Ask the experts: how do I create a name for myself in the hairdressing industry?

I’m looking to create a name for myself in the hairdressing industry but what’s the best way to go about this – should I look to create a signature style or build a social media following?

The best way to achieve a good reputation is through determination and confidence built on real skills and actual knowledge, enabling you to deliver the best, every time. Having the right training and motivation to excel are the two most essential elements to building a successful hairdressing business. I have built my reputation by ensuring that my customers are relieved and happy that I am their first and only choice of hairdresser and grooming consultant. My success is founded in having the right team, continual training and customer retention.

I have only achieved this through years of improved standards and self-development. There is no such thing as a signature style, styles are copied easily enough, and fashions come and go and repeat themselves. Therefore I have laboured to create a signature service, one that is unique, exclusive and inimitable. Social media is the virtual platform where my work, team and customers can celebrate everything that I have worked for, what I do day-to-day and showcase how we better our services. Having a social media presence is part of our service to our customers, it's a forum of positivity and they reward us with their following. So as your standards grow and your customer base expands, your social media presentation and interaction must be current and crucial to your customers. Finally, as I alluded to earlier, a business is only as good as its team. A king's crown does not have one diamond in it, surrounded by cubic zirconas. Each of my managerial, administrational, technical and support team are diamonds in their own right.

Wafic Saab is a sought-after grooming specialist to VIPs, business elites, media personalities, TV celebrities and performing artists throughout the region. He has built his esteemed reputation over three decades and is now based in Dubai at Vogue Icon Gentlemen's Hairdressing & Grooming Salon.

Read the full feature in the March issue of Professional Beauty magzine here