VICTOR SCOTTI JR.

Written By robert hughes

Creative Director & Stylist, Our S.P.A.C.E. | Rising Stylist, Aveda Arts & Sciences Institute, Arlington

EPISODES

Empowering through Hair: A Rising Stylist's Equity Mission

 

 

Tune in to hear how and why Victor is blazing trails, pushing equity and access for underserved folks!

Key Takeaways

  • Coming from a heavily racially segregated city, Chicago, led Victor to pursue a mission to tackle equity and access for underserved communities and folks.

  • Majored in Sociology and Urban Education at the University of Pennsylvania

  • After Realizing that Victor could not express himself completely, he sought other avenues and found hair!

  • Doing hair gifts us the ability to be closer to our loved ones during the process of caring for their hair!

  • Cosmetology school curriculums only focus on straight or wavy hair, and this is a proxy for whiteness.

  • Opening to more textures and person types is important for progression, and more folks should be diversely educated.

  • RISING STYLISTS: stay connected with your schools and shadow at salons before applying.

  • SALON OWNERS: equity, true teamwork, education, salaried pay, and other benefits are very attractive and give you a competitive edge.

  • Victor is looking for a salon that has a similar mission of equity and access, provides training, and wants to be able to serve folks who wear their hair in diverse ways like barbering, locs, twists, color, etc.

Crafting the Future: Fostering Integrity and Growth in Hairdressing

 

 

Tune in to hear Victor Scotti Jr. explore the critical need for holistic education and transparent communication in the beauty industry to bridge gaps, foster integrity, and ensure sustainable growth for hairdressers.⁠

Key Takeaways:

  • Our S.P.A.C.E is a holistic wellness and healing space that stands for Safety (he moves at the speed of safety), Play (what fuels his creativity), Agency (pushes him to say what he means and means what he says & holds others accountable), Community (you can’t do anything alone; finding like-minded peers in, Exploration (keeps you growing)

    • Victor believes that every individual on a spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical level needs those things (his own personal values that guide who he lives and leads)

  • Victor has a non-traditional industry perspective (he thinks a lot about people and experiences in a given space). He is 33 and had a career in Corporate America (worked with students and been in HR) before joining the Beauty Industry.

  • Victor sees a gap between exiting school directly and being the stylist you want to be.

  • There are a number of different things cosmetology schools can do to increase the awareness of the students and help prepare them for longevity in the Beauty Career.

    • Bringing in people like Industry Aligned to discuss body mechanics and how it can impact your career or exposing students to L'Oréal’s Head-Up mental health training program.

    • Having an undergrad degree, he recognizes that many life skills aren’t taught in college, so it’s not just the Beauty Industry

  • As Victor prepares for graduation by shadowing and interviewing at different salons, coming from an HR background, he feels there are places where we can add more structure, rigor, and process, especially so people have the information they need to make informed decisions to set themselves on a path to success

    • How do we know what you say is what you’ll do if it’s not written down? How can I assess integrity and growth plans if it’s communicated casually as opposed to a place to access/as a resource?

    • Think about providing various touchpoints of opportunity to learn more about people on a behavioral level

    • Understand what the Rising Stylist does well and how they want to grow from a technical level

    • Goal alignment: Where do you want to be, and how can we both push each other to grow and learn together?

  • There needs to be more intentional conversations (less open-ended) but also honesty about the vision for the salon/space, how you are looking for folks to grow, and what might be coming that is on the road map. This will help Rising Stylists make informed decisions and Owners be more comfortable about talent coming into their space.

  • This is not an individual profession; being a business owner is not an individual task (you’re leading and managing people and shepherding a vision). You can’t effectively shepherd without being able to share a clear vision, get feedback, and share expectations.

  • At school, people have varying experiences because they don’t know what they should experience.

    • Do the educators stay with you for the whole haircut or walk away and come back? How do we work together?

  • Victor predicts that we will return to caring more about the fundamentals (WE all need to define what that means), but it will be led by the guests’ needs/wants.

    • Guests will notice you gave them the exact cut they wanted, but if they say it doesn’t look the best on them and a stylist doesn’t have the fundamentals, they won’t be able to satisfy the client.

    • Clientele and, ultimately, our pocketbooks will be the catalysts for this deep change in the industry, and he hopes we can begin to make that change for the health and integrity of the industry BEFORE it becomes critical.

robert hughes
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