As if sorting out your personal wardrobe wasn’t hard enough…welcome to the chaos that is a stylist supply closet. Between the scissors and the dyes and the styling products, it’s easy to get lost in even the most well-maintained stockroom. Hair extensions just add another layer of complexity to the problem. So, here are our tips for managing your hair extension supply closet, from filling to sorting and everything in-between.

Pick a tactic. Your supply process (the way that you go about collecting and distributing Babe hair extension products) will totally dictate what kind of organization scheme you use, so it’s best to identify your habits early on. In general, we find that stylists either order-as-needed—purchasing all of their hair extension supplies after the consultation phase—or stock-up-in-advance—keeping a constant inventory of select Babe products and replenishing them after each use. Both tactics have their advantages: ordering as needed keeps additional hair out of your storage space and can help prevent unnecessary spending; stocking-up in advance allows stylists to introduce their clients to Babe extensions more comprehensively, find better color and texture matches, and perform more tests. Both involve a degree of storage between purchase date and installation time, tailored to the situation at hand.

Build a framework. By this we mean, decide what your underlying organizational categories will be. If you’re in the “order-as-needed” sect of stylists, this will probably involve categorizing by client name and/or appointment date. If you’re more “stock-up-in-advance,” you’ll probably choose to organize by extension color, length, and/or texture. These likely won’t be your only organization categories, but they’ll be your most important or immediate ones, so choose some that complement the way that your mind works.

Sub-divide. Once you’ve decided upon your main organizational scheme—say, organizing horizontally by color and vertically by extension length—you can start working with your relegated categories. How will you divide different hair textures within the 22”-length category? How will you stock-up-in-advance ladies separate out the hair you select for a particular client (or will you opt for post-it note reminders, instead)? How will you order-as-needed stylists account for unused hair extensions? Do you need a separate section for loose strands and test strands? Again, choose strategies that coincide with the way that you process information. If out-of-sight means out-of-mind for you and your work ethic, don’t separate your curly and wavy extensions from the rest of the hair; use labels, color schemes, or even numeric codes to distinguish sub-sections within the same general area, depending on your preferences.

Buy some props. To make your organization system real, you’ll likely need to introduce some physical barriers and tags to your storage closet. Invest in some plastic drawers, shelves, filing cabinets—whatever. The sky’s the limit, so use your imagination. Also, feel free to load up on some pretty decorative things, too. Just because it’s storage doesn’t mean it has to be boring (especially if it’s in a place where people can see it!). Pro tip: Babe in-store displays are a great and visually-appealing example of how to organize your hair extension stock, so take some notes from your local distributor!

Commit! Once you have your organizational thing down, you’ve got to stick to it. Sure, it’s okay to tweak the system a bit if you find there’s something that needs fixing. But slacking off is not an option. After all, the organization system is there to help you resist the urge to slack off. Do your salon and your workday a favor by making this part of your job that much easier!

What are your tips for creating an impeccable hair extension closet in your salon? Tell us in the comments below, and stay tuned for next week’s blog post, where we’ll share some insights into how we organize our Babe extension closet (it’s pretty extensive!).