Category: Environment, Philanthropy, Diversity, Humanity
Znips hair salon
Pero H Lackovic
75 Wilton road
London SW1V 1DE Westminster
07766225756
apgalcons@gmail.com
Story
I was hesitating to write this story because boasting about my virtues is something I never do and I am repelled by people who do so, but my colleagues persuaded me to tell.
To cut it short to the pandemic times, I worked for Znips hair salon for 8 years, started when I was 31 and working at the reception, I am now organising absolutely everything. I was also a student of psychology which I graduated in 2019.
When the pandemic and the lockdown struck our lives, I did notice I was not as bothered by it like all of the people around me. Growing up in a war torn Croatia in the 90s, I spent 4 years in a basement. Limited supplies of food was something I got used to, but I don’t remember that we didn’t have toilet paper. Ever. The last thing I did, before locking up the salon due to the outbreak, was diverting all incoming calls from the reception to my mobile phone. It kept ringing the next few days, clients just saying goodbye, take care… But that one phone call started a whole new set of events.
A client that was supposed to come for colour just a few days after the national lockdown said how she was miserable because she was really desperate to get her hair done. It is those tears I’ve heard for the first time and that were caused by someone’s inability to get their hair done that made me take some action. Would you like me to bring you a colour kit? –I asked. You would really do that? –she asked excitedly. Because we keep all of the colour records of our clients, I knew what she needed and I prepared it for delivery. I asked her if she wanted any shampoos and conditioners as we always have a lot of it in stock and she replied positively (I think it was Hydrate.me both wash and rinse). I started advertising privately to the huge number of clients in our database that we do product delivery and soon I will find out that people buy a lot in the pandemic. The staff of the two local pharmacies are our regular clients and they were the only ones open every day, so my next step was to ask our clients if they need any medication to be delivered as it is just on the way. Of course, it became a regular thing. Third idea was to offer my psychological services because I have been through even worse times. That idea fitted in like a hand in a glove. For the next 3 months I was all over London, delivering products, medicine and supporting those in need. On the way thru Vauxhall Park every morning, I noticed a small number of squirrels. I started feeding them with a handful of walnuts which later turned to one bag per day and to this day, more than a year later, I call that park “My farm” of squirrels. I started taking bookings 2 weeks before July 4th 2020. Since I always kept the waiting list in my pocket, it took me more than 8 hours to book in all the people just from that list. What followed is that I got the offer from the pharmacy owner to start my own counselling practice within their premises so today, I am organising the salon operations as well as I'm doing psychological counselling with the growing number of clients. In October 2020. I won the “Covid Hero” community award and an article came out about it in an Autumn/Winter edition of the local magazine.
In the final and the longest lockdown, I was so prepared that my mind just worked on what else I can do to improve things that will benefit our community. It was product deliveries, medication deliveries, counselling, and even the squirrels in the park were joined by a very diverse range of birds, some of them I actually saw for the first time. A bag of nuts a day became two, my communicational skills and the work on neuro linguistic programming technique seriously improved so I even wrote a 160 pages manual about it. I then saw another opportunity to start raising awareness on global warming and introducing people to 9 earth’s boundaries, which is now a part of my sessions. The salon client waiting list was bigger than ever, but nothing stepped in my way. When the salon finally re-opened in mid-April 2021, I gave the priority to our local NHS staff to do their hair and then we were so busy for the next 2 months despite a number of the local salons also being full. However. many of them started stalling after a couple of weeks, some of which, unfortunately, shut their doors for good. Most importantly, we all got to keep our jobs and we sustained the business. There is a new thing that manifests itself in the area and requires us to act as humans. 200 Afghan refugees just arrived at a hotel down the road and after a meeting with their medical care chief, I will be expecting those who can speak English to help them with my psychological skills and previously mentioned war experience to adjust quicker to asylum and all the challenges that lie ahead of them. I have asked my salon staff if they would be interested in doing their hair and believe me, after lockdowns and all they saw me do, they welcomed that idea with their open arms and a huge smile. That smile will just continue to spread like the domino blocks pushed in the right direction.
And it all started with one single delivery of Kevin Murphy products.
Thank you for reading
Sincerely,
Pero H Lackovic
Znips LTD
www.galcons.co.uk
Timing
March 2020 – today
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92.31.248.135 | 27/08/2021