Has Salon Geek made us lazy?

[izzidoll]

Being a dinosaur myself, as in, I roamed the Nail Industry in the times Before Salon Geek I have been wondering if it has made us lazy or at the very least, less adventurous!!

Before I explain what I mean, please take it as a given that I know this site has done more to help fledgling nail/beauty/hair technicians than anything else and it is a great learning tool and support group when used correctly. I love SG OK!

But I have noticed more and more that people post asking "what if, I did this what would happen" "What would it look like if I did this" "Has anyone ever done this, what happened?"

Have we all lost our sense of adventure, do we not try things for ourselves anymore? Do we just rely on other people to test things out for us here on Salon Geek.

Obviously I am not advocating mucking about with the system you use or breaking any health & safety laws , but just being a liittle bit more innovative. After all we are in a creative industry.

I would much rather read threads telling me about how you jumped right in at the deep end and gave something a try , with how successful or how disastrous it was, than a 'what if' hoping someone will tell you how to do it first thread!

I remember way back when Heather Davies posted about her experiments with colour polish and Brisa Gel, OK not endorsed by CND but it worked and a lot of geeks gained from it. It was innovative and FUN!!

Also Victoria's experiments with different clamps to use poppits with gel!

Surely the first person who used a reverse application to get a perfect smile line must have been controversial, or even double dipping with colour, adding glitter to a clear powder, putting a gel topcoat on an acrylic nail, the list goes on. I am sure there are things that were criticised on here before that are now common useage and we can't live without.

Or are we just a litttle to shy to post our experiments and ideas on here in case we have done something deemed as wrong .

Come on Geeks, give things a go, then let us know!

 

[shedunlop]

I agree Izzi. All of us more mature and interesting geeks will experiment in our own time with different ideas. Some work really well and others are a disaster lol!!

There are many ways to skin a cat, as the old saying goes and surely any new method or product is created from someone thinking outside the box. For instance, who would have thought 16 years ago when I was learning how to paint a nail and my poor clients spent the next couple of hours being careful not to catch their nails on anything, that we would have beautiful products like Shellac and Gelish?

Thank goodness for the diversity in the industry and the forward thinking of major companies and sometimes the smaller individuals who do so much to keep things fresh and exciting!

An excellent thread!!

 

[mum]

I agree and I don't agree. I think this site is a fantastic educational aid and it has shown so many techs that there is so much more to nails that they realised (especially that 1 short course isn't enough!)

what it can do though is provide quick answers to those that really should have the understanding. This is much better than not having the correct answers but proper basic learning is preferable.

Overall I believe it provides more information and education than the majority of training courses and that shows what a great site this is but it's a shocking state of the level of education in the UK.

Sharing of ideas is fabulous! The lazy people will always be lazy but I'm sure this aspect has encouraged many creative people to experiment themselves (and with understanding this can be done with great effect!)

 

[Pinkie]

I'm a newbie and I'm finding it a great source of information about products I've not yet had the chance to use and ideas. I don't think that it will ever replace doing it myself, but it will give me the chance to thrash out ideas if I'm not sure about something, or that little bit more confidence in annonymously asking a 'stupid' question. :o

I imagine that most people would use it in the same way. It could just be me, though.

 

[izzidoll]

I'm a newbie and I'm finding it a great source of information about products I've not yet had the chance to use and ideas. I don't think that it will ever replace doing it myself, but it will give me the chance to thrash out ideas if I'm not sure about something, or that little bit more confidence in annonymously asking a 'stupid' question. :o

I imagine that most people would use it in the same way. It could just be me, though.

This site is by far the best place for a newbie to come for information to save them time and money !!
Obviously newbies need to learn the basics and get their skills up before any big ideas for innovating the Industry will pop into their heads Therefore this thread is not really aimed at them, although they would benefit from seeing more ideas from the 'time served geeks'

What about all the geeks with experience on here, the silent majority if you will!! They are not newbies who need to ask a lot of questions, they haven't become or have no interest in being educators, but they are the ones at the coal face and usually that means have all the idea's in the salon to make their lives easier!!!

 

[geeg]

Good thread Izzi ...

I'm not sure I would say Salon geek has made folks lazy (although it may have) .... but it has shown up or highlighted quite a few things, one of which is that some are very timid to try anything on their own like we used to do (still do in many cases) and the reasons I believe are listed below.

1. As Marian has said .. many students simply do not have the product knowledge to be able to figure out things for themselves.

2. Many will not try anything without 'checking' first if it's OK, either due to the fact that they do not want to waste product or again they simply do not have the knowledge to be confident to try.

