Hello and welcome to my first blog entry. My name is Erin and in addition to this blog I also reach out to the world through my “Hair by Erin” Facebook page. I am a Salon Leader and a Master Stylist at the Ballston Hair Cuttery in Northern Virginia and most recently a member of the Style Squad.
As a member of the Hair Cuttery Style Squad, I get opportunities to have some fun outside of the salon setting and see different sides of the hair industry. Recently, I was asked to be a part of Hair Cuttery’s Back to School/Share a Haircut commercial shoot. You have no idea how thrilled I was to say YES! I admit it, I love it when I get to do something special, especially if it gets me on television too!
So this past Friday I was up extra bright and early to get ready and look fabulous. As a hairstylist I have to look the part and if it’s going to be on television I have to look super fabulous. This means clothes, make-up and HAIR. When doing a commercial about hair it seems only natural to want to have really great hair. I grabbed my outfit and then hit the bathroom to create some loose, pretty curls and pinned in my signature flower to complete the look. Now I was ready.
Fast forward a couple hours to the shoot and suddenly I’m not feeling so ready. I’ve talked to my models and decided what we’re going to do with their hair and we’re waiting for all the lighting to be set up so I decide to go through my lines. This should be fairly easy since I’ve been looking them over for about an hour but suddenly I can’t speak without saying the wrong word or name. This is crazy, I’m good at speaking and I can certainly read, so it has to be the pressure. But what pressure? Brad, the producer from Fox 5 WTTG, has gone over the lines with me and said I sounded great. So why can’t I get them out now? Is it possible that I’m nervous?
As I’m trying to find a way to get the lines out Brad decides we should get started with the haircuts and get some video footage. OK, this is easy, I don’t have to talk, I just have to smile and cut hair. This I can do. Here I go, pin up the sections and make the first few cuts so I can establish the guideline. From there, I rocked out Lauren’s stacked bob and them went on to adding some fun layers to Rachel’s cut. Then we waited for Daryl, our camera guy, to set up lights for the opening shot and I went through the lines with Brad again to be sure I had them. We decided on how we wanted the shot to look and took our marks. When we finally managed to get all distractions out of the shot, Brad called for “quiet on the set” and the phone rang, then clients came in and a Stylist wanted to ring out her client. (So much for quiet on the set.) After a couple more minutes, we managed to get it quiet. I’m proud to say it only took a handful of takes and it seemed we had it. Both Brad and Daryl were happy with the shots and told me I had done a wonderful job and seemed comfortable. I guess if they thought I was comfortable then I am a better actress than I thought. Looking comfortable with six people staring at you is harder than you think.
Brad and Daryl set up for the final shot which only required my models so I began to relax and put things away. I talked with some others from the Hair Cuttery home office about the shoot and what they thought. I was happy that they were pleased and pretty psyched I got through it without any major issues. Sometimes it seems the more important something is, the bigger the chance of me having some ridiculous issue. Today, it seemed, I was about to escape in fine form.
Being relaxed and watching the final set-up I began talking with one of the working Stylists who thought the cameraman was a good looking guy. I smiled and agreed with her. A moment later, the camera guy appeared with a big smile to remind me I still had my mic on and he heard we thought he was cute. (So close to getting out of there without embarrassing myself, so very close.)
Be sure to keep looking for my blog to hear the latest in what’s going on in my crazy hair world and share some laughs.
(Editor’s Note: You can visit Erin at the Ballston Mall Hair Cuttery and be sure to check out “Hair by Erin” on FaceBook.)
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