We were lucky to catch up with Teddy Baker recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Teddy, thanks for joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?
I’ve always managed my own social media, but it hasn’t always been easy. The hair industry has changed drastically since my debut on the scene in 2007. Word of mouth still exists, but social media has greatly impacted how clients seek out their stylists. Not going to lie, I really dragged my feet jumping on the stylist social media thing. I had just seen so many that looked the same so I honestly didn’t even have a hair page until I opened a private studio in Manhattan in 2016. Even then, I didn’t post much because I wasn’t looking for new clients. I was booked a few months out, so unless I was SUPER excited about something I was doing behind the chair no photos were being taken. I had 300 followers on Instagram and they were friends, family, & clients. It wasn’t until I moved to LA and started interviewing for jobs that I realized how important having a stylist page had actually become. In interviews salons were literally asking me about how many followers I had! Nevermind being a color educator, coming from owning a business in NYC, and having over 50 something 5-star Yelp reviews backing up my career… people didn’t want to hire me because they couldn’t see my work/influence. Since I was in a new market, I actually had to market myself.
I started taking more photos of my work, sharing tutorials I thought were helpful, and trying to follow local businesses in hopes of gaining more followers. Let’s just say it was a slow start. I felt like I was posting to no one and hated making content. I was slowly getting new clients through my Yelp reviews, but almost two years in… it still felt like nothing was working. I then realized it’s because I was trying to gain followers with my content, but what I really needed were clients sitting in my chair. When that clicked, everything changed! I needed to find a way to get clients to relate to what I was posting that was eye-catching and relevant to what they were searching for. I’ll be sharing a little more about that later in this article.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
For those that aren’t familiar with my business or my brand, I’m a hairstylist with over 15-years in the industry. I came into the industry as an artist that just considered hair a fun medium to work with. I had always given haircuts to friends and family since a young age; I especially loved giving friends in high school punk rock cuts like mohawks etc., but it was always just an art project in my mind. After graduating high school, I kind of drifted around the hospitality scene in Austin, TX, floating between a few restaurant jobs. I’d always end up giving the people I worked with haircuts that they couldn’t seem to get in salons, remember the early 2000’s “scene hair”? It was radical and more out-there! Traditional hairstyling was flipped on its head around that time and finding a stylist with the guts to bust out a razor was kind of hard. Pretty soon I was giving these wild styles to more and more people that I worked with at the restaurant and it kinda snowballed! I was cutting so much hair and really enjoyed it! Beauty school was fine but it basically just taught me how to get my license. I wanted to CREATE and connect with people.
Throughout my career I’ve collected specializations like a kid collecting Pokémon cards. It’s that rush of collecting information and new skills that has gotten me where I am in the industry today. It’s like, if I get tripped up on something… it’s now my goal to perfect that skill! First it was men’s grooming through American Crew, then it was Sassoon training for precision cutting, then it was curly cutting, then I became a color correction specialist and blonding specialist through Wella, and now I’m perfecting my skills as an educator for Kevin.Murphy Color.Me the color line I use. In my mind you have to know the rules to break the rules, so I am forever learning! Why do I feel it’s necessary to break rules? Well, my personal style of cutting an coloring is very organic. My goal with clients is to give them styles that enhance what their hair naturally does. By doing this I am able to create styles that are super low maintenance and give the client that effortlessly chic look.
This is why I gravitate towards styles like shags, wash ’n’ go natural texture styles, and lived-in highlights. Most of my clients come seasonally or twice a year. I really zero in on how the style will grow in and evolve between visits. Give me your budget and maintenance schedule and we will create some kind of magic within those parameters. With the right at-home care and good clean products you can make your session with me last and last. Since I’m able to give long lasting results instead of having clients in my chair every 6-8 weeks, I need lots of butts in my chair. That’s where things got tricky when building my clientele in LA.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
After two years of hard work, things were finally picking up for me at the beginning of 2020! I was gaining traction through word-of-mouth, my Instagram started gaining more followers, and I had even gotten spotted by a few local publications for the type of work I was doing. Things were really ramping up! I’m sure you can tell where I’m going with this. The week that the world shut down due to the pandemic my business, like most, came to a screeching halt. I had FIVE new clients on my book that week that I had to cancel and an in-person interview with the LA Times about the resurgence of the femme mullet. Let’s just say, there was bigger news that week.
It was pretty crazy being out of work, being a stylist is my main creative and social outlet. I found myself floating around my apartment kind of lost. I was able to fill some of it with crafts and gardening, but I missed the buzz of the hair industry. I needed to collect more knowledge. I needed some new skills. Luckily, lots of things went digital! I signed up for as much online education that I could afford, but watching people do hair on a screen wasn’t the same as being in the salon. Then I found some online seminars about building up your social media presence. I had found something that really peaked my interest! I basically couldn’t get enough!
Have you ever had to pivot?
Lots of these webinars were about creating your personal brand, finding your message, banking content, and GETTING THOSE FOLLOWERS. At this point I had been out of a job for almost a year. I didn’t need followers… I needed people in my chair! I had already followed what a lot of the webinars had taught me and noticed an uptick in folks viewing my content. It just needed a little more spice — more me! I think that’s what really motivated me to step up my social media game. Gone were the days of posting a perfect color service with a few hashtags and a quippy quote. My posts needed a “why.” What was the meaning of this image? I decided that if I was posting it needed to fit into one of three categories: informational, inspirational, or educational. The goal was to create posts that were useful that also showcased all of these specialties I had accumulated. The “why” ended up being my own voice.
Have I lost you? Here’s an example, a before and after of a post of long fuzzy one-length hair turned into beautiful bouncy curls. Yes it’s a great transformation, but why does my potential client need to know about it? Let’s go educational with this one. Lots of times a haircut with the right balance can actually bring out and accentuate your natural texture! I have so many clients that didn’t even know they had curly hair until they were introduced to my cutting style and the right products. Okay, you’re starting to get it! Now why am I posting a picture of myself? Well, it’s an informational post about my NYC seasonal pop-up! See where I’m going? What’s this beautiful picture of Jane Birkin or George Harrison doing here? It’s hair inspiration since I love that modern-vintage vibe. You see, keeping to these three pillars in mind gave my social media an easily recognizable theme! Something a potential client could look at and immediately know what my vibe is. It also makes making content so much easier. No need to overthink it, just speak from the heart.
When I came back to work full-time after a year and four months in lockdown, I only had 30 returning clients. My worst fears were staring me in the face! I took those slow times to stick to my social media strategy. With the extra time, I was creating fun in-salon content. Loads of before and after photos and videos. I banked them in my drafts and in my downtime I gave my voice to those posts. I stayed consistent and posted at least three times a week and started creating fun things for my highlights and stories to let people know more about who I am and what my background was. By the end of 2021 I had 125 BRAND NEW CLIENTS! The following year in 2022 I had almost doubled my clientele and now in 2023 I’m still getting 6-10 new clients a month!
In short, to really make an impact with your online presence you need to be yourself so that you attract the clients that inspire your work. I love doing curly hair styles, shag haircuts, and lived in color… so that’s what I post! Give your followers the “why” so they don’t just scroll on by. Lastly, treat your profile like a living portfolio. I cannot tell you how gratifying it is when a brand new client shows up with hair inspiration photos that are screenshots of your actual work.
Contact Info:
- Website: TeddyBakerBeauty.com
- Instagram: Teddy.Baker.Beauty
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeddyBakerBeauty?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Yelp: https://www.google.com/gasearch?q=teddy%20baker%20beauty&tbm=&source=sh/x/gs/m2/5
Image Credits
All photos are by me with client’s permission to post.