The title of top eco-warrior in the UK hairdressing industry probably, almost definitely, belongs to London-based Karine Jackson, a creative icon whose work wows stylists across the globe. An Aussie domiciled in the UK, she has advocated sustainability for nearly 20 years and has been the first adopter of many innovations as they came to market. Her passion for great service with an environmental twist has helped make her a household name in London’s fashion circles as well as in the beauty industry.
Part of her commitment has involved recruiting like-minded people to her team and leading them in providing a service that places as little burden on the planet as possible, including monitoring how much waste they produce. So when she saw Vish, she wondered if it was really necessary for her salon.
‘I loved the idea that it automated colour: talking directly to our front desk system, providing instant reports on team usage, collecting data on client formulas and enabling live inventory control, but we were pretty tight on waste so I wasn’t bothered about monitoring that so much,’ says Karine, who uses an organic colour that deposits minimal chemicals in the water system. ‘But when we started it showed my waste, when we re-weighed the bowl after the service, was about 7 per cent. I was shocked.’
It also revealed that as a salon, waste was running at 16 per cent. A waste of 7 per cent is an amazing statistic for Karine, while 16 per cent for the team is not that hideous – the industry average is well above twenty per cent and it’s often an expense considered unavoidable in the colour department. But within weeks of installing one of Vish’s Bluetooth scales in her colour department, Karine saw her colour waste drop to 3 per cent and the salon’s overall waste to 7 per cent – a reduction of more than 50 per cent. The amount being dispensed also plummeted by 25 per cent, meaning lower colour costs for the salon.
‘Most of us consider as waste whatever colour is left in the bowl after a service, but Vish shows that a lot of over-use comes from colourists over-mixing and just putting all the colour on the hair. That was difficult to monitor without Vish. This isn’t just a waste, it can also affect the outcome,’ says Karine. ‘I was quickly able to target personalised training to get all the team using even less colour. No one wants to be at the bottom of the chart when it comes to colour waste. ’
She reckons one reason waste has plummeted was that Vish Colour Management also liberates her team from worrying about the maths behind a formula, and allows them to fine-tune it to the tenth of a gram without calculating ratios. Vish does it for them. No more rounding up to the easiest quantities regardless of waste. The Vish formulas are then recorded on the POS system at the front desk to be reused or rejigged at the client’s next visit.
‘It is so satisfying when you find ways to make your salon even more sustainable,’ adds Karine. ‘Plus, it means I can rationalise reordering, buying in what we’ve used, rather than what we think we need, once a fortnight, without the hassle of manually recording what’s been used each day.’
Vish has helped Karine in her quest to be as sustainable as possible, but not just for the planet. The level of detail the system gives is also helping Karine sustain her profitability.
