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Show Highlights

Customers who color or perm their hair might not want to let it get wet while floating. While Graham and Ashkahn are sympathetic to those issues, as far as they know, there isn’t really a great solution for them.

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Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)

Graham: And our question today is, “is it possible to keep your hair dry during a float?” Like, I assume, for customers who want to handle their hair treatment and stuff like that. I guess the most often reason why people want dry hair is they have coloring in it, or they got it professionally permed or styled or something else that either will mess up the water or mess up their hair. And the answer’s no.

Ashkahn: And the answer’s no.

Graham: Yep, absolutely not. It does seem like having waterproof swimmer’s caps will contain the water from getting in and mixing with hair color and getting back in the tank as much. So as far as the tank is concerned, swimmer’s cap seem to help out, but for anything that won’t get your hair wet at all. And we played around with different levels of tightnesses and things that really try to bill themselves as water won’t creep in, but just the process of laying in there for an hour, an hour and a half, like moisture is pretty bound to leach through whatever system you’ve set up.

Ashkahn: Yeah, it’s a tough one. There’s many different styles of swimming caps and stuff like that out there. And they all seem to let water leak in. It’s just really hard to create that tight of a seal.

Graham: So try this, try this. What you need to do is take a garbage bag.

Ashkahn: Okay, not where I thought that was going to start.

Graham: And get some Gorilla tape. And actually create a whole seal, maybe some Elmer’s glue as well. And what you want to do is you want the bag to go across your forehead and then down and around the back of your neck. And get good contact with your skin there. And just tape. It’s not going to be fun coming out, but you know, and tape it on over your face.

Ashkahn: If you just tape the bag over your entire head, that’ll give you a real nice seal.

Graham: I did not think of that, but I like the concept.

Ashkahn: And if you pump some air in there, works as a neck pillow, double whammy.

Graham: And probably stops you from suffocating if you pump air in there too, so that’s nice.

Ashkahn: Yeah, well usually you have to poke some holes to deal with that.

Graham: What have people done when they want to keep their hair dry? We have at least one customer who comes into float with us, right before they get their hair styled. So they do a monthly hair treatment and trip to their hair stylist person. I use a barber so I get confused sometimes. But anyways, to make they’re not totally messing up their hair, that they just paid a bunch of money to get styled, they’ll go into float, often the same day as their hair treatment is going to be. So they get to ride out the past month and then go in and not worry about messing up their hair for one day. So I thought that was kind of a clever way to still have it as part of your routine, despite also having a more regimented hair care routine as well.

Ashkahn: Yeah, and I do think if you get some serious swimmer’s caps, your hair is not going to get as soaking wet as it would, just being completely loose in the float tank.

Graham: Yeah maybe, I don’t know, water just slowly gets in there and all of a sudden you just have a cap that’s keeping in water as opposed to keeping it out.

Ashkahn: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be slightly better, but I don’t think it’s something that, if there was a reason you don’t want to get your hair wet, this wouldn’t solve that problem.

Graham: Yeah, yeah. And certainly for customers out there, this is a good answer to know for them, if they are worried about messing up a really expensive do that they got. I tell them not to. That’s when you take out the Gorilla tape.

So I think this is a pretty short episode.

Ashkahn: Yeah, let us know if someone out there has a swimmer’s cap that they actually think really manages to keep your hair dry. Let us know.

Graham: A modified like astronaut helmet or something like that they can go in with.

Ashkahn: Yeah, that sounds great.

Graham: All right, if you have any other easy questions for us, go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast, and shoot them over.

Recent Podcast Episodes

Understanding Chlorine Use in a Float Tank – DSP 174

This is another one of those questions that seems simple but as soon as Graham and Ashkahn start explaining a few things, you realize that there’s a lot of complicated information in the background. A “SSBASAGAASEAFTYRTTALOCIITB”, if you will. 
The guys take this opportunity to deep dive on the complex conversation of chlorine and why it’s problematic for the float industry, along with several  caveats of the benefits and usefulness of it as a disinfectant. 

Should I Offer a Three Float Intro Pack? – DSP 173

Every float center has their own tricks to pricing, appealing to first time customers, and encouraging repeat business. One of the most common is using a three float intro pack that usually offers three floats at a 3 for the price of 2 package. Given how prevalent these are, do they work really well? Is this something that will soon become industry standard? What else needs to be considered before offering a package like this?

Graham and Ashkahn provide their thoughts on this pricing trend and how Float On does pricing (admittedly very differently than a three float intro pack) and what to consider for each float center that looks at this option.

What do You Love About Running a Float Center? – DSP 172

It’s easy to listen to this podcast, day in and day out, and think to yourself “why would ANYONE put up with all these issues?” Graham and Ashkahn describe what keeps them, and probably everybody in the industry, in the difficult business of putting strangers in salty boxes and the wonderful life changing experiences that come with it. 

How is the Float Industry Different? – DSP 171

It’s possible that everyone in the float industry intuitively knows that it’s a different sort of business, but what are the tangible ways in which it’s different? As Ashkahn says at the start of the episode, every question in this podcast is kind of a long form answer to this question. 

Graham and Ashkahn tackle this problem together, and answer everything from the practical to the philosophical, ranging from lack of expertise in the industry, to the sense of camaraderie that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere else. 

When Should a Float Center be Profitable? – DSP 170

“When should I start making money?” is a deceptively simple and anxiety inducing question that every business owner has to face. Sometimes the answer is straightforward. There are lots of franchises that have near endless amounts of market research and profitability trends that point to a sensible timeline of when and how much you can expect versus a given investment. 

Float centers aren’t like that, unfortunately. There’s simply not enough data out there to create predictability in a market. The good news is that given the relatively low overhead excluding opening costs, float centers have the potential to be profitable almost immediately. Graham and Ashkahn break down this question and provide some tips on the issue.

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