From Kitchen Cuts to Booking Buzz: My Sit-Down with Brit Otto
Ever had one of those chats that leaves you equal parts inspired and itching to sharpen your shears? That was me after catching up with Brit Otto—the self-described “super-ultra” stylist who went from snipping roommates’ bangs in a tiny kitchen to running a dual-life behind the chair at supra•ultra and legendary Pauly’s Barbershop.
Brit’s origin story? Pure pandemic serendipity:
“During COVID I cut my roommate’s hair… loved the physicality of it. I’d never dyed my own hair, never held shears—but I knew right then office life was toast.”
Fast-forward two years, a stint at Blanche Macdonald, and a crash course in Vancouver hustle culture, and Brit’s calendar is now peppered with graphic-designer-approved business cards, model calls, and a waitlist that proves kitchen apprenticeships can pay off.
Hustle First, Worry Later
Brit’s mantra still echoes in my head:
“If this doesn’t work, it’s not gonna be my fault.”
She meant it. Flyers at coffee shops, posters with QR codes, free kitchen cuts, and Instagram ads targeted at hyper-specific hair models—nothing was off-limits. Some tactics bombed (“Nobody from the weed-shop flyer rang me up,” Brit laughs). Others snowballed into loyal clients who now send their partners and pals.
Branding as a Power Tool
Most grads blow their first paycheque on shears; Brit bartered lifelong haircuts for a full branding package from designer-roomie Brendan Cave. The result? A visual identity so cohesive clients book because the feed feels like Brit’s chair: raw, graphic, unmistakably her.
“It’s a visual industry—every image needs to vibe. If I pretended to be polished and glossy, I’d attract guests who aren’t me.”
Lesson #1 for new stylists: hire pros where you’re not a pro (websites, logos, photos) and pour your energy into the craft and the client experience.
Mentors, Models & Money
From Cosmoprof product nerds to barber-shop legends, Brit collects mentors like limited-edition clippers. Continuing ed isn’t optional; it’s gas in the tank:
“Front-load the learning. Do the pricey one-on-one class now—six months later it won’t feel pricey at all.”
Pricing followed proficiency: start modest, raise as speed and precision climb, and keep a soft spot for clients who kept the lights on during the $0 haircut era.
Why You Should Hit Play on the Video
This blog barely scratches the surface. In the full interview Brit drops gold on:
- Using Google Business to fill last-minute gaps
- Balancing barbershop weekends with salon creativity
- Saying “no” to gossip, “yes” to authentic vibes
- Surviving the slow weeks without losing your mind (or your shears)
Grab a coffee, cue up the video, and let Brit’s journey remind you that there’s always room for stylists who hustle hard, stay weird, and keep it real.
See you in the comments—let me know which of Brit’s strategies you’re stealing first!
You can find Brit at:
https://www.instagram.com/supra.ultra.hair/
Transcript
[Liam Shea] (00:01)
Britt, Supra Ultra, you work in my space. I do. We work together. Awesome. It’s fun to have you here. ⁓ mostly I want to interview you because I wanted to sort of tell the story of how you went from doing haircuts right after hair school in your kitchen to where you’re at now. How did it start?
[Brit Otto] (00:09)
here.
Well, during COVID, I cut my roommate’s hair. I’d never cut hair before, never dyed my own hair. And I thought, I just loved the physicality of it. I loved everything about it. And I was working an office job and didn’t like being behind a desk. I wanted to work with people, be more creative. ⁓ So yeah, after that first haircut, knew I reached out to Blanche McDonald immediately. And then two years later, went to school and then graduated hair school.
[Liam Shea] (00:54)
high school.
[Brit Otto] (00:55)
It was good. was what you, I feel like it’s what you put into it. Yeah. So I was lucky enough to have lots of friends, a large community. So once we hit the salon days, I could really go hard and get the best, get the most out of it.
[Liam Shea] (01:12)
What was the age range like there?
[Brit Otto] (01:14)
students. My class was there were six people I did the part-time class and there was one person in her 40s who was a mother who was trying to get kind of a side hustle, someone else, a couple people who were there maybe in their 30s including myself and then one person who was a teenager.
