Creative Practice:
Mrs Chin is a home-based hair stylist. She has been in this profession for more than 20 years, but have been home-based for about 15 years. She does all kinds of hair services: hair cuts, straightening/curling, treatments, colour dying, wash and blowing, and styling.
Workplace Documentation:
Her workplace consists of two workstations, consisting of a cushioned chair and mirror table top each. This meant that at any one time, she only attends to two clients at most. As her workplace is home-based, she is the only hair stylist, and has no assistant. Both workstations are situated right beside each other, due to the space constraints of her home, but this enables her to attend to both clients at the same time, as they are right beside each other. There is also a hair-washing station, consists of a lay-down salon chair, and an attached wash basin.
Tools:
The main tools that she uses on an everyday basis are her scissors, shaver combs, hair clips, cape gown, as well as a brush to sweep away fallen hair on her client’s necks and shoulders – they are the basic tools needed to perform a simple haircut. Other tools consist of styling equipments – hair steamer, curler, straightener, rollers, dryer, treatment creams and hair dyes.
Thoughts:
A basic hair-cut process can be performed anywhere as the tools required are compactable into a toolbelt, and does not need power to be operated. Advanced hair services such as colouring and styling however incorporated more tools that requires a power source. Additionally, there needs to be a chair for clients to be seated down while the hair service takes place. Essentially, this creative profession can be performed anywhere as long as the required tools and a power source are present. So maybe something can be designed to make it easy to carry all the required tools, doubles up as a chair, and incorporates a power source.