Why Personal Development Matters More Than Hair Skills w/ Reagan Kaalekahi

Eric (00: 00:00:10 00)

00:00:10 What's going on, Reagan? How are you?

Reagan Kaalekahi (00: 00:00:11 02)

00:00:11 I'm doing great, I am currently just in a place of rebalancing life and education and work and you know, building. It's I I have no complaints, man. Yeah.

Eric (00: 00:00:12 14)

00:00:12 I love it. Well, we're

00:00:13 talking on a beautiful typical Southern California day. I'm north of LA. You're in San Diego. I was in San Diego three days ago and there's there's few more beautiful places in the world.

Reagan Kaalekahi (00: 00:00:14 29)

00:00:14 Yes, that is the truth. That this place makes me feel like I don't need a vacation 'cause I'm on vacation every day.

Eric (00: 00:00:15 35)

00:00:15 Every day, a hundred percent. My wife was like, Do you want to go somewhere this summer for vacation? And I'm like, Not really. Like I don't really even enjoy where I live enough. You know, I want a vacation, you know, twenty minutes from here at the beach. That's where I want a vacation.

Reagan Kaalekahi (00: 00:00:16 43)

00:00:16 Ha ha.

00:00:17 Yeah.

00:00:18 Hundred percent.

Eric (00: 00:00:19 55)

00:00:19 Do you surf?

Reagan Kaalekahi (00: 00:00:20 56)

00:00:20 I do. Yeah. I try and get out there a couple of days a week. doesn't happen quite as much as I'd like, but you know, that's part of the name of the game when you have three kids and they're all in very unique age ranges. And ⁓ and then on top of that, you know, you have a business and you're doing hair. It's like, how do we balance it all? You know, you gotta go and surf at five o'clock in the morning.

Eric (01: 00:00:21 19)

00:00:21 Hundred percent. How old are your kids?

Reagan Kaalekahi (01: 00:00:22 20)

00:00:22 Yeah.

00:00:23 ⁓ so my oldest is fourteen. After that I have a five year old and after that I have a baby that's turning eleven months in a few days. Yeah.

Eric (01: 00:00:24 28)

00:00:24 Wow.

00:00:25 So you're covering the spectrum.

Reagan Kaalekahi (01: 00:00:26 33)

00:00:26 man. Yep. Teenage just getting out of that toddler and then literally one coming in.

Eric (01: 00:00:27 40)

00:00:27 So what people tell me is that when you when you spread it out like that, the older one helps. But I'm always like, Mm, I don't know. Like I I have a thirteen and a fifteen right now. I don't think they would help.

Reagan Kaalekahi (01: 00:00:28 52)

00:00:28 Mm-hmm.

00:00:29 You know, it's interesting. I for for the most part, he's he's great. My oldest is a fourteen year old boy and ⁓ he's great. He does help. ⁓ but I my wife always says if he would had been a a girl, if he had been our first daughter, like that help would be completely different. Food would be made, you know, she would be so attentive and it's just like, yeah, he's a fourteen year old boy, what can you expect? You know?

Eric (02: 00:00:30 11)

00:00:30 Totally.

00:00:31 Hundred percent, dude. My fifteen year old daughter, she takes care of everything. Like she could run the house. You know, if if my wife and I got wiped out this afternoon, she'd just take over. She'd make sure the meals were cooked, everything was happening. She'd make sure the bills were paid, you know. But my son can't he can't dress himself in the morning. I mean that's an exaggeration, but you know, it's like it feels like that some days. So that's funny.

Reagan Kaalekahi (02: 00:00:32 25)

00:00:32 Yeah, yeah.

00:00:33 Yeah.

00:00:34 Mm mm.

00:00:35 Yeah, yeah. Totally. Yeah.

Eric (02: 00:00:36 47)

00:00:36 All right, well let's start with ⁓ how you found yourself heading towards this business. why did you become a hairstylist and and how long has it been and all that?

Reagan Kaalekahi (02: 00:00:37 56)

00:00:37 Man, you know, I got into I got into the industry unofficially as a barber. ⁓ I went to a Christmas party. It was all family, and I ⁓ it was a white elephant Christmas party. So you go up, you pick your gift, and I I went up to the one that seemed to be a decent size, made the most noise when you shake it, and I was like, I think this is the one. Went to my room, opened it up.

Eric (03: 00:00:38 20)

00:00:38 Mm-hmm.

Reagan Kaalekahi (03: 00:00:39 24)

00:00:39 And it was a pair of clippers. Not sure what I was gonna do with that. But when it came down to it, you know, I threw in the VHS as I just dated myself. and I watched it and and you know, it was it was like an infomercial of someone doing a bowl cut. And I was in high school, this is probably about 2000, ⁓ probably 2001, 2002. And you know, everything was shave it down, close tight fade, line it up.

Eric (03: 00:00:40 33)

00:00:40 Ha ha.

Reagan Kaalekahi (03: 00:00:41 52)

00:00:41 And so I just went to the bathroom, tied a belt around my head, started shaving the line, and just worked on blending that line until I got it right. before you know it, I was cutting my older brother's hair. His friends were coming by the garage. And it just became one thing after another that just kind of ripple affected. And from that, from that point forward, I was cutting just students and then eventually their dads. ⁓ and I was like,

Eric (04: 00:00:42 17)

00:00:42 Interesting.

Reagan Kaalekahi (04: 00:00:43 18)

00:00:43 I've I got something going in my garage here to the point where I've got cops showing up in the neighborhood 'cause they're thinking, you know, there's people coming and going. It's like, what are you selling in here? I'm like, Man, I'm selling smiles and a haircut. That's about it.

Eric (04: 00:00:44 29)

00:00:44 Haircuts.

00:00:45 That's funny. And and so the cops are not the same as state boards, so so I I imagine they didn't they didn't ⁓ penalize you. they they they probably sat down in your chair.

Reagan Kaalekahi (04: 00:00:46 31)

00:00:46 Yeah.

00:00:47 Yeah, exactly.

00:00:48 Yeah, I know they were like, Okay. Make sure the traffic on the street is good.

00:00:49 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Eric (04: 00:00:50 44)

00:00:50 So you enjoyed it?

