Saks

"The universal language of hair!"

What happens when someone travels thousands of miles to London to be taught something new and they hardly speak a word of English?....... you teach them regardless! ;-)

For the past 2 years I have been teaching hairdressers our collections and latest trends from all over the world. Students have travelled from Poland, Demark, Portugal, Italy and sometimes even as far as India! I'm looking through my busy diary and frantically scribbling everything down when I see I have a group of 7 hairdressers from India back for another intense 3 days of advanced cuts and colour from our Autumn/Winter trends. I have so much fun teaching these guys as they are very likeable, passionate and friendly people who always give a 100%.

I am expecting to turn up to work and prepare myself for a busy day as I finalize my plans and get myself ready. I head over to reception to greet my class. However instead of 7 students I have 1! :-(Thinking the others are running a little late I try to speak to the lady who is sat waiting and find out very quickly her English is limited!

Trying to find out if the others are on the way, she politely nods and smiles and I'm guessing this maybe my only class mate for tne next 3 days!

We always run checks at the Academy to make sure Visa's are in place and that we have all participants attending including a translator, however on this occasion there has been a problem right at the last minute and only 1 person is aloud to travel and she is sat with me!

Undeterred from the fact we may have a slight communication issue I am confident I can use the visual aids we have and a common understanding of hair to see us through and I'm sure we are both going to learn something from this experience!

I get started, keeping my words straight forward and to the point. It looks like this bright women before me Sharda is taking it in and as we begin it is clear she has caught onto the concept and we start creating our looks. I decide to work in a "coaching circle" format so it keeps us both busy seeing as we cannot make too much conversation!We do our very best to show her the local shops for lunch and our student area where she can relax and eat whenever we stop for a break.The day has been a massive success and I get the feeling she has left for the day now knowing a few more techniques than when she started.

The next 2 days follow a very simular pattern and its all hands on deck and we are working in perfect harmony! I am amazed that I only need to show Sharda something once as she remembers to unpack her kit, where the towels go, to clear up after herself and where we keep all our products its simply fantastic!

At the end of the 3 days as a special treat I give Sharda a cheeky new hair cut as she has worked so hard! I am thrilled we continued to run the class allbeit the turnout not being what was expected. It gave me a great insight that even though we maybe thousands of miles apart and speak different languages, we both have a common interest and speak the same language of hair!

Thanks for reading

Mario xx