Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Allison Webber. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Allison, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

I try very hard to offer a community based environment within my salon and education I offer. I feel that this industry has a lot of competition and ends up very harmful at times. I love the ability to share my experiences, the good and the bad, to help other stylists, new or experienced. I love to create a community at my classes, which is why I keep them on the smaller side.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into the industry at 17 years old. I always knew I wanted to be a hairstylist, but of course back then the thing was to go to college. I graduated high school early, tried college, and immediately came home to go to cosmetology school. Now, 11 years later, I am a blonding and vivid specialist with my own salon suite and offer independent education for vivid artists, and potentially expanding into blonding and social media education. I love going to work and making connections with my clients. I love being able to create something they love, especially when it comes to vivids. Knowing how much my clients trust me is truly an amazing feeling. I am very proud of how far I’ve come, especially in the last year. I made a scary decision to leave my previous salon after 7 years behind the chair and offering education and open up my own suite. I’ve since been able to expand my education offering in salon education for my assistant and offering independent classes for other stylists from all over. I enjoy meeting other stylists and being able to share any knowledge I can to help them better themselves in the industry. I also have been able to connect with Danger Jones, a brand that is so supportive of independent educators and the community of stylists working with them.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

It was a huge goal of mine to have a presence on social media for pretty much my entire career. It is one of those things that I think a lot of people crave for many reasons- mine was that I felt I couldn’t be taken seriously as an educator or stylist without it. While that isn’t necessarily true, it really kicked me into gear trying to boost myself up on social media. Over the last year was really the first time I truly took it seriously. The biggest way to grow on social media is posting consistently. It doesn’t really matter if it’s twice a day or twice a week- stay consistent and work hard on your content showing you as a person, not just you as a stylist. Reels on Instagram and TikToks are the best way to get your foot in the door. Using hooks and posting with trending sounds will start to spread your content among the algorithm and throughout Instagram. I focus more on Instagram for my industry, although there is some on TikTok that I post. I always say you have 30 hashtags to use on Instagram- USE THEM ALL. Use some local, some broad. Focus on who you want your audience to be and write to them and use hashtags they may track.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For hairstylists, social media is the best way to grow your clientele. Sure, word of mouth still works, but most of the younger generations use Instagram (and now TikTok) to search for their new stylist. I do still take new clients from time to time, but most of my posts are written more towards my hairstylist audience that will want to learn from me and take classes from me. I try to incorporate a post towards clients every 3-4 posts.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://thegreenhairedstylist.glossgenius.com/
• Instagram: @thegreenhairedstylist
• Other: TikTok: @thegreenhairedstylist

Image Credits
All hair and photos done by me.