Reagan Kaalekahi (04: 00:00:51 46)

00:00:51 You know, I enjoyed it for a period of time. I was ⁓ primarily doing that on the weekends and I was working in the summertime ⁓ at a park and rec facility, just kind of cleaning up the city. And then I would do that in the evenings or I would do it primarily on the weekends, yeah.

Eric (05: 00:00:52 00)

00:00:52 And so you started charging and making a little pocket money.

Reagan Kaalekahi (05: 00:00:53 01)

00:00:53 Mm-hmm.

00:00:54 Man, it was great. I mean, at the time, right, I was just getting started. I thought five dollars was fair. And then eventually I started to get recruited to barber shops by barbers that I would go and see. And they were like, What are you even charging? I'm like, five dollars. They were like, You need to bump that up to like twenty and get competitive. So then it was twenty a pop. And I did that from the age of 14 till about twenty twenty two.

Eric (05: 00:00:55 30)

00:00:55 That's awesome. Okay, so at any point in that span of time, were you thinking you were gonna go to college, go become an insurance salesman, or was it all was it all like, I like this and I can make money doing this?

Reagan Kaalekahi (05: 00:00:56 30)

00:00:56 Yeah.

00:00:57 You know, I was actually in pursuit of becoming a fireman. my grandfather ⁓ was a chief of the Honolulu fire department in Hawaii. And I thought, let me become a fireman, let me move to Hawaii. because at the time I was living in Seattle, and let me just, you know, use my name to get in the door. And the fireman thing just didn't work out. I was ⁓ really pursuing it because I wanted the schedule. I wanted the three on, four off, four on, three off, however they'd run it.

Eric (05: 00:00:58 49)

00:00:58 Mm-hmm.

Reagan Kaalekahi (06: 00:00:59 16)

00:00:59 And I thought that would be amazing. And I can always do something on the side if need be. But it just something about it just didn't click and I just lost the interest. I didn't test well. and from from that point forward, I said, okay, I think that there's something else. Right after that, I jumped into sales. And if I told you how good I was, ⁓ you wouldn't believe it. I got it with this company that let me go within two months. Didn't meet the sales quotas. And then it was at that point.

Eric (06: 00:01:00 39)

00:01:00 no.

Reagan Kaalekahi (06: 00:01:01 44)

00:01:01 That I had spoken to a few close people that I looked up to that said, Go to beauty school.

Eric (06: 00:01:02 49)

00:01:02 I love it. Well, I mean that that's what we do, right? We put ourselves out there, you try different things. You know, the firefighter thing, I know a good number of them, both, you know, who've been there doing that and and and those trying to get in. It's one of the most competitive things. Nobody really talks about it, but like the demand to become a firefighter is so enormous, you know, because a lot of people like that pension. And it and I've got

Reagan Kaalekahi (06: 00:01:03 53)

00:01:03 Yeah.

Eric (07: 00:01:04 18)

00:01:04 I've got l friends who have retired and it's like, my God, you're making how much money? You know, how how what is your pension pay that like that's ridiculous? And so everybody wants a piece of that. It's really hard to become a firefighter. So I totally understand that. And the salesperson get that too. But I mean, it seems like, you know, you may not have what were you trying to sell?

Reagan Kaalekahi (07: 00:01:05 23)

00:01:05 Yeah.

00:01:06 Yeah.

00:01:07 my gosh, I was selling online spaces on news websites. ⁓ I didn't care two shits about, yeah, and neither did the person on the other side of the phone.

Eric (07: 00:01:08 45)

00:01:08 Which you probably didn't give a shit about.

00:01:09 And you're kind of a salesperson now. I mean, from what I know of you, you're a good salesperson to your clients. You know, a good salesperson helps, you know, their clients or their customers, right? It's not like they're victimizing their customers, trying to get them to buy something they don't want, right? They're helping their clients by giving them exactly what they want.

00:01:10 And it seems like you're really good at that. And I mean there's a lesson there, right? Like some of us are pretty bad at selling something we don't we don't care about, but really good at selling something we do care about.

Reagan Kaalekahi (08: 00:01:11 25)

00:01:11 Mm-hmm.

00:01:12 Absolutely. Yeah. And I feel like a lot of it really comes down to just how well you're listening, right? Clients are continuously giving us the problem. And if we can ⁓ provide the solution over and over again, you know, it's it's it almost becomes something that you're not even selling because they're asking you to buy it. Right. And I think a lot of hairstylists are like, I don't want the title of sales. And I'm like, no, you do. You're selling yourself every single day.

00:01:13 Right. You're selling yourself to other artists if you want to be an educator. You're selling yourself to your clients if you're doing extensions or if you're an imp high-impact blonding person or you're a dimensional brunette artist, curly hair, braids, whatever it might be. And I think that if we in the industry can wrap our minds around this idea that sales isn't bad, ⁓ and that it's offering value and a solution to those people that come and see us and why they're seeing us, man, could people have like.

00:01:14 A lot a lot more I would say freedom in ⁓ just in the career in general.

Eric (09: 00:01:15 26)

00:01:15 Absolutely. The number of people that I talk to on a daily basis who are like, you know, they let's say they hear I'm in the hair business or you know, they ⁓ they know I'm in the hair business, so they come to me and they're like, you know, I've got this problem with my hair. And I'm like, I am not a hairstylist, but you know, I recognize you have a problem and I know a lot of hairstylists, and I can point you in the right direction, but

Reagan Kaalekahi (09: 00:01:16 43)

00:01:16 Ha ha

00:01:17 Mm-hmm.

Eric (09: 00:01:18 52)

00:01:18 Point being, there's a lot of people out there with a hair problem. And I mean, most. Like how many times have you been in public Disneyland or whatever, where you can see a hundred people right in front of you, right? And you look around at those people. And I know the listeners think this because you're all hairstylists and you know, you walk around with a certain hairstylist filter where you see people's hair first. How many people have shitty hair?

Reagan Kaalekahi (10: 00:01:19 22)

00:01:19 Yeah.