3. I also believe that many think the way they were taught is the ONLY way and daren't step out of the box.

4. They all want to run before they can even toddle.

For some of us oldies there was no one to ask so we just got on with it and experimented ourselves.

Marian Newman is a prime example of a person who steps out of the box to create new things every day ... you ask her to produce something nail wise for a photo shoot and she will figure out a way to do it. One of the keys to Marian's success in the job that she does today, is that those who ask her know she will produce the goods one way or another. She is inventive and she knows her products inside and out and what she can and cannot do .. it is why she reigns supreme ... aspiring techs take note.

Do you know that one of the reasons CND comes up with the innovations it does, is because they always take note of what the technicians are doing creatively and what they want! they get their ideas from the likes of US.

 

[LolaBevahousen]

Ohhh, awesome topic!
Being a non dinosaur (not my words ;D ) I have to say that I love experimenting and more times then not salongeek has given me nothing but ideas for more experiments. Its given me the basics of where to start off, what color mixed with what makes so and so, how to create a simple spiral nail and much more from that I can go on knowing the basics and stepping into new territory with expanding on what I already know.
I don't think I'm lazy, I just think I like knowing what other people know to save me time.

 

[skymark]

I do miss those threads we used to get a lot of where people had tried something new, sometimes with fabulous results sometimes with a funny tale of how terribly awful it looked.

It does seem that people do seem to want a step by step guide to creating something new as in 'how would i do this' when what is more interesting is 'i want this look, this is what i have tried, can anyone help with some ideas to improve it'

 

[persianista]

Hmm. I have been slated on the hair forums for posting stuff that is not taught on an NVQ!
It made me more wary of posting tricks that I found out through necessity or invention.
I do think we were more inventive before health and safety became such a prime issue. We used to do terrible experiments on peoples hair in salon years ago.

 

[geeg]

Hmm. I have been slated on the hair forums for posting stuff that is not taught on an NVQ!
It made me more wary of posting tricks that I found out through necessity or invention.
I do think we were more inventive before health and safety became such a prime issue. We used to do terrible experiments on peoples hair in salon years ago.

LOL but it is so valuable to have the one thing for which there is NO substitute and that is EXPERIENCE. I WOULD NOT SWAP THE 'OLD' DAYS FOR ANYTHING ... and these days are the old days for the new ones if they will use their creative heads.

 

[The Geek]

Nope. Its made me age 10 years

 

[MissOwen]

Nope. Its made me age 10 years

Just 10?! With all that goes on here and the time it must take to keep everything running smoothly, i think you've done well with only 10 years!!

Well, i try lots of things, some go well, some really dont!!! But i wouldnt post my experiments on here. I think we sooooo many people using this site now, there is a lot of different opinions and anything a bit outside the box would be met with some good and some bad comments.... i'm a wimp, i dont think i'd want to start a debate!!

I would guess (and i dont know so very much a guess!) that the earlier days of geek, when it was starting out. Those who joined were probably directed to the site by another member so that many of you may have known each other in one way or another..... bit more of a circle of friends feeling (and easier to get involved with fewer members) so people would have been more comfortable sharing. Now that salongeek has grown to be the fantastic resource that it is, and there are so many more nail techs around, it has a slightly different feel and people like me are a little nervous of posting anything too unusual :o

Oh, and just to add. I would never had discovered how much there is to learn and the variety of things that can be done to make different and beautiful creations if it wasnt for salongeek so if anything it has given me the inspiration to be more inventive! x

 

[persianista]

LOL but it is so valuable to have the one thing for which there is NO substitute and that is EXPERIENCE. I WOULD NOT SWAP THE 'OLD' DAYS FOR ANYTHING ... and these days are the old days for the new ones if they will use their creative heads.

Haha, you clearly weren't one of the heads we were experimenting on Geeg! Nobody got killed.......

 

[Susie H]

Great thread, lazy? No I don't think so, but I do think we see the product of our training.
Good old health and safety, doing it's best but no substitute for common sense is it?
Back to the point, I too would like to see more posts that say, I'm trying to get ....... look, I've tried ... and .... what do you think?
Rather then the blanket; how do I do ......
Remember the start of custom blending? Those of us lucky enough to be sat in Sam's seminar (complete with geek hats ) were intranced, we couldn't wait to get home and start playing and sharing the results.
That's what gets most of us buzzing, someone say's something on here and we all get the 'what if' bug and our poor newbies, fresh out of collage suddenly find that nearly everything they've been told is out dated. That can be so hard to take in and it can take quiet some time before you dare to enter the world of what if.