[Liam Shea] (01:34)
that’s it? Yeah. didn’t quite realize that.
[Brit Otto] (01:36)
Full-time students those are all teenagers.
[Liam Shea] (01:38)
Yeah, I was gonna say those numbers seem odd.
[Brit Otto] (01:42)
I thought it was gonna be a It was just three days a week. Yeah. Yeah, the teenager class was very different.
[Liam Shea] (01:44)
part time
Yes,
in our class. Yeah. Yeah. Did you do any research into where to go to
[Brit Otto] (01:55)
school?
Not really and I wish I had. Okay. I wish I had spent a little bit less money on that school because I feel like once I was out of school I learned so much more. The instructors at Blanche were great but I think it’s so much hands-on. If that really matters and what you bring to it. So if I could have saved a little money that would have been nice. But no regrets, you Blanche has a good reputation.
[Liam Shea] (02:16)
Yeah, what else?
What would you tell somebody who was trying to pick a school or whatever to get into hair?
[Brit Otto] (02:28)
I I would have looked up the instructors, been a little more curious about who was teaching, just look at their roster and then take something that’s going to be affordable and fit with your lifestyle. There’s lots of evening classes that you can take. Will you still work, your other job? Because once you get out of school, it’s not guaranteed to get a job.
[Liam Shea] (02:48)
No it is not. Okay so you finished hair school and what happened?
[Brit Otto] (02:57)
finished hair school and I thought I just wanted to do barbering. That was the only thing on my mind. And I immediately reached out to every barber shop in Vancouver that I was interested in working with or working for. And I sent a big email about why I wanted to be an apprentice. You know, I had saved money, so I didn’t necessarily need to make a bunch of money. ⁓ And I learned later that apprenticeships aren’t
as common now. And so it kind of people don’t want to hire someone right out of school and they don’t want to do an apprenticeship because they’ll teach you all these things. And the idea is then you’ll leave somewhere else where they can’t eat more. So I couldn’t get a job for I think two months. OK. Yeah. One or two months. And then that’s when I met you. I was posting on online all the time. Well, we’d already met. Yeah. But that’s when I met you in this capacity. Yes. ⁓ But yeah, I’ve been posting online trying to do as many haircuts as possible.
and as cheap as I could or free and yeah, my name E.
[Liam Shea] (04:03)
I love it. Yeah. Yeah. So you came from, among other things, service industry beforehand. Yep. So you already had a sense of how to treat people, how to deal with people. ⁓ Do you find that’s helped a lot?
[Brit Otto] (04:20)
Yeah, definitely. That’s one of the most important things. Yeah. You want to creating a it’s a service and it’s really vulnerable. It’s one of the only professions where you touch people or one of the few professions. And that immediately makes people vulnerable. And if you have experience understanding what people want and need and how to make people feel really comfortable and important, that’s super helpful.
puts you whole step ahead. saw other people in school who didn’t have that experience and so they struggled a lot when we got into the salon ⁓ of communicating and creating like a nice experience.
[Liam Shea] (05:06)
Yeah. So I contacted you on Instagram after Leila saw your post about doing haircuts in the kitchen. Yeah. I mean, it doesn’t matter. You were doing haircuts. That’s great. Do all the haircuts you can do. So I contacted you. ⁓ I know for myself part of it was just I wanted a haircut.
[Brit Otto] (05:17)
It’s not even a nice kitchen.
[Liam Shea] (05:32)
I wanted to we hadn’t seen each other since you and Layla had worked together. I don’t think Once or twice and yet most would you maybe you’d been behind the bar I can’t remember or if you were in front of the bar So you came here you cut my hair we chatted
[Brit Otto] (05:37)
We’ve only maybe met a couple times.
the weeds regardless.
[Liam Shea] (05:53)
than what I’m trying to, I’m sort of drawing a blank. Did I say you should just come and do hair models or cut hair?
[Brit Otto] (06:00)
here. You said you were asking me what I was doing. was like, I’m just trying to keep my head above water pretty much. you said, well, come here, like stop doing hair in your kitchen. Come here whenever you need. We’ll figure out times that work and make it a better experience for people. And you have practice here basically. And you gave me lots of practical technical guidance. Like I learned how to cut a sick bob. Love it. Some cool razor work. But then
[Liam Shea] (06:25)
Yes, nice.