Eric (10: 00:01:20 22)

00:01:20 I mean,

00:01:21 in and I'm talking about Southern California, right? Right? Where we're supposed to all be like dialed? No. I mean, what is it? Probably 20% of people have good hair. You know, that's how many hair problems are that there exist out there that need solutions. And, you know, you're the solution for to those problems. All of our listeners are the solutions to those problems. Our industry is the solution to those problems. If we can make ourselves

Reagan Kaalekahi (10: 00:01:22 26)

00:01:22 Totally. Totally.

00:01:23 Yeah.

00:01:24 Yeah.

Eric (10: 00:01:25 51)

00:01:25 ⁓ easily findable.

Reagan Kaalekahi (10: 00:01:26 53)

00:01:26 Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ I would say it's the blessing of the gift and the curse, right? You go somewhere and you're trying to tune out like I'm gonna put work down, I'm gonna leave it here, but you go somewhere and you're like, I need to talk to her. She I need to fix that. I need to fix that for her, you know? And and this is the thing is that I found really exhilarating and fun for me is I love stopping people and just asking them about their hair, asking them where they get it done, asking them if they like it.

Eric (11: 00:01:27 08)

00:01:27 She needs help.

Reagan Kaalekahi (11: 00:01:28 22)

00:01:28 You know, I actually teach people ⁓ how to do that. And it's one of the funnest things for me because I get nervous and I get scared too, right? We're all afraid of rejection to that little degree. but I think that if you can just start with one question, it can turn into ten and next thing you know, you a client.

Eric (11: 00:01:29 40)

00:01:29 Hundred percent. And this is why I why you and I are talking right now because I love that post that you did. ⁓ I it I don't think it was too too far back. Let's see if I go to your thing. Not hard for you listeners to find it on Reagan's ⁓ it's the third post. You have it pinned, so maybe you did it a year ago or whatever, but it's you talking to a barista at a coffee shop and classic Southern California. It's like

Reagan Kaalekahi (12: 00:01:30 05)

00:01:30 Mm-hmm.

Eric (12: 00:01:31 08)

00:01:31 all open air and everything, you know, and she's and she's pretty and and so the you know which post I'm talking about. Okay. And and was that was that ⁓ not candid, what's the word? Well was that canned? Was it was that set up or was that totally natural?

Reagan Kaalekahi (12: 00:01:32 10)

00:01:32 So great.

00:01:33 Yes. Yep.

00:01:34 So what we

00:01:35 so this is how this is how this whole thing was framed is that's what I did. ⁓ that's how I got her as a client. ⁓ to begin with. That what people are seeing exactly what we did, and it was to the T the same conversation. I just didn't have that recorded. I wanted to put that up where people could see it. ⁓ because yeah.

Eric (12: 00:01:36 46)

00:01:36 I figured, because

00:01:37 it'd be weird for somebody to be standing there, you know, videoing, you know, she would probably feel uncomfortable. And of course you probably want to get her ⁓ consent, you know. ⁓ but but for the listeners' sake who probably haven't seen this video, Reagan is getting a coffee, the Briest is there, and she's got long kind of hair and it's got some highlights in it, it's lightened, it looks like maybe it's natural, can't really tell, but it's curly and pretty.

Reagan Kaalekahi (12: 00:01:38 54)

00:01:38 Yeah.

00:01:39 Total.

Eric (13: 00:01:40 15)

00:01:40 And and Reagan's like, hey, you know, can I ask you a question? And and she's like, sure. And then you you basically get her as a client by this conversation. You want to talk about like, yeah, you know, not just this video, but j in general. Talk to the listeners who think that the only way of marketing these days is digital. And one on one in-person hum human interaction, that's for 20 years ago for unks like you and me.

Reagan Kaalekahi (13: 00:01:41 44)

00:01:41 Right. ⁓ Right. You know, for for those of you out there that are watching, ⁓ I hear a lot of people say, and maybe you've said it, I know that I've said it at a point in time in my life until I ⁓ open the door to in-person call it sales, call it ⁓ interactions with with people that are out there. ⁓ a lot of time people will come to me and say, I just can't seem to find the clients.

Eric (13: 00:01:42 44)

00:01:42 And and that doesn't happen anymore.

Reagan Kaalekahi (14: 00:01:43 10)

00:01:43 And for me, my answer is, well, how many people are you talking to or touching base with on the daily? Right? You go and get your coffee. You're going to the same stores over and over. You're going to the same gyms over and over. There are people there that you're talking to every single day that have no idea that you're a hairstylist. And all you have to do is ask them a question about themselves. Right? So in this process, that's all that's all that I did.

00:01:44 You know, that coffee stand is kind of like my honeypot. I go there, I get a coffee. Now all the girls in that same stand, they all come to me. And there's clients that are piled up on the outside of it, right? And if I see someone with gorgeous hair, I'm gonna ask them, Hey, where do you get your hair done? You know, and you'd be surprised at the number of people that don't have someone that they're committed to that say, I don't really know. I just go like wherever. And I always what I yeah, what I teach is have your scripts.

Eric (15: 00:01:45 02)

00:01:45 it's crazy.

Reagan Kaalekahi (15: 00:01:46 06)

00:01:46 Right. Have your quick elevator scripts where you can say, for instance, what I do is I tell them, I'm a hairstylist in Del Mar. This is my Instagram. If you like what you see, I'd love to take you on as a client. And most of the time, if anything, it exchanges an Instagram contact. And now they're seeing my post popping up. And you know, I want to be the first thing that comes to mind when they say, I need that trim, I need that highlight, I need that balayage, that lived in color.

00:01:47 Or I need, you know, that surfy couture look, you know?

Eric (15: 00:01:48 38)

00:01:48 Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So you said something very important there. And I think it's important because oftentimes we can't see the forest through the trees. sometimes our perspective being in this industry, being in the salon, being behind the chair every every day, is, you know, we're kind of in the weeds. We we don't get a big perspective on what's actually going on out there, you know, with with clients, with people in the general public who are not our clients.

Reagan Kaalekahi (15: 00:01:49 48)

00:01:49 Mm-hmm.

Eric (16: 00:01:50 06)

00:01:50 You know, we figure everybody's already taken, so to speak. Everybody's already got a hairstylist that they really like. I years ago, the the listeners who have been with us for for years and years will remember that I used to go out onto the streets of LA and do, you know, person on the street interviews like random. You know, I I had a microphone. I still have a micro I I haven't done it in a while. COVID kinda killed this, but I would go out there and Donovan would be videoing and and I would just

Reagan Kaalekahi (16: 00:01:51 08)

00:01:51 Thank you.

