I don’t like the word ‘mature’, but I don’t like the idea of anti-ageing either. I mean, you can’t anti-age! I also have a problem with the phrase ‘you look good for your age’, as it’s definitely a weighted comment and we don’t say it to people who are 20-25! When we’re looking at people in their 40s and 50s, there are inevitable changes in the body and hair – these shouldn’t be denied, they should be embraced.
As an industry, we are missing an opportunity to support these clients. We are all guilty of exclusively posting younger clients on our social pages, often forgetting to promote the older people who also come to see us. In reality, this generation of clients provides an opportunity to build more relationships, offer more services and products and really make a difference to our bottom line.
Here’s how I embrace and inspire my older clients:
Everybody should have a consultation. It’s important for new clients to figure out what they want, but also for regular clients to voice any concerns they may have. You wouldn’t go to the dentist and expect them to do exactly the same as last time, no questions asked!
When working with global colour, I advise always going ¼-½ shade lighter around the face, this creates a really soft, youth-like effect. Balayage can also be brilliant for older clients as it allows you to create illusions with thinning hair.
Educate your clients about keeping their scalp clean. Scalps can get ‘tight’, so it’s important to ensure we’ve removed any build up and get the blood flow going. Always offer your older clients a good scalp massage to get the circulation going, as well as recommending products such as the Scalp Advanced range from L’Oréal Professionnel.
As our skin tones change as we get older, we should always be looking at tonal changes in the hair too. In particular, I advise looking at the eyes and the skin to confirm everything’s connecting nicely and to prepare for tonal updates over time. The clothes our clients wear will also influence the blonde or brunette that we choose, so we must ensure their hair compliments their lifestyle as well as their skin tone.
With more women embracing their natural greys, we can now be much cleverer with our grey coverage applications. There is no reason we can’t make this service more interesting and tailored to our individual clients. Immediately putting highlights all the way through isn’t always the answer, it can leave you with clients that are unhappy and waiting for change – this is when we start to lose clients to other stylists that are truly listening to what they want.
It’s easy to take our older clients for granted. We can see these root tint and highlight clients as our bread and butter, often without actually sitting and speaking to them properly about their hair. There’s a whole market of women of a certain age who are just being ignored, and something needs to change.