 

[BobSweden]

I wouldn't say that SalonGeek or other forums has made techs lazy. The world changed :

- most younger people today would rather get their information from the internet than buy a book or newspaper. They grew up with it and well understand that online is faster, cheaper and you also get social interaction. However, one thing that the internet can't replace is good personal education. YouTube is no substitute for seeing the technique demonstrated live, practicing yourself and having your mistakes corrected by a good educator. From what I've seen on YouTube, many demonstrators could use a good class themselves!

- the industry has matured, and the product range of even the smallest manufacturers is very large. An example is that in the good old days techs had to create their own colors using artists pigments, or add the glitter themselves - everything is now prepackaged to suit the majority of needs

- at the beginning, there were of course many fewer nail techs and customers as artificial nails were new. I'd love to ask Gigi, as I have the intuition that most probably it tended to attract more artistic people who would experiment more, and also there could have been a pioneering and adventurous feeling to the industry. Most of us now are standing on their shoulders, as they helped develop the new techniques which are commonplace today in both salon nails and nail art.

I have to agree with Marion and Gigi that I am surprised by some of the questions on the forum that reflect the level of education in the UK. One would have thought that after 20+ years we wouldn't still be asking how to stop lifting! This is not the fault of the questioner - but of those schools who sell short classes knowing full well the new techs will be totally unprepared.

Given that, I believe that SG provides an invaluable service to the UK nail industry by providing post-school education and a community of support for new nail techs who are really dropped in the deep end by the schools and suddenly realize that they don't know enough to really start their career.

:hug: to SG and all those people who freely give their advice to the newbies!


Bob

 

[izzidoll]

Sharing of ideas is fabulous! The lazy people will always be lazy but I'm sure this aspect has encouraged many creative people to experiment themselves (and with understanding this can be done with great effect!)

Absolutely agree....sharing of ideas is fabulous, and that surely is what is at the heart of this site....SHARING! Although I do think that this is getting forgotten.

Good thread Izzi ...

I'm not sure I would say Salon geek has made folks lazy (although it may have) .... but it has shown up or highlighted quite a few things, one of which is that some are very timid to try anything on their own like we used to do (still do in many cases) and the reasons I believe are listed below.

1. As Marian has said .. many students simply do not have the product knowledge to be able to figure out things for themselves.
I am still shocked by this! Although when I first trained in a little private course I knew it was just the basics I was taught, and there was much more to it. I went out there and found the product information and all the things I needed to know, I researched on my own and then went on to do more and more courses, with better companies and products Nobody had to lead me by the hand!
This is so much easier to do now thanks to Salon Geek !

2. Many will not try anything without 'checking' first if it's OK, either due to the fact that they do not want to waste product or again they simply do not have the knowledge to be confident to try.

I think this proves my point, I mean nail products can be experimented with on Nail Trainers, on tips, or even on the new Arabella Forms, no damage to anything or anyone! Even if you do try something on a nail 20mins sees it soaked back off! It is not like Hairdressers chopping off someones hair, and it taking years to grow back!! So waht is stopping people...do they think it has all been done!!

3. I also believe that many think the way they were taught is the ONLY way and daren't step out of the box.

4. They all want to run before they can even toddle.

For some of us oldies there was no one to ask so we just got on with it and experimented ourselves.

.

Exactly Geeg!!....and thank you for the innovation that is PINK Gelbond!!

Just 10?! With all that goes on here and the time it must take to keep everything running smoothly, i think you've done well with only 10 years!!

Well, i try lots of things, some go well, some really dont!!! But i wouldnt post my experiments on here. I think we sooooo many people using this site now, there is a lot of different opinions and anything a bit outside the box would be met with some good and some bad comments.... i'm a wimp, i dont think i'd want to start a debate!!

. Now that salongeek has grown to be the fantastic resource that it is, and there are so many more nail techs around, it has a slightly different feel and people like me are a little nervous of posting anything too unusual :o

x

I suspect GMG missed out a zero and meant 100!!!

I love a good debate, and that is what keeps the site fresh and innovative, OK it can get a bit heated at times (well we are all passionate about our Industry) but we still always learn something, even if we choose to ignore it !!
The worst thing that could happen would be for everyone just to use this as the ultimate Manual and just come in and take information without joining the community and sharing their experience and views. (IMHO)
Which takes me back full circle to Marians comment that ...................the sharing of ideas is fabulous!!!!

 

[cuteycalls]

i think peeps are a lot less daring because it is so easy to be sued for just about anythink nowadays thats we feel safer asking for advice and reassuance and as so many of us work alone being mobile ect we dont have the luxury of asking fellow collegues for advice this site is like a god send i wounder how many of us would of trundled on through making the same mistakes or even given up or heaven forbid been sued so i dont think this site has made us lazy i think the world has made us more careful