Eric (16: 00:01:52 36)

00:01:52 hit people up for conversations and about one out of every three people would stop and talk to me and I'd be like, so tell me about your hair. Like, do you have a hairstylist? What do you like about your hair? What do you don't like? You know, it's kind of these this like hair problem thing that we had talked about. And dude, 75% of people did not have a go-to hairstylist.

Reagan Kaalekahi (16: 00:01:53 43)

00:01:53 Mm-hmm.

Eric (17: 00:01:54 03)

00:01:54 There were some people who hadn't been to a salon in a year. And if they needed a last second something, they would have they had no idea who to contact, like didn't have contact information of the last place that they went. Or, you know, that was like back in Ohio and now they're living in Santa Monica and they've haven't been to a salon yet. That's how much opportunity there is out there.

Reagan Kaalekahi (17: 00:01:55 30)

00:01:55 It's there's abundance everywhere. That's what I like to say. There's abundance everywhere. It's just you gotta look up. You gotta look up and you gotta be able to see it and spot it out and then not be afraid to put yourself out there. You know.

Eric (17: 00:01:56 42)

00:01:56 Mm-hmm. Absolutely.

00:01:57 So that's why I love that post so much. So listeners, ⁓ you gotta check that out. So third post on Reagan's profile, January 22nd. So it's kind of a newish post. but it's it's awesome because I think it's a great reminder that the old ways of marketing ⁓ are not just dead, but I think they're maybe even have become more valuable given how many hairstylists probably aren't doing that anymore.

Reagan Kaalekahi (18: 00:01:58 12)

00:01:58 Mm-hmm. 100%. Yeah. I think people feel more comfortable with sending that DM because it's not, it's not in person. But the person-to-person interaction allows that potential client to feel your energy, know your vibe, right? That that alone is going to be a selling point, right? That could that could be secondary. That could be the the hair could be really secondary. If you and I get each other and I can map up what you want based off of what you're telling me.

Eric (18: 00:01:59 13)

00:01:59 Right.

Reagan Kaalekahi (18: 00:02:00 41)

00:02:00 ⁓ then the hair will come in too. But if you and I have this, you know, kindred just vibe, I I think that can be what wins them over, you know, quite fast.

Eric (18: 00:02:01 52)

00:02:01 Hundred

00:02:02 a hundred percent. Think of it like, you know, a a digital connection is nice, better than no connection, but all of us have all I mean, we're swamped with digital connections every day, whether it's spam email or spam text or those frickin' spam phone calls. I mean, ninety five percent of my phone calls now are spam. I don't answer the phone anymore.

Reagan Kaalekahi (18: 00:02:03 58)

00:02:03 Mm.

00:02:04 Yeah,

00:02:05 yeah, it's got worse.

Eric (19: 00:02:06 18)

00:02:06 Like I I immediately

00:02:07 it's all silent. It goes to voicemail immediately, because ninety-five percent is spam. And if it's an important phone call, obviously I'll get the voicemail stuff. But all of that is just to get to the next step, which is the in real life step. You know, the IRL is everything. And so when you're in line at a coffee shop or whatever, and you make eye contact with the person behind you and you and you smile at them and say something about the weather.

Reagan Kaalekahi (19: 00:02:08 23)

00:02:08 Yeah. Mm-hmm.

00:02:09 Yeah.

Eric (19: 00:02:10 47)

00:02:10 Like that, you're skipping all of those much more difficult digital sort of efforts and going right to the in real life. It's so valuable. All right. Well, I think we beat that to a pulp, that conversation. I'm just I I just want to inspire the listeners to do this because I agree with you. People complain about it all the time, but it's all out there, especially right now. All right, let's let's talk about your education. So ⁓

Reagan Kaalekahi (20: 00:02:11 01)

00:02:11 Yeah.

00:02:12 Yeah. Yep, absolutely.

Eric (20: 00:02:13 15)

00:02:13 You you don't you focus on blonding behind the chair, ⁓ but you're also an educator. You've got a platform called DAP, which ⁓ D A P, which stands for what?

Reagan Kaalekahi (20: 00:02:14 24)

00:02:14 so the essence of the platform product ⁓ brand is DAP. It stands for development, artistry, performance. So in the 14 years that I've been doing hair, I've taken and looked at artists that I look up to and say, okay, what what is it about this person's element? What is it, what has gotten me from point A to point B? and so a lot of it has to do with your development.

00:02:15 Right, how you develop yourself, your character. ⁓ you know, in this industry we do have a lot of characters. We do have people who are just kind of coming out of, you know, beauty school and just making the jump at it. And that person could have potentially been, like me, for instance, like wanting to be a fireman, now doing hair. Right. It's like in the development side, how do I want to carry myself? what I find is that a lot of the

00:02:16 you know, characteristics that I've adopted all came through personal development. A lot of reading, a lot of books, CDs, tapes, things like that. So that's the development side, who you are as a person and where that can take you. And then you have the A, and that's gonna be artistry, your technical placement, your understanding of color, knowledge, things like that. And then the performance is how you're showing up. Right? If your clients are walking in the door and you're just snapping to them and telling them to go sit down, I mean

00:02:17 I don't know how long they're gonna be around. You know, for me it's very ⁓ important for me to give good eye contact, a good handshake, let them know that I'm here and I'm nowhere else. And I really believe that how I show up is what allowed me to retain a lot of my clients, aside from aside from anything else, the work and things like that.

Eric (22: 00:02:18 08)

00:02:18 Hundred percent. So it seems like you're covering the bases there. Do you get into marketing in the in the curriculum?

Reagan Kaalekahi (22: 00:02:19 15)

00:02:19 You know what? ⁓ I started a ⁓ an online school platform called school. ⁓ where I'm uploading, slowly uploading some videos in regards to it. but I I haven't quite touched on it yet. In my four week incentive, we do graze over some of this stuff, but it's really about getting them to the fourth week and making that day successful for them. Yeah.

Eric (22: 00:02:20 26)

00:02:20 Mm-hmm.

