Whew.. I read through all the 7 pages
Excellent thread!
Why is there so many "messers"? It's a complicated issue. I think it's because our industry is actually too cheap and "too easy" to get into. People don't need literally any training to be open for business. Because of that public perception of what's acceptable is seriously low.
What I would love to see is an apprenticeship program in place. Like 100's years ago when people wanted to learn a trade they would work for a master for years to become "a professional" (but not a master yet).
I think it's way too easy to become an educator in our industry too. Some companies require just a 2 day course and they become "masters"
Please google "apprenticehip history/journeyman/guild/Master craftsman" . Very interesting read. I don't think it was a bad system! :idea:
The system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labor in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in the craft. Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices were found in crafts such as seamstress,[1] tailor, cordwainer, baker and stationer.[2]
Most apprentices aspired to becoming master craftsmen themselves on completion of their contract (usually a term of seven years), but some would spend time as a journeyman and a significant proportion would never acquire their own workshop.
A journeyman is a trader or crafter who has completed an apprenticeship. A journeyman was a craftsman who had fully learned his trade and earned money but was not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for judgment. If the work were deemed worthy, the journeyman would be admitted to the guild as a master.
A master craftsman or master tradesman (sometimes called only master or grandmaster, German: Meister) was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild.
An aspiring master would have to pass through the career chain from apprentice to journeyman before he could be elected to become a master craftsman. He would then have to produce a sum of money and a masterpiece before he could actually join the guild. If the masterpiece was not accepted by the masters, he was not allowed to join the guild, possibly remaining a journeyman for the rest of his life.
Having to find a place to work/apprentice at sure would be little challenging but that would eliminate people that are not serious, the "messers" and the weekend worriers.
Unfortunately we are living in a instant gratification society and the younger generations live with some kind of attitude that they are entitled to have it all.
They feel that they should afford everything (course too expensive?
I should make it cheaper so "they" can afford it. They are not ready after 12 week course and 100 hrs to make money like a person with 10 year experience?
My fault for not "teaching" them.
So many want to be able to open up their business after 100 hrs... becuase they feel that now they are "professional" and there is no way they will work in a salon for a minimum wage (not realizing that they barely make that for the salon)!
Because our industry is full of "messers" we don't have enough of "good competition" and the public doesn't expect much (they think that it's OK/normal for the manicure to hurt, that they end up with bleeding fingers, its normal for a nail tech to jam their nail under the enhancement to remove it, it's so normal for many people to see shared tools at the salon etc etc)
Sure, they complain sometimes but they don't do anything else. They don't call health departament for example. It boggles my mind why general public is not more picky.
They complain in the restaurants that their food is cold, fork has a water marks or feels greasy or that there is a hair in their food.... but dirty cuticle pusher? That's OK?
Sure, some might not know, they assume that everything is clean (because it came out of the "oven" - aka UV sterilizer- NOT an approved method of disinfection in Ontario BTW) but many people that I talk to actually SEE ""nail techs"" share the tools while working on other clients without CLEANING them at all.
The sad part is that the lack of sanitation happens almost eveywhere. Not just discount salons. I've been to many salons to do product demos and trust me... what I see is sad! Dusty drawers with dirty implements, sticky and dusty tables, reused towels, dirty buffers in UV sterilizes.
The regulations here are CLEAR. Only metal/non porous implements to be desinfected, all files, buffers, toe separators- GABAGE after each use.
Yet, I see used files at almost EACH salon (I would say 99%)
Why do salons do it? Because they can. Because clients still pay.
If clients got up from the chair seeing a dirty file and demanded a refund because the service was not up to their (high) standards... things would change quickly.