[Brit Otto] (06:30)
Also, you gave me lots of advice about business and doing this as a career on top of all the technical skills that are important.
[Liam Shea] (06:39)
So what, okay, so you started working here. At what point did you?
decided to create a brand. I feel like it was pretty early on.
[Brit Otto] (06:51)
It
was like before I went, as soon as I was in school.
[Liam Shea] (06:55)
⁓ you had done that already.
[Brit Otto] (06:57)
mentally. already have a clear aesthetic in my other like art practices. So with my photography or even DJing or like stylistically, I have a clear thing that I like and it’s just come from years of practice and figuring out what speaks to me. ⁓ So I already knew the kind of energy that or the kind of visual aesthetic that I wanted to put out. Having a cohesive
visual idea was really important. And I’ve had feedback from clients that seeing that all my images that I post have a cohesive look. Yep. That that’s spoken to them because it’s such a it’s a visual industry. You’re doing hair, which is visual. Having all aspects of your presentation being on point and cohesive is really important. And you don’t have to try and copy anybody. I didn’t try to copy anyone. I just.
thought about what I like. Yeah. I was hoping that I would attract kind of people who are into the same things I’m into. you’re spending all day with these people. Yeah. So I knew that if I was trying to be something I’m not, if the images were overly polished, which is not a bad thing, but if I was something I’m not, then I’m going to spend all my time maybe attracting the people that aren’t, we’re not going to buy in the same way.
[Liam Shea] (08:23)
I want to jump out of branding just for a quick second. We’re going to step back to it. ⁓ Before this, among other things, I had mentioned the service industry. You’ve done some project management, but also you already
consider yourself a photographer, an amateur photographer, whatever words you want to use. You were already into photography. You already had a sense of aesthetic. Do you find that sort of played into how you wanted to present yourself?
[Brit Otto] (08:54)
For sure. Yeah, I wanted. I’ve been doing photography for a long time and. That’s definitely part of it, because I wanted people to feel cool or beautiful or hot when they left and I felt like photos were a great way to do that. Originally, I didn’t think of the photos as an element of marketing. I actually thought of them as an element of kind of a gift to give to people after.
Just in a way like when you get a nice photo taken of yourself, you can see yourself in a different way in a way that someone else sees you. Yeah. And that can be really nice for people.
[Liam Shea] (09:31)
Yeah. Okay. I wanted to take another step back real quick and go back to when you first came in. I know if I remember correctly, I said to you, should probably start at a commission salon just because ⁓ it can help you build clientele a little bit. It’s great to be around other people. I’m pretty sure I also said, I think you’ll get annoyed not being in control of things. Yeah. ⁓
not every salon is equal in the sense of if it would be the right fit for you. So…
Was it hard to, I mean, going right from school to partial self-employment, was that crazy? Was that difficult? Was that an easy?
[Brit Otto] (10:23)
terrifying
It was absolutely terrifying. I knew that I didn’t want to work in a salon. That was never the goal. The goal was to work in a barber shop. I thought that’s what I wanted to be doing full time. And I didn’t actually even think of doing my own thing right off the bat. I’m so glad that this all happened because it allowed me to explore long hair, color, lots of curly hair.
things that I wouldn’t have gotten to explore because I was so shut off to the idea of working in a salon for a few reasons. I didn’t want there’s so much noise and I wanted like a chill, less loud working environment. Not that a barbershop is quiet because I also worked at a barbershop. Yeah. And I love it. It’s great to be around people. Yes.
[Liam Shea] (11:17)
Yeah, so you do how many days a week?
[Brit Otto] (11:19)
Two days a week at the barbershop on the weekends.
[Liam Shea] (11:23)
Great to be around other people.
[Brit Otto] (11:24)
So
good. Yeah, I’m lucky I’m at Pauly’s Barbershop and other barbers there are fantastic and I’ve learned so much from them. ⁓ So it’s really nice to have the balance.
