Salon owners get tools to be a cut above the rest

With their genuine desire to uplift the Philippines’ beauty industry, L’Oréal Professional recently “upskilled” some of the country’s salon owners by holding its first L’Oréal Business School (LBS) training program, an eight-day workshop that focuses on equipping such entrepreneurs with business knowledge necessary for the success of their salon ventures.

“We want more Filipinos to have access to the right kind of support with the skills that utilize their interpersonal, business and creative abilities,” says Luis Yanga, general manager of L’Oréal Philippines’ professional products division.

LBS’ first batch consisted of existing salon owners, but Yanga says the program is open to anyone who wants to learn the business-related nuances of running a salon. The workshop covers topics such as salon business, salon operations, salon management and ethics, and the digital capability and ecosystem. ‍‍‍‍

‍For the first batch, these were taught by University of the Philippines professor Luis Lee; Jon Bantigue, Azta Urban Salon owner; Camille Ilagan, Jesi Mendez Salon COO; and Jude Hipolito and Rose Velasco, owners of Juro Salon Exclusif and brand ambassadors of L’Oréal Professionnel.

The eight-day workshops are spread out across two months, says Yanga, since participants are also entrepreneurs who need to oversee their salons’ operations, or are hairdressers themselves. ‍

Moving forward, L’Oréal Philippines plans to hold the LBS program twice every year, with the next one scheduled for May 2020. ‍

The program costs P30,000 per student.

Ezra Sumbillo, second-generation owner of the 22-year-old South Salon (in Westgate in Alabang; Nuvali in Santa Rosa, Laguna; and in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig), is LBS’ first “valedictorian.” ‍

Having grown up in the industry—his parents, Enrique and Victoria, started the business—Sumbillo says he found L’Oréal’s training program a useful supplement to the things he had already learned about running a salon.

“Management of the business’ financial aspect is what pushed me to enroll,” Sumbillo says. I think it was such a great experience to spend the two-week course with other salon owners who were also eager to learn new things, as well as share experiences and problems within their respective salons, thus giving us all a chance to share knowledge with each other.”

Post-LBS, Sumbillo and his batchmates are being given continual support by L’Oréal, Yanga says. ‍

For six months, the company connects graduates to consultants who will do a monthly checkup, particularly to see if these salon owners are sticking to their respective action plans, which they formulated during the program.

Sumbillo, for one, says he plans on further streamlining his salon’s operations. ‍

His vision: To be the benchmark for excellence in precision haircuts, color and services within the Philippine hairdressing industry.

And that’s exactly what L’Oréal wants, too, says Yanga, for all salons across the Philippines: an industry that strives for excellence, and, also, an industry that attracts exceptional professional talent.

“I am a business and management graduate, and I find hairdressing very tough. You need to be both an artist and a businessman, and on top of that, you need to be a bit of a scientist, to understand the interaction of active ingredients between the hair and the scalp, to make something beautiful,” Yanga says. “It’s a huge responsibility.”Still, given the tedious nature of the job, Yanga laments that in the Philippines, it’s a career that isn’t given much weight, unlike, say, chefs, whom he describes have become “aspirational artists.”

“I dream of the day that kids would say that they want to be hairdressers,” Yanga says. “That’s why we need to focus on education. I enjoin all salon owners to please continue to invest in education—for your staff, for yourselves—and uplift the salon experience.”‍