Cabeleireiro Wip-hairport Lisboa | Wip-hairport hairdresser Lisbon

last week ulli arrived in lisbon with a suitcase full of gifts. when she started the fortschnitt salon in vienna in 1988  she was a radical cut and colour pioneer. sabine, the current owner of wip-hairport, used to work for ulli in the 90′s and this led to some exchange between the salons. in november 2006 silvia and liane swapped jobs for one month. silvia went to vienna and she loved it. (read her report here). liane joined our team for a few weeks and did a great job not only by cutting hair but also making new friends.

after the gorgeous cut silvia did on ulli’s head, we took a picture of the two of them on elevador da bica. of course they had to explore the lisbon nightlife together and you can hardly find a better guide than silvia!

ulli and silvia posing at elevador da bica

it’s hard work, we just pretend it’s fun!

who has the best smile in our salon

This is about our charming receptionist Tânia. she’s a very friendly and caring person who always tries to keep the balance in any group. Tânia is a translator in various meanings: not only is she fluent in portuguese, german and english, she also connects people and makes them understand each other.

Her unique outfits and her styling do show another Tânia to the people who don’t know her. Sometimes she really likes to create the image of a fighter.  Even though she practiced martial arts for quite some years, we consider her the most peaceful person ever.

She’s the multilingual voice to our costumers, the favourite model of our stylists and a well known figure in the lisbon nightlife.

Tânia haircuts in the last two years

Irina our new team member

Irina is our new colleague that joined our team recently. She’s from Lisbon and worked in some of the best salons in this area before joining us. From the very beginning she blended into our salon as if she always worked here.

to introduce her a bit we asked her a few questions -

what do you like about working as a hairdresser:
Only a few have the privilege to love their job and luckily I’m one of them. When you can achieve love, passion, audacity, expertise and mastership , all in one, the success is guaranteed!  I’m a very confident professional, I always respect the customer’s ideas and try to exceed their expectations. After quite a few years of work, I still manage to smile when I work and each haircut makes me dream.

what do you want for the future:
A few years ago, I never thought that I’d become a hairdresser. Now I couldn’t imagine being anything else. I want to be happy, that’s for sure. Live one day at a time because one doesn’t know what the future brings.

Irinas colors

in the near future we will show some of her work on flickr and in this blog. if you are curious by now you can book a haircut with her

patricia, one of our top assistants has training to improve her cut and color skills two times a month. this time jezz was the instructor to show her how to cut designs that patricia first developed on paper. a lot of things have to be considered, the form of the client’s skull, the distortion of the lines, the direction of the hair grow etc. just when you really have to do it, you realize how hard it is, and lucky patricia to have jezz on her side

patricia learns how to cut designs into hair

jezz and almut - heads only

Almut is leaving us this month, she’s heading off to Switzerland.

She did some awesome cuts and coloring and she was responsible for the cool kids haircuts.

almut in action

We do not know how to replace her and we will miss her creativity and particularly her good mood. of course we wish her the best of luck in this new stage of her life… and please Almut, come visit us as soon as you can.

We can’t change the course of life, we have lost one member of our family but won already a new one: our little Emil

customers do not come to hairport just for the haircuts and colours, it’s the whole experience. there’s always someone to welcome you and guide you. if you’re early for your appointment, you can always have some tea or water and read a magazine. after the stylist has given you some advice and you have agreed on what should be done, breathe in and enjoy the massage while washing your hair – take some time to relax. while the stylist is cutting or coloring, take pleasure in the music and easy going atmosphere around you.

sometimes we have four legged friends paying us a visit.

…. visiting hairport makes you forget the world outside for a moment….

our salon wip-hairport is all about team work. all kind of situations turn up during the day and sometimes the receptionist has to wash the clients hair or the assistant has to help out the colour technician. the telephone rings constantly and people visit us to book their cuts or to get a consultation.

on top of that often new techniques are tested and hair experiments take place. without the flexibility and anticipation of our team we would be lost. for our client’s it’s always a nice show or choreography happening around them and usually they enjoy it a lot.

neria and carla helping each other

Haidressers without limits

Instead of attending regular workshops or courses, WIP-Hairport goes one step further. Hairdressers at WIP-Hairport have the chance to swap with a hairdesser from another european country for one month. Another culture, different costumes, trends, friends, … how challenging could that be? The aim is to learn different techniques and demands and return with new ideas as a way to encourage creativity. Our customers will benefit the most from this swap, of course, because they will have another professional haidresser available at WIP-Hairport, someone with the newest trends from another country.
Silvia already had this experience. She has swapped with Liane who works at Fortschnitt in Vienna, Austria (http://www.fortschnitt.at).

Haidressers without limits – a round-trip ticket to refresh your mind!

Silvias report:

Thanks to Sabine’s open mind and wisdom, along with my curiosity e adventurous spirit, a project called “Hairdressers without limits” arose.
It’s not supposed to be a NGO, but it is a very positive way to develop both personally and professionally… and its for free. It’s a a form of learning and an alternative to the extremely expensive workshops that only a few people can attend because the most can’t afford them and generally there’s no active participation in them. Besides, in some courses knowledge is sacrificed to promote the sponsors.

Our first experience has overcome our expectations. This concept consists of an interchange of stylists from two salons from different countries during a short or long period of time. Both salons should have the same style and both stylists should have similar professional experience. We have also changed apartments in this experience. Me and Liane have swapped lives for 3 weeks. Since we didn’t know anything from each other, we have communicated by e-mail to gain some confidence. What motivated me the most was the opportunity to improve my english.

The main goal of this experience is to learn other cut, color and styling techniques from other salons, as well as to interact with a country and its culture. When we return, we notice the improvements. We are full of new ideas and energy that quickly expands to the rest of the team. Both salons benefit from the techniques, styles and performances brought by the visiting stylist.

We dream of creating a european network of professional stylists who share the same willing and the same thirst of knowledge as us.

once in a while the electricity breaks down in our street, like it happened in june this year. fortunately it was during the day so we just moved out the chairs on the elevador da bica. of course it was an attraction for the tourists passing by in the elevador that runs up and down the street. Also the neighbours stopped by for a chat and it was fun. with the temperatures around 30 degrees in lisbon in june you can even wash the client’s hair with cold water, they actually enjoyed it and left us with one more story to tell.

downhill hairdressing on the elevador da bica