[Liam Shea] (11:35)
Yeah. Okay, so I know another thing we talked about at the very beginning was what things are most important to get busy quickly. Pretty sure I would have said being good at hair isn’t necessarily the most important thing. ⁓ But hustling is. And you hustled.
[Brit Otto] (12:00)
Oh yeah, I hustled. wanted, my main thought that stuck in my mind the whole time is if this doesn’t work, it’s not gonna be my fault. So I did everything and some things worked, some things didn’t. I printed flyers and handed them out at coffee shops. I went to like weed shops and talked to all the people that worked there and offered free haircuts. Nobody took me on from those offers. I don’t think any of those flyers helped, but I was investing in myself and I was
[Liam Shea] (12:09)
Nice.
[Brit Otto] (12:29)
proving to myself that I was going to do whatever it took. Yeah. I put posters up around town. That did work. Love that. I always carried my business card with me everywhere. I have a fantastic designer who did all my graphic design, my website, and he’s helped make this such a cohesive look and make it feel and look really professional. And people can tell right away. Yeah. When you hand the business card, that’s like a very important moment.
[Liam Shea] (12:58)
Yes. Posters. Did you have a QR code? can’t remember.
[Brit Otto] (13:02)
Yeah, I have a QR code on the posters and that my thinking with that I originally had it straight to booking but then I realized well sometimes people aren’t ready for the haircut. Yeah. So I did it to Instagram people will follow and then I have my booking link right on my profile. Okay. Because then they can save you and you’re in their mind. Yeah. Yeah. And then when the sponsors paid for a lot of advertising ⁓ and that helped a lot.
[Liam Shea] (13:29)
What kind of advertising did you use?
[Brit Otto] (13:31)
So I used Instagram ads. did some Google ads, but I found them a little confusing. So I did lots of Instagram ads, mostly looking for models. Because my other thought was, I want to get really good at hair. And I can’t get good if I’m not practicing. And at the beginning, I couldn’t find people to pay me to cut their hair. So ⁓ I just was doing free haircuts and trying to find models. was finding very specific images of haircuts I wanted to do.
and I would make a post on Instagram with the help of my graphic designer and I’d pay for advertising to get these models in. A lot of them have ended up becoming return clients. Some of them see me here, some of them see me at Polly’s. Their partners come to me. It all snowballs, so that investment in the free haircuts pays off big time.
[Liam Shea] (14:26)
com.
Were you doing straight up advertisements or boosting of posts? ⁓
[Brit Otto] (14:33)
⁓
Both. So I would make a reel for the model calls. I would boost that and then take it off my profile once I had enough models. So at the beginning I was doing pretty much all models, like kind of full time. And then slowly as I started getting more paying clients, I do less models. I haven’t done any models in a couple months.
[Liam Shea] (14:54)
Yeah, wow, okay ⁓
So you started getting a bunch of people in the chair. None of them are paying you, but you’re getting to do cool stuff.
what point or what changed what helped you get to the place where it was starting to be paid was it just about them coming back.
[Brit Otto] (15:15)
think it was them coming back and I think, oh, it was the Google business. Getting on to Google. What you told me to do and I should have listened to you immediately.
[Liam Shea] (15:29)
Right away. You did. Yeah. You did it.
[Brit Otto] (15:31)
But yeah, that was amazing because people just want something close. Yeah.
[Liam Shea] (15:35)
Sometimes to the neighborhood effect.
[Brit Otto] (15:37)
yeah. and then neighborhood groups on social media sites. Yeah. I reached out to a bunch of friends too and said, if you’re exactly, ⁓ don’t know if we’re using Facebook anymore, but I think they’re more in groups. Yeah, true. Hmm. So that was very helpful. ⁓ and then reaching out to friends. Hey, do you have a group chat with friends? Throw my name in there. Like, yeah, every, any angle I could get.
[Liam Shea] (15:42)
Right.
Groups in particular. Yeah
neighborhood stuff. Yeah.
[Brit Otto] (16:07)
Let’s do that.
[Liam Shea] (16:08)
Love it. Yeah. Um, that’s pretty fun. So, so you started to grow. I want to jump back just a little bit to the, to the branding thing. I mean,
Part of a bunch of your story is obviously luck, luck of who you knew, mean branding. You live with the person that does your branding?