00:02:21 So you said that in the beginning of your description of this, you said that, you know, you you take what successful hairstylists have done. That's why we started the podcast, because we've had, you know, it's been eight years, I guess, that w I've been doing this. And it started because we had so many successful hairstylists at Salon Republic that I just started, you know, recording those conversations in order to get it to everybody. ⁓ and and it's super valuable and I appreciate that so much.

00:02:22 ⁓ so you said four weeks. So talk about the nitty gritty of this program. I four four weeks in person or is it ⁓ virtual?

Reagan Kaalekahi (23: 00:02:23 17)

00:02:23 Yeah, so what I decided was I wanted to start a program and I wanted to find the group of people that I could be the most passionate about helping. �� for me that was going to be beauty school students, first and foremost. I think the reason why is because as a beauty school student myself, I left beauty school quite confused. it looked like everyone knew where they were going, what they were doing, and they were just like, you know, guns blazing in those directions.

00:02:24 And I was kind of like, well, what am I gonna do? You know, like I have this dream of moving to Southern California. How am I gonna get there? And should I do color? I I don't understand it. You know, do I go into haircutting? What if I'm not good? You know, we run into these questions that we forget that we had to work through. And what I did was I took time to myself to kind of play back and go back to when I was a student. What were my worries? What were my problems? What what did I want?

00:02:25 How fast did I want to get there? And how was I going to do it? And so I developed this four-week program based off of the people that I wanted to help first. And in week number one, I bring students in. ⁓ we start every day with affirmations and a little bit of breath work. That is so I can help these students who are in school five days a week, regulate their nervous system, bring it back down, and

00:02:26 Help them to really like lock in and be where their feet are. That's what I always tell them. Guys, be where your feet are. This is gonna be the most important part of the day. After that, go and do what you want to do. So in week one, I bring them in, we open up with breath work, affirmations, and then what I do is I actually take a model that day. And it might be a full transformation, it might be a highlight retouch. And what I do is I go through and I just break the head down. I break it down in the simplest form so that they can understand it.

00:02:27 And then that leads us into week two. Week two is ⁓ typically gonna be something along the lines of ⁓ intuitive creation. ⁓ we might go in and foil a mannequin head together, getting them to understand each section of the head. And I reiterate the reason why we're doing that is because when we get to week four, they I don't want them to question what they're doing. I want them to be on on the ball, operating in full confidence and just in that in that zone.

00:02:28 And then week three, we've taken a model there before as well. ⁓ it's a little bit more creation, it's a little bit more understanding. And then I have this thing called DAP Drills, which I have them work on outside of the classroom. So that is just a full breakdown of how I use a board application, ⁓ and then how I use the brush to its full ability. ⁓ and then we go into week four, which is where students will take a model in person.

Eric (26: 00:02:29 12)

00:02:29 Very cool. And so you expect these to be ⁓ your students, you're going for licensed beauty professionals, like recent licensed beauty professionals?

Reagan Kaalekahi (26: 00:02:30 24)

00:02:30 No, these are students that are like, hey, I want to get good fast. And what's been noted is I'm not learning what I want to learn, or I'm not learning in beauty school right now. You know, and it's kind of like I'm reaffirming with them, hey, like you're getting foundations. You're not supposed to be learning this stuff. You know, beauty school is for you to understand some state board and get through, get your license and things like that. pass the test.

00:02:31 And so when they come in, they're just like, Wow. When they go back to school, it's like their posture, their confidence, they're walking a little taller. You know, their their peers are wondering, What did you guys learn? The hair turned out so good. How'd you do that? It's it's pretty awesome.

Eric (27: 00:02:32 08)

00:02:32 That's cool. So I mean you're like a supplemental beauty school, sorta. You're like ⁓ Yeah. That's interesting. And so cost is probably a big thing for these students, right? So what are your what are you charging for that?

Reagan Kaalekahi (27: 00:02:33 11)

00:02:33 Hundred percent. Hundred percent. I'll I'll yeah, I'll take that title. Yeah.

00:02:34 Yeah. So this is stuff that people don't really know. But you know, coming into this, I, you know, I don't know what beauty school students can afford. You know, I ⁓ out of beauty school myself, I went and paid for a sixty five hundred dollar ⁓ six month cutting course that was gonna develop me into a stylist and place me into a salon. ⁓ I was I was able to do that. I wasn't working at the time. But when I came into this, I said, Hey, let me see if this is something that

00:02:35 Number one is something that people want. Number two is filling a problem. And number three, people can afford. So when I came into this, this is it's almost like a two-sided coin. There's a painful side to it, but there's a very rewarding, fulfilling side to it. And I had a long-term vision. So when I first came into it, I had one student that signed up. She got about 40 hours of my time and she got me for $400. and I worked with her one-on-one. After that,

00:02:36 And the feedback that I got from her, it was like every beauty school student needs to do this. And I was like, wow, okay. You know, for me, I'm looking at it like this is a program that I created. to me, this is things that I do every day. But to her, this was everyone needs to see this. And I was like, wow, okay, cool, you think so? And I'm I'm like trying to take it more than just a compliment. She's like, No, I'm dead serious. She goes, We need this kind of training right after school. Said, cool. I took two months off after that.

00:02:37 restructured the program, added more value, and then six students signed up. And at that point the cost was a little higher. We went and did another month. The cost went from 400 ⁓ to four ninety seven to five ninety seven, six ninety seven, and it kept climbing climbing. And the last class we did was nine ninety seven. And at this point I've got enough proof that the value of it is actually what I was hoping that would be probably within like the two K range or nineteen ninety seven.

Eric (29: 00:02:38 14)

00:02:38 I mean, that seems pretty reasonably priced. I don't want to say inex well, I don't want to say cheap, so I'll say inexpensive. and ⁓ yeah, because that that's ⁓ a tremendous amount of information, and you're kind of filling the gaps and at the risk of pissing some people off who might be listening to this. I mean, it's almost like you're trying to fill a gap between one of the bare bones beauty schools.

Reagan Kaalekahi (29: 00:02:39 18)

00:02:39 Yeah.

Eric (29: 00:02:40 39)

00:02:40 And like a Paul Mitchell school, you know, or a Vidal Sassoon school.

