A BRAND BY HAIRDRESSER STRONG
Don’t Have Bad Breath©
Practical education in professionalism, etiquette, and customer experience for beauty professionals and salon teams.
Get to Book Details & Order Now
Meet the Founders
Learn the Why, How, and Origin Story
CX-E Service Training & Team Building Workshop (Details & Book Now)
THE PEOPLE AND PURPOSE BEHIND DHBB
Helping talent become ready for salon life.
THE NAME
A couple of years into his career, Robert sat down for lunch with a co-founder of the Men’s Grooming Lounge. He and a friend came ready to share business ideas. Before they finished explaining, the advice came: focus on your craft, you seem to dress well and you Do Not Have Bad Breath…you wouldn’t believe the amount of people who have bad breath.
At first, Robert didn’t understand, but with experience, the meaning became clearer: keep learning the craft, and pay attention to how you affect others. Your tone, body language and the way you make clients feel are the crux of success in this industry.
That is the idea behind the name. Literally, don’t have bad breath. More broadly, bring care and self-awareness to the experience you create for the people around you because they will remember how you made them feel.
Why “Don’t Have Bad Breath”?
Through our research into the expectations of rising stylists and salon owners, and our work launching the DMV Shadow Program, we saw a need for more practical education in communication, professionalism, and customer care.
We were meeting students and new talent who wanted to work in a salon. That interest didn’t always mean they were ready for its everyday expectations: how to speak with clients, work with a team, and understand the standards of the business they were joining.
We created Don’t Have Bad Breath© to help build that foundation. Our education gives Salon Owners a way to train their staff and beauty professionals a way to learn, discuss, and practice the people skills that support their technical work.
Our goal reaches beyond getting someone ready for their first salon role. We want professionals to build careers and businesses that clients value, and to strengthen the service, trust and respect behind the prices they charge.
THE DEVELOPMENT
From a book to a workshop.
It began with Volume One: a foundation in professionalism, etiquette and customer experience that people could read and return to.
When Salon Owners asked us to bring the education to their teams, we developed, piloted and refined the CX-E workshop with those Owners. It turns those ideas into a conversation about a team’s own brand promise, customer journey and workplace standards.
Robert
I’ve built a full appointment book in Georgetown, Washington, DC, while working behind the chair and managing a salon. I also recruit, train and develop educational programs. The relationship between service, trust, and a valued clientele is part of my working life.
Built through experience, research, and conversation.
Through Hairdresser Strong, our industry intelligence and development platform, we combine our experience with research into branding and customer experience, direct industry relationships and conversations, and feedback from the programs we pilot. We listen, test ideas, and refine the education with the people it is designed to serve.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
Experience from the front desk, behind the chair, training, and management.
We’re Sammi Heffron & Robert Hughes, co-founders of Hairdresser Strong. We bring two perspectives on high-end salon service, shaped by years of looking after clients and working with salon teams.
Sammi
I’ve spent more than a decade in high-end salon customer service and front-of-house roles, working directly with clients and teams to deliver an attentive, welcoming experience. That background in service, hospitality and etiquette also informs my work in marketing and events, connecting what a brand communicates with how people experience it.
THE BOOK/VOLUME ONE
A foundation to learn from & A tool to train with.
Don’t Have Bad Breath©
The Etiquette Manual for Stylists Whose Clients Expect Excellence and Pay for It
Bring professionalism, etiquette and customer experience into your everyday work. Read it to develop your own practice, or make it part of your salon’s onboarding, education and talent development.
$34.77
Explore how you communicate, care for clients and work with others. Use the book to reflect on your daily habits and bring more intention to the experience people have with you.
Give clients an experience they want to return for.
Make thoughtful service part of your reputation.
Help clients understand and appreciate your value.
READ. REFLECT. CHECK YOUR UNDERSTANDING.
A next step built into the book.
A QR code inside the book links to a quiz. For an individual reader, it offers a way to check understanding. For an owner, it can become a learning checkpoint within your salon’s education system.
You could make successful completion one requirement for a team member’s first raise, alongside the other expectations in your development plan. Your salon sets the criteria and decides how that milestone fits.
FOR SALON OWNERS & LEADERS
Use Volume One as part of onboarding and ongoing training. Give new and existing team members material to read, discuss and return to as you teach the service and professionalism you expect in your salon.
Introduce professional expectations during onboarding.
Start useful conversations in training and team meetings.
Connect learning to your talent development plan.
FOR BEAUTY PROFESSIONALS
Build the skills around the service.
THE WORKSHOP
Modern-Day Talent wants to have a say, has lots of questions “why”, and desires to be heard. This workshop is the BEST way to develop and retain New Talent and all Modern-Day Talent. Those conversations give everyone a chance to contribute while helping leadership hear how the team understands the brand, spot differences in expectations and explain the thinking behind great service.
Customer Experience & Etiquette (CX-E)
CX-E Service Training Workshop
Give your team a shared foundation.
Build an experience your team understands and takes pride in creating together.
This in-person, gamified workshop combines customer service and etiquette training with team building. Together, you’ll hone your teams understanding of your brand promise for clients and one another, map the customer journey, get buy-in from your team, and use workplace standards cards to discuss what belongs at each touchpoint and why. This is the ULTIMATE way to get everyon on the same page and dig into the nuances of your brand and customer experience!
Available in the DC, MD, VA (DMV) metro area.
Whether you’re establishing workplace standards or already have them written down, the workshop gives your team time to talk through what they mean and how to put them into practice.
FROM THE WORKSHOP
After the workshop, one salon owner shared:
“I love this team. … I feel like we’re really on the same page and that’s really special to me, really important.”
— CX-E workshop owner attendee
A FEW THINGS YOU MAY BE WONDERING
Find your
starting point.
-
You don’t have to call your salon “luxury” to care about exceptional service. If you want clients to feel looked after, appreciate your value and look forward to coming back, this education is for you.
-
Both. Beauty professionals can use it to develop their own practice. Owners can use it as part of onboarding, team training and ongoing education.
-
They’re the expectations for how people work, care for clients, and treat one another in your salon. For example, how you greet a client, explain a price, or help someone check out when no one is at the front desk. The workshop helps your team discuss expectations and why they matter.
-
Yes. Having a checklist doesn’t mean everyone follows every step well or understands why it matters. The workshop gives your team time to talk through those expectations and uncover where people understand or do things differently. This is the ULTIMATE Buy-In tool for your team!
-
Yes. You’ll talk about the experience you want for your clients and for yourselves as a team. Everyone gets to contribute to the conversation about what that looks like.
-
Tell us a little about your salon and team through the inquiry form, and we’ll work out the date, location and details together. We currently offer the CX-E workshop in the DC, MD, VA (DMV) metro area.
-
Yes. You can assign the reading, discuss it with your team and use the QR-linked quiz as a learning checkpoint. If you want to connect it to a first raise, define that requirement alongside your salon’s other expectations and explain the process to your team.
For people who care
about the whole experience
Don’t Have Bad Breath©
PROFESSIONALISM. ETIQUETTE. CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
A brand by Hairdresser Strong.