KMS Artist Lead, stylist and salon owner Sonna Brado has pivoted her usual content creation habits while at home by inventing challenges for herself to stay inspired.
Normally, Brado loves being on camera and communicating ideas. She enjoys the challenge of breaking down a concept so others can learn from it and helping someone understand something they might not have before. During this time, though, she had to tweak the type of content she was cranking out.
"[During quarantine] My social media content has changed drastically," Brado says. "I was doing a lot of filming in the salon and then using those quick videos on my Instagram, now I don't have that source of content. I dont really want to teach full haircuts, but I love showing technique and how to problem solve inside of cuts."
Toward the beginning of shelter-in-place orders going into effect March 17, Brado began a "creative journey" that she couldn't normally do in the salon: this included 10 days of creativity where she filmed videos trying things she hadn't done in a long time, such as finger waves, hot roller sets, and a beehive.
After this challenge, Brado created a new challenge for herself, which she began last week, "Make Mani Pretty Again". In this challenge, Brado takes used mannequins and finds a way to restyle them.
"The idea for 'Make Mani Pretty Again' came when I was at the salon looking for a mannequin to bring home to cut for a video," she says. "I looked at all of them on the shelves and realized they were like clients that sit in the chair. They had been used for classes and education and presented great opportunities to show technique and problem solving scenarios similar to what I normally do. It usually involves just one area of the cut, so it is different from what everyone else out there is doing. Also, clients coming in after cutting their own hair will have some of the same issues!!"
Of course Brado wants to teach her followers new concepts and educate them through these video challenges, but she also hopes to inspire other artists to get creative with their own content and plans during this time.
"Lean into the time you have--we will all be busy again, very busy," Brado says. "Just do one creative thing at a time and don't try to fill all of the time you have! Allow creativity to come to you in different areas of your life, try something new that you have always wanted to do. And contrary to poplar belief: don't spend all of your time on social media!"
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