Reagan Kaalekahi (29: 00:02:41 42)

00:02:41 Yeah. Funny enough is ⁓

00:02:42 yeah, funny enough, the second class that I or actually yeah, first second class, though those were all Paul Mitchell students. And they were excited. They were they were that yeah, they were excited. And ⁓ you know, the way that I looked at it was, hey, if they go back to school and they're producing amazing hair and it's got Paul Mitchell's name on it, like

Eric (29: 00:02:43 53)

00:02:43 Don't say that. Just kidding. We're not sponsored by Paul Mitchell, so you can say that.

Reagan Kaalekahi (30: 00:02:44 11)

00:02:44 We essentially just shook hands and we helped each other. You know what I mean? industry collaborations. That that's kind of how I look at it.

Eric (30: 00:02:45 14)

00:02:45 Yeah. Yeah.

00:02:46 Yeah. Wow. Super cool. All right. Well where do people ⁓ look that up? I mean they can go to your gram Longhair Swag, but and we'll put all this in the show notes, everybody. But is there a website?

Reagan Kaalekahi (30: 00:02:47 28)

00:02:47 Is it?

00:02:48 Yeah, absolutely. Swaghouse salon dot co. You can go there and find some information. my school platform is in the school app, S K O O L. And you just search DAP. That's where I communicate with a lot of students. I'll drop a lot of information in there, tutorials, in person, how to turn a stranger to a client, things like that. ⁓ and then yeah, the website, and then of course posting on social media.

Eric (30: 00:02:49 47)

00:02:49 Cool.

00:02:50 Yep. What are you seeing on social these days?

Reagan Kaalekahi (31: 00:02:51 01)

00:02:51 Wow, ⁓ a lot of beautiful hair. Definitely a lot of beautiful hair. I feel like I'm moving more into authentic organic, which is me just I'm gonna give you just raw, this is what's on my mind. And I find that people really they love it, they'd love to hear it. We're all going through the same stuff. We're all trying to climb, we're all trying to get somewhere. ⁓ so there's times where I'm pushing, hey, you know, you got this. ⁓

00:02:52 Think about it this way. And then there's other times where I'm pushing, hey, like if you need to step away, step away. Slow down. Reset. Come back better.

Eric (31: 00:02:53 39)

00:02:53 Yeah, balance.

Reagan Kaalekahi (31: 00:02:54 40)

00:02:54 But a lot a lot of beautiful hair. I mean artists from I'm I'm getting a lot of Australia right now coming into my feed. ⁓ just people doing extraordinary, beautiful stuff, great artistry.

Eric (31: 00:02:55 50)

00:02:55 That's awesome. what about behind the chair these days? any not trends with like style, but you know, any behavioral changes with your clients?

Reagan Kaalekahi (32: 00:02:56 00)

00:02:56 Ooh, ⁓ bangs here and there. A little bit of fringe. But most of my clients are pretty like low maintenance. San Diego, I wanna see you four times like maybe like every three to four months, you know, people that want to come in one time, two times a year. and I feel like that's pretty steady for me. I don't really have any too any clients that are too high and tight on blonde. I have a couple of them here and there, a couple bleaching tones.

00:02:57 but most of are lived in.

Eric (32: 00:02:58 28)

00:02:58 any anything on the horizon that you're seeing? Like do I everybody's got, you know, those one, two, five clients who are, you know, kind of like micro influencers, right? They they might be a high school girl, they might be a college girl, or they they might be twenty nine years old and they're ⁓ they're very charismatic and they've got a group of friends who kind of look to them for like what they're doing.

Reagan Kaalekahi (32: 00:02:59 41)

00:02:59 Mm-hmm.

00:03:00 Mm-hmm.

Eric (32: 00:03:01 57)

00:03:01 ⁓ d you have clients like this?

Reagan Kaalekahi (33: 00:03:02 01)

00:03:02 You know what I don't? ⁓ I would say most of my clients are just like in that work professional kind of ⁓ range. and there was a point where I was like, I want like the, you know, super young girls that want to change their hair every time. And but then what also I go back to think about it too, you know, and and this is just like a genuine real statement for me is

Eric (33: 00:03:03 03)

00:03:03 Interesting.

Reagan Kaalekahi (33: 00:03:04 25)

00:03:04 When I work with people one on one, students that are like, hey, like, you know, how should I go about this building clientele? And I go, well, for me, the most steady are the working professionals. And they need to keep their hair polished. They need to keep it looking good. They love coming back. And as long as you're meeting their needs and you're giving them value and you're servicing them in a way that other people aren't, you're gonna keep a hundred percent. You know, I

00:03:05 had a very like big wave of just like the younger college girl they they're not in as often. ⁓ and a lot of time they need it tomorrow. ⁓ for me I've gotten very particular about my work schedule and balance that if I'm taking tomorrow off and it's a Saturday, ⁓ I don't have it. It's just kind of where I'm at. Yeah.

Eric (34: 00:03:06 13)

00:03:06 That's great. That's great.

00:03:07 I mean that's the that's the dream. what say you about the alpaca hair on the on the teenage boys?

Reagan Kaalekahi (34: 00:03:08 21)

00:03:08 Ooh, yeah. ⁓ man, that's it's coming so strong. It's coming so strong. Yeah. Every I I feel like every boy that I see is just, you know, they're just you you can only see their eyes. ⁓ you can't see their eyebrows. It's coming really strong. And it seems like everywhere I go, it's one of two hair, it's that or it's the it's the mullet. The mullets have gotten really good. Yeah.

Eric (34: 00:03:09 23)

00:03:09 Ha ha.

00:03:10 It's wild stuff.

00:03:11 Right. Can't see their eyebrows.

00:03:12 Yeah. Yeah, I like seeing the mullet.

00:03:13 I like seeing the mullet. It seems like ⁓ some of the some of the more ⁓ fashion forward kids are are kind of doing the mullet. ⁓ last summer I was in the UK and a lot of the kids had the alpaca thing, but it was a little different. It was more cropped kinda, so it was cut a little tighter, you know, just right above the ear, and then

Reagan Kaalekahi (35: 00:03:14 15)

00:03:14 Yep. Right.

