I asked people at the hairdressers at 11am what they do for work
WORDS BY DAISY HENRY
Booked out.
Anyone who works a nine-to-five will know the struggle of trying to book a hairdresser’s appointment outside of work hours. Of course, there are the lucky few who can prop their laptop at the salon and get their hair coloured as long as they’ve got Slack open, but for the risk-averse among us, it’s tough trying to find a time to get your hair touched up.
When you work a typical full-time job, you can usually kiss the days of last-minute and impulsive hair appointments goodbye. I often need to book months in advance because weekend appointments are so hard to come across. It involves a careful balance of plotting out my regrowth, calculating how soon my greys will reappear and budgeting ahead of time.
Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.
But what about all the appointments that inevitably fill up during the week? Edwards and Co’s Fitzroy salon, for example, is open from Tuesday to Saturday, meaning that the bulk of their availability is mid-week. Someone, somewhere had to be booking in.
I wondered whether people’s jobs were incredibly flexible, or whether they were technically considered ‘at work‘ while they were having their foils rinsed. So I decided to pop into the salon and see for myself.
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Laura*, 29, executive manager
I’m the executive manager of store operations. It’s pretty similar to being an area manager, but I’m responsible for managing five sites and I oversee whether we’re meeting our KPIs, hiring, firing performance managing and leading my teams. I’ve been in the role for two and a half years but I’ve been with the same company for almost ten.
We have a 20 per cent work-from-model but I travel a lot and make my schedule based on where I need to be. I have today off despite being currently logged on doing a bit of work, but we do have flexibility and can usually book appointments during the week if we need.
Mia*, 20, professional dancer
I currently work on a cruise ship as a dancer. I’m on a four-month contract going around Australia and New Zealand, so I’m just here for the day. I’m a professional dancer and I just came off a tour I did in the U.S – the company I work for is called Step One Dance Company and it’s based in New York, but they happened to have a contract lined up and I’d never done a cruise ship before, so I thought I’d hop on it.
I usually get off the ship at around 9am and then you can usually do whatever you want. Melbourne is such a great place to wander around, there are so many coffee spots and thrift shops. It was a good chance to book in for a hair appointment! Then we typically have an all-aboard a 4:30 or 5:00pm and we have to head back. We have a show tonight and then we’d usually head to bed and that’s the week.
Ash*, 42, marketing director
I’m a marketing director at a technology company and I’ve been there for about ten years, though I’ve been in the industry longer. My day-to-day involves business-to-business marketing across Asia. It’s fairly flexible, we aim for about fifty-fifty in-store and work-from-home but it’s not directly tracked. I might have some weeks in the office and some where I get to travel. I’ve got the day off today and I’m just taking it easy but I’d usually come to the hairdresser on a weekday and work from here.
Sara*, 27, events sales manager
I work for a restaurant group. I’m their events sales manager, so I look after events, partnerships and activations. I’ve been in this role for just two years and before that, I worked in catering but I’ve always worked in hospitality. All of the restaurants have their own teams but I typically come in to support them for anything in the event space. My day-to-day is fairly varied, which I really enjoy. I get to move around a lot and work with lots of different brands.
I work from home one day and I move between venues for the rest but I’m lucky enough to have today off, so I decided to book in.
Jazz*, 37, designer, business owner and program coordinator
I have a part-time job and I also run a small business. I work for a community organisation in family violence, so that’s my nine-to-five job and I’ve been there for almost ten years. I work in the office two days and one day from home – although it’s flexible, I wouldn’t book a hair appointment on one of those work days. My small business is a fashion label and I’ve been doing it for a few years, which means I can go to appointments in the latter half of the week if I need to.
Later today I’ve got a meeting with an Aboriginal organisation and I’m seeing an Aunty who wants some pieces made. Community is everything so that’s something I get in my nine-to-five job.
*Names have been changed for privacy.
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