Hi everyone, remember me?! So it turns out lockdown hasn’t been quite as productive as initially planned-I haven’t learnt a new language, I won’t be returning to the salon with a washboard stomach and I haven’t mastered the art of banana loaf baking. (But my attempts have helped contribute to the lack of a six pack!) So at least I can now tick off that I’ve returned to the Black Sheep Blog! It’s been forever since my last one and my recent Instagram story poll showed a huge amount that had no idea we even had a blog so hopefully some of you reading have just joined!
Well what a bloody strange time these past few weeks have been! Has anyone else been on an absolute rollercoaster ride of emotions?! There’s been times where my get-up-and-go attitude has got up and gone out of the window, where my skin has been horrendous and I’ve worn nothing but jogging bottoms whilst silently celebrating that I’ve managed to go a whole week without washing my hair and other times where I’ve bulk bought skin care (all these Instagram beauty lives are destroying my bank account!) and I’ve felt like a goddess for side swiping the wine and opting for a fruit salad for lunch.
I’ve been completely overwhelmed by the amount of you reaching out and checking in and I’m reminded daily why I love my job-because well really, is isn’t ‘just’ a job for me! As many of you know, I live on my own so with the combination of no garden, an apartment the size of a shoebox and no contact with the outside world, I made the decision to self isolate for two weeks to enable me to move back home to the countryside with family. Which now means I’m going to have to get used to being an adult all over again when this is over! (I jest….I promise we’ve all pulled together and mucked in!)
Lockdown hasn’t been totally unproductive for me though. I’ve been on mammoth bike rides, attempted to learn yoga, watched hours of Disney+, started a vegetable garden, gotten through an impressive number of books, painted walls, painted fences and even taken to playing darts. But nestled in amongst binge watching the Tiger King and all the Zoom catch ups I’ve also spent hours collating waiting lists, checking the salon colour and product stock and squeezing in online education so it’s fair to say I am ready and waiting for you all….we just need the nod from Boris now!
Our waiting list is pretty impressive and the general feeling is that when salons do finally open again, (because I honestly think it’s going to be a little longer yet) we probably won’t be running at full capacity for some time which has meant I’ve spent many of the early hours wondering how on Earth we’re going to get you all back in and whether there’s space for a blow up bed in the back room for me!
You’ve more than likely seen our posts over on our social media’s explaining the plan for rescheduling. If you haven’t, there’s a few lists. The initial list has been compiled of all appointments cancelled during this time period so to keep things as fair as possible, everyone on this list will be contacted in the order of their original cancelled appointment, followed by the second list of our clients that didn’t have an appointment booked but will need one by lockdown end and then we’ll start working our way through the ‘new client’ list.
That being said, I’ve worked out that in the likely event of a one-in-one-out policy (per stylist) my own ‘cancelled appointments’ list, to date, will still take me almost 9 weeks to catch up and that’s including extra working hours and only factoring in one appointment per person on the list through that time frame. So basically, please please bare with us when we do get back. I promise you that myself and the team will work as hard as possible to get you all back in as soon as possible but it may mean that the time frame between appointments may initially be a little more spaced out than your usual routine with us. But at least lockdown has got you used to longer roots! 💁🏼♀️
On the subject of roots, I’m holding out hope that you’re all embracing them. I’ve loved seeing regular root update photos-mainly because it means I won’t be correcting too many DIY disaster jobs! As I’ve mentioned in a few posts, there’s some really great temporary solutions out there if it gets too much-L’Oréal does a great root touch up spray and I’d highly recommend the Wow root powder. Failing that, a headband hides a multitude of sins. And my blondies have always got their Insight Anti-Yellow shampoo or the customised Infuse My.Colour pigmented shampoo will help brighten faded tones.
As a side note, I’ve finally gotten brave enough to post a tutorial to Instagram so if you want to learn the Black Sheep Hair Company wave technique, you’ll find the video over on our main grid and also on our IGTV feed. And if you’re brave enough to give the males of your life a little trim and play at being Vidal Sassoon for the afternoon, then I have a tutorial for cutting men’s hair too. This isn’t up on any of my main feeds so I’ve been sending it directly to clients but if (more likely when) the lockdown is extended on Sunday, I’ll be adding it to a story highlight over on Instagram for anyone who has visited us before. If you’d like to be added to the ‘close friends’ story list then please feel free to send me a little message or else I can send it over directly to you. If you have any requests for any other tutorials you’d find helpful then let me know and I’ll see what I can do.
You might have also noticed we’ve taken this time to jazz ourselves up so our updated logo and fancy new social media content is down to the fantastically talented Riah over at Voeux Illustrations. We can’t wait to receive our beautiful new price lists that she’s designed too! (Thanks again Riah!!)
Well I think that’s everything covered for lockdown. Fingers crossed we see you all very soon but in the meantime, stay safe, stay sane and stay away from those bloody box dyes!!! 😉
Thanks for reading
Chloe x