Eric (35: 00:03:15 16)

00:03:15 just you know

00:03:16 mushroomed. ⁓ and they're a little bit more influenced by like soccer culture, you know, or football culture over there. And and I guess some of the some of the soccer players have that kind of thing. And then in in the States, like my son, like I said, is 13. So he's like right in the meat of that whole like you can do whatever the hell you want with your hair thing. And so he's fully alpacaed out. He has been ⁓ until last week.

Reagan Kaalekahi (35: 00:03:17 25)

00:03:17 Absolutely.

00:03:18 Mm-hmm.

Eric (35: 00:03:19 45)

00:03:19 when he went very, very short. And and I'm seeing a couple of his friends going very, very short. So I don't know if that kind of portends an end to the alpaca. But you know, it it's been f two, three years, maybe four years, since you see these packs of of young ⁓ teenage boys whose hair all looks the same. So I I wouldn't be surprised if we were were starting to move away from that.

Reagan Kaalekahi (36: 00:03:20 10)

00:03:20 Yeah.

00:03:21 Yeah, maybe like shaved heads and things. I've se I've seen some influencer very y you know, young, maybe like between like the late teen to early twenty, like shaving it down, bleaching it out and going like crazy colors and and it's cool, you know.

Eric (36: 00:03:22 30)

00:03:22 Yeah.

00:03:23 Yeah. Yeah, the bleaching out is amazing. I think before we started recording I was telling you about when my son and I bleached our hair and I I screwed up because it was a couple of weeks left in school and he was in like sixth grade or whatever and still, you know I say still. He probably will always be concerned about what people think about him. But ⁓ he g he was concerned about going back to school with, you know, white hair.

00:03:24 because Dre, our barber, ⁓ just roasted it and and literally took all pigment out of it and then toned it with a little bit of purple, which looked like a lot of purple because a little bit is a lot of purple, especially for a sixth sixth grade boy who had brown who had dark hair. And ⁓ but all the all the kids loved it. He was still very, you know, self conscious about it, but it looked sick and a lot of a lot of the boys wanted it. But ⁓

Reagan Kaalekahi (37: 00:03:25 10)

00:03:25 Yeah. Totally.

00:03:26 Mm-hmm.

Eric (37: 00:03:27 27)

00:03:27 I I asked him the other day, you know, when you cut it short like he just did, you know, do you wanna do you wanna bleach it again? And he's like, No. I'm like, God, it looks so good. And so his mom and I always look back and I didn't look as good as he did. He definitely looked better than I did.

Reagan Kaalekahi (37: 00:03:28 43)

00:03:28 The bleach out is awesome. I I wish I could I wish I could do that, yeah.

Eric (37: 00:03:29 47)

00:03:29 Yeah. ⁓ my son's really into surfing and some of the surfers, you know, will cut their hair short and then bleach it out. And so I'm I'm hoping that he he wants to do that again.

Reagan Kaalekahi (37: 00:03:30 54)

00:03:30 Yeah.

00:03:31 I love that.

Eric (37: 00:03:32 58)

00:03:32 If you could wave a wand and change anything in the industry right now, what would it be?

Reagan Kaalekahi (38: 00:03:33 01)

00:03:33 That's a great question. That's a really great question. Mm.

Eric (38: 00:03:34 04)

00:03:34 This

00:03:35 is everybody's favorite and least favorite question. Least favorite because you have to think about it.

Reagan Kaalekahi (38: 00:03:36 08)

00:03:36 Ha ha ha

00:03:37 Wave a wine, change anything.

Eric (38: 00:03:38 12)

00:03:38 Poof.

Reagan Kaalekahi (38: 00:03:39 13)

00:03:39 It would be the cost of products. The cost of color right now is insane.

Eric (38: 00:03:40 19)

00:03:40 Dude, you you can you hear cheers in the background?

Reagan Kaalekahi (38: 00:03:41 22)

00:03:41 Yeah, cost of cost of goods.

Eric (38: 00:03:42 22)

00:03:42 Go ahead.

00:03:43 Yeah, they've been going up steadily. I mean, look, we so we distribu in the Salon Republics we have a a dispensary in the in each location where we we carry about a hundred brands and you can walk down the hall, you can buy collar and stuff like that. And so we we basically just we pass it through, right? and so every year we get the increase in cost and it's like, you know, five, ten percent

00:03:44 per year. And it's it's brutal. And I totally get it.

Reagan Kaalekahi (38: 00:03:45 54)

00:03:45 Mm-hmm.

00:03:46 Yeah.

00:03:47 Yeah, like that one tube of color that's like almost twelve bucks, you know. You got shades of Q clear, that's like forty dollars. And for me it's like I'm not mad at the company. You know what I mean? It's just it's where things are and I'm like, okay, this has to this this is kind of crazy and it's like you can go to other lines and you know, it it can get competitive, but sometimes the array of what you want or maybe quality of

00:03:48 Result might not be there. and so, like a good friend told me, hey, cost is gonna be up everywhere, just go make more money.

Eric (39: 00:03:49 31)

00:03:49 so the reality is that ⁓ unless you find a competitive product like you just indicated that is less expensive, ⁓ or you know, and maybe produced by a company that's not subject to their own cost increase w increases, which of course doesn't exist because people want to make money every year, so you have

Reagan Kaalekahi (39: 00:03:50 48)

00:03:50 Mm-hmm.

Eric (39: 00:03:51 54)

00:03:51 you know, a thousand employees working at your company and all thousand of those wanna make extra money next year, right? So companies costs are going up, ⁓ the cost of gasoline is going up, the cost of the packaging is going up, so on and so forth. And so the cost of the product is going up. and what what do you do about it, right? You can you can complain about it and get pissed off, but you know, probably take thirty seconds doing that and then figure out what you're gonna do about it. And

00:03:52 The solution is to raise your prices, right? You know, do do better for your business. Yeah. Find more clients. You know, whatever it is that you and I'm talking to listeners here, whatever it is that you, the listener, can do to, you know, mitigate the cost increases, it might be getting more clients. It might be, it might be lowering your prices to get more clients. You know, wherever you happen to be, it might be.

Reagan Kaalekahi (40: 00:03:53 27)

00:03:53 Yep. Where's your prices?

