By Tina Bell
Christmas in the salon… what you can feel is the calm before the storm!
November blindsides us with its slow but steady pace as we plod through blissfully, putting up Christmas decorations and talking about our Christmas do…
And then it starts… it starts slow, so you don’t notice it until it’s too late. Day and night appointments all gone. Before you know what’s happening you’re working 14-hour days, 7-days a week and there’s still demand for more!
We often joke in December that it’s not worth going home, as the days roll into one with a few hours sleep in between. If they knew we slept, God save us, they would have those hours too! No, we can’t fit you in for a little full set. What even is a little full set?! It takes the same time as always!
I think after the slow December we had last year, this year was expected to be busy, but in no way did I expect this! I don’t think we have ever been this busy from the very start of the month until Christmas eve!
We have luckily held back some of our extended hours so we do have a few sneaky appointments to offer latecomers, and there are still 2 more Sundays we could open if it gets that bad.
Amongst all this craziness, we have made sure we have a cheeky day for just us. We have a naughty day in the salon, closed to clients, just for the staff. We keep the shutters closed, sneak in the backdoor and hide whilst we blast Mariah, open the fizz, stuff ourselves with cheese and Christmas nibbles whilst we do our own treatments. This is the one day we make sure we have every year!
We started this about five years ago when I finally got sick of spending Christmas day looking awful! If you ever had the pleasure of seeing us in the salon on Christmas Eve, with our scraggy Christmas tops and wonky boppers; we looked more homeless than award-winning beauticians, hairdressers, and nail technicians!
I keep staff morale up in the salon by stocking the fridge with all our favourite goodies, plenty of drinks, cuppa soups (AKA a nail techs life saver!) and lots and lots of Christmas chocolate! Family of the staff bring in homemade curry, chilli, and sandwiches to keep us going. Delicious!
You will often see the really late-night clients slide over a bar of chocolate to the nail techs before sitting down, just to break the ice in case they are sitting down to Hangry nail tech, worried that they might be subjected to the Hangry filing! Does anyone else Hangry file? Maybe it’s a Geordie thing?
You might think I hate Christmas after reading this blog. After all is said and done, do we still love it? Hell, yes we do! We wouldn’t change it! Seeing our clients going to their Christmas parties all glammed up or off to see Santa with their sprogs, meeting with friends for drinks… we love it all.
We are the ones that make these moments extra special. Whilst we might live on 13 hours sleep and 1000 calories for the entirety of December, we wouldn’t have it any other way!
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!
P.S… Anything you need, even over Christmas, drop me an email on nailtechsupport@purenails.co
