NJ PRETTY FACE LTD

Hairdressing and beauty by appointment · diary and back-office work for other salons

The salon at Aylesham29 Clarendon Road, Canterbury CT3 3AQ

One company, two jobs — choose which leads

Front of houseChairs, basins and the side room at Aylesham Back officeAnother salon diary, held from the same building

Getting in, and what is behind the door

To you, with the floor drawn out below so you know what you are walking into.

It is a ground-floor shop front on Clarendon Road in Aylesham, the village north-east of Canterbury. There is one step at the front door with a ramped section on the left-hand side of it, and the door itself opens inward. Inside, the main room runs back from the window; the side room is off the short corridor at the rear.

The window holds one waiting chair. It is there for somebody who is already booked and has arrived a few minutes early, or for whoever has come with you. Because everything runs by appointment, there is no queue to join and nothing is gained by arriving twenty minutes ahead.

Parking, and getting here without a car

Parking is on-street on Clarendon Road and the roads around it, unmarked and free, and it is easiest in the middle of the day. Aylesham has its own railway station; from the platform it is a walk up into the village. If you are coming by bus, come into the village centre and the shop front is a short walk from there. If you are driving a van or something long, say so on the phone and you will be pointed at the easier end of the road.

The three chairs and the one room

Chair one and chair two sit along the window wall, with the two basins in a bay behind them. Chair three is at the back under the extractor, and is where colour develops: it is the quietest seat in the building and the one you will be moved to for thirty-five minutes in the middle of a root colour. The side room has a door that shuts and is where waxing, pedicures and the longer session happen. Tell us on the phone if you need that room and it is held for you, which is why it is one of the five things we ask.

The same building, on the day the door is shut

Owner to owner. If you are wondering where the people answering your phone actually sit, this is the answer.

The desk is in this building. Monday, with the shop front shut and nobody in the chairs, is the longest and quietest desk day of the week, which is why Monday is when reconciliations are done and why Monday cover starts at 08:00 like every other covered day. On Tuesday to Saturday the desk works alongside the floor, out of the way of the basins.

What is not in this building matters more than what is. There are no card details here, because we are never given them. There is no copy of your client list taken out of your software; we work inside your system, on your login, and what we keep locally is the day log and the handover we send you. No part of your till, your stock or your staff records is visible from this end.

If you want to come and look at where your diary is being answered from, that is a reasonable thing to ask and the answer is yes, on a Monday, when there is nobody being cut. Write to salon@njprettyface.info and pick a time.

The floor, drawn outNot to scale, but the order of things is right

Plan of the salon floor at 29 Clarendon Road The street frontage is along the bottom edge, with the front door at the left and the window to its right. Inside, chair one and chair two stand in from the window wall, with a waiting chair beside the door. Two basins sit in a bay at the top left. Chair three is at the top right under the extractor, where colour develops, and the desk that holds other salons diaries runs along the wall below it. A short corridor crosses the room; off it, on the right, is the side room, whose door shuts and which takes one person at a time. front door, one step window on to Clarendon Road basin basin basin bay chair one chair two waiting chair chair three, under the extractor colour develops here desk, other salons diaries corridor side room door shuts one person
Rose marks the three cutting chairs. The green block at the top right is the desk that holds other salons diaries, which is why it is drawn on the same plan as the basins.

The plan is drawn as it is walked: in at the step, past the waiting chair, chairs one and two on your right along the window, basins in the bay on your left, chair three at the back under the extractor, and the side room off the corridor behind it. Nobody has to cross the room while a colour is processing, which is the reason chair three is where it is rather than nearer the door.