, at a new salon.

It was hard.

Really, really hard.

So she did the only real sensible thing: take a super duper deep breath and plunge into the water (metaphorically speaking).

“Back in 2014 when I was nervous about moving here and losing that client base, it never went away,” Alice explained, saying how she had built an even stronger client base since that first call from Polly and her decision to actually move. “It was difficult to say goodbye because these are people that were in my chair every four weeks, and some do still travel to see me. There are a handful of people who still make the trip every month and I’m just so grateful.”

But the move had to happen.

“I left my job, all my clients, everything that was my normal life—I left it all behind and came here,” she said. “I didn’t know anyone other than my boyfriend and when I started here I was nervous. There were weeks where I’d sit around and make no money and it was hard. And I think that’s normal; when you come to a new city there is a hair salon on every corner. Typically in a small town people have been seeing the same hairstylist their whole lives and its routine now to try and convince people to try something new was a challenge at first.”

So she rolled up her sleeves and got to work building her foundation. Alice bought a new light and phone (for a better camera) and would get photos of clients where she could, building that online presence again, sharing on Instagram and Facebook.

It started picking up, she began branding herself, building up that reputation and a year later, so much had changed.

“You can’t sit around and expect everything to happen on its own,” she said. “You have to be a go-getter. It was a lot of hard work; I’d stay at the salon from 10 a.m. to midnight sometimes taking anybody no matter the time. It was hard at first but it’s really paid off.”

Alice said she couldn’t be happier, having built strong relationships—or ‘hairlationships’—with a local client base.

“I call it a hairlationship, when they’re really comfortable with you,” she said with a big smile. “You hear about their dog, their child, their partner, everything. And if something is going on in their personal life they know you’re up to speed so they’re very honest with what’s going on. We aren’t therapists or social workers in that we can give advice for what’s going on, but we’re a great listening ear, you hear all kinds of stories.”

Well established now, a year after moving into town, Alice has her sights set on building up her collection of photos with models, building a portfolio that isn’t with a cellphone. But for now, she can’t keep a smile from her face each morning looking forward to her favourite part of hairstyling.

“I’m excited to see my friends and by that I mean all the people that come in every few weeks, sharing their lives,” she said. “I love people and I really love my hairlationships with people. This is the best decision I’ve made in my life, I feel so happy and fulfilled.”