[Brit Otto] (16:33)
My branding guy is my roommate so I’m very lucky but he’s a really good graphic designer. So it made it easy for me because he could just guide me through everything.
[Liam Shea] (16:42)
Yeah,
and if you had to pay for it to begin with, would you still recommend people?
[Brit Otto] (16:46)
100%. Yeah. I still give him free. The branding package that he gave me, he gives free haircuts for life. Okay. Not that it has to be that expensive, but 100%. That’s like one of the best investments you can make in yourself because you don’t have time to teach yourself how to make a website, how to do a good business card and then how to make it look professional and good. There’s people that are trained for that. I wanted to focus more on customer experience.
and being good at cutting hair. Yeah.
[Liam Shea] (17:19)
Yeah. Do you know how much that branding package would have cost you?
[Brit Otto] (17:23)
I don’t, I should have asked. He’s in tomorrow so I can ask.
[Liam Shea] (17:25)
Okay. Yeah.
Should we post a link to him on this?
[Brit Otto] (17:32)
Yes, definitely, definitely. That would be great.
[Liam Shea] (17:35)
Do we want to say his name? This anonymous roommate of yours.
[Brit Otto] (17:37)
Yeah
⁓
He’s a mystery graphic designer, Brendan Cave at Peak Media. You don’t need a graphic designer that does just hair stuff. You need someone who’s just really good because it’s a craft.
[Liam Shea] (17:46)
Okay, think media. ⁓ Great. Yeah.
Yeah. And so did you, I assume with the model calls, you required everybody have pictures taken before and after or after or whatever.
[Brit Otto] (18:09)
Yep, exactly. So I wrote up a little copy paste again and made it simple on myself because at first I was personally replying to everybody and that’s not good. So simplify, copy paste. Here’s the details. You’re going to have your picture taken before and after. You have to give me a certain amount of creativity. They would send me pictures before, so I know what I’m getting into. And then I would send them another picture saying this is kind of what we’re going to go for. How do feel so that they’re not going to get in the chair and, you know,
[Liam Shea] (18:38)
Yeah. Great idea. Love it.
[Brit Otto] (18:41)
I only had maybe two or three where things didn’t align and that’s okay. I still practiced and they got a free haircut. A lot of the people that I was giving free haircuts to, some of really needed them. Some of them were just interested in the new experience.
[Liam Shea] (18:59)
I’m a big fan of giving away your hair services over discounting hair services. I’m not a fan of discounting hair services. I much prefer charging your worth and then giving it away to those that need it. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓
[Brit Otto] (19:15)
Totally.
[Liam Shea] (19:20)
Yeah, he’s so talented, did such good work. Yeah. Okay, so you’ve got social going, you’ve got models coming in, they’re starting to convert to clients. ⁓
you start trying to do new stuff and put yourself out there, color you didn’t want to do originally. ⁓
[Brit Otto] (19:41)
That’s true. Yeah. Okay. I just wasn’t interested in it. It was never part of like my own hair. Yeah stuff and In school it was interesting but not like didn’t grip me the way that the shapes and the physicality of hair cutting does But then once I started getting into it, it was like my mom was one really wanting me to do her hair. Yep, and so I did and like this was pretty good and once you start to understand it a little bit more and
The people at Cosmoprof on Pender were incredible, invaluable. I will still go there and be like, OK, this is my problem. What do you think? And they workshop it with you. They figure it out. And then I will come in. And the next time, like, OK, so how do And they’ll ask how much I’m charging and kind of help me get an idea. They’ve been an invaluable resource.
[Liam Shea] (20:23)
Yeah.
So asking for help, a mentor.
[Brit Otto] (20:32)
Asking for help. The supply shops want to help you. They know so much about the products and experiment. I started with Wella, playing around with Joyco, thinking of moving to Schwartz Cop. Like you don’t have to stick with just one thing. You can pick and choose and explore and experiment at your own pace.
[Liam Shea] (20:52)
That’s awesome. Would you tell new people to the industry to find mentors?