Eric (40: 00:03:54 52)

00:03:54 raising your prices. i it it's a number of things, but ⁓ it's you know, being smart about your business to make sure that, you know, you're making more money every year.

Reagan Kaalekahi (41: 00:03:55 03)

00:03:55 Totally. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that also it's just mixing right mixing ratios. You know, I think coming out of being more efficient, I think coming out of some commission places that I worked in, you know, to see people having, you know, a section of the head still, you know, to foil and then mixing a full bowl and then just like dumping probably three quarters of it. I mean, I was like, Wow, that's a lot of color wasted for this business, you know.

Eric (41: 00:03:56 10)

00:03:56 Sure. Being more efficient.

Reagan Kaalekahi (41: 00:03:57 31)

00:03:57 And it's not something that I I don't know if many commission artists think about it, but the reason why I did is because at some point I knew that I wasn't going to be and I needed to understand that that was a part of, you know, cost of goods. It was gonna cost my business something for me to waste that much color. And so I think a lot of the time we can get away with mixing a lot less. And I think if you can be more efficient, you can also ⁓ maybe not have to be at Cosmo Prophet Solon Centric all the time, you know.

Eric (41: 00:03:58 59)

00:03:58 Absolutely, a hundred percent. Do you have any hair horror stories?

Reagan Kaalekahi (42: 00:03:59 03)

00:03:59 Ooh. yeah, I got a couple, actually. Yeah. this is when I first started. I was in Seattle, Washington, and this gal comes in. She's probably got hair down to like just below her, just below her back, and all red, box dye, been doing it herself. And I was such a newbie, so she wanted to change it to kind of like more of like a blonde brown. So I go in and we cut some of it. And she wanted to cut a bob, which I didn't know at

00:04:00 until the end. And so I put bleach on midst to I didn't know until the end. So I and it all worked out, thankfully, but I put ⁓ we did like a bleach and tone application, midst really midst to ends. I was going to go in and apply on the roots ⁓ after or like the virgin hair. And so I put it on, I put a cap over her, and then for some reason I decided we're gonna add a little heat, right? The the the cap with the hair is hanging about right here.

Eric (42: 00:04:01 34)

00:04:01 You didn't know until the end. Okay. Okay.

Reagan Kaalekahi (43: 00:04:02 00)

00:04:02 And so I step away. My coworker comes and finds me. She goes, Hey, your client is asking for you. I'm like, ⁓ I just stepped away. I go back over and she goes, Hey, my neck is like really hot. I think the something's happening in the in the cap. Like, okay. So I feel it and I was like, yeah. I was like, grab me a towel. I put a towel around her neck so the hair wasn't laying on her. And then I take the cap off and just like this billow of steam, smoke, whatever it was. ⁓

00:04:03 Goes into the air, everyone in the salon's looking over like what is going on over there. And the bleach is having a chemical reaction with the heat and whatever's in her hair from the box color. ⁓ I take her to the sink, rinse it, and she's just like, I want a bob, by the way. I said, Thank God, because none of this hair is gonna survive this. I was like, ⁓ yep. And so we got done with the hair. I styled it, took a picture of it, and it was the first time I got reposted on another platform.

Eric (43: 00:04:04 48)

00:04:04 Thank you, client.

00:04:05 Ha ha ha.

Reagan Kaalekahi (43: 00:04:06 57)

00:04:06 It was it was like it was like a top ten ⁓ hair transformations in like in Canada. And I I was I was beside myself and I was like yeah, I'm like little do they know.

Eric (44: 00:04:07 03)

00:04:07 my god, that's a ma that's so ironic.

00:04:08 That's so funny. You should have posted in the comments of ⁓ about that story. That would have been amazing. ⁓ my god. ⁓ that's a pretty good one.

Reagan Kaalekahi (44: 00:04:09 09)

00:04:09 Yeah.

00:04:10 Yeah. But you know, there's those

00:04:11 are it's it's far and few in between now. I think when you're just getting started and you're looking to take on clients, ⁓ you don't know how to see those signs or talk long enough to understand where someone might be or you know how their what their relationship is between stylists that they've seen in the past. ⁓ because we're so used to we gotta we have two hours and thirty minutes, let's go in, consult.

00:04:12 not know what we're doing, mix, come back and mix color and now we have an unhappy client again. You know, so for me it's like the conversation piece in the first appointment, ⁓ and then also leading up to it is is super important. I think that if you're not having some type of questionnaire leading up to them being in the chair, ⁓ you want to add that to to what you're doing.

Eric (45: 00:04:13 06)

00:04:13 Yeah, a hundred percent. And you get into the consultation on your gram you probably get it get into it ⁓ during your education too, right? Yeah, super important. Any last words for the community?

Reagan Kaalekahi (45: 00:04:14 15)

00:04:14 Absolutely. Yep.

00:04:15 I feel like our industry is evolving and it's happening really fast. And my biggest message for a stylist out there is to not put yourself in a place mentally where you're comparing too much and you feel like you're slipping behind because you might not be up to par with what you're seeing on Insta. Because sometimes

00:04:16 Maybe even most times, right? These are productions. ⁓ some of the hair that we're seeing that we're thinking or that clients may put an expectation on you to get done in four hours might have taken twelve, might have taken two sessions, right? And I think that getting clear as a stylist on how you operate ⁓ as a client sits in your chair is one of the best things you can do is be in that place of authority. And

00:04:17 know that you're the artist and you're the stylist, regardless of how many redkin shades, forms they've studied on Pinterest, you are still the professional. There is far more than just slapping color on the head and turning a hair a certain color. You know, w we train years and years and years, go take the classes, educate, make the mistakes, fix the mistakes, and that's where knowledge and

00:04:18 Power is built behind the chair.

Eric (46: 00:04:19 29)

00:04:19 All right, Reagan, this was awesome. Thank you so much for coming on.

Reagan Kaalekahi (46: 00:04:20 32)

00:04:20 Yeah, Eric, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it and it's an honor being on the podcast today.

Eric (46: 00:04:21 36)

00:04:21 Absolutely great talking. Hope to see you soon.

Reagan Kaalekahi (46: 00:04:22 37)

00:04:22 Yeah, man.

00:04:23 All right, you too.