[Brit Otto] (21:01)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, find a mentor. So I would consider you to be a mentor. you know, the people at Polys, thank you. The people at Polys, I would consider mentors. The people at Cosmoprof, I would consider mentors. ⁓ After school, I did a private one-on-one ⁓ barbering workshop with one of my instructors from Blanche, Genevieve Villabroza. She does. She’s such a good barber. she does. She’s an amazing teacher.
Invest in yourself like that was expensive, but worth it looking back like it doesn’t feel expensive expensive. Yeah, you know.
[Liam Shea] (21:39)
Get education. Yeah, get it all of it
[Brit Otto] (21:42)
Yeah, front load it. Do it right away. Don’t think like, well, you know, once I make a little more money, then I’ll learn.
[Liam Shea] (21:49)
Do it. Well, especially now with what’s online. I mean, when I was coming up, there was no online, there were product DVDs and air shows that got canceled in Vancouver every other year because they weren’t busy enough. Yeah. So yeah, with the amount of resources, plus the amount of free resources that exist.
[Brit Otto] (22:05)
Yeah, well, that’s the other thing. When I first started and I wasn’t super busy, I would say be doing like six haircuts a week and each haircut beforehand, I would look up online. OK, what do I think this person is going to want? Some people, I would actually talk to them beforehand so then I could come up with a plan, do the plan. And then afterward, I would review with myself, like, OK, what didn’t go according to plan? What do I wish I knew more about? Why did that face framing not work? Yeah. And then review, write it down.
And I was doing when I wasn’t busy, I was still doing hair. I wanted to be actively full time doing hair, even if I couldn’t get the client. Yeah. Whether it’s education online, like the circle membership is really good. Hair in motion. Right. Just anything on Instagram, not anything, but a lot of those people on Instagram are really helpful. Marie de Montt, Ali Bassa. ⁓ There’s so many. Yeah.
[Liam Shea] (23:03)
Go to hair shows.
[Brit Otto] (23:04)
Go to hair shows! Yeah. Yeah, go to New York!
[Liam Shea] (23:06)
Yeah, go to New York. Yes, we went to New York.
[Brit Otto] (23:09)
New York,
lots of great like and take every single workshop. Yeah, don’t just walk around buying stuff. Yeah, we went to a whole bunch of workshops. Some of them were great.
[Liam Shea] (23:17)
Yeah, did.
That’s great. Yeah.
[Brit Otto] (23:23)
Yeah, there was like the texture versus race people did a lot of interesting stuff teaching about textured hair and then they had some great stuff. think it was strawberry curls had lots of great ⁓ social media advice and advice for people starting out.
[Liam Shea] (23:39)
Yeah, I don’t think I went to that one with you.
[Brit Otto] (23:41)
No, I think that was just me. was in the front row, hand up. What do you think about?
[Liam Shea] (23:46)
Yes, yeah, I love it. Ask questions. Ask people for help. Lean on people. Get out there.
[Brit Otto] (23:48)
questions because I got some nice products out of it.
Yeah, Rodney at Fine Edge has helped me so much with products and what do think about this? And I’m kind of new, so you
[Liam Shea] (24:05)
He is my go-to for tools. I just tell him to tell me what I’m buying. Yeah, and he tells me and it was always the correct thing. Yeah, fantastic. I love him for that. Mm-hmm
[Brit Otto] (24:16)
They have support other barbers too. I have a friend in Calgary who we were going to barbers school at the same time and that was so helpful because when you’re not busy, you’re doing one haircut a day, you can text your buddy and be like, man, how are you doing? Not good. How are you doing? Not good. But then when it’s good, you’re like, bro, I just did 15 haircuts today. too.
[Liam Shea] (24:37)
Did we talk about that early on? About which stuff was going to be hard as far as not being busy? I can’t remember. I know what I found it incredibly difficult to stay motivated, keep learning and stay positive and not fall into the sort of gossip thing at salons. And you weren’t at the same amount of salons I was, but when you’re bored and not busy.
[Brit Otto] (24:44)
don’t know if we did.
Yeah, so Jenny, my barbering instructor, she, in my first class, she gave me a sheet of, it was not how to cut hair, it was how to like basically be ⁓ the person that you want to be in this job because you’re talking to people all day and you’re going to say stuff that you haven’t said. Yeah. So like, get your mind right. Yeah. And her, one of her big ones was do not gossip. Yeah. Don’t say negative stuff.
Yep. You know, go home, think about it, talk to your friends and partner about it. Do not do it at the shop.
[Liam Shea] (25:42)
that would be worth the cost of the education right there. That’s awesome.
[Brit Otto] (25:47)
100 % ⁓
So yeah, I never, didn’t find that to be difficult. You know, once I got home, it was difficult, you how am I ever going to get anyone to come to me? Yep. How will it ever, was it ever going to work? But there’s, I believe that there’s always room for people who are good at what they do and provide a service that’s authentic. Yep. So there are a lot of people that are not going to identify with me. There are a lot of people that won’t like what I do. I don’t do blowouts. I don’t do.
[Liam Shea] (26:00)
Yep.
[Brit Otto] (26:20)
a lot of balayage, but there are people who really do feel what I’m putting out. And so there’s always, there’s space for everybody if they’re authentic.
[Liam Shea] (26:29)
Yeah. Yeah. Finding your niche. Finding your people.
[Brit Otto] (26:33)
Exactly. I love that.
[Liam Shea] (26:35)
And it makes the day much easier to spend a day doing what you enjoy doing with the people you enjoy being around. That’s the luck of getting busy, once you’re busy.
[Brit Otto] (26:46)
And once it’s not, when things aren’t going well, if you know that you’re doing this and you’re being true to yourself, it sounds kind of like hippie-ish or wishy-washy, but it actually does help get through some of the spiraling thoughts.
[Liam Shea] (27:00)
Yeah.
So, okay, so I’m a new hairstylist. I’m just getting out of hair school. What’s the first thing I do?
[Brit Otto] (27:09)
Cut hair, cut hair, yeah. Get a graphic designer.
Read, learn everything you can about doing hair and reach out to all the shops, all the people, anyone in the industry that you think you can identify with. Don’t bother reaching out to people you think you might not be able to identify with because you don’t, you want it to be a fit. Yeah. Good graphic design. So important.
Yes, agree. And then, ⁓ yeah, getting all the education that you can and then reaching out to people to help you and then reaching out to the broader community. Yeah. Because people want to support each other.
[Liam Shea] (27:58)
Yes. Yeah. Okay. Prices.
[Brit Otto] (28:03)
Yeah, I started real cheap but my
[Liam Shea] (28:07)
Most of us do. Yep. Yeah. How did you get from there to where you are now?
[Brit Otto] (28:16)
lowly and I increased their
[Liam Shea] (28:20)
Let’s be slowly for you. Let’s understand that when you finished hair school was not that long ago. So when you say slowly, you’re not talking about over a matter of a decade.
[Brit Otto] (28:32)
No, I’m talking a matter of two years. Three and a half.
[Liam Shea] (28:35)
Yes. Okay. Yeah.
[Brit Otto] (28:37)
And I decided to increase prices as I felt my service increased. So at the beginning, I wanted to feel like I was charging people a fair amount, but I had a little like wiggle room of things didn’t turn out perfectly to my standards. You know, once I got faster, once I got more precise, ⁓ when I knew that if someone comes in and asks me for something, I can do it.
or get real close. That’s when I started to increase a little bit and still thinking about ⁓ affordability to some degree.
[Liam Shea] (29:15)
Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Love it.
[Brit Otto] (29:19)
And I’m talking to clients too. they’re a client, you talk to people all day. So you know who can and can’t, you have a good idea of who can and can’t afford certain increases. And so you can have the conversation with individual people that are important to stay in your chair for your sanity, for the relationship.
[Liam Shea] (29:38)
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes you just have to keep certain people around. Awesome. Thanks, dude. Yeah. Should we do it again? Sure. All right. How can people find you?
[Brit Otto] (29:47)
Yeah, you’re welcome. Thank you. ⁓
On Instagram at supra.ultra.hair. I don’t post that much. It’s just photos of hair. my website is supra-ultra.ca. Okay.
[Liam Shea] (30:08)
Love it. All right